Georges Melies - Master of Illusion: Crash Course Film History #4

Summary

This script tells the story of Georges Méliès, a pioneering filmmaker and magician who revolutionized early cinema with his innovative special effects and storytelling. Born in Paris, Méliès transitioned from stage magic to filmmaking, creating 'trick films' that defied the laws of physics. His masterpiece, 'A Trip to the Moon,' was a landmark in narrative fiction and special effects, influencing future filmmakers. Despite facing challenges, Méliès' legacy was celebrated, and he was recognized for his contributions to the art of cinema.

Takeaways

• 🎬 The script introduces Georges Méliès, a French filmmaker who pioneered special effects and narrative storytelling in early cinema.
• 📽️ Méliès was a stage magician before transitioning to filmmaking, using his skills to create illusions and spectacles on film.
• 🔧 Early film innovations like the Latham Loop enabled longer film strips, allowing for more complex and longer films.
• ✂️ Editing, or cutting, became a crucial technique for filmmakers to create coherence in narrative, space, and time.
• 🎨 Méliès innovated by using double exposure, split screen, and matting techniques to create in-camera effects and illusions.
• 🌕 His film 'A Trip to the Moon' was a landmark in early cinema, featuring elaborate special effects and a complex narrative.
• 🌟 Méliès' work influenced future filmmakers and expanded the possibilities of what could be achieved in film.
• 🏆 Despite facing financial and legal challenges, Méliès was eventually recognized for his contributions to cinema.
• 🌈 Hand-tinting or painting individual frames was a labor-intensive process used to add color to black and white films.
• 📉 World War I and the rise of feature films contributed to Méliès' decline in the film industry, leading to a period of obscurity.
• 🎞️ The script also mentions other early filmmakers like Alice Guy-Blaché, highlighting the contributions of women in the early days of cinema.

Q & A

What was the initial audience reaction to films at the turn of the 20th century?

At first, seeing any film was thrilling in and of itself, whether it was a Vaudeville performer flexing or a train pulling up to a station. However, within five or six years, audiences were looking for more than just a technological marvel.

What was the significance of the Latham Loop in early film history?

The Latham Loop was a technical innovation that allowed filmmakers to use longer film strips in cameras without them tearing and breaking, enabling the creation of longer and more complex films.

How did editing, also known as cutting, contribute to the development of narrative films?

Editing facilitated the very first experiments with creating coherence in narrative, space, time, symbolically, or thematically by assembling shots in various ways such as fades, wipes, dissolves, or straight cuts.

Who was Georges Méliès and how did he contribute to the early film industry?

Georges Méliès was a Parisian stage magician who became a filmmaker. He contributed to the early film industry by pioneering special effects and editing techniques, creating 'trick films,' and pushing the boundaries of what was possible in film, both onscreen and off.

What was the impact of Méliès' film 'A Trip to the Moon' on the film industry?

'A Trip to the Moon' was a massive international success that expanded what people thought was possible narratively and aesthetically in films. It showed that films could tell complex stories over multiple scenes and sustain audience attention for longer durations.

What is the Proscenium Arch style of framing and how was it used by Méliès?

The Proscenium Arch style of framing captures an entire scene in one shot from the perspective of an audience member in a theater. Méliès used this style, which gave his films a 'stagey' quality, with the camera set back from the action and capturing the whole scene.

How did Méliès' background as a stage magician influence his filmmaking?

Méliès' background as a stage magician influenced his filmmaking by incorporating elements from his theatrical shows into his films, such as elaborate costumes, lavish sets, exaggerated props, and stories, which added a distinct 'stagey' quality to his work.

What was the significance of the Animatograph in Méliès' career?

Méliès bought an Animatograph and reverse-engineered it to work as a camera and projector. This allowed him to start making and screening his own films in his theater, marking the beginning of his career as a filmmaker.

How did Méliès' experimentation with film lead to the discovery of in-camera effects?

Méliès discovered in-camera effects through a happy accident when his camera jammed and then resumed shooting after a couple of seconds. This led to the discovery of double exposure, which he pioneered by running the film negative through the camera twice before developing it.

What challenges led to Méliès' exit from the film industry and his later recognition?

Méliès faced high production costs, legal challenges from rivals, and the devastation of Europe during World War I, which forced him out of the film business by 1917. However, in the late 1920s, he was rediscovered and celebrated for his contributions to cinema, culminating in being made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1931.

