George Méliès

George Melies was a former stage magician who became a filmmaker in the late 1800's and early 1900's,

after witnessing the potential of film - his films were some of the earliest effects-driven films in cinema, pioneering such techniques as the dissolve, the split screen, and the double exposure.

He is mostly known for his fantasy and science fiction films, including his famous film La Voyage Dans la Lun (A Trip to the Moon), but he made films in a variety of different genres, making over 500 short films before declaring bankruptcy and the destruction of his theatre in 1923. He died in 1938, but not before his contribution to the medium was officially recognized by the French, who gave him the Legion of Honour.