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A Spiritualistic Photographer
''A Spiritualistic Photographer'' (french: Le Portrait spirite) is a 1903 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 477–478 in its catalogues. The film parodies the faked images of ghosts created by Spiritualist mediums; Méliès, a fervent critic of Spiritualism, here uses it as an opportunity to show off a new special effect, a transformation created with a dissolve on a white background. Stage magic tricks featuring a similarly mocking attitude toward Spiritualism were often performed in the French fairgrounds for which Méliès produced many of his films. The film's concept can be seen as the reverse of those in Méliès's films '' The Living Playing Cards'' and '' The Lilliputian Minuet''; in those films, living people come out of portraits, while in this case the portrait comes second. Méliès appears in the film as the magician. The gilded setting and stools used here reappear in several of h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted colour. He was also one of the first filmmakers to use storyboards. His films include ''A Trip to the Moon'' (1902) and '' The Impossible Voyage'' (1904), both involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their approach is closer to fantasy. The 2011 film '' Hugo'' was inspired by the life and work of Méliès. Early life and education Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès was born 8 December 1861 in Paris, son of Jean-Louis Méliès and his Dutch wife, Johannah-Catherine Schuering. His fath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Substitution Splice
The substitution splice or stop trick is a cinematic special effect in which filmmakers achieve an appearance, disappearance, or transformation by altering one or more selected aspects of the mise-en-scène between two shots while maintaining the same framing and other aspects of the scene in both shots. The effect is usually polished by careful editing to establish a seamless cut and optimal moment of change. It has also been referred to as stop motion substitution or stop-action. The pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès claimed to have accidentally developed the stop trick, as he wrote in ''Les Vues Cinématographiques'' in 1907 (translated from French): According to the film scholar Jacques Deslandes, it is more likely that Méliès discovered the trick by carefully examining a print of the Edison Manufacturing Company's 1895 film '' The Execution of Mary Stuart'', in which a primitive version of the trick appears. In any case, the substitution splice was both the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Films Directed By Georges Méliès
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it. Recording and transmission of film The moving images of a film are created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects. Before the introduction of digital production, series of still images were recorded on a strip of chemically sensitize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Silent Short Films
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Fortnite French places Arts and media * The French (band), a British rock band * "French" (episode), a live-action episode of ''The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'' * ''Française'' (film), 2008 * French Stewart (born 1964), American actor Other uses * French (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * French (tunic), a particular type of military jacket or tunic used in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union * French's, an American brand of mustard condiment * French catheter scale, a unit of measurement of diameter * French Defence, a chess opening * French kiss, a type of kiss involving the tongue See also * France (other) * Franch, a surname * Fre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paper Print
Paper prints of films were an early mechanism to establish the copyright of motion pictures by depositing them with the Library of Congress. Thomas Alva Edison’s company was first to register each frame of motion-picture film onto a positive paper print, in 1893. The Library of Congress processed and cataloged each of the films as one photograph, accepting thousands of paper prints of films over a twenty-year period. An unintended but fortunate side-effect is that while the actual films and negatives of this period often decayed or were destroyed, the paper prints sat ignored until the 1940s and were conserved. When this copyright deposit method ended in 1912, actual film prints were registered. Many films made before 1912 were lost forever because their original elements (for example, nitrate film) were too unstable for any lasting preservation or conservation. Paper prints, though, came with their own unpredictable nature, bringing migration challenges that rival the difficu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multiple Exposure
In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other. Overview Ordinarily, cameras have a sensitivity to light that is a function of time. For example, a one-second exposure is an exposure in which the camera image is equally responsive to light over the exposure time of one second. The criterion for determining that something is a double exposure is that the sensitivity goes up and then back down. The simplest example of a multiple exposure is a double exposure without flash, i.e. two partial exposures are made and then combined into one complete exposure. Some single exposures, such as "flash and blur" use a combination of electronic flash and ambient exposure. This effect can be approximated by a Dirac delta measure (flash) and a constant finite rectangular window, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dissolve (filmmaking)
In the post-production process of film editing and video editing, a dissolve (sometimes called a lap dissolve) is a type of film transition in which one sequence fades over another. The terms fade-out (also called fade to black) and fade-in are used to describe a transition to and from a blank image. This is in contrast to a cut, where there is no such transition. A dissolve overlaps two shots for the duration of the effect, usually at the end of one scene and the beginning of the next, but may be used in montage sequences also. Generally, but not always, the use of a dissolve is held to indicate that a period of time has passed between the two scenes. Also, it may indicate a change of location or the start of a flashback. Creation of effect In film, this effect is usually created with an optical printer by controlled double exposure from frame to frame. In linear video editing or a live television production, the same effect is created by interpolating voltages of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, Pyrotechnic fastener, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarrying, and demolition. This trade relies upon self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions to make heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound. The name etymology, comes from the Greek words ''pyr'' ("fire") and ''tekhnikos'' ("made by art"). People responsible for the safe storage, handling, and functioning of pyrotechnic devices are known as pyrotechnicians. Proximate pyrotechnics Explosions, flashes, smoke, flames, fireworks and other pyrotechnic-driven effects used in the entertainment industry are referred to as proximate pyrotechnics. Proximate refers to the pyrotechnic device's location relative to an audience. In the majority of jurisdictions, special training and licensing must be obtained from local authorities to lega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Film Company
The Manufacture de films pour cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first public demonstration of the Lumière Brothers' Kinetoscope. The event, held in a room at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris with one hundred chairs and an entry price of 1, demonstrated the practicality of film cameras and projectors. According to later recollections by Méliès, he immediately approached Antoine Lumière and offered to buy a Lumière projector for his own experimentation; Lumière refused. Méliès went on to make repeated offers, all similarly turned down. Méliès next turned to the British film experimenter Robert W. Paul, and in February 1896, obtained an Animatographe projector for 1,000, along with a collection of short films, some by Paul and some by Edison Studios. Méliès projected these for the first time at his t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lilliputian Minuet
''The Lilliputian Minuet'' (french: Le Menuet lilliputien) was a 1905 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. The film, of which only fragments are known to survive, featured Méliès as a magician making playing-card figures come to life in miniature. Plot A magician transforms a marble statue into a living woman, who acts as his assistant. She puts a pack of playing cards in a glass box; four cards (the king of spades, the queen of hearts, the queen of clubs, and the king of diamonds) jump out of the pack into the magician's hands. When the magician puts the four cards on a platform, the kings and queens depicted on them come to life as tiny people, and dance a minuet. Then the kings and queens return to their places on the cards. The magician takes up the cards and makes them disappear, and he and his assistant take a bow. Production Méliès is the magician in the film, which reuses props and costumes from '' The Living Playing Cards'', a film he had made earlier in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Living Playing Cards
''The Living Playing Cards'' (french: Les Cartes vivantes) is a 1905 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Synopsis A magician enters a stage set on which a large white screen has been placed. Taking a deck of playing cards, he shows one to the camera, makes it grow larger, and finally throws it upon the screen, creating a gigantic reproduction of the card. He does the same with two face cards, a queen and king, each of which comes to life and steps out of the card. The king chases the magician off the stage, before ripping off his disguise to reveal the magician himself. Production The film is based on a stage magic act performed at Méliès's theatre of illusions, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris. In the stage version, the magician was Gaston Velle, who would himself later become a director of Méliès-like trick films for Pathé Frères. In the film version, Méliès himself plays the magician. The special effects used are substitution splice Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
