INTRODUCTION

Film Studies and Film History

M A C H I N E S W H I C H C R E AT E D T H E I L LU S I O N O F M OV E M E N T

Phenakistoscopes

Thaumatropes

Zoetropes

Praxinoscopes

All versions of spinning motion toys

EDWARD MUYBRIDGE

Large scale photographic panorama of San Francisco 1878

Sequence of 13 photographs taken at different moments

360 degree view of city

Created an illusion of continuity

FAMOUS ANALYSIS OF TROTTING

HORSES (1878) Led to cinema’s creation

Leland Stanford wanted to know if all four hooves were off the ground

The horses tripped the camera’s shutters (quick)

The unfolding motions of time and space

CELLULOID

1889, George Eastman

Crude Flexible Film Base

Long strips of frames became possible

Celluloid is an early plastic that melts when it gets hot

PERSISTENCE OF VISION

Persistent after images

Cinema arises from an interface

Continuously moving still images

A process of perception on the part of the human spectator which readies him or her to receive continuity as motion itself

ELEMENTS OF MOTION PICTURE FILM

Flexible, Transparent Film Base (Eastman)

Fast exposure time (Etienne-Jules Marey) 12 images on Film Glass

Mechanism to pull the film through the camera

Intermittent device to stop the film

A shutter to block off light

THOMAS EDISON

Kinetograph (recorded images)

Kinetoscope

Peep Shows

Black Maria Studio (New Jersey)

Horses Jumping, Niagra Falls, Trains, Dancing Girls etc..

LUMIERE BROTHERS

A Step further than Edison

Ensured that the film advanced at a uniform rate

Mobile Cameras

Projections (larger than life)

First 35 mm camera that also served as a projector: Lumiere

1895, First public viewing of films at The Grand Café in Paris

STYLE OF EARLY FILMS

Single shot framing action

Long-shot distance

Black Maria showed vaudeville entertainers, famous sports figures and celebrities performing for the camera

The Lumieres took the cameras out to parks, gardens beaches and other public places

GEORGES MÉLIÈS

1896, Purchased a film projector and built a camera based on the same mechanism

First films showed shots of every day activities

Magician, discovered the possibility of every day effects

He built his own studio like Black Maria

Glass sided like a greenhouse

GEORGES MÉLIÈS films progressed to being

longer narratives with scenes shot in tableaux

Each scene consisted of one shot except when certain transformations took place

Cuts were designed to be imperceptible on screen

LATE 19TH & EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Films circulated widely until World War I (1914)

Limited Resources

From 1904 on, narrative form became the most prominent form of film communication

French, Italian and American films dominated world markets

The Great Train Robbery, Edwin Porter 1903

CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA

Edison attempted to monopolize the early film industry

Tried to force competing filmmakers out of business (patent violations)

American Mutoscope and Biograph survived because of differing technology

In 1908 Edison teamed up with Biograph forming Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC)

Eventually they were the only stockholders and patent holders licensing other members to make, distribute and exhibit films

MPPC never succeeded in eliminating its competition (Filmmakers like DW Griffith would break out and create their own companies)

DW GRIFFITH

1908 (Made 100’s of “one and two reelers” in a 5 year period)

Complex narratives in short spans

Didn’t event the devices that he used, he gave many techniques like cross-cutting or parallel editing a strong narrative motivation

By the time he made his features he was creating lengthy complex scenes across multiple locations

THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) AND INTOLERANCE

(1916)

Directed actors in a different way

Medium close-ups and close ups to get subtle nuances in performance –a technique still used today

Quick cuts at the end of Intolerance were influential on Soviet Filmmakers like Eisenstein: Battleship Potempkin (1925)

He viewed film as an expressive medium capable of bringing about social change

THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

About the American Civil War

Strong visual aesthetic, Birth of Hollywood Aesthetic

Distortion of history

Testament to the deep racism at the time

Many thought it contributed to the rise of the Klu Klux Klan

EBERT ON “BIRTH”

Griffith has a sure hand in the way he cuts from epic shots of enormous scope to small human vignettes. He was the first director to understand instinctively how a movie could mimic the human ability to scan an event quickly, noting details in the midst of the larger picture. Many silent films moved slowly, as if afraid to get ahead of their audiences; Griffith springs forward eagerly, and the impact on his audiences was unprecedented; they were learning for the first time what a movie was capable of.

