He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the internationally based company.Ferdinand Louis Zecca was born in Paris on 19 February 1864 into an Italian family steeped in the entertainment world.

[Note 1] [2] Zecca also became a stage manager and then an actor, before working as an entertainer, playing the cornet and singing in Parisian cafés.

By using trick photography, the one-minute short was notable in being the first aviation film, predating the flight by the Wright Brothers by two years.

At the end of 1906, assisted by the Spaniard Segundo de Chomón's photography and special effects, Zecca continued to experiment.

He returned to France in 1919, where as a co-director with René Leprincee, he made Le Calvaire d'une reine, his last film.

In the same year, Zecca was appointed to head the Pathé-Baby division, producing equipment and cameras for thin film, where he worked until his retirement in 1939.