You’re almost certainly familiar with Google’s Doodles. They’re an excellent, entertaining way to spend some time learning something new, in passing, every day. They also almost always point to some little known, but interesting backstory. Today’s Doodle is a particularly beautiful example of that. It celebrates Georges Méliès, and it is special for many reasons.
One reason is that it’s Google’s first Doodle that’s a 360° video. Here is a link to see it.
360 Google Doodles/Spotlight Stories Back to the Moon (Google Spotlight Stories, YouTube)
If you’re reading this after the Doodle’s gone, then check out the archived version of Celebrating Georges Méliès. As always, it looks better if you increase the video quality to the highest level that your viewing device will support, and you might need to watch it a few times through to catch all of the action and detail.
The video is fun on its own, but it is guaranteed to send cinema history buffs over the moon. If you don’t happen to be a cinema history buff, then it will take a bit of explaining to help you see why the Doodle is SO awesome. However, I’ll confess that, having taught cinema history at MIT and then other places in Boston over the years, it’s hard to know where to begin. It could easily be a semester long course, but here’s the shortest version I can manage.
The best place to start is with explaining why Georges Méliès was so special. Here’s a mini-documentary I use to introduce him. It’s kind of hokey, but it gets the job done.
If you happen to have seen Scorsese’s Hugo, then you’re already way ahead. That movie was a tribute to cinema history in general as well as Méliès specifically. Here’s a review by that explains the myriad of ways that is true.
Jack’s Movie Reviews (YouTube Channel)
Jack’s Movie Reviews (Twitter)
By the way, here’s Hugo’s fantastic introduction to cinema history.
It can’t be done any better than that! Now that you’re up to speed on Méliès and his role in cinema history, here’s a link to a “behind the scenes” look at how the Google’s Doodle, Spotlight Stories and Arts & Culture Teams collaborated with Cinémathèque Française (Wikipedia).
Behind the Scenes Back to the Moon (Google Spotlight Stories, YouTube)
This isn’t the first time that Google collaborated with Cinémathèque Française to create a 360° video celebrating Méliès and his role in cinema. Here’s a link to a video where the Google Arts & Culture Team also worked with them to create a piece entitled Kinoscope.
Kinoscope – A Virtual Reality Journey into the World of Cinema (Google Arts & Culture, YouTube)
The video was created in conjunction with the exhibit The Cinema Machine: from Méliès to 3D that ran at Cinémathèque Française. The show is no longer there, but here’s a nice review.
You can also see Cinémathèque’s Collection on Google Arts & Culture.
Finally, as a bonus, here’s another interesting 360° video clip I stumbled across that shows the history of VR in movies in a VResque format.
