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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Santa Claus |
| Date | 1898 |
| Document Type | Film |
| Library/Archive | BFI National Archive |
| Collection | Victorian Compilation |
| Notes | 35mm, black and white, silent, 74 feet. |
| Topics | film, silent, special effect |
| Producer | G. A. Smith |
| Production Company | G. A. Smith |
| Duration | 00:01:20 |
| Genre | comedy |
| Description | Made in 1898, G. A. Smith's 'Santa Claus' is a film of considerable technical ambition and accomplishment for the period. A former magic lanternist and hypnotist, Smith was one of the first British film-makers - indeed, one of the first film-makers anywhere - to make extensive use of special effects to create fantastical scenes. This is believed to be the cinema's earliest known example of parallel action and, when coupled with double-exposure techniques that Smith had already demonstrated in the same year's 'The Mesmerist' and 'Photographing a Ghost', the result is one of the most visually and conceptually sophisticated British films made up to then. 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. |
| Copyright | BFI National Archive |