Query: a trip to the moon--three replies

From: Leo Enticknap <[email protected]>

 Henry M. Taylor writes:

"Maybe not a matte shot, but perhaps double
exposure?"

Both techniques can be combined, and go back into the
nineteenth century. They are described in a number of the cinema
pioneers' autobiographies - Cecil Hepworth's sticks in my mind - and
initially, were probably inspired by mechanical, trick effect lantern
slides.

I don't know how the shot mentioned in the original enquiry was
accomplished, but it is certainly not 'too old' to have been a matte
shot. Barry Salt's 'Film Style and Technology' would probably have the
definitive answer. I'm in California at the moment and my copy is back
home, and so I can't look it up here and now - sorry.

Incidentally, 'Le Voyage dans la lune' has just undergone a full-scale
restoration starting from the only surviving and complete hand-coloured
print - more info at
http://www.technicolorfilmfoundation.org/en/home/programs/restoration-of-a-trip-to-the-moon-1902-georges-melies.html
.

Leo

---
Leo Enticknap
Institute of Communications Studies
2.35,
Clothworkers' Building North
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
United
Kingdom
http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/staff/leo
http://leeds.academia.edu/enticknap
http://www.enticknap.net
**************

From: *Fabrice Lyczba* <[email protected]>

Painted set in trompe-l'oeil perspective with steam being pushed up behind
it, i'd say. Another example of similar special effect : his recreation of
volcanic eruption in Martinique, also 1902,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63oEj0gx8zw

-Fabrice Lyczba

************

From: *RW Lovejoy* <[email protected]>

Melies used multiple exposures to achieve some of his effects:

This is a nice short film which demonstrates some of his techniques and how
they are applied today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXwGN2uSsn0

He was not too from Norman Dawn's early use of matte painting for the 1907
film The Missions to California.  Dawn was one of the first to apply the
glass shot photographic technique to movies, inspired to experiment in film
by his meeting Melies while in France.  For his film, Dawn placed a piece
of glass between the camera lens and the object he was filming.  Details
which he wished to add to the scene were painted on the glass  (for example
a fallen wall of a building in Missions of California would be blocked by
paintings on glass of a complete wall to produce the illusion of the
building in its prime).  Dawn had been taught the technique as early as
1905 while working as a photographer.

The Technique of Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding is a
good resource on this.

Hope this helps,
Robert