Please use the first period to write and record your documentary script and work on your documentary project. Use your time to gather your researched notes (from last class) and write your voice over "script"--these should be a few paragraphs in length (your film should clock in about 1-3 minutes). See models from the previous post.
When you are done with your "script", please record your voice reading what you wrote. You may use your cell phones or the creative writing cameras to record your voice. You can also use your Chromebooks: (see instructions below...)
Directions for Submitting Video Files
So you created a video for your class and you want to submit it for a grade? Here are the steps you need to follow:
Using CHROME books: by Jack Wallen:
Filming short videos on a Chromebook is fast and easy. To do so, you need a Chromebook with a camera and your Chromebook must be associated with your Google Drive account. Opening the Camera App
Before you can do anything, you'll need to log into your Chromebook.
After you’ve logged on, follow these steps:
Click the menu button located on the bottom left corner of the desktop.
Type camera in the search bar.
Make sure the camera icon is selected.
Press Enter on your keyboard (or simply double-click the camera icon).
Switching to Video Mode
By default, the camera app opens in camera mode. To switch it to video mode click on the icon that looks like video camera (directly to the left of the camera button at the bottom center of the app window). You are now in video mode and are ready to film your first Chromebook video.
Filming Your First Video
With the camera in video mode, click the oblong red button in the bottom center of the camera app window. You are now filming.
While you are filming, the camera button will lightly pulse and the icon will change slightly to a more solid camera. When you’ve completed the filming session, click the oblong red button again and the session will stop.
Note: One thing you must know is that (especially for video) you’re going to need plenty of lighting. Natural lighting is your best option. If you cannot film outside, make sure you’re shooting your video in a room that is lit quite well. If your video looks grainy you don’t have enough light, regardless of which Chromebook you are using. Saving Your Video
After you’ve finished filming, you need to save the video. To do this:
Select the Gallery icon (the double square in the bottom-right corner of the camera app).
Inside the Gallery, select the video you want to save.
Click Save (the downward-pointing arrow in the bottom right corner of the Gallery app).
After clicking the Save button, a new window will appear to help you determine where to save the file.
Since your Chromebook is associated with your Google Drive account, you have the option of saving it to the cloud. If you want to save it to the local drive, place it in the Downloads folder (under My Files). Naming & Renaming Your Video
One rather odd thing about saving videos on a Chromebook: You cannot rename them in the saving process. The default name will be VID_DATE_TIME.webm (where DATE and TIME are the date and time you filmed the video).
Although you can't rename your video during the saving process, you can do it later.
If you want to rename your video, do the following:
Click the menu button (bottom left corner of the desktop).
Type the word files.
Double-click on the Files app.
Navigate to the folder housing your video.
Two-finger tap the video file.
Select Rename.
Type a new name.
Press Enter on your keyboard.
That’s all there is to renaming your video. What To Do With Your Video
Fortunately, many services (such as YouTube) do support .webm files, so go ahead and upload that file to YouTube and share away.
If you find you need to convert your .webm video to a format like .mp4, there are online services (such as Video Converter) that do a good job of converting to almost any format.
Period 2:
Minority Voices in Film History:
While most of the pioneers of early film were male Caucasians, the lack of minority voices in film was filled by two very important filmmakers: Alice Guy Blache and Oscar Micheux. While we will focus on these two primarily, they are far from the only minority voices around. Gay & Lesbian, Asian, Latino, and other influential filmmakers begin working in this time period.
Today, we will watch a few of their film clips and take notes of important details. By the end of the lesson you should begin to ask yourself the question: why is minority cinema important? What is the future of minority cinema? How does knowing a little history help minority artists?
Bert Williams' films: Fish (1916) and A Natural Born Gambler (1916) predate Oscar Michaeux as the first African American comedic actor to also write, direct, and star in his own films. Learn more about him here at this link.
Oscar Michaeux is credited as the first black film director. Within Our Gates (1919) (music underscore added recently) and his film in its entirety for those interested Within Our Gates (full film). Evelyn Preer was one of the early black actresses. She was also a popular singer. Here's one of her songs: It Takes a Good Woman to Keep a Good Man at Home. You can hear the rhythms of the jazz age (late 1920's). Think of the book Ragtime.
