ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Georges Méliès

Ok kiddo, so have you ever watched a movie and seen some magic or tricks happening on screen? Well, a long long time ago, a man named Georges Méliès made movies that were full of magic and tricks!

Georges Méliès was born in France in 1861 and he loved to entertain people. He was a magician and he loved to make people laugh and gasp in amazement. He was also really creative and loved to invent things.

When the movies were invented, Georges was so excited because he saw the potential for magic tricks in movies. He decided to make movies himself and started to make short films that had things like disappearing acts, ghosts, and flying people in them.

He used special effects to create these magic tricks in his films. For example, to make someone disappear, he would stop the camera, then move the person out of the frame, then start the camera again. This made it look like the person vanished!

Georges Méliès went on to make many more movies and he became very famous. He even invented new techniques for film making, like using multiple exposures to create illusions.

But when the first world war happened, Georges' movie-making career suffered. He lost his studio and eventually had to sell his films. It's sad, but Georges Méliès will always be remembered as one of the pioneers of filmmaking and special effects. He was a true magician!