Seminal Films

A Trip to the Moon

Now that I have decided to produce a short film I have been looking at the seminal film 'A Trip to the Moon' to get a sense for the well know conventions of the genre.

The short film 'A Trip to the Moon' by George Melies was produced in 1902 and released in black and white and colour. The colour version was produced in Elisabeth Thuillier's colouring lab in Paris where each frame was individually hand painted.

George Melies 'A Trip to the Moon:' 

Black and White - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk 

Colour - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8QPehtzs_c 

It is a seminal piece of film with the iconic image of the moon landing still being recognised today. 

Iconic image of the moon landing from George Melies 'A Trip to the Moon' 

'A Trip to the Moon' has influenced many other short films as well as artists outside of the short film industry. For example the band 'Smashing Pumpkins' modelled the music video for their single 'Tonight Tonight' on the story.

'Tonight Tonight' - Smashing Pumpkins:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOG3eus4ZSo

Although I intend to used some concepts from other texts in my film I will only take some ideas and not the whole thing as Smashing Pumpkins have with a 'Trip to the Moon.'

More information on George Melies 'A Trip to the Moon:' 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon