User:Lemuellio/Baron Munchausen

Note: This user page is completely experimental; it's just a testing ground for possible revisions and additions to the Baron Münchhausen article. If, after experimentation, the edits here seem useful to readers, I'll copy them over to the actual article.
 * Update: I think the revisions work, so I've copied them over and just left some loose odds and ends here. All edits to the article should be done on the actual Baron Münchhausen page.
 * Further Update: The Munchausen article is doing well, so there's no further need for this page. Instead, I'll use it as a testing ground for possible revisions and additions to the Georges Méliès article. As before, if the edits seem to work, I'll copy them over to the actual article.

Theatrical career
In 1884, Méliès went to London to improve his command of the English language. There, he discovered the Egyptian Hall, an exhibition hall directed by the illusionist John Nevil Maskelyne. Méliès, intrigued by the fantasy productions and spectacular illusions he saw at Egyptian Hall, began learning magic tricks. He soon became a skillful amateur magician, and gave performances in venues such as the Musée Grévin's "Cabinet fantastique" and the Galerie Vivienne's theatre of illusions.

Early film career
On the evening of 27 December 1895, Méliès attended a special private demonstration of the Lumière brothers' cinematograph, given for owners of Parisian houses of spectacle. Méliès immediately offered the Lumières 10,000 for one of their machines; the Lumières refused, anxious to keep a close control on their invention and to emphasize the scientific nature of the device. (For the same reasons, they refused the Musée Grévin's 20,000 bid and the Folies Bergère's 50,000 bid the same night.) Méliès, intent on finding a film projector for the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, turned elsewhere; numerous other inventors in Europe and America were experimenting with machines similar to the Lumières' invention, albeit at a less technically sophisticated level. Possibly acting on a tip from Jehanne d'Alcy, who may have seen Robert W. Paul's Animatograph film projector while on tour in England, Méliès traveled to London. He bought an Animatograph from Paul, as well as several short films sold by Paul and by the Edison Manufacturing Company. By April 1896, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin was showing films as part of its daily performances.

Méliès, after studying the design of the Animatograph, modified the machine so that it would serve as a film camera.

The Star-Film trademark appeared for the first time on 21 September 1897, in an ad in the Industriel Forain.

Process and style
Méliès's film studio was built in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis in 1897. It was a greenhouse-like building, with glass walls and a glass ceiling designed to let in as much sunlight as possible; most still photography studios had used the same concept from the 1860s onward. The film studio was built with the same dimensions as Méliès's own Théâtre Robert-Houdin, 13.5 by 6.6 meters. Throughout his film career, Méliès worked on a strict schedule of planning films in the morning, filming scenes during the brightest hours of the day, tending to the film laboratory and the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in the late afternoon, and attending performances at Parisian theaters in the evening.

Méliès hired his actors on a film-by-film basis, drawing performers from his many connections in the Parisian theatrical world. They were paid one Louis d'or per day, a considerably higher salary than that offered by competitors, and had a full free meal at noon with Méliès.

For the many dances in his films, Méliès drew on specialized music hall troupes as well as the corps de ballet at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Gaîté Lyrique, and occasionally even the Paris Opera.

Georges Méliès was his own director, producer, and distributor. Méliès's first camera operators were himself and Lucien Reulos. Later operators included Leclerc, Michaut, and Astaix, and then Lallemand, Bardou, Tainguy, and Méliès's own daughter Georgette. According to the recollections of his son André Méliès, Georges Méliès usually edited the film himself, smoking a cigarette despite the nitrate film's extreme flammability.

Méliès was also his own designer: first the set was sketched out on the vertically hung backdrop, then the backdrop was put on the floor and painted using a brush attached to a long handle. His assistants in this work included Parvilliers, Lecuit-Monroy, and Claudel (who also acted in a few films). To ensure that the tones would show up properly on the film, the sets, costumes, and makeup were all done in shades of gray.

Méliès's films are all in 35mm format.

Music and narration
During the last years that Méliès's films were screened at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, the bonimenteur was Lucien Bardou. Films were accompanied by piano or a small orchestra, playing currently popular tunes or new compositions.

Colors
From 1897, many of Méliès's films were hand-colored at an independent laboratory run by Elisabeth Thuillier, who also served other clients, including Pathé Frères. Colors, in solution in aqueous alcohol, were applied using a paintbrush. Thuillier and her workers probably used for four basic tones: orange, a cyan-like blue-green, magenta, and bright yellow. These could be mixed; their tones changed depending the shade of grey of the film underneath. Other early colorists who directed film coloring labs include a Mme Chaumont (probably the wife of Segundo de Chomón, who was the representative for Star Film in Barcelona as well as a Pathé director in his own right), Mme Rouillon, and Mme Vallouy.

Later film career
In 1908, Méliès was required to produce 300 meters of film a week. In order to cope with the demand, Méliès gave the actor Manuel responsibility to supervise some of them in the larger Star Film studio, Studio B. Among the Star Film output, Manuel's films are recognizable by being more realistic, less trick-heavy and fantasy-heavy, and having a different tempo and sense of humor than those supervised by Méliès himself. Manuel had been hired as an actor around 1905.