How Early Filmmaking Tried to Produce a New Film Language - Essay Example

How early film making tried to produce a new film language and to describe a new world Introduction The history of film can be dated back over hundred years, starting from early nineteenth century. They progressively developed from novelty to a significant tool of entertainment, mass media and communication in the twentieth century. These films in the event of their development and creativity have been characterized by emergence of new film language and a description of a new world. Film making in the United States The early American film making, to a large part, was characterised by production of long and feature films. This early style of American Film making is, indeed, majorly reflected by the film production of David Llewelyn Wark Griffith. Better known as D.W. Griffith, the American movie director is credited with the controversial movie, The Birth of a Nation as well as the subsequent movie, Intolerance (Griffith). Through the influence of Cabria, a German feature film, Griffith focused on producing feature films which he believed were commercially feasible. Therefore, this saw the production of a Biograph movie Judith of Bethulia, that was the first feature movie produced in the Americas. However, the management of Biograph discouraged the production of long feature films viewing them as not financially viable. Therefore, Griffith sought alternatives where he created The Clansmen; a controversial movie that was later renamed The Birth of a Nation. The Birth of a Nation is historically significant as the earliest long feature film. Produced in America and extremely popular, it attracted much controversy with its depiction of racism at the time. However, the film corresponded to views of most historians of the time and afterwards. The film portrays the black slavery in pre Civil War Southern America as benevolent, and the Ku Klux Klan as a group of heroes trying to restore order. Griffith continued to produced feature films like Broken Blossoms, Orphans of the Sun, Way Down East, and America; he only made two sound movies, The struggle and Abraham Lincoln. Film making in Western Europe As seen in Fritz Lang films, early movie making in Western Europe was characterized by production of short films. For instance, Lang’s movies such as Der Mude Tod and Die Spinnen were short and brief. Moreover, the Thea von Harbou and Lang co-written film - Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler – run for four hours but in two parts. Further, Lang produced other short films including the Die Nibelungen, Metropolis, and M (Lang’s earliest sound film). Lang’s films can be described basically as melodrama. They featured music which in film production is employed to enhance the emotional reaction by the audience as well as to propose characters. Moreover, his work is attributed to the establishment of film genre known as film noir. The productions were characterized by reappearing themes of paranoia, psychological clash, moral vagueness and fate. For instance, the film M – regarded as his masterpiece – was a troubling story about a child killer who was later brought to books by the Berlin’s illegitimate underworld. When Lang went to the United States, he adopted – to some extent - the American style of creating films. Since nineteen thirty nine, Lang created twenty one feature films producing an assortment of genre at different major Hollywood studios. These productions, however, are linked to the emergence and development of the particular film genre, film noir. For instance, his most popular film noir include The Big Heat that featured categorical brutality. At this period, Lang simplified the visual style in his movies partly due to the limitation of the Hollywood studios and he inclined to pessimism in his view thereby resulting to his geometric, cold styled films, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt and While the City Sleeps. The Film Language The American Director, Griffith, is referred by many as the pioneer of film grammar. Although some scholars dispute this assertion, Griffith was a major figure in founding the codes that are today the general foundation of film language. He is credited with popularizing the terms cross-cutting where he edited film by alternating different events happening simultaneously to create suspense. Moreover, he came up with the close-up shots. Indeed, Griffith used some elements that were common in the older film making style such as overstated gestures, frontal staging, point-of-view shots elimination, and least camera movement. Again, the director perfected other film language such as running insert, tracking shots, and flashbacks besides others. Whatever may be argued of Griffith in regard to invention of new film language, it is evident that he was among the pioneer who understood well the use of these techniques in creating a communicative language. For instance, in his Biograph’s production The Musketeers of Pig alley - the earliest gangster movie - his focus to lighting and camera placement heightens the tension and mood of the film. Furthermore, in creation of Intolerance he came up with a form that was inclined to music more than to the usual narrative. Cross cutting The Pathe film makers, tried to enhance the continuity of action in their films. For instance, the 1907 Pathe’s film Le Cheval emballe (translated as The Run Away Horse) introduced a new feature known as cross-cutting. In the film, the action of a delivery man in his usual business within an apartment is cross-cut with action of his horse stealing oats from a bag outside a store. That is the film slices back and forwards between these actions four times prior to the delivery man exit from the house with his horse running away with him. Additionally, a Pathe’s unit created the le Medecin du chateau which features cross-cutting. The film has cuts back and forward between individuals making threats to a health practitioners’ child and wife, while the practitioner himself leaves for home to rescue them after he learns of the situation through a