Outlines

00:00

🎬 The Birth of Storytelling in Film

This paragraph introduces the concept of storytelling through film, highlighting the early 20th-century shift from mere technological marvels to more complex narratives. It emphasizes the role of Georges Méliès, a magician turned filmmaker, who revolutionized the industry with his innovative special effects. The paragraph also discusses the technical innovations of the time, such as the Latham Loop, which allowed for longer films and the first experiments in editing. Méliès' background as a stage magician is explored, explaining how his skills in illusion and storytelling translated to the new medium of film.

05:00

🌌 The Magic of Georges Méliès

This paragraph delves into Méliès' mastery of film techniques, such as double exposure, split screen, and matting, which he used to create in-camera effects and illusions. It discusses how Méliès' films were a blend of his theatrical background and the new possibilities of film, resulting in a 'stagey' quality that was novel at the time. The paragraph also covers the impact of Méliès' work, including his most famous film, 'A Trip to the Moon,' which was a significant success and influenced future filmmakers. Additionally, it mentions the challenges Méliès faced, such as legal issues and the effects of World War I, which eventually led to his departure from the film industry.

10:03

🏆 The Legacy and Recognition of Georges Méliès

The final paragraph focuses on the later recognition of Méliès' contributions to cinema. It describes how he was found living in obscurity and was celebrated by those who had been influenced by his work. Méliès was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor, by Louis Lumière, acknowledging his significant impact on the art of filmmaking. The paragraph concludes by summarizing Méliès' legacy and the anticipation of future lessons on film history and editing techniques.

Keywords

💡Georges Méliès

Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and filmmaker who pioneered the use of special effects in cinema. He is considered a founder of narrative film and is known for his innovative and imaginative contributions to the medium. In the video, Méliès is highlighted for his work in creating 'trick films' that utilized editing and in-camera effects to perform magic on screen, such as making objects disappear or change shape. His most famous film, 'A Trip to the Moon,' is mentioned as a landmark in early cinema, showcasing his ability to tell complex stories with special effects.

💡Special Effects

Special effects are techniques used in film, television, and other media to create illusions that enhance the storytelling. In the context of the video, special effects refer to the innovative techniques Méliès used to create the illusion of magic on screen, such as double exposure, split screen, and matting. These effects allowed him to make people appear to levitate, change forms, or interact with objects in impossible ways, which were groundbreaking at the time and captivated audiences.

💡Editing

Editing in film is the process of selecting and assembling the best shots to create a coherent and compelling narrative. The video discusses how early filmmakers like Méliès began to experiment with editing to tell stories, moving beyond simple continuous shots. Méliès, in particular, used editing to create the illusion of magic, as seen when his camera jammed and he accidentally discovered the power of cutting between two different shots to make a transformation appear instantaneous.

💡Latham Loop

The Latham Loop was a technical innovation in early motion picture cameras that allowed for longer film strips without tearing or breaking. This advancement facilitated the creation of longer, more complex films and enabled the first experiments with editing. The video mentions the Latham Loop as an example of how technical innovations paved the way for more sophisticated storytelling in film.

💡Stage Magic

Stage magic refers to the performance of illusions and tricks in a theatrical setting. Méliès was a successful stage magician before he transitioned to filmmaking, and the video emphasizes how his background in stage magic influenced his approach to cinema. His experience with creating illusions and storytelling through magic tricks translated into his innovative use of special effects and editing in his films.

💡Animatograph

The Animatograph was a motion picture device that Méliès purchased and reverse-engineered to function as both a camera and a projector. This allowed him to create and screen his own films. The video highlights the Animatograph as a key tool in Méliès' hands, enabling him to experiment with filmmaking and contribute to the development of special effects and narrative cinema.

💡Double Exposure

Double exposure is a photographic technique where two images are superimposed onto a single frame, creating a composite image. Méliès pioneered this technique in 1898, running the film negative through the camera twice before developing it. This allowed him to create the illusion of two scenes happening simultaneously, which was a significant advancement in early film and a staple in his 'trick films.'

💡Split Screen

Split screen is a technique where two or more separate scenes are shown simultaneously on the screen, often used to compare or contrast different actions or events. Méliès invented the split screen by covering half the frame, shooting his footage, rewinding the film, covering the other half, and shooting new footage. When developed, the two images appeared side-by-side. This technique was used to create the illusion of actors performing opposite themselves.

