In 1902, Georges Méliès released the first science fiction film, A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune). The filmmaker spared no expense for special effects. Review the approximately 11-minute long film and consider the following questions. Do any aspects of the film recall the practices of early photography? What are some differences and similarities between the photographic camera and the film camera?
There are many copies on the web of various degrees of quality. The quality of the following version on YouTube is very good.
Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon
Please post your responses and comments by Thursday, November 3.
At the start of the first scene I immediately thought of tableau vivant photography. As I continued, I realized it was basically just that. Since film could not capture audio at the time, they had to rely on the actor’s wardrobe, actions (or pose) and the setting to tell the story just like tableau vivants. The film could have been a slide show of each scene and tell the story just as effectively despite not having any motion or audio.
I found the film to be funny and very entertaining. In the first scene, Melies showed his first special effect by implying that the actors were wizards or men of science by “magically” changing their telescopes to stools by quickly transitioning between frames. Through out the film, most of the backdrops were in perspective, from the scene on the roof top with the telescope to the landing on the moon. Most of the props were 2 dimensional however by including smoke, he gave it 3D effect. He gave character to the moon by combining still photography and the actual face of man who displayed some sort of expression. Melies was very creative considering the limitations of the film of his time, he used what was available to him. Although it was a silent movie, it held my attention and I was throughly entertained.
Some similarities that I was able to pick up from the film camera and the photographic camera after watching, “A Trip to the Moon” By Georges Méliès, is that the film camera uses the method of stage photography, just as we have learned from many other photographers so far in class such as Lewis Carroll, who dressed up children in order to tell a story through his photography work. Well in this film I feel that the same method is being achieved because we are able to see that everyone is dressed up in costumes as well. The only difference is that in the film camera we are able to see more action and movements from each person. The film camera only captures a steady moment of an expression and if you would want to capture various emotions, motions, and/or expressions you will have to capture more than one shot in a photographic camera.
One of the scenes that still has me slightly confused is 7:35-7:58. I believe that scene was made by overlapping the frames the Melies wanted to appear as one. If my idea is correct then that could be considered similar to early static photography in the sense of a combination print. Another similarity is what has already been discussed in class, the fact that one scene is done in one static shot/frame. The camera does not move to follow the subjects. Another similarity I noticed to very early photography (first few photos) and the movie, as well as all early film, is that everyone is joyful (not acting) to be apart of this new innovation in visual communication. I didn’t notice anything particularly different besides the obvious, motion.
The film “Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune)” by Georges Méliès definitely gave me a feel of photography in the pass the quality of the film was kind of grainy and also every setting in the film were abstract they were places that had alot of pattern and shapes it reminded me of stieglitz “steerage” i feel as though those places would be areas where stieglitz would fall in love with a shot. The film took a different turn towards the end after about 8 mins i got a sense of a sort of fantasy world type of affect and it didn’t really remind me of any photograph i have seen this was a different style from early photography. overall the film was entertaining so much was going on that it kept your attention the whole time.
The film “Trip to the Moon”, by Georges Méliès, gave the affect of early photography because of the quality of the film itself. During the film you can see it jump basically from frame to frame which isn’t a bad thing, it gives the film a feel of authenticity. It also added to the humor of the film because of the unrealistic looking props and background and the wizard costumes. Some similarities between photographic and film camera is that they both focus on one point at one time. A difference is with film camera the objects or people have to work around the camera because it cant move to follow them.
The similarities that I found in the film “Trip to the Moon” are aspects of staging, collage and documentation in eary photography. There is a huge telescope on the background that implies the film is about the science and there are columns indicate that the sence of formal and intelligence like the picture of Abraham Lincoln by Brady. After that, actors comes in wizard costumes which tells the film is fiction. The collage strategy is used in the scenes that Greek gods appear while scientists are sleeping, and that the spaceship hits the ocean. The aspect of documentation I feel comes from that the most of the scenes dipict the sequence of events, documating what happened, not necessarily the friendship between scientists. The differences that i found are obviously the motion of people and objects. And the film seems to have less visual impacts and artistic compotisions on each scene compared to early photographs. the film is still fun to watch because of exaggerated movement and objects, and of course classic humor.
I love the way everyone has made connections with different strategies of 19th century photography. At first, the film seems dated but makes sense in the context of the history of photography and early film.