George Albert Smith was involved in spiritualism before acquiring a pleasure garden in 1892 - St. Ann's Well, a short distance from the Brighton seafront. The many entertainments included lantern shows by Smith; the garden would also become the location for his 'film factory'. Smith saw and appreciated the Lumière programme in Leicester Square in March 1896, would have been aware of Robert Paul's shows at the same time, and acquired his first camera soon afterwards. In 1897, he made over 30 films. The few which have survived display a remarkable charm and fascination. By 1898, with Santa Claus, he was using superimposition for the arrival of Santa. As a magic lanternist, he understood the cutting techniques perfected with bi-unial and tri-unial (two-andthree-lensed) lanterns and brought this experience to his film making. For example, Smith made only the studio shot of the train carriage in The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899), but when he inserted it into Hepworth's phantom ride, View from an Engine Front - Train Leaving Tunnel, he created an edited film which demonstrated a new sense of continuity and simultaneity across three shots. This fimlic imagination was radical for the time, and it continued to develop in the next year. As Seen Through a Telescope, Grandma's Reading Glass, (shown here) 
The House that Jack Built, and Let Me Dream Again, all of 1900, were remarkable for the use of close-ups, subjective and objective points-of-view shots, the creation of dreamtime and their use of reversing. Smith was also instrumental in the development of continuity editing. He knew and corresponded with Georges Méliès at this time.
In 1897 he started developing and printing at St Ann's Well, and, probably in 1899, built a 'glasshouse' film studio in the grounds. Great assistance was provided in his use of apparatus, by the Brighton engineer Alfred Darling, a gifted manufacturer of cameras, projectors, printers and perforators.
Smith's wife Laura acted in many of his films, as did the local Brighton comedian Tom Green. Smith developed into a successful commercial processor of films for other producers. His largest customer was the Warwick Trading Company, and he eventually became part of the company, developing a long partnership with its then manager Charles Urban. The distribution of G.A.S. films transfered from Warwick to the new Urban Trading Company in 1903. Smith then developed the Kinemacolor system for Urban, first demonstrated in 1908. Kinemacolor films enjoyed a success from 1910 until the First World War, but litigation led to its collapse, and effectively ended Smith"s life in the film business. George Albert Smith died in 1959. Hove Museum, Sussex, houses a permanent display relating to Smith and his contemporary, James Williamson. Continue your tour with
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