Georges Melies was a magician by trade but he was very interested in cinema. When the Lumiere brothers started creating films Melies approached them looking to buy one of their cameras. The lumiere brothers declined because they wanted a monopoly on the cinematographe equipment, so Melies made his own. One day during filming one of Melies cameras stopped working properly and when Melies watched back over the film he saw that things disappeared and moved in the playback of the film. Melies started to take advantage of this discovery and began to make films that contained new techniques that hadn't been used before.
His work was very popular however, because many of his films were pirated, he received little financial benefit and ended up in debt. His original films were destroyed however some of his work continues to be available from the pirated recordings that bankrupt him in the first place.
New Techniques.
Melies transformed and manipulated reality and was the first to use special effects, and created the first film genres of horror and sci-fi. He discovered the "stop trick" in 1896 because of a camera malfunction. He used multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves and he also hand-painted colour into his films.
Influence of techniques.
Georges Melies' techniques and illusions changed film drastically. His new techniques brought about new possibility to the world of cinema. The effects that he had created allowed filmmakers to expand what they could do with their films. This influence continues to be found in modern films and it is Melies whose simple techniques form the basic foundation for some of the special effects that are still used and built on today.
Example of Melies influence on one of my top ten films.
Melies' influence can be seen in 'Big Fish' because in 'Big Fish' Tim Burton uses many of the special effects that Georges Melies began. For example, There is a part in 'Big Fish' where "time stands still" and this is achieved by 'freezing' the scene while the main character walks amongst everything frozen in time, then, time speeds up and the main character stands while everyone else is sped up. This manipulation of time and space is a technique that Melies created as it is achieved, in part, by pausing the frame or else speeding up the frames to make them appear to go double time.
Also, 'Big Fish' is a fantasy film with sci-fi elements and sci-fi is a genre that Melies was the first filmmaker to make movies of.
His work was very popular however, because many of his films were pirated, he received little financial benefit and ended up in debt. His original films were destroyed however some of his work continues to be available from the pirated recordings that bankrupt him in the first place.
New Techniques.
Melies transformed and manipulated reality and was the first to use special effects, and created the first film genres of horror and sci-fi. He discovered the "stop trick" in 1896 because of a camera malfunction. He used multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves and he also hand-painted colour into his films.
Influence of techniques.
Georges Melies' techniques and illusions changed film drastically. His new techniques brought about new possibility to the world of cinema. The effects that he had created allowed filmmakers to expand what they could do with their films. This influence continues to be found in modern films and it is Melies whose simple techniques form the basic foundation for some of the special effects that are still used and built on today.
Example of Melies influence on one of my top ten films.
Melies' influence can be seen in 'Big Fish' because in 'Big Fish' Tim Burton uses many of the special effects that Georges Melies began. For example, There is a part in 'Big Fish' where "time stands still" and this is achieved by 'freezing' the scene while the main character walks amongst everything frozen in time, then, time speeds up and the main character stands while everyone else is sped up. This manipulation of time and space is a technique that Melies created as it is achieved, in part, by pausing the frame or else speeding up the frames to make them appear to go double time.
Also, 'Big Fish' is a fantasy film with sci-fi elements and sci-fi is a genre that Melies was the first filmmaker to make movies of.
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