MECS 102: Introduction to Media Studies Early Film: Lecture 3

Georges Méliès  called the magician of cinema  owned the Robert Houdin Theatre in France  used magic lantern projections in his theatrical  recognized the vast illusionist possibilities of the so-called ‘living pictures’.  built his own camera

Georges Méliès  made films that subscribed to all the genres of the day (controversial topical films, comedies, science fictions, etc.)  earliest work included much of the Lumière technique  produced about 78 films in his first year of making films  (stop motion) stopped the camera in mid action and then re-started - great potential for humour and illusion  recognized the possibilities inherent in the manipulation of real time and real space  realized also that there was no need to adhere to the laws of empirical reality

Georges Méliès  appropriated the narrative model of theatre  films were conceived of as dramatic scenes that were played from beginning to end, as opposed to using a series of shots  never moved his camera - it remained fixed and static position  films were referred to as “artificially arranged scenes” or “moving tableaux”  cinema’s first narrative artist  innovated significant narrative devices like fade-in, fade-out, overlapping, dissolve and the stop-motion photography

Georges Méliès  he often enhanced the mise-en-scene, using hand applied tinting  figured out ways of joining or combining multiple shots into a single reel and selling it as one film  ‘stop-motion’ effect employed the mechanics of editing - he would physically cut the strip of film - cuts were done in a way that would be unobtrusive to the flow of the film  directed cinema on its way toward becoming essentially a narrative rather than documentary medium