George Albert Smith(1864-1959)
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Along with his better-known French counterpart
Georges Méliès George Albert Smith was
one of the first filmmakers to explore fictional and fantastic themes,
often using surprisingly sophisticated special effects. His background
was ideal--an established portrait photographer, he also had a
long-standing interest in show business, running a tourist attraction
in his native Brighton featuring a fortune teller. His films were among
the first to feature such innovations as superimposition (Smith
patented a double-exposure system in 1897), close-ups and scene
transitions involving wipes and focus pulls. He also patented
Kinemacolor--the world's first commercial cinema color system--in 1906,
which was extremely successful for a time, despite the special
equipment required to project it
