Transcript MECS 102: Introduction to Media Studies

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