Period 1:
Please complete questions from the article by Tim Dirks. This is due at the end of period 1.
Complete Part One and Two: Answer the questions on the handout using this website and the article (part 1 & 2). Turn in your answers by the period, Friday, Feb. 2 for participation credit.
If you finish early in the lab (or as homework):
Many of Edison's early films were shot by W.K.L. Dickson. Thomas Edison invented the idea of the Kinetoscope but it was Dickson who designed it between 1889-1892. Edison's film studio was called the Black Maria. The first kinetoscope exhibition occurred in New York, NY in 1894.
Some Kinetoscope film examples (watch & take notes...):
In the classroom, please read the handout on George Melies and Edwin S. Porter. Annotate and take notes in your notebook/journal of key ideas.
Please complete questions from the article by Tim Dirks. This is due at the end of period 1.
Complete Part One and Two: Answer the questions on the handout using this website and the article (part 1 & 2). Turn in your answers by the period, Friday, Feb. 2 for participation credit.
If you finish early in the lab (or as homework):
Many of Edison's early films were shot by W.K.L. Dickson. Thomas Edison invented the idea of the Kinetoscope but it was Dickson who designed it between 1889-1892. Edison's film studio was called the Black Maria. The first kinetoscope exhibition occurred in New York, NY in 1894.
Some Kinetoscope film examples (watch & take notes...):
- Statue of Liberty (1898)
- The inauguration of President McKinley (1901)
- Skyscrapers of New York (1903)
- Moscow Clad in Snow (1906)
- Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (Lumiere Bros) (1895)
- Lion, London Zoological Gardens (Lumiere Bros) (1895)
- The Sprinkler Sprinkled (Lumiere Bros) (1895)
- Le Squelette Joyeux (the happy skeleton) (1895)
- Arab Cortege (Lumiere Bros) (1896)
- Various actualities (documentaries)
In the classroom, please read the handout on George Melies and Edwin S. Porter. Annotate and take notes in your notebook/journal of key ideas.
George Melies and Edwin S. Porter both found a way to edit and arrange film to create a narrative story. With these two film directors we begin to expand the novelty and artistic quality of the medium.
If we were to reduce all films to a continuum, we would have realism on one end of the continuum and formalism on the other. The Lumiere Brothers, and many of Edison's films, are considered actualities and are little more than moving snapshots of real life in real settings shot on location in real places. Early audiences were fascinated by these films partly because they had never seen a picture move, but also because the events the films captured were spontaneous and true. It don't get more real than this! The most real films are often considered to be documentaries--documents of real people, places, or events.
On the other side of the continuum is formalism. Formalist films are often avant-garde or metaphorical. Melies' films are perfect examples of this kind of film. Melies used trick photography, whimsical and fantastic subject matter that went beyond reality, and arranged his scenes deliberately for effect. While the camera stays at a safe viewing distance (long shot), the entire film is manipulated to create an effect on the viewer. When a director does these things (tricks like dissolves or stop motion or careful editing) he is beginning to lose the spontaneity of capturing real life, as all is "staged" and "un-real".
Today most films are considered the mid-range between realism and formalism. This mid-range is called classicism and most fiction films fall into this category.
George Melies outlined a narrative story by numbering scenes he would need for a film. See the chapter on Melies (handout) for examples. This arrangement served as a creative outline for most early filmmakers. Much of the plot, acting, and filming was completely improv, but directors had a general idea of the film they wanted to make.
Directions:
1. Work alone or with one partner.
2. Create your own pre-arranged scene break down for a film of your own. You may, like Melies, choose a favorite story or fairy tale, or create your own sci-fi or fantasy story, or, like Porter, base your story on an event taken from News headlines, or from your own imagination.
3. Create a short film scene outline with between 6-12 distinct scenes. You should give a very short description of each scene that includes the following information:
A. Where does the action/filming take place?
B. What is the central action or event in the scene?
C. What characters are involved in the action?
D. How does one action lead to a reaction (cause and effect, or i.e., PLOT) and/or resolution?
E. What type of shot would you use for the scene: Close-up, Medium shot, Long Shot, Tracking Shot, Pan, (extreme close up or long shot?)
F. Draw an example shot of the key action or characters for the scene on the storyboard. Use the template provided for this purpose.
Due Thursday, Feb. 9.
HOMEWORK: If you did not complete your viewing of the Lumiere Bros. films or the Kinetoscope films, please do so over the weekend. Otherwise, none.
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