EBERT ON “BIRTH”

"The Birth of a Nation" is Griffith's sin, for which he tried to atone all the rest of his life. So instinctive were the prejudices he was raised with as a 19th century Southerner that the offenses in his film actually had to be explained to him. To his credit, his next film, "Intolerance," was an attempt at apology. He also once edited a version of the film that cut out all of the Klan material, but that is not the answer. If we are to see this film, we must see it all, and deal with it all.

EBERT ON “BIRTH”

The long third act of the film is where the most offensive racism resides. There is no denying the effectiveness of the first two acts. The first establishes a bucolic, idealistic view of America before the Civil War, with the implication that the North should have left well enough alone. The second involves unparalleled scenes of the war itself, which seem informed by the photographs of Matthew Brady and have an powerful realism and conviction.

SARRIS ON “BIRTH”

On the other hand, the equally distinguished critic Andrew Sarris wrote about Griffith's masterpiece: "Classic or not, 'Birth of a Nation' has long been one of the embarrassments of film scholarship. It can't be ignored...and yet it was regarded as outrageously racist even at a time when racism was hardly a household word."

INFLUENCE OF GRIFFITH

Use of medium close ups and close ups

Subtle changes in facial expressions

Rapid editing at the end of Intolerance (Soviet Montage)

Using parallel editing for highly dramatic purposes

CECIL B DEMILLE

The Cheat (1915) Chiaroscuro/Rembrandt Lighting

Influence on French Impressionist filmmakers

Bright sources of light and no fill light

Linear pattern of narrative

Precursor to the formal complexity of Hollywood Narrative

1914 (first film)--1956 (Last Film)

CONTINUITY SYSTEM

Coherent spatial and temporal relations within narratives

Match on action

Less reliance on single frontal shots

Eyeline matches

180 degree rule

STAN DAR DIZATION O F HOL LY WO OD STYL E

Carefully motivated narrative elements

Straightforward causal development

Same production system

Similar division of labor

Little independent production

Most alternative films were made in Europe

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Successful British Vaudevillian

Extremely famous for comic films during the silent film era (pre WW1)

Wrote, Directed and starred in films

He also continued to make silent films after the “talkies” were introduced

Was identified with leftist views during the McCarthy era and moved back to Europe

CONTINUED

1913: Keystone

“IS THERE A MAN NAMED CHAFFIN IN YOUR COMPANY OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT STOP IF SO WILL HE COMMUNICATE WITH KESSEL AND BAUMANN 24 LONGACRE BUILDING BROADWAY.” (1)

They had lost Ford Sterling and needed to replace him

By 1916, just two years after appearing in his first motion picture, Charles Chaplin had become the most famous entertainer in the world

The Mutual Film Corporation created a subsidiary called The Lone Star Corporation solely to make the Chaplin films. Lone Star paid Chaplin $10,000 a week plus a $150,000 signing bonus for the twelve two-reel comedies.

CONTINUED:

Viewed stereoscope images of the 1896 Klondike

Donner Party Disaster of 1846/Horrors of the time are used for comic purposes

Believed that tragedy and comedy are never far apart

Elaborate year & ½ production

Partially due to his personal life with Lita Grey

THE GOLD RUSH

The Gold Rush out of the most unlikely sources for comedy. The first idea came to him when he was viewing some stereoscope pictures of the 1896 Klondike gold rush, and was particularly struck by the image of an endless line of prospectors snaking up the Chilkoot Pass, the gateway to the gold fields. At the same time he happened to read a book about the Donner Party Disaster of 1846

THE GOLD RUSH

Chaplin - proving his belief that tragedy and ridicule are never far apart - set out to transform these tales of privation and horror into a comedy. He decided that his familiar tramp figure should become a gold prospector, joining the mass of brave optimists to face all the hazards of cold, starvation, solitude, and the occasional incursion of a grizzly bear.