💡Matting

Matting is a technique used in film production where parts of a frame are masked or 'matted' to allow for multiple exposures or to combine different elements in a single shot. Méliès used matting by painting black shapes on a glass plate attached to his camera lens, which he could then manipulate to create complex composite images. This process was labor-intensive but allowed for a high degree of control over the final image, contributing to the illusion of magic in his films.

💡Proscenium Arch

The Proscenium Arch is a style of framing in film that mimics the perspective of a theater audience, with the camera set back to capture an entire scene in one shot. This style is mentioned in the video as characteristic of Méliès' films, which often had a 'stagey' quality due to his background in theater. The camera's distance from the action and the static, long takes were reminiscent of stage plays, and this approach was common in early cinema before the development of more dynamic camera movements and editing.

Highlights

The world was primed for artists to prove film was more than a passing fad.

Georges Méliès was a stage magician who saw the potential of film for storytelling.

Méliès reverse-engineered the Animatograph to create his own camera and projector.

A happy accident with a camera jam led Méliès to discover the power of editing.

Méliès pioneered the use of double exposure, split screen, and matting techniques.

He used in-camera effects to create illusions and manipulate time and space on film.

Méliès' films had a 'stagey' quality, with a proscenium arch framing style.

A Trip to the Moon was Méliès' masterpiece, showcasing his innovative techniques.

The film's success led to illegal copies being made, including by Thomas Edison.

Méliès' work expanded the narrative and aesthetic possibilities of film.

Alice Guy-Blaché was a pioneering female filmmaker who directed over 1,000 films.

Méliès' Star Film production company and studio were innovative for their time.

Hand-tinting and painting frames were used to add color to films before color film stock.

Financial challenges and World War I led to Méliès' exit from the film industry.

Méliès was rediscovered and celebrated in the late 1920s for his contributions to cinema.

He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor, recognizing his impact on film history.

Transcripts

When’s the last time you heard a really good story?

Maybe it was was a TV show that made you dream of discovering aliens as a kid, or a book

that completely changed how you think about yourself.

We’re all hardwired to make sense of the world by telling and being told stories, and

at the turn of the 20th century, motion pictures were starting to do just that.

At first, seeing any film was thrilling in and of itself, whether it was a Vaudeville

performer flexing or a train pulling up to a station.

But just five or six years into the history of film, audiences were looking for something

more than just a technological marvel. So, filmmakers had to "try". Ugh...

The world was primed for artists to prove this medium was more than just a passing fad.

And along came a storyteller who would make his own magic, take us to the moon, and jumpstart

the first special effects revolution.

He changed what filmmakers and audiences believed was possible, both onscreen and off.

It was time for Georges Méliès.

[Intro Music Plays]

As the 19th century gave way to the 20th,

artists, engineers, and self-taught tinkerers were all pushing the boundaries of film.

"Self-Taught-Tinkerer?" My nickname in high school.

Technical innovations like the Latham Loop allowed filmmakers to use longer film strips

in cameras, without them tearing and breaking.

Now they could create longer, more complex films, which facilitated the very first experiments

with editing.

Editing, also known as cutting, is the assembling of shots to achieve coherence: whether that’s

in the narrative, in space, in time, symbolically, or thematically.

There are all kinds of ways to join shots together.

You can use transitions like fades, wipes, or dissolves,

or you can just cut straight from one shot to another. Like this...

Ya... see that?

We’ll explore editing techniques in more detail later in Crash Course Film, and dive

deep into their psychological, emotional, and even political implications.

For now, all you need to know is that filmmakers were starting to join shots together, inching

their way toward narrative-based films that explicitly told stories.

One of these soon-to-be filmmakers was Georges Méliès.

He was born in Paris in 1861, and first achieved fame as a stage magician.

If you’re familiar with Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige – his other movie with Christian

Bale – it’ll come as no surprise that stage magicians were huge celebrities at the

turn of the century.

Also, David Bowie played Tesla in that movie. And that was awesome.

Stage magicians entertained large crowds with illusions

and magic tricks, and decked out their acts with elaborate sets, costumes, and characters.

And most importantly for us, wove their larger acts around stories.

By all accounts, Georges Méliès was skilled and successful.

He owned and operated his own theater, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, where he acted as

writer, producer, and director, and designed the sets and costumes himself.

While Muybridge, Edison, and the Lumière Brothers were tinkering with motion picture

devices, Méliès was developing magic tricks, from sophisticated sight gags to theatrical

special effects.