Zora Neale Hurston, writer and folklorist, made several film documentaries in the 1920's. Here's an example of some of her fieldwork (1928).
Lois Weber, an American female, was also a silent film actress and then director. She invented the first use of the split screen technique in her film Suspense (1913).
Other films include the Blot (1921) and Hypocrites (the first full frontal nudity depicted in film outside of "art film" like Edweard Muybridge's work.) She, too, is important.
As for gay and lesbian films of the early silent film era, there are a few. Apart from two men dancing in the film by Edison, the first depiction of one of the sissy stereotype characters is Algie the Miner (1912, sound track added). The first butch male-to-male kissing scene is the fall of Babylon sequence in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). It also features a pretty kick-ass heroine: mountain girl.
The lesbian film Madchen in Uniform was made in 1931 (and is a talky, so we won't but mention it here). If you're interested in this film, you may also like the 1933 film Anna und Elisabeth. (This is only a clip, sound is not original, of course.)
Recently, Barry Jenkins' film Moonlight (2016) won best picture and best-adapted screenplay in the Academy Awards.
Latino silent film information can be found here. There is little on line to watch (sorry about that). Bronco Billy and the Greaser (1914), directed by Gilbert Anderson (Bronco Billy). By far one of the most famous Latin actors was Antonio Moreno, a Spanish-born actor/director, who often played the now stereotypical "Latin lover" role. Ramon Navarro (gay Mexican-American actor) was also popular during the 1920's was rumored to be Rudolph Valentino's secret lover. He ended up tragically murdered in 1968. Here's a link to a short amateur biography of the actor. He starred as Ben Hur in MGM's 1925 historical epic.
And Asian film star Sessue Hayakawa starred in such films as The Typhoon (1914) and The Dragon Painter (1919). He signed on with Paramount Pictures (Famous Players Lasky) where he worked with Cecil B. DeMille in such movies as The Cheat (1915). The first Japanese feature film was made in 1912, the Life Story of Tasuke Shiobara. Here is the Japanese film Jiraiya the Hero (20 min) in 1921.
Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922) is one of the most important early documentary films ever filmed. It follows the life and times of the Inuit hunter Nanook and his family. It is considered the first feature-length ethnographic documentary. Flaherty shot over 50k feet of film to make the film--which he shot on location in the cold north of Hudson Bay, Canada over the period of 55 days, traveling with the Inuit over 600 miles.
The director Dadasaheb Phalke is considered the father of Indian film, although Asian film begins in the late 1890's. Here's his 1914 film Raja Harishchandra. It is interesting to note that the first optical toy (a primitive zoetrope) was invented by Ting Huan in 180 AD in China.
By the end of the silent film era, most countries have begun to make films. Of particular note are the directors we will look at next class: Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Wiene and F.W. Murnau (German Expression films).
HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter handout on Nanook of the North and the handout on the history of Blackface. You may watch any of the full films listed here for extra credit. See the previous post for details.
After making the blockbuster American epic The Birth of a Nation (1915), shocked by the fact that people seemed to misunderstand the intent of that film, Griffith went on to make his true masterpiece: Intolerance (1916). Here are a few clips from the film.
In 1919 Griffith established the film company United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and William S. Hart.
Overall, Griffith directed over 500 films. He retired in 1931 and died in Los Angeles in 1948. In 1975 his picture was on a postage stamp and all the world loved him. But by 1999, The Director's Guild of America's National Board renamed the prestigious D.W. Griffith Award (first given in 1953 to such directors as Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, John Ford, Akira Kurosawa, and Cecil B. DeMille to name but a few) because of Griffith's racism.
"We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue - the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word - that art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare."
