FX, 1897

Georges Méliès brought to a new medium an uncanny amount of manipulation that could easily be seen as the forerunner of all special effects today. While we may use more sophisticated means of film manipulation through devices such as computers, most could be traced to one of these director's brilliant ideas.

Splicing film has become easier and more exacting, but is still just an advancment on the splicing that Méliès pioneered in a time when it was much more difficult. Most computer generated creatures and effects are nothing more than fancy substitution tricks, and the original blue/green screen was Méliès' black velvet.