Your first film will be a short documentary (about 2-3 minutes in length). Before you choose a topic and conduct research, please watch these student samples from previous classes, and learn a little about key or important film topics. Take notes as you watch.
Sample student film documentaries:
Sample student film documentaries:
Topics: Please sign up for one of the following research projects:
The MPPC
Carl Laemmle & the IMP Studios
Early Movie Palaces
Thomas Harper Ince
Lilian & Dorothy Gish
Billy Bitzer
Mack Sennett & Keystone Pictures
Charlie Chaplin
Lois Weber
Frances Marion & Anita Loos
Oscar Micheaux
Evelyn Preer & Josephine Baker
Oscar Micheaux
Evelyn Preer & Josephine Baker
Famous Players Lasky Film Company & Adolphe Zukor
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. & Mary Pickford
Clara Bow & Rudolph Valentino
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Janet Gaynor & Charles Farrell
Gloria Swanson
Buster Keaton
Fatty Roscoe Arbuckle & Mabel Normand
Cecil B. DeMille
John Barrymore
In the lab today (until 8:00), please begin researching your chosen topic. You can find most of the relevant information at Tim Dirk's website for AMC. You may also find resources online concerning your topic. As you research, feel free to copy some key images that you might use as background slides/photos for your documentary. Google images is good for this type of thing too!
After taking notes, construct a 300-500 word informational "essay" that will be your script for your voice over. This project is not due yet.
Classroom: (Screening)
From last class:
- Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (Edwin S. Porter, 1906)
Birt Acres & R.W. Paul
Birt Acres was born in the USA in 1854, orphaned at the age of fourteen during the American civil war and was taken in by his aunt. Around 1872 Acres was sent to Paris to complete his education at the Sorbonne. Acres returned to the United States four years later to lead the life of a Frontiersman and it during a period of eight or nine years became quite wealthy. Around 1885 he moved to England. He set up a studio in the seaside resort of Devon for the production of painted portraits and photography. In 1894 Acres was introduced to electrical engineer, Robert W. Paul. At this time Paul was in the process of manufacturing copies of Edison’s Kinetoscope and was anxious to construct a camera with which to produce films to show on his machines.
The pair worked together and Acres used the camera to make the first successful film in Britain - Incident at Clovelly Cottage in 1895. It was at this point where the two entered into partnership with a ten year business agreement. This agreement lasted only six weeks before splitting. During their brief partnership, the two shot films. It is widely believed that Paul was angry because Acres had patented his own Kinetic camera in his own name - almost identical to the one they had developed together. The resulting projector became known as the Kinetic Lantern, Kineopticon and the Cinematoscope.
As for Paul, he invented the Theatrograph projector and shot the first "news" films. Paul also made various “Actuality” films, and a short comedy - “The Soldier’s Courtship.” He is, also, curiously, responsible for the first Scrooge film. In 1898 Paul began construction on Britain’s first film studios in Muswell Hill, North London and during that summer produced over eighty short dramatic films.
Paul’s production company peaked during 1900 and 1905 but he gradually became disenchanted with the business. He returned to his previous occupation, concentrating on electrical engineering.
Meanwhile, Acres gave the first public performance of his projector at the Royal Photographic Society in 1896 - five weeks before the screening of Lumière’s Cinématographe and Paul’s Theatograph. Acres formed his own company - the Northern Photographic Works which specialized in coating, perforating and processing film. In 1898 he unveiled the Birtac - the first 'sub-standard gauge' cine camera and projector, instead of normal 35mm film the camera used narrower width film - typically 17.5 mm. Unfortunately for Acres, within weeks, a rival 17.5 mm camera/projector was announced - the Biokam by the Warwick Trading Company. The Biokam benefitted from its heavy backing and cheapness - half the price of the Birtac. Regardless of this, Birt Acres invented the first amateur cine camera and remained in the film business until his death in 1918.
R.W. Paul: Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897)
Upside Down (1899) (watch camera tricks)
Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901) (the first Scrooge film).
The Magic Sword (1901)
The Delhi Durbar (1903)
Birt Acres: Rough Sea at Dover (1895)
Crude Set Drama (1896)
• Hepworth was an English film director, producer and screenwriter, he was among the founders of the British film industry and continued making films into the 1920s.How it Feels to Be Run Over (1900)
Explosion of a Motor Car (1900)
Alice in Wonderland (1903) by Cecil Hepworth
Rescued by Rover (1905), Cecil B. Hepworth; a sequel: The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper (1908)
That Fatal Sneeze (1907), Cecil B. Hepworth
• His father was a famous magic lantern showman.
• He became involved in the early stages of British filmmaking, working for both Birt Acres and Charles Urban, and wrote the first British book on the subject in 1897.
• With his cousin Monty Wicks he set up the production company Hepworth and Co. — later renamed the Hepworth Manufacturing Company, then Hepworth Picture Plays.
• In 1899 they built a small film studio in Walton-on-Thames. The company produced about three films a week, sometimes with Hepworth directing.
• Rescued by Rover (1905) was a huge success at the box office, starring a collie in the title role. The film is now regarded as an important development in film grammar, with shots being effectively combined to emphasise the action. Hepworth was also one of the first to recognize the potential of film stars, both animal and human, with several recurring characters appearing in his films.
• The company continued making popular films into the 1920s.
• The company went public to fund a large studio development but lost money and closed.
• Tragically, all of Hepworth's original film negatives were melted down.
Pathe Freres Company
Charles Pathé (1863-1957), French motion-picture magnate, who, in the early 20th century, was the first to create a system for mass-producing motion pictures. It is thanks to The Pathe Frere Co. that films were shared and distributed around the world. Now, a film made in New York could be seen as far away as Japan. This is the start of a world-wide cinema (and a lucrative business venture...) Check out information about Pathe and some of his company's films:
Aladdin & the Magic Lamp (1907)• Pathé began his career as an importer and merchant of the phonograph in France.
The Policeman's Little Run (1907) directed by Ferdinand Zecca
Slippery Jim (1910) directed by Ferdinand Zecca
Onesime Horloger (Onesime, Clock-Maker) (1912)
• He extended the business to include projectors and films, creating the company Pathé Frères in 1896.
• By 1901 he concentrated on film production, together with French director and producer Ferdinand Zecca.
• Pathé made films rapidly and reinvested the profits back into the business to improve the technical quality of his films.
• By 1905 the company was employing numerous production teams of scriptwriters, set builders, cameramen, directors, and actors, making short films in an assembly-line process.
• Pathe Company opened in New York in 1904 as a subsidiary of Pathe Freres (Bros.) in France and boasted a catalogue of 12,000 titles.
• In 1909, Pathe was asked to join Edison in forming the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) to try to shut out smaller studios.
• In 1911, Pathe Weekly was issued. This is the first newsreel.
• WWI took its toll on the company. Pathe ceased production in the US in 1914.
• In 1915, the Pathe Freres temporarily moved its headquarters to New York and changed its name to Pathe Exchange, Inc.
• In 1923, Pathe Exchange sold for 26 million Francs and came under the control of Merrill Lynch.
• In 1926, Joe Kennedy (father of John F. Kennedy) becomes president of the company, and a director.
• In 1930, Pathe Exchange merges with PDC, K-A-O and DeMille to become RKO
HOMEWORK: Complete any notes/viewing of material not covered in class today. Please read the article on D.W. Griffith. Complete the graphic organizer for Monday, Feb. 13.
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