Robert Richardson
Tomi Sanni
Section: 2
824-239-370
September 19,2012
A Trip to the moon and The Great Train Robbery The 21st century is an era greatly influenced by "reality television”. If we’re not trying to keep up with the Kardashians, we’re watching Big Brother, Bachelors/Bachelorette, and Flavor of Love. This is a contrast from the 20th century, which was the era of the silver screen, the era of cinema. Rather than having little to no imagination like television today the films of this time era pushed the boundaries of our imagination and fulfilled and captured our wildest dreams. Two of the greatest movies of this time were A Trip to the Moon, directed by Georges Méliès (1902) and The Great Train Robbery directed by Edwin Porter (1903). In his movie A Trip to the Moon, Georges Méliès is an early example of narrative film, his introduction film editing and help distinguish narrative films and how they were seen in comparison of music, books, and theatre. Although his edits were simple, for example people disappearing win a cloud of smoke, meaning he would make smoke build in front of the actors, stop filming the scene, move the actors out of the frame, and start recording again thus making the audience believe that the actors instantly disappeared in front of their eyes. This brought a new dimension into film, and introduced film editing to the world. He shot his films at 14 frames per second, his shots always remained stationary but what made these scenes amazing were his amazing sets designs, hand painted backgrounds and his in camera effects, Really took an audience who were alive before the first manned moon landing in 1969 to a world of pure science fiction and imagination. Taking what Méliès introduced into narrative movies and running with it, Edwin Porter being the father of the “narrative”, introduced at this time what was considered
Cited: Westminster. (2010, Novemeber 12). A Trip to the Moon . (N. Montano, Editor) Retrieved September 13, 2013, from Film110: https://film110.pbworks.com/w/page/12610142/A%20Trip%20to%20the%20Moon