In
1897, Georges Melies set up a studio in Paris, called Star Film.
He
pioneered the first double exposure (La caverne Maudite, 1898),
the first split screen with performers acting opposite themselves
(Un Homme de tete, 1898), and the first dissolve (Cendrillon,
1899). He also introduced stop-motion photography, taken frame
by fame, so that inanimate objects appear to move on the screen.
Melies
was perhaps the most inventive filmmaker in the industry. He
also experimented with all types of special effects and multiple
exposures, and led to the development of a film language based
on separate scenes edited together in chronological order.
He was also one of the first
filmmakers to present nudity on screen with “Apres le
Bal”.
Melies
best known film, "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) was one
of the longest and most elaborate of his trick film epics. The
film was hugely successful, but not as profitable as it should
have been. "Trip to the Moon" was perhaps the most
heavily pirated film of its era, and while crowds around the
world marvelled at its tale of space travel, relatively little
of this success translated into financial gain for its creator.
In
1903, Melies open a New York branch of his Star Film Studio for distribution purposes and to try to stop some of the pirating. Georges brother Gaston Melies ran the U.S. operation.
In
1909, Melies was asked to join Edison in forming the Motion
Picture Patents Company to try to shut out smaller studios.
The MPPC was formed by Edison,
Biograph,
Essanay,
Kalem, Kleine,
Lubin,
Melies, Pathe,
Selig
and Vitagraph.
This group would become known as 'the Trust'. This formation basically set the standards for movie paper.
They also formed the General Film Company to distribute their
films to theaters.
Even though Melies was part of the Trust, the
'Trust' didn't help Melies as much as it did the American studios. Gaston set up production in Fort Lee, New Jersey but still ran distribution of both the US made films and films from France out of New York and through General Film Company.
In 1909, Gaston hired Wallace McCutcheon as head of production. Wallace had been a major factor with Edison, releasing 2 westerns BEFORE Edwin Porter's Great Train Robbery and credited for the first claymation film. But in 1908, McCutcheon had become extremely ill and had been replaced at Edison by a new director David Wark Griffith.
In 1910, Gaston sent McCutcheon to find a location with more year-round suitability for filming. McCutchen found a ranch in San Antonio, Texas that was 20 acres. Gaston moved production to the new Star Film Ranch and began making westerns. Gaston used the header of G. Melies but released films under the name Wild West Films and American Wild West Films. Gaston used a logo of a horseshoe with a stallion in it. Here is a poster from the 1911 film Her Spoiled Boy.
In France, Georges was losing money. The
aggressive and marketing ability of Pathe and Gaumont strangled
his market. Faced with a shrinking market once the novelty of
his films began to wear off, Georges Melies abandoned film production
in 1912 in France.
Gaston wanted to open new markets. He went on filming cruises to Asia and the South Pacific (see film history of New Zealand where a photo of him in New Zealand in 1912). Gaston began releasing numerous travel films in the U.S. Here is a poster from the 1913 release Home Life in Japan. (notice the horseshoe and stallion logo)
Unfortunately, these did not go over well in the theaters. Gaston shut down production in the U.S. in 1914 and moved to Corsica, where he did April 9, 1915.
In
1914, the French government took over Star Films in France for use in
the war to make war and propaganda films.
