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Google honours legendary French filmmaker Georges Méliès with VR doodle

Google honoured legendary French filmmaker Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, known simply as Georges Méliès, with a first-ever virtual reality (VR) doodle on the occasion of the making of his first film, ‘A Trip to the Moon’.

Google honours legendary French filmmaker Georges Méliès with VR doodle

(Photo: YouTube/Screenshot)

Google honoured legendary French filmmaker Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, known simply as Georges Méliès, with a first-ever virtual reality (VR) doodle on the occasion of the making of his first film, ‘A Trip to the Moon’.

The doodle, which appears on the homepage, is a 360-degree YouTube video which shows the filmmaking technique, actors, sets, and Méliès himself within 2.10 minutes. The entire video, which is animated, took Google almost eight months to create.

Titled ‘Back to the Moon’, the video gives a clear insight into Google’s plans regarding the emerging VR platform. Users can look around the 360-degree video with the mouse button or fingers, if the video is being viewed on a smartphone.

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Released by Google Spotlight Stories, it shows Méliès in various avatars – presenter, actor, and bioscope operator among others. This in itself is a tribute to Méliès who was known for playing multiple characters in his movies.

The doodle effectively captures the early technical wizardry that Méliès pioneered. The French illusionist used his skill to create special effects in the early days of filmmaking. He is credited with popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted colour.

Though not his first, ‘A Trip to the Moon’ was one of his most remarkable films. Released in 1902, the film’s story is about a fantastical, surreal adventure to the Moon. The film was released on 1 September 1902 in France and 4 October the same year in the US.

It is known for a very famous shot which shows the Moon, having a human face, getting hit in the eye with a bullet-shaped space capsule. The image has since become the defining signature of Méliès’ works.

 

A Trip to the Moon
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Born on 8 December 1861 in Paris, France, Méliès became quite popular as an illusionist. He was inspired to turn into a filmmaker after he attended a special private demonstration of the Lumière brothers’ cinematograph on 28 December 1895.

Méliès died on 21 January 1938 in Paris. Ben Kingsley played the role Méliès in the critically-acclaimed 2011 movie ‘Hugo’, which was partly based on the life of the filmmaker. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film went on to garner 11 Academy Award nominations, winning five.

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