--D.W. Griffith (1915)
"If in this work we have conveyed to the mind the ravages of war to the end that war may be held in abhorrence, this effort will not have been in vain." - D. W. Griffith (1915)
Way Down East (1920) (scene with Lilian Gish) One of the most amazing stunts ever pulled in cinema history. Please realize that these actors really were doing their own stunts in most cases. That water is cold and, yes, those are ice floes. Way Down East (1920, full film)
Sign up for one of these actors/directors/producers and begin to research them: Lon Chaney, Sr.; Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.; Janet Gaynor; Lillian Gish; Clara Bow; Lois Weber, Claudette Colbert; Jean Harlow; Mary Pickford; Carole Lombard; Conrad Veidt; Harold Lloyd; Rudolph Valentino; John Barrymore; Gloria Swanson; Greta Garbo; Mae Marsh; Cecil B. DeMille; Carl Laemmle; Oscar Micheaux; Evelyn Preer; Thomas Ince; King Vidor; Erich Von Stroheim
Please use the rest of class today to research and write about your chosen subject. You will need to write your research notes into a basic script (1-3 paragraphs, for example). See previous student films for the kind of information you need: who is the subject? Why is the subject important to film history? What is the subject known for (films made/acted in, and other interesting details)?
HOMEWORK: None. See examples/model student films at the links above.
The modern blockbuster (Crash Course #6) is not a new idea. In fact, as early as 1915, the Hollywood Blockbuster became a big deal and influenced many directors, writers, actors, and their audiences.
D.W. Griffith was called the "Father of film technique" & "the man who invented Hollywood"
With cinematographer G.W. Bitzer, (see student documentary: (Alexis: Billy Bitzer) he created and perfected the film devices:
the iris shot
the flashback
crosscutting
D.W. Griffith directed the very controversial The Birth of a Nation (1915) Based on Thomas Dixon's stage play "The Clansman." Over 3 hours long, the racist epic included a cast of hundreds. The film contained many new film innovations:
Special use of subtitles
Its own musical score with orchestra
Introduction of night photography
Used a "still shot"
Used an "Iris shot"
Used parallel action
Used panning and tracking shots
Used close-ups to reveal intimate expressions of actors
Used fade outs and cameo-profiles
Used high-angles and panoramic (extreme) long shots
Used cross cutting between two scenes to create excitement and suspense
After making the blockbuster American epic The Birth of a Nation (1915), shocked by the fact that people seemed to misunderstand the intent of that film, Griffith went on to make his true masterpiece: Intolerance (1916). Here are a few clips from the film.
In 1919 Griffith established the film company United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and William S. Hart.
Overall, Griffith directed over 500 films. He retired in 1931 and died in Los Angeles in 1948. In 1975 his picture was on a postage stamp and all the world loved him. But by 1999, The Director's Guild of America's National Board renamed the prestigious D.W. Griffith Award (first given in 1953 to such directors as Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, John Ford, Akira Kurosawa, and Cecil B. DeMille to name but a few) because of Griffith's racism.
"We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue - the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word - that art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare."
--D.W. Griffith (1915)
"If in this work we have conveyed to the mind the ravages of war to the end that war may be held in abhorrence, this effort will not have been in vain." - D. W. Griffith (1915)
Way Down East (1920) (scene with Lilian Gish) One of the most amazing stunts ever pulled in cinema history. Please realize that these actors really were doing their own stunts in most cases. That water is cold and, yes, those are ice floes. Way Down East (1920, full film)
Sign up for one of these actors/directors/producers and begin to research them: Lon Chaney, Sr.; Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.; Janet Gaynor; Lillian Gish; Clara Bow; Lois Weber, Claudette Colbert; Jean Harlow; Mary Pickford; Carole Lombard; Conrad Veidt; Harold Lloyd; Rudolph Valentino; John Barrymore; Gloria Swanson; Greta Garbo; Mae Marsh; Cecil B. DeMille; Carl Laemmle; Oscar Micheaux; Evelyn Preer; Thomas Ince; King Vidor; Erich Von Stroheim
Please use the first 15 minutes of today's class (until about 7:50) to work on your arranged scene/storyboard project (this is due today!); if you have finished this, please read and take notes on the chapter handout (see homework).
While Melies in France and Porter in America were important, they were not the only early filmmakers 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.