One of his specialties involved using a lantern projection device to project light effects

onto the audience, making it seem to rain or snow inside the theater... whoa...

Méliès was invited to one of the Lumière Brothers’ private cinématographe screenings

before they officially revealed their device to the world, and he was awestruck.

He tried to buy one of their inventions on the spot,

but the Lumières weren’t ready to sell.

Méliès didn’t give up, though.

He could already see all the possibilities a motion picture camera and projector held

for stage magic, and vice versa.

After an intense, transcontinental search, Méliès ended up buying an Animatograph,

Then, get this, he reverse-engineered the Animatograph so it worked as its own camera, too.

And by April, 1896, he was making and screening his own films in his theater.

At first, his films looked like Edison’s or the Lumière Brothers’ – continuous

shots of short skits, quick magic tricks, or scenes from everyday life.

But then along came one of those happy accidents that moved cinema forward.

In his autobiography, Méliès describes a day he was capturing footage on a Paris street

when his camera jammed.

Frustrated, he fiddled with the hand crank, fixed the problem, and started shooting again

after a couple seconds had passed.

When he developed the film later and played it back, the most amazing thing had happened.

The shot started with people walking, children skipping, and a horse-drawn omnibus full of

workers trundling up the street.

Then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.

Men turned into women, children were replaced by horses, and – spookiest of all – the

omnibus full of workers changed into a hearse.

In an instant, Méliès realized what had happened.

When his camera jammed, it stopped shooting for a moment, and then started capturing images

again after he fixed it.

When the whole sequence was projected, those two “shots” were joined in an instant

and – poof! – magic happened before his eyes.

Méliès had found a way to perform actual magic with editing, to fool an audience and

pull off illusions he’d never been able to on stage.

He began making “trick films” with a vengeance, using the power of editing and special effects

to do the impossible on screen: like levitating heads, making people disappear, or changing

an object’s size or shape.

Let’s go to the Thought Bubble to reveal a few of this magician’s secrets!

Méliès pioneered the first double exposure in 1898, by running the film negative through

the camera twice before developing it.

When you do this correctly, both images appear on screen simultaneously, though the second

image usually appears faded or ghostly.

This technique led him to invent the split screen, in which he covered half the frame,

shot his footage, rewound the film, covered the other half of the frame, and shot new footage.

When the film was developed, the two images appeared side-by-side in real time.

This was a trick he used over and over again, often to allow actors to perform opposite themselves.

It's a great technique that many youtubers use.

He further refined this trick with a process

called matting, where he’d paint black shapes on a glass plate attached to the lens of the camera.

Those black shapes kept light from exposing those portions of the film as he shot a scene.

Then, Méliès could paint the other portions of the glass plate, while leaving the original

shapes clear, re-shoot the scene, and both exposures would combine.

We call these techniques in-camera effects because they’re produced inside the camera,

rather than after the film has been shot.

And Melies used them and many others to masterful effect.

Thanks Thought Bubble!

The laws of physics were no match for Méliès and his camera and editing tricks.

No match for me either. Can you make me float up?

Nick (off camera): We can't do that.

...or something.

He could manipulate time.

He could manipulate space.

And he could harness the fact that all film presents an illusion, to push his own illusions

even further.

Before long, Méliès began incorporating elements of his theatrical shows into his

films – the elaborate costumes, the lavish sets, the exaggerated props, /and/ the stories.

To our eyes today, his films have a distinct “stagey” quality.

By that I mean, the camera is almost always set back from the action, capturing an entire

scene in one shot, roughly from the perspective of an audience member in a theater.

We call this style of framing Proscenium Arch, named for the arch over the front of the stage

in a theater.

It’s not used as much today, but you might recognize the style from Wes Anderson movies.

To us, the scenes in Méliès’ films might feel static and too long, because, outside

of all his special effects editing, he only cuts between scenes.

Not to mention, his characters might seem one-dimensional, and their gestures can feel

over-the-top.

But put yourself in the shoes of a filmgoer in 1901 Paris, having seen nothing but slice-of-life

actualitiés and Vaudeville performers on screen.

The relative sophistication, ambitious vision, and powerful special effects of Méliès films

would be downright thrilling.

But Méliès wasn’t the only filmmaker at work during the very first years of cinema.

Alice Guy-Blaché was a secretary for the major French film company Gaumont, who went on to become their head of production.

