Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Early American, British, and French Filmmakers; The Storyboard Arranged Scene Project

 Edwin S. Porter:
Crash Course Film History #4 & Crash Course Film History #5 Edwin S. Porter

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 is due Friday (see homework).

While Melies in France and Porter in America were important, they were not the only early film makers and directors working to explore this new art form. Let's take a look at some other pioneers in the film industry.

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 an 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 a 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.
Upside Down (1899) (watch camera tricks)
 Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901) (the first Scrooge film).

Birt Acres: Rough Sea at Dover (1895)

Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Hepworth (1874 –1953):
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 
• 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.
• 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.
Blue Films: 
Blue films were erotic films meant to titillate the imagination and excite the viewer.  While these films were extremely lame and unerotic for us (we have broken the taboo of nudity, for example, in films) early blue films would later expand, particularly in the 1970s with home video capabilities (VHS and Betamax). We'll come back to that later in the course if we have time. For now, here's a few early examples.
HOMEWORK: If you missed some of these links or films, please view what we didn't complete during class. Take notes on key films/directors and look at these early examples. Complete your storyboard project started in class today.

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