Styles of Film; The Arranged Scene; Storyboarding; Edwin S. Porter, Birt Acres & R.W. Paul

Period 1: Lab

Please turn in your cornell notes (see last class' homework for details!)

Before we go too much further, make sure you have clicked on and watched these films:

• Crash Course Film #2.: Edison & early film invention
• Crash Course Film #3: The Lumiere Brothers.
• Crash Course Film History #4: Melies
• Crash Course Film History #5: Edwin S. Porter
• Lumiere Brothers: Le Squelette Joyeux (the happy skeleton) (1895) 
• Lumiere Brothers: Various actualities (documentaries)
• Edison: Carmencita (1894)
• Edison: Statue of Liberty (1898)
• Edison: The inauguration of President McKinley (1901)
• Edison: Scenes in New York City (1903) (sound added)
• Edison: Skyscrapers of New York (1906) (Mutoscope)
• Edison: Moscow Clad in Snow (1906)
• Edwin S. Porter: Uncle Tom's Cabin (Edwin S. Porter, 1903, with real live negroes!--the first African Americans in a feature film, albeit, main characters are still in black face!) What is black face? Here's a bit of history (see link!)

READ and TAKE NOTES on:

Styles of Film:

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.

The arranged scene & Storyboarding:

George Melies outlined a narrative story by numbering scenes he would need for a film. See the chapter you read 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. Now it's your turn.

1. Create your own pre-arranged scene break-down for a "film" of your own. You may wish, like Melies, to 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.

2. Create a short film 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? (setting)
B. What is the central action or event in the scene? (action/conflict)
C. What characters are involved in the action? (characters)
D. How does one action lead to a reaction (cause and effect, or i.e., PLOT) and/or resolution? And... 

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?)

3. Use the Storyboard templates to plan your story. A. Draw a sketch/picture of the scene you describe in part B.

B. Create a slugline for each scene in the space under the picture that includes: a) setting, b). names of characters involved and a short 1-sentence summary of the scene (Cinderella meets her fairy godmother, or Snow White chokes on an apple, etc.) Number each scene (#1-#12), and indicate what kind of shot you would use: XCU, CU, MS, Full, LS, or XLS. You can add the angle if you know it (PAN, TILT, TRACK, LOW, HIGH, or BIRD'S EYE).

*Make sure your shots and angles, characters/setting/action correctly adhere to your drawing. This project will be due at the end of next class's lab.

Period 2: Film viewing:

As we watch these films, please record the title, name of director, and a 1-3 sentence description.

• THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903), Directed by Edwin S. Porter
• The Life of an American Fireman (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)

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)

Rip Van Winkle (1895)

EARLY FILMS & INVENTION:

Hollywood has never been that original compared to early filmmakers. Here's a few films that keep getting made over and over again. Other films of the early 20th century:

• Joan D'Arc (1900) George Melies
• Frankenstein (Edison) (1910)
• A Trip to Mars (Edison) (1910)
• Wizard of Oz (1910)
• James Searle Dawley: Rescued From an Eagle's Nest (1907, Frodo & Sam were not the first little guys to get rescued!)
• Milano Films: Odissea (Italian cinema, 1911)
• Milano Films: Dante's Inferno (Italian cinema, 1911--the oldest surviving feature length epic)
• Oldest surviving color film 
  (1902)

HOMEWORK: None. If you missed some of these links or films, please view what we didn't complete during class. Otherwise, there's no work to do as homework.