The Christmas movie genre has become a juggernaut for streamers and theatricals alike. These kinds of movies bring in the big bucks and have a massive audience.It may feel like this is a new part of culture, but what if I told you we were making Christmas movies way back in 1898?There's a famous film titled Santa Claus that was directed by British pioneer George Albert Smith and was actually the first Christmas movie ever made. And while it might look quaint to modern eyes, for filmmakers, this 79-second clip is a masterclass in early innovations like parallel action and double-exposure masking. Let's dive in.The First Christmas Movie Ever MadeThe movie was produced in England by G.A. Smith, a key figure in the "Brighton School" of cinema pioneers.The plot of this first Christmas movie was pretty simple.We follow a nanny who puts two children to bed. The lights go out. Suddenly, a circular vignette appears in the corner of the room, showing Santa Claus arriving on the roof. He climbs down the chimney, emerges from the fireplace in the nursery, fills the stockings, and vanishes just as the children wake up. - YouTube www.youtube.com Why It Was RevolutionaryOkay, so this is like a 79-second movie, but in 1898, it was pretty revolutionary. At this time, cinema was dominated by the Lumière brothers, who were just shooting real things happening, like trains arriving and people in gardens.Narrative editing as we know it (cutting from Scene A to Scene B to tell...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Tuesday, 2 December