To fully explain the invention of special effects, I have to tell a brief story of which you might enjoy. I will be telling the story of Georges Méliès
There was once a French magician named Georges Méliès who was known to enchant many with his illusions and pure talent for entertainment! However, on 28 December 2895 Méliès was present at the legendary first public screening of the Lumiere Brothers films at the Grand Cafe in Paris. Méliès immediately offered the Lumière brothers 10,000 francs for one of their cameras, which they refused because they believed that cinematography wouldn't have much of a successful future.
An illustration of the premiere for the Lumière Brothers first film
Even after failure to buy a camera from the Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès persistancy kicked in. He immediately began studying the parts of the camera, took parts from his automatons that he created and eventually created his own camera to record film! He then proceeded to create his own film studio and before he knew it, started making his own films in no time!
We now can explain how visual and special effects were created. Georges Méliès really saw that films had a great future in the fantasy world were dreams could come true! Of course, the only way to achievet his dream was with the help of visual effects. The very first effect edited was a scene where a man would attack a beast in the film, and through a process of editing the film, the beat would dissapear into a cloud of smoke. This was done by recording 2 individual clips, 1 with the beast standing where he was taking the blow, and the next clip had the cloud of smoke appear. Georges Méliès took these 2 clips and manually cut the film and taped it to have it transition smoothly.
An example of the 2 clips he combined to make the special effect
Georges Méliès and his wife also were one of the first to come up with colored footage. Even though film was no capable of recording any colors, they were still able to create colored film. How you ask? Technically special effects. They did so by manual coloring every single frame. You can also check out the story of Georges Méliès featured in the film "Hugo"
An image of Adobe After Effects, a program often used to edit special effects
After the turn of the century, programs have come out that are easy to access to the general public where people can create effects just like Georges Méliès with ease! Now, with special effects we can follow Georges Méliès dream and take people to different worlds, different times and give people the fantasy of a lifetime! All thanks to Georges Méliès and his dream of taking films to other worlds with special effects! A famous image from the film "A Trip to the Moon" 1902
A Trip to the Moon in full color