• 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 emphasize 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 are a few early examples.
Hollywood has never been that original compared to early filmmakers. Here are a few films that keep getting made over and over again. Other films of the early 20th century:
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. Please read the chapter on D.W. Griffith, The Edison Monopoly Decision, and Hollywood and take notes.
Sign up for one of these actors/directors/producers and begin to research them:
Lon Chaney, Sr.; Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.; Janet Gaynor; Lillian Gish; Clara Bow; Lois Weber, Claudette Colbert; Jean Harlow; Mary Pickford; Carole Lombard; Conrad Veidt; Harold Lloyd; Rudolph Valentino; John Barrymore; Gloria Swanson; Greta Garbo; Mae Marsh; Cecil B. DeMille; Carl Laemmle; Oscar Micheaux; Evelyn Preer; Thomas Ince; King Vidor; Erich Von Stroheim
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 blackface!) What is blackface? Here's a bit of history (see link!)
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.
• 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.
Our first pioneer of the art of film is the photographer Edweard Muybridge. Muybridge was a photographer who became famous when former California Governor Leland Stanford contacted him to help settle a bet over whether all four hooves of a running horse left the ground. Muybridge began experimenting with an array of 12 cameras photographing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots. Between 1878 and 1884, Muybridge perfected his method, proving that horses do have all four hooves off the ground at some point during their running stride. Muybridge worked at the University of Pennsylvania between 1883 and 1886, producing thousands of photographs of humans and animals in motion. He published several books featuring his motion photographs and toured Europe and North America, presenting his photographic methods using a projection device he'd developed, the Zoopraxiscope.
Some other interesting bits about Muybridge: During a break from his photographic research, his wife, Flora, had an affair with Major Harry Larkyns, a drama critic. Believing that Larkyns had fathered the couple's recently born son, Muybridge tracked him down, shot, and killed him. At his trial for murder in 1875, several witnesses testified that Muybridge's personality had changed after he received a head injury in which he lost his ability to taste and smell. The jury didn't buy the insanity defense, but acquitted Muybridge on the grounds of "justifiable homicide." Muybridge died in 1904. His contributions to art and photography spurred the works of other film inventors, many of which we will study today.
Please watch the following two films, the first a documentary: Photographs of Motion
and the second, a series of Muybridge's photographs, sped up to show motion (persistence of vision!)
So what's the oldest film ever made? Interesting story: The oldest surviving film in existence at this point is Louis Le Prince's Roundhay Garden Scene (1888). This sequence was recorded on an 1885 Eastman Kodak paper base photographic film through Le Prince's single-lens combi-camera-projector. It moved at 12 frames per second.
Le Prince's life was also interesting and there's a mystery (and some say conspiracy) attached to his death. Le Prince was never able to perform a planned public demonstration in the United States of his films because he mysteriously vanished from a train on 16 September 1890 --His body and luggage (including his film camera) were never found. Le Prince's disappearance allowed Thomas Edison to take credit for the invention of motion pictures in America, but now Le Prince has been heralded as 'The Father of Cinematography.'
Edison Kinetoscope films: (1894-1896)
Titles in this clip include: The Kiss, Serpentine Dances, Sandow the Strong Man, Comic Boxing, Cock Fighting, The Barber Shop, Feeding the Chickens, Seminary Girls & Boxing Cats (the first cat film meme!)
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. His film studio was called the Black Maria. The first kinetoscope exhibition occurred in New York, NY in 1894.
At the same time, in France, the Lumiere Bros. were also working on the invention of film, particularly, a camera that could also project a film for the benefit of an audience. Learn more about The Lumiere Bros. (Documentary, 10 minutes).
If we were to reduce all films to a continuum, we would haverealismon 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 isformalism. 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 calledclassicismand most fiction films fall into this category.
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.
George Melies outlined a narrative story by numbering scenes he would need for a film. You can see an example of this in your handout chapter on George Melies.
As you watch these films, please record the title, name of the director, and a 1-3 sentence description of its premise.
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 blackface!) What is blackface? Here's a bit of history (see link!)
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