Discussion Topic: Photography and Special Effects in Early Film

I’m a really big fan of the Smashing Pumpkins’ video, but I never saw the whole original movie before. It is funny for us to watch this kind of attempts to create special effects, but for that time, I believe Melies did an excellent work. The movie is similar to the pictures taken in the 19th century because everything is like arranged inside a studio. However, I believe that it was the only way for them to be able to create all this special effects. Something similar between the photographic and the film camera is that you capture reality inside a frame; you may have an idea of what is outside the frame, but you are limited to see only what the lens capture. However, one huge difference, is that in film, you have to be aware of motion. In a picture, you just capture a moment, but in film you capture “many moments”, so you need to prevent what is going to happen, in order to get what you want inside the frame. If I’m correct, in this movie the camera is not moving, so for example in minute 4 to 5, the entrance to the ship is almost out of frame to the left, so we miss some of the people coming in and making funny movements. Nowadays, the movies require Photography Directors, who are actually in charge of this kind of details, but I’ve seen so many movies that have many errors, and I think people who make movies should pay more attention to framing and composition inside the frame.