The Charles Urban Trading Company was formed in 1903 by the Anglo-American film producer Charles Urban

Charles Urban

Charles Urban was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War...

. It specialised in travel, educational and scientific film. It made its name with coverage of the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

 of 1904-5 from Joseph Rosenthal (with the Japanese) and George Rogers (with the Russians). Other notable cameramen working for Urban were Charles Rider Noble (filming in the Balkans), H.M. Lomas (Malaya, Borneo, hunting films), John Mackenzie (the Balkans), mountaineer F. Ormiston-Smith (Switzerland, Sweden), and the naturalists F. Martin Duncan and Percy Smith. The CUTC also made fiction films, including several science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and trick films made by Walter R. Booth

Walter R. Booth

Walter Robert Booth was a British magician and early pioneer of British film working first for Robert W. Paul and then Charles Urban mostly on "trick" films, where he pioneered the use of hand-drawing techniques that lead to the first British animated film, The Hand of the Artist...

. It ceased production during the First World War.

A 1957 copy of the film shot by the Charles Urban Trading Company of the 1906 Warwick Pageant

Warwick Pageant (1906)

A huge drama festival, organised by Louis N. Parker, which took place in the grounds of Warwick Castle in July, 1906 and was later described as "the biggest thing which ever happened to Warwick".-Development of the Pageant:...

 in the grounds of Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century,...

was deposited some time ago in the Warwickshire County Record Office, and has recently been transferred to DVD (2007).