Made in 1898, G.A. Smith’s ‘Santa Claus’ is a film of considerable technical ambition and accomplishment for its period. It uses pioneering visual effects in its depiction of a visit from St. Nicholas.
A former magic lanternist and hypnotist, Smith was one of the first British film-makers to make extensive use of special effects to create fantastical scenes. It comes as little surprise that Smith corresponded with the French pioneer Georges Méliès at about this time, as the two men shared a common goal in terms of creating an authentic cinema of illusion. (Michael Brooke)
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
As many of you know, I am a huge fan of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I had been meaning to watch this movie for a long time, but when The Man Who Invented Christmas (IMDB) appeared for free viewing on the Kanopy service (available via the LA Public Library and others) it was a perfect opportunity and time of year to settle in with some coffee and cookies, nurse my Christmas cold and enjoy.
The movie is quite good and you hear some of the best lines in the book as it shows Dickens’ characters helping him create the story. Dickens’ real family and real history also become part of the story as he struggles with his own past and own issues as he writes. The movie stars Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey fame and Christopher Plummer delivers a great performance as Ebenezer Scrooge.
This is the story of the magical journey that led to the creation of Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), Tiny Tim and other classic characters from A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) mixed real life inspirations with his vivid imagination to conjure up unforgettable characters and a timeless tale, forever changing the holiday season into the celebration we know today.
Nominated for Achievement in Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay and Achievement in Make-Up at the Canadian Screen Awards.
“A surprisingly fresh movie about a story we all know very well.” – Peter Howell, Toronto Star
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
Scrooge is a 1935 British fantasy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Seymour Hicks, Donald Calthrop and Robert Cochran. Hicks appears as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas. It was the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, not counting a 1928 short subject that now appears to be lost. Hicks had previously played the role of Scrooge on the stage many times beginning in 1901, and again in a 1913 British silent film version.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
This is one of Rosanne’s favorite stories and favorite production of the story from 1966.
“A Christmas Memory” is a short story by Truman Capote. Originally published in Mademoiselle magazine in December 1956, it was reprinted in The Selected Writings of Truman Capote in 1963. It was issued in a stand-alone hardcover edition by Random House in 1966, and it has been published in many editions and anthologies since.
The largely autobiographical story, which takes place in the 1930s, describes a period in the lives of the seven-year-old narrator and an elderly woman who is his distant cousin and best friend. The evocative narrative focuses on country life, friendship, and the joy of giving during the Christmas season, and it also gently yet poignantly touches on loneliness and loss.
Now a holiday classic, “A Christmas Memory” has been broadcast, recorded, filmed, and staged multiple times, in award-winning productions. — Wikipedia
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
I love time-lapse videos and often create them myself, but never to the length or hard work required to created the videos detailed here. I like time-lapse because I think it can help us see the unseen in the world around us. As one example of this, we don’t really notice the movement of the sun across our home or garden as it happens much too slowly to really capture our attention. Speed up time though, through a time-lapse and we can clearly see how and where the sun is traveling about our environment. Analyzing the movement of people in a space is another great use for time-lapse. You can see patterns that might not otherwise be obvious at normal speed.
Most phones have the ability to easily create time-lapse videos. Try it out for yourself. What is happening around you that might benefit from a little “seeing differently.”
Once you’ve made a few time-lapse videos, trying slowing things down with your camera’s slo-mo features and record an entirely different world. — Douglas
Time-lapse has become popular with the growth of digital cameras. This technique can be very time-consuming, so why do some people dedicate their career to shooting time-lapses? And can this technique help you to tell stories in filmmaking? Let’s see in this video!
In this video we talk with Morten Rustad, a professional time-lapse photographer which spent a year in South America to capture the incredible landscapes there. We talk about his fascination for time-lapse, 8K resolutions and motion controlled gear.
†![Time-lapse: Igreja do Carmo, Porto, Portugal [Video]](http://welchwrite.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/igredja-carmo.jpg)
![Antique tram in Porto, Portugal [Video]](http://welchwrite.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/porto-tram.jpg)
![A Minute in Foz, Porto, Portugal [Video] (1 minute)](http://welchwrite.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/minute-foz-1.jpg)
