In 1949, Hains produced his first black and white short film with a movie camera he had borrowed : "Saint Germain-des Prés Colombiens". From 1950 to 1954, he created several more movies, among which "Pénélope", "Loi du 29 juillet 1881" and "Défense d’afficher". Together with Jacques Villeglé, they adopted the process of visual distortion, adding grooved glass to the camera and producing abstract films, brightly colored and with a moving graphism, inspired by Matisse's watercolour cut-outs. Pierre Schaeffer edited a film clip with his own music in 1959 and named it “Etude aux allures”.