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We’ve been learning about George Melies, the father of special effects, in my film literacy class. Melies was a French illusionist and magician, who after viewing the Lumiere Brothers early film projector in 1895, the cinematographe, started making his own films. He was an early pioneer in special effects. Many of his special effects were done in-camera. That means he used the camera to create the effects, not any editing devices. One of his most popular films was the sci fi production,  A Trip to the Moon.

He invented the special effect known as “stop-trick.” This special effect involves turning the camera off, moving objects in and out of the frame, then turning the camera back on again, making it look like things appear and disappear as if by magic. The YouTube clip above is an example of the Melies “stop-trick” special effect. My students had to create short films in the style of the early George Melies films. Here’s an example of one of our films incorporating the Melies “stop-trick” special effect: 

I wonder what George Melies would have thought of watching many of his films on YouTube today, over 100 years after he made them. Check out the rest of our short George Melies style films on our class website, watCH OUT!