A century of special effects

BS says he became fascinated with Meli�s years ago: I saw his first movie years ago and fell in love with it, the magic and joy of it. and over the years as I learned more about Meli�s, there were so many incredible aspects to his life: his parents owning a shoe factory and hating shoes and wanting to be a magician and discovering film right after its invention and I always wanted to write a book about him. So almost everything that happens to Hugo in my book happens because it’s built around the things I learned about Meli�s. (What jumps out to you about Meli�s that hadn’t occurred to you in thinking about filmmaking before?) the idea that he made so many kinds of movies and the incredible joy he had making films because he’s the star of his movies. (Are you able to put yourself in the time and space of being in a theater when these films were first show and what was that experience like?) I think it was incredibly profound to sit in a dark room and see movement and life happening. The films being made at the time were all actualities and Meli�s saw that this same medium could be used for dreams and magic. (You recently did a live narration to �A Trip to the Moon,� so what was that experience like?) It was very fun. I talked about making the book and then we showed �A Trip to the Moon� and there was actual narration that Meli�s wrote so my narration was based on that but also improvised a little based on what Meli�s did and everybody got it. [Clip of what that narration is like on the DVD]. The narration brings you right in and there are many great moments. This is all coming from what Meli�s did and what he made. and many of his moments even reflect the current world and imperialist notions. (I think some people look at Meli�s’s work as primitive but some also say that his work is the ground for everything that Disney and Pixar are doing today. is that hyperbole?) No I don’t think it is. With computer animation and the way we can create images in film today, I imagine that feeling is similar to what audiences first felt upon seeing Meli�s films. It’s this technological revolution and it’s modern.