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Posts Tagged ‘Georges Méliès’

The Magician’s Sleight of Hand

Posted in Chapter 2, Visual Effects, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Roma Cuaron

Recently, Calum Marsh authored an article in the New York Times titled “It’s a Visual Effects Extravaganza, but There’s Not an Explosion in Sight.” This article explores particular types of VFX effects work designed to be invisible to the viewer and the lengths of “crafting deception” in current moviemaking, using such examples as Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, along with CGI work done even to change actors’ performances (and that cannot be cited by name because of nondisclosure agreements). Which then begins to lead us down the thorny and barely-explored paths of AI.

1917_trailer3In earlier posts, mediateacher.net featured conversations with award-winning VFX supervisor Greg Butler, who was one of the wizards behind a groundbreaking and powerfully breathtaking example of invisible VFX: 1917. Moreover, from the very beginning of motion picture history (which is particularly explored in Chapter 2 of Moving Images), we learn that the initial developments of using moving images to delight and entertain through deception began in significant part through the work of an actual magician, Georges Méliès.

The work by Méliès and other early innovators (check out the set in G.A. Smith’s The Kiss in the Tunnel or  those matte effects and dummy in The Great Train Robbery) commenced a journey in which creators of all kinds have worked to craft worlds that push the limits of what viewers can accept and believe in the worlds they experience on the screen, from backdrops to matte shots to art direction to makeup and costumes to all the myriad crafts that are used in film production and post-production.  Mary_Poppins_LARGEA particular arena in which parallels can be drawn to what is described in the article by Calum Marsh is explored in such books as The Invisible Art by Mark Cotta Vaz and Craig Barron or The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop, which investigate graphic illusions created by artists in Hollywood across many years of fabricating visuals that come to life through the power of moving images.

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The Artists of Turning Gears and Flickering Light

Posted in Chapter 2, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 6, 2012| 2 Comments »

Music & Image in "The Artist," directed by Michel Hazanavicius

This year, Oscar talk is abuzz with the notion that a silent film – The Artist – could win the best picture award, which would mark the first time for a non-dialogue motion picture to win the award since 1927, when Wings, directed by William Wellman, won Best Picture (and Frank Borzage won for Best Dramatic Director).  Here is an interview with The Artist‘s director Michel Hazanavicius.  Not only that, but Martin Scorsese’s movie Hugo, a heartfelt homage to the work of silent film pioneer Georges Méliès, is one of The Artist‘s strongest competitors.  (I will return to Hugo in an upcoming blog; Scorsese’s movie is rich with personal significance for me and ties in magnificently with the themes of Moving Images.)  

One of the most interesting and surprising observations I have made during the years I have been teaching media literacy and production is the consistency with which students have been drawn to or challenged by certain assignments.  Year after year, without exception, the most eager response I have had from students is to the central project of Chapter 2 (Inventions and Origins) – a non-dialogue movie.  Yes, a silent film!  And the one that students typically struggle with the most, virtually without fail, is the project for Chapter 6 – a documentary (more on that in an upcoming entry).  This year was no exception, and a number of the finest projects from the class during this semester were made for the Inventions and Origins unit.

Expressing complex narrative and emotions through visuals in "Wall-E"

I think there are a number of reasons for this attraction.  One is the challenge.  Actually, as part of the assignment, students are allowed to have a small number of dialogue lines.  I had decided to do this because I did not want to force the students to mime lines or to corner them into stilted performances.  However, they virtually never put in any lines – they nearly always make it a completely silent movie!  They want to focus on the strength of the visuals to tell the story – along with music and sound effects, which they explore to varying success (usually linked to the amount of preparation and effort that went into their choices and work, of course).  I also think that stories of invention are inspiring for creators working in any medium, and this is one of the primary reasons for the existence of this unit and for its impact.  One can see evidence of it in the reactions to this year’s Oscars, and it was seen a few years ago with a movie that won an Oscar and appears on the list of movies one can study with Chapter 2: Wall-E.  The opening act of Wall-E is one of the most lyrical and brilliant examples of cinematic storytelling one could hope to find.  By the way, The Artist and Hugo will also be appearing on the list of movies that can be studied with Chapter 2 – the news is official right here!

Just as I was writing the last sentence, I got an e-mail telling me that my order for the DVD/CD combo of Le Voyage dans la Lune had shipped.  Pretty funny timing!  This is a new soundtrack by the French group Air for Georges Méliès’s seminal short science-fiction movie based on Jules Verne’s Trip to the Moon, and featured in Figure 2-17 of Moving Images.   A hand colored version of this silent classic was found in 1993, then painstakingly restored, and finally premiered at the 2011 Cannes festival with the score by Air.

There will be other posts on silent film to come this month: a discussion of the work of pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché, notes on Hugo, and more.

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