are going to get to the moon. It is by these elements that Melies utilizes mise-en-scen, and in other cases such as the rocky hills of the moon, the bullet shaped space-ship that encapsulates the wizards and sends them on their trip. The costumes of the actors that are used in the film also give us the feeling that these folks are not from our time, but we can identify with their “wizardly” presence. The long white beards, the long jackets and shiny clothes. The face of the moon is even an actual face which gets shot in the eye by the rocket ship. On that same note, the men in the moon are just how we would figure an alien to look like at that time. Some sort of green men, with the martian antennae type, and cape. The woman also are dressed to impress as they see the men off before they leave on their trip to the moon, in what looks to be like some sort of bathing suit, ballerina type dresses. Melies who was a magician also knew how to capture his audience with the use of special effects, using stop motion photography he was able to create the wizards being able to destroy the moon-men. Moreover, the actual launching of his “space-ship” to the moon was edited in such a fashion that is what most basic narratives follow today: The pulling of the string to launch them out of the cannon. A shot of the moon being hit in the eye, and then a shot of the ship in the moon.Melies definitley utilized his knowledge of the theatre, and he also knew that his film would have mostly static shots, so he told his film by using his elaborate costumes as well as his elaborate set pieces and special effects. The man was way ahead of his time and knew how to keep his audiences attention. When looking at the definition of mise-en-scene and looking at this film, one would tend to think that Melies himself invented the term....
