A Trip to the Moon is one of many innovative films by the French illusionist and film director George Méliès who inspired several milestones in cinematography:
♦ Special effects and science fiction in film
♦ Google’s first-ever virtual reality Google Doodle, “Back to the Moon”
♦ Professor Rinaudo’s passion for 35mm silent films
Méliès pioneered numerous technical and narrative film techniques in the early days of cinema, primarily in the use of special effects and creation of some of the earliest films of the science fiction genre. More about George Méliès on Wikepedia.
In case you missed the Doodle (which replaced the Google logo on its home page) watch it here. It’s quite entertaining. Even more amazing is the VR experience where you can move around the room or the scene. Here’s how:
If you watch it on a phone or tablet you can move the scene around by moving the device around. On a monitor, click on the upper left circle (arrow 1), then click and move the cursor over the scene (arrow 2). Go full screen if you want an immersive experience. You will be able to move around the scene—top, left, behind, up and down! (Joe can’t do that with his hand-crank projector.)
HOW MELIES DID IT
Here’s a fascinating page about Google’s tribute to George Méliès, how the Google Doodle was created with many fantastic video examples, and an in-depth story about the illusionist and filmmaker.
Here’s an excellent documentary on YouTube narrated by Mark Oughton and showing many of his most impressive scenes.
ORIGINAL 1902 FILM
Have you seen the original 1902 film? It’s on YouTube with fitting music. Notice how crystal clear the film is.
If you want to see the film in all its sharpness and black-and-white glory, hand-cranked at the perfect speed for each scene, attend a showing by Professor Rinaudo who owns a pristine print. Speaking of which…
A Trip to the Moon launches Joe’s passion for 35mm (still silent, of course)
Joe Rinaudo, who had been collecting 16mm silent films since his teenage years, had just finished restoring his 1909 Powers Cameragraph Model 6 Motion Picture Machine, when he was asked by his friend, mentor, and fellow film collector David Shepard (read Joe’s tribute) to hand-crank two shows at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles, with Bob Mitchell playing the music for the film. This would be for the 100th anniversary of George Melies’ A Trip To The Moon. In turn, David presented Joe with a gift: a pristine print of the film. That was Joe’s very first 35mm silent film, inspiring his passion for collecting, restoring, advising, lecturing, and hand-cranking silent films in the 35mm format…and creating the Silent Cinema Society whose mission is to Preserve Silent Cinema Art and Technology.
“My friends, I address you all tonight as you truly are; wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, magicians… Come and dream with me.”
—Georges Méliès
JOSEPH A. RINAUDO
Back when I met Joe he was restoring his Model A to showroom condition, and it was always fun riding around in that thing… including the somewhat embarrassing episode when Joe pulled into a gas station and purchased a whole nickel’s worth of gasoline! It got us home, though.
“The madness continues! By the early 1960’s I began collecting 16mm silent films. I remember how excited I was when my mother would drive me down to Films Classics Exchange on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. There a man by the name of Charlie Tarbox would be seated at his antique desk with an old Underwood typewriter. He always wore a black suit with a thin black tie. He had a shock of white hair and a cigar in his mouth. There were stacks of film everywhere. This was an old building with a wooden floor and high ceilings. It smelled of stale cigar smoke and acetate film. This was right out of the 1920’s! Charlie was always very kind to me and his voice reminded me of something like a combination of W.C. Fields and Maxwell Smart! Then the big moment arrived when I purchased my first sound 16mm film from Blackhawk Films, Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box. Talk about magic! I now had a film of high quality (compared to 8mm) and it talked! I began showing my 16mm films to organizations and for private parties for money that I could invest into more 16mm film. By the 1970’s I had amassed a very large 16mm collection.
“The madness gets worse! Compared to 35mm I always thought that 16mm was the end all be all for film collecting. In many ways it is due to the availability of so many titles, cost and ease of moving the light weight equipment. But…I always had a fascination for 35mm hand crank projectors. A friend of mine, Dave Feldman, and I took a road trip to visit Mr. George Hall in Tucson, Arizona. George, who I now consider my mentor, had a vast collection of early 35mm projection equipment and film. In fact his house was set up as an early cinema museum. When we were there, George demonstrated his 1905 Power’s model 5 Cameragraph hand crank projector with a live arc in the lamphouse! What a thrill to see this! I asked if I could crank a film and he took me back to another projector (a Simplex) which was harder to crank—but that didn’t matter. All that I can remember is that I started cranking and was so mesmerized by the magical image created by cranking this wonderful machine, I couldn’t stop, and at about 2:00 a.m., after cranking some 20,000 feet of film, Dave and George had to pull me away from the projector!
“I started doing outdoor demonstrations with any film that I could find. I never thought that I would be able to afford a real 35mm film, let alone a silent. My good friend Mr. David Shepard asked me if I would do a show for him at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles. He said that this year (2002) was the 100th anniversary of Georges Melies’s A Trip To The Moon. Mr. Bob Mitchell would be playing the music and David Shepard would be reading the spoken text. We would have to do two shows. He kindly offered to let me make a new print off of his negative in return for cranking the shows! To do my first public performance with such important and wonderful people as Bob Mitchell and David Shepard at the Silent Movie Theater with CNN in attendance…heck, I would have paid David to do the shows! So with my able assistant, Mr. Gary Gibson, both of us dressed like itinerant projectionists from the early 1900’s, both shows went over well to full houses and great reviews.
“Since that time I have worked with The Library of Congress in the restoration of silent film, as well as doing regular hand crank shows for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 100 Years of Film series. With Mr. Dean Mora and Mr. Gary Gibson we have done and regularly do re-creation turn-of-the-last-century itinerant motion picture shows for The Handford Fox Theater, The Visalia Fox Theater, The Balboa Theater, The Peterson Car Museum, The Turner Classic Film Festival, The San Rafael Theater, six shows a year at the Nethercutt Museum (boasting the third largest theater organ in the world) and numerous colleges, schools, and other venues.
The 90th Academy Awards invited us to recreate an authentic itinerant tent show for Oscar attendees to enjoy as they exit the Dolby Theater, and not only did I and my assistant Gary Gibson hand-crank silent comedies on my fully restored 1909 Power’s Model 6 Cameragraph to the narration of Robert Israel on piano, but several actors and producers had fun taking turns cranking the projector. Gary also created the elaborate period-style banner for the entrance announcing “Professor Rinaudo and his Amazing Hand-Cranked Moving Picture Machine…The 8th Wonder of the World…It Baffles Science!”
Joe is all about silent film, but he also loves sound. Loud sound! Not the dialog and music that passes through the projector that is printed on the film. Oh no, Joe’s silent films are accompanied by an ear-shattering, robust “symphony” created by one person sitting at one machine: The Fotoplayer. This resembles a player piano, but with two rolls for changing music for different scenes; an assortment of pull cords, levers, buttons and stops connected to a side cabinet containing organ pipes, percussion, brass, sound effects, and literally bells and whistles. The pianist usually lets the rolls play the music while he selects the instrument stops and creates the sound effects. He’s watching the film, of course, all at the same time.