Georges Méliès was born in Paris in 1861. He was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema.
Georges Méliès was very innovative in the use of special effects.

He discovered by accident the stop trick, or substitution, in 1896.
He was also one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his films.

Because of his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality through cinematography, Méliès is sometimes referred to as the First "Cinemagician".

His most famous film "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) includes a famous scene in which a spaceship hits the eye of the man in the moon. Both of "A Trip to the Moon" and "The Impossible Voyage" are about strange trips, somewhat in the style of Jules Verne. These are considered to be some of the most important early science fiction films, although their approach is closer to fantasy.