Biography

Often called F. S. Armitage, Frederick S. Armitage was an early motion picture cinematographer/director who began his career with short subjects for American Mutoscope & Biograph at a time when the film company was still using hand-cranked machines to display their work. Armitage was important for his work with time-lapse photography, as can be observed in his "Building Up and Demolishing the Star Theater" which uses this technique to show the Star Theater being built up and then destroyed.

Armitage, born in Seneca Falls, in New York, has little information known about his personal life. His oldest credits date in 1898. In 1899 he directed 188 actualities, sometimes subjects having to do with the Spanish-American War. Armitage was also one of three Biograph cameramen to film Tom Sharkey and Jim Jeffries' s championship bout.

From 1900 Armitage began making a number of films that mainly used special trick effects such as the aforementioned Time-lapse experiments, such as his "A Terrible Night" and "The Prince of Darkness" which both use reversing the film as a main effect. To create "Nymph of the Waves" Armitage combined prints to show a woman dressed as a nymph dancing on the falls. Armitage finished his career as a cinematographer at American Mutoscope & Biograph with Wallace McCutcheon's "The Nihilists" and "Wanted: A Dog" both from 1905. Armitage later returned to American Mutoscope & Biograph in 1907, but stayed with the Edison Manufacturing Company until 1910. His last known works are from 1916-1917. Afterwords he vanished from the cinematographic record completely.

Armitage died on January 3, 1933 at Ecorse, MI.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tornado_Sam