phone call. Moreover, the film cuts into a nearer shot of the practitioner during his reception of the news through the telephone where the idea of getting nearer to the actor is used to emphasize the emotion. In the United States, Vitagraphs also incorporates cross-cutting to build suspense in its nineteen hundred and seven film, The Mill Girl as well as its nineteen hundred and eight film, Get Me a Stepladder. D.W. Griffith first applied cross-cutting in his The Fatal Hour, which he created in July of nineteen hundred and eight. In comparison, the film has a stronger suspense effect through the use of cross-cutting than the earlier film by Pathe’s. Since then, Griffith developed the tool much further by increasing the alteration and speed between sets (initially two but increased to three) of parallel shots. The technique was later adopted by other American movie-makers. Thus although Griffith was not the pioneer of cross-cutting, he enhanced it into a powerful tool in film making. Note that David Griffith described the technique unsystematically as the cut-back, switch-back or flash-back. However, neither does the present understanding of flash-back correspond to what Griffith had meant nor was he the one who developed the term. On the averagely, the American film-makers, showed the actors at a closer shot by shooting the entire scene with cameras nearer than they had done before. One leader in this was The Vitagraph company that utilized the “the nine-foot line” since nineteen hundred and ten (Charles, 112). Thus, actors would play a scene up to a position marked by a line on the ground that measured nine feet from the lens of the camera. Some American utilized this method and referred to it as the “American foreground” (Charles, 113). On the other hand, the European film makers used the French foreground that had been developed by the Pathe and only made cuts at the shins. Therefore, actors played up to a line four metres from the lens of the camera. The point-of-view shots The point-of-view shot was another significant development in film grammar. Initially, these had merely been applied to express the thought of what a person in the film was seeing through an aperture such as a telescope. It was showed by a black vignette within the frame of the film. Moreover, a true point-of-view shot described a technique in which shot of a person viewing something is followed by a cut in to a shot of the same position but without a vignette. This device is illustrated in Larry trimble’s film, Jean and the Waif and Jean Rescue. After this, Vitagraph as well as other American movie maker made several films that featured un-vignetted Point-of-view shots. However, Griffith and the European film makers applied this only to express what spectators in a theatre were looking at. Reverse-angle Another major development in film language is the use of reverse-angle shots; where a scene was progressed with a cut to a scene taken from the reverse direction. This significant innovation was first seen in Williamson’s 1900 film Attack on a China Mission. Moreover, from 1908 other films including l’Assassinat du duc de Guisse started to utilize the technique where shots were shown from a different direction through cutting to the converse side. This was occasionally copied by United States and European film makers where it came to be known as the reverse scene. Furthermore, in late 1911 The Loafer, a film created by Arthur Mackley, pioneers in illustrating the reverse-angle cutting technique; that is two actors looking at each other are portrayed in consecutive close shots from reverse sides towards each of the actors. In America, it started to be used widely by the year 1913. One example is The Ralph Ince directed Vitagraph film His Last Fight in which a third of films cuts are between the reverse angle and a shot. Nonetheless, Griffith and European film makers did not utilize this technique at all. Flash-Back Flash-back is a significant device in construction of movie narratives that has been developed through movie-making history. The term describes a scenario in which a scene in present is followed by another in the past. In early film making, the technique was done through depiction of a character in a dream about the past. An example is the Pathe’s production, Histoire d’un crime of 1901. Nevertheless, in 1909 Vitagraph pioneers in producing a film (Napoleon Man of Destiny) in which a character reminisces the past while still awake. In the film, after the Waterloo battle Napoleon remembers incredible scenes in his past life. An overlaid title identifies the occurrence he is thinking about before the movie cuts into the scene, then back to Napoleon in thought. This concept gains popularity and is portrayed by character recounting a past event story to some listening people. Luigi Maggi’s creation, Nozzle d’oro of 1911 applies this. In addition, Edison Company though its film, ThePasser-by introduced the standard method of flash back in 1912. As a character narrating the story of his past begins to talk, the camera follows into his face before the film dissolves into his younger appearance and then the camera follows back to show the scene in the past. The insert shots Early film makers begun transposing poems directly into films that lead into the development of the insert shots. D. W. Griffith created visual equivalents of musical and poetic refrain in The Way of the World by inserting in shots of chimes at intervals through the film length. Nonetheless, communicative use of shots was not applied until 1912 as in the Italian film La mala planta that was directed by Mario Caserini. Moreover, Griffith’s film, The Massacre included insert shots of a guttering candle besides a sleeping ill man that depicted the imminence of his death. Moreover, atmospheric inserts were discovered in America before 1919. In these shots there are neither the characters in the narrative nor a Point of View shot. Examples include the Maurice Tourneur’s 1917 film, The Pride of the Clan as well as the William Hart’s film, The Narrow Trail. Close ups A close-up firmly frames an object