TODAY we take special effects for granted. But in the early days of film and cinema, even simple tricks were seen as movie magic.

In the first decade of the 1900s, Brighton became a hub for film-making.

One man at the forefront of this movement was Brighton-born engineer Alfred Darling.

Originally making parts for a bus company, Darling came into contact with George Albert Smith, a Hove man who ran St Anne’s Well Pleasure Gardens.

Smith saw early moving images by the French Lumière brothers in 1896 and, inspired, teamed up with Darling to make this early special effects camera.

Suzie Plumb, curator of film and media at Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and Hove, said: "Most films at the time were what are called actuality films, such as someone filming a train leaving a station or kids on the beach.

"But Smith started using film to tell stories, create tricks and illusions, inventing film-making techniques. He was one of the first people to cut and stick film together."

Smith's early film from 1899, called Kiss In The Tunnel, is the first example of a close-up shot, where the viewer is taken from rolling into a tunnel to a "close-up" scene inside a train carriage and then back to the tunnel.

Ms Plumb said: "You could say George Albert Smith invented the close-up shot right here in Brighton and Hove.

"In the language of cinema, these are the same ideas happening today. You had Georges Méliès in Paris making interesting work but that was slightly after Smith."

Another trick of the time was sliding a plate with a circular hole in front of the lens to mimic looking through a telescope or magnifying glass.

By interrupting filming and introducing the plate, resuming, then stopping to take the plate away, the viewer gets an ultra-close-up-style shot.

The effect can be seen in the short film by Smith called Grandma's Reading Glass from 1900.

Ms Plumb added: "It’s a very simple piece of equipment but what’s exciting about it is the idea behind it, showing a different perspective. It’s really important in the history of film-making."

Smith went on to develop the first commercially viable colour film process in 1910, which was successful for a couple of years before he was sued by another film-maker William Frees-Green. The move ended Smith's career.

It is just one example of the kind of piece curators at Royal Pavilion and Museums are hoping to bring closer to schoolchildren, community groups and individuals through its Museum Lab.

The Museum Lab takes over a large Victorian reference library in Brighton Museum, retaining its listed fittings to turn a once specific space into a multi-functional hands-on gallery.

Currently on display in Hove Museum, it also ties in with a forthcoming exhibition called Experimental Motion.

For more information, visit brightonmuseums.org.uk.

BLOB

Tomorrow we conclude our series when we look at the textiles of Barbara Hulaniki's iconic Biba brand