What path did Méliès open up?

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Today is the 148th anniversary of the birth of Georges Melies, one of the pioneers of world cinema and the founder of modern cinema. (born in Paris on December 8, 1861, died in Paris on January 21, 1938). He was originally a comedian, theater director, magician, and photographer, and later worked in movies. He is the world's number one film director, and he has made a great contribution to film craftsmanship! Created fast motion, slow motion, stop and shoot, overprint, fade out, fade in and other special effects photography. He turned film skills into film art. He introduced dramatic elements and created dramatic films. The hundreds of films he has produced are all in the form of film expressions with a dramatic structure. Most of the films are self-written, self-directed, self-shot and self-edited. Méliès's representative work is "Joan of Arc". He used various special effects in film editing, such as fade-in (like the opening of the stage), fade-out (like the closing of the stage), etc., pioneering the editing of film with picture techniques, thus making the film Editing changes from technology to art. This world-famous filmmaker has been a manager of a theater in Paris since he was a teenager, and he also performed magic tricks himself. Later, he mainly made puppets and puppet shows for a long time. He was a famous professional magician at the time. In 1896, when he came into contact with the "Movie Mirror" of the Lumiere brothers, he became very interested, so he bought a movie projector and established his first studio. The studio is a "combination of a photo studio and a theater stage." In this suite room, there are cameras at one end and the stage for performances at the other end. The camera's position was fixed at the innermost part of the backstage, and Méliès stood in the "conductor's point of view" and shot more than 430 films, thus becoming world-famous as the creator of "dramatic films". Méliès's contribution to world cinema mainly lies in two aspects: First, he created a true dramatic film. Before Méliès, some filmmakers had made successful attempts to shoot "dramatic films." For example, "Otter's Sneeze" shot by Edison already contains elements of drama. Later, "The Passion of the Christ" filmed by Lumière Company described the life experience of Christ and found a more complete dramatic pattern. This was the first film in the history of film to tell a long story with a length of 250 meters and 13 segments. However, But it is far less complete and beautiful than Méliès's "dramatic film". For the first time, Méliès systematically applied drama scripts, actors, costumes, makeup, scenery, mechanical devices, and the division of scenes and scenes into movies. These methods are still widely used in contemporary movies. Méliès began making films in 1896. He first followed the path of imitating his predecessors. Soon, this young man who was good at exploring and brave in reform developed his own unique artistic method - using the infinite possibilities of film to narrate fascinating stories. Story: "A Journey to the Moon" filmed in 1902 is a fantasy film showing extraordinary imagination, and it is also the masterpiece that reached the pinnacle of his film art. Méliès was also the first outstanding director to put a novel on the screen in the history of film. In the adaptation, this talented director added a lot of attractive humor, amazing dangers and some fantasy factors that promote human thinking, and re-edited a wonderful and touching story: "A group of astronomers dressed in astrologer costumes" The family decided to explore the moon. They came to a complex and peculiar machine factory, and with the help of a group of beautiful female sailors, they moved a big cannonball. The scientists sat in the cannonball, as if they were in a spaceship. After being launched to the moon, the fairies there warmly received these scientists and guided them to browse the silent and mysterious moon scenery with great interest. At night, the scientists enjoyed the mysterious dance of the fairies, who represented the Big Dipper, Venus, and the Moon. Mars... and other gods of the constellations. Gradually, the scientists entered the dreamland and got into the cave to escape the cold. After encountering huge mushrooms, spiders, multi-legged monsters and the moon god, the scientists finally escaped from the cave. They found the cannonball, flew away from the moon, and landed back in the ocean on Earth. After swimming around on the seabed, they safely returned to their starting point, where an eternal and unique statue was being built for them. "This film is truly shot. Although the combined film can only be shown for 15 minutes. Because of its outstanding achievements, it marked the heyday of Méliès's film creation and left an immortal legacy in the history of film. Second, he created many stunt photography techniques. Stunt photography was actually discovered accidentally by the Lumiere brothers. One time, they showed a film about "tearing down the wall." Because the film was not rewound, an unexpected scene suddenly appeared on the screen. In the gray dust, the bricks scattered on the ground magically flew up and built a complete wall again. . A movie about "tearing down walls" has turned into a movie about "building up walls". The scenes are so ridiculous! The audience watched with interest. When the film was shown again in the correct way, the audience found it boring. This accidental mistake actually became the "reverse shooting" technique (actually a reverse shooting technique) widely used by photographers in the future. Later, someone filmed a diving video, in which the diver miraculously emerged from the pool and soared onto the platform, much to the delight of the audience. The concept of "stopping and shooting again" in film shooting was accidentally discovered by Méliès on the set. One day in 1898, Méliès was filming a lively street scene in the Place de l'Opéra in Paris.

When a coach and carriage passed in front of his lens, the hand-cranked camera malfunctioned, the film was caught, and the camera was still rotating. Méliès was unaware of it at the time. At this time, the traffic on the street did not stop due to the camera failure. A hearse happened to arrive at the original location of the bus and carriage. When the camera continued to shoot after the camera failure was eliminated, a very coincidental and strange scene naturally appeared - —The coach suddenly turned into a hearse.

This unexpected gain aroused the studious and eager-to-learn Méliès to think deeply. He thought: If a coach and carriage can be turned into a hearse, can't a hut also be turned into a palace? Men can become women, cats can become dogs, and the moon can become stars... After hundreds of experiments, the modified camera