The first known female filmmaker, Guy-Blaché directed more than 1,000 films,

was a pioneer in color tinting, rudimentary sound and picture sync, and ultimately opened her own film studio.

Blanche also worked on the cutting edge of narrative fiction, like with her film The Cabbage Fairy,

before she eventually lost her company and stopped making films altogether in 1920.

In 1902, Méliès released his masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon, loosely

based on the Jules Verne novel.

This 14-minute film follows a group of scientists who travel to the moon, sleep under the stars,

battle some aliens, and escape back to Earth triumphant.

Even if you haven’t seen the whole thing, you probably know the iconic image of the

“man in the moon” with the space capsule stuck in his eye.

A Trip to the Moon was made up of 825 feet of film – three times the average length

of Edison or Lumière films of the time.

This film incorporates many of Méliès’ innovations – his trick photography, his

fantastical settings, and his ambitious storytelling – all in service of a large scale, relatively

complex, narrative fiction film.

It was a massive international success.

In fact, it made so much money that Thomas Edison – among others – made illegal copies

of it and lined his pockets screening the film as his own... what a guy!

But it wasn’t just a financial hit.

It also had a profound effect on other filmmakers of the time, and expanded what people thought

was possible, narratively and aesthetically.

Not only could films take us into space and let us battle with aliens, but they could

also sustain our attention for almost 15 minutes and tell stories that unfolded over multiple scenes.

A Trip to the Moon gets referenced everywhere from Martin Scorsese’s Hugo,

which features a loving portrait of Georges Méliès, to the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1996

music video for Tonight, Tonight.

And perhaps, most importantly

Matthew Gaydos’ arm.

Okay you can leave now, Matt.

A Trip to the Moon was by no means the only film Méliès made.

In his prime, he made between 25 and 75 films per year, a huge number by any standard.

He founded a production company called Star Film and built a large studio in Montreuil, France,

just outside Paris.

The studio was constructed like a giant greenhouse, to let in as much natural light as possible.

And it was big enough to house Méliès’ massive painted sets and backdrops.

And though we’re decades away from color film stock, audiences were already seeing

films with color in them.

To achieve this effect, individual frames of film were hand-tinted or painted – to

color an explosion orange or a dress red or the sun yellow.

It was a costly, time-consuming process, and had to be repeated with every copy of the film.

And I'm glad I didn't have to do it.

For a showman like Méliès, however, no bit of magic was too elaborate.

It’s even said he employed twenty-one women to hand-tint his films at what must have cost a pretty penny.

I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it.

Sadly, the high cost of his productions, legal challenges from rivals, and the devastation

of Europe during World War I forced Méliès out of the film business by 1917.

In the 1920s, he was living in obscurity, selling sweets at the Montparnasse station

in Paris, as anyone who’s seen Hugo knows.

Had his story ended there, it would’ve been a tragedy.But this is the movie business.

And there’s nothing we like better than a comeback story.

In the late 1920s, journalists and filmmakers who’d been influenced by Méliès’ films

tracked him down to celebrate his contributions to the art of cinema.

Someday I hope people track me down and do that... for me.

And in October, 1931, Méliès was made a

Knight of the Legion of Honor, the highest achievement in French military or civil affairs.

The medal was presented to him by Louis Lumière himself.

So Georges Méliès, the Parisian stage magician who brought science fiction, special effects,

and more sophisticated narrative storytelling to film, was ultimately honored by those who

knew his work the best.

Both his peers and his rivals agreed that his illusions changed history and took audiences

to new and thrilling places.

Places like the moon... and Matthew Gaydos' arm.

Today we introduced Georges Méliès, the magician-turned-filmmaker whose mistakes,

experiments, and ambitious storytelling led to some huge advancements in early film production.

We discussed how editing and special effects can enhance the very nature of film as an

illusion, and how audiences were hungry for longer, more complex narratives.

And next time, we’ll learn about some more experimentation with editing techniques, and

a filmmaker who started to define the visual language of film as we know it today. Wheezy Waiter, not Wheezy Waiter.

Crash Course Film History is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios.

You can head over to their channel to check out a playlist of their latest amazing shows,

like Coma Niddy, Gross Science, and Physics Girl.

This episode of Crash Course was filmed in the Doctor Cheryl C. Kinney Crash Course Studio

with the help of these nice people and our amazing graphics team, is Thought Cafe.