If you want to study the history of VFX, you have to see what remains of Melies work. He broke the ground.
His movies were the true bleeding edge, back from 1896 I believe. take a look at The Vanishing Lady. First use of hard cut and a swap. Someone had to be first, and it was he.
He eventually lost his shit to financial ruin, and the story goes he burned a lot of his films, so we are unfortunately without working prints (to my knowledge) of films like The Merry Frolics of Satan and The Laboratory of Mephistopholes. The Conquest of the Pole, made I think in 1912 was the end of the road for the guy.
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He even built his own studio with trap doors, sliding panels, skylights, all kinds of innovation at the time. Dude was a boss, rolled like a pimp.
Here is a still from The Infernal Cauldron from 1903
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Satan In Prison (1907)
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The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906)
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Non stop crazy shit from Georges Meilies. We owe him and Willis Obrien everything.