Query: a trip to the moon

From: Janet Staiger <[email protected]>

I asked Kristin Thompson about this.  (See her excellent blog on Hugo at:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/**blog/page/3/<http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/page/3/>,
dated December  7, 2011).  She writes:

            I can't be absolutely certain, but the whole area at the back
looks like an elaborate miniature, with smoke coming through small pipes
representing
            chimneys. There's real water coming out of other, horizontal
pipes, and fire/smoke in a pit at one point. Pretty elaborate!
            Matte shots were possible in 1903. There are a couple of them
in THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. Obviously the technology was not widely known,
            to say the least. I'm not sure I've ever seen a matte shot in
any other film of the period.