This week, Grade 10 MYP English students drew inspirations from the seminal George Méliès film, Le Voyage dans la Lune (The Voyage to the Moon), first released in 1902. Méliès, as a magician and thespian, saw the new technology of film camaras and the new medium of the motion picture as an opportunity to dazzle and mystify audiences like never before. He invented editing techniques such as the substitution splice and superimposition, editing tricks that we take for granted today but which mesmerized audiences at the turn of the century. Le Voyage dans la Moon is commonly credited as one of the first feature films.
After analyzing some of the film editing techniques pioneered by Méliès, Grade 10 students produced their own short films, using these techniques to add depth and meaning to simple visual narratives. Just as the work of George Méliès laid the foundation for the next one hundred years of cinema, this introduction to film analysis and creation has created a formative experience that will serve to support their inquiry into more contemporary and complex texts this term.
Video created by Grade 10 English student, Mais Al Sadi.