Man on the Moon 1902

This film includes some people build a rocket to fly to the moon, when they get arrive, there is a
comet and they have to hide under the moon where they see aliens and fight them and escape to
their rocket falling off the moon and into the sea. They get back to earth and are seen as heroes.
The actors move more than the camera as at this time the camera was heavy so couldnt move much
and it was easier to show a wide shot of all the characters, this gives the impact that the scene is
really busy and gives the feel that you are there with them watching the scene from afar. This shows
us what is happening in the story but we dont see any of the characters individually or see their
emotions by and close ups, we just see the story as a whole.
The purpose of this film is to entertain as well as educate people. It was interesting to watch as this
film was the best of that time and was quite funny, it was educational because it was a science
fiction so despite being quite unrealistic, it included realistic science themes such as the comets and
space.
This film uses a development of special effects because they use techniques such as CGI when the
rocket hits the sea as they are filmed separately then added together so make it look that the rocket
is crashing into the sea then falling underwater. Another special effect is the moon. This effect was
quite amazing for the time as people hadnt seen anything like this, however now we use CGI but it
looks a lot more realistic as we have better cameras and better equipment. The rocket looks fake
because all the detail from the rocket turns blank which looks less realistic.
This film is one of the most important films in film history because it is the longest edited film as
they use lots of edited techniques such as cuts with transitions and the first film to use so many
special effects and showed the development of narrative and storytelling. It was also the earliest
example of the science fiction genre and this film really focuses on the props used, such as costumes
of the space explorers, the aliens, the spaceship and the scenery.
This film tells a story by how the camera is positioned to give an overview of what is happening and
demonstrate the story, similarly to almost being at a theatre and watching a production there. There
is no speech but the camera angle tells the story instead of using speech. It uses a linear narrative
which is where the film has a beginning, middle and end similarly to what most films have now,
subsequently developing the way films were made. The music builds tension by having a faster
tempo as more dramatic moments in the film such as when they fight the aliens.
This film was of an important length because it was the longest piece of edited footage feeling more
like some of the films we have today, yet it wasnt too long (11 minutes), keeping the viewers
interest and getting to the point of the story.
Melies moved film production on from Muybridge and Lumeire Brothers because it was edited and
longer than their films, it was educational and entertaining which theirs wasnt, it uses more special
effects, and it used music to build tension. I think all these aspects of the film changed the way
people produced films then from the first edited film which didnt tell the story well and didnt build
as much tension. This film was very successful and is still seen as a classic and successful film
because it was a very early film that inspired many others. Muybridges films didnt have much of a
story to it despite using moving images and the Lumeire brothers didnt edit their videos of have
much of a story with characters, they filmed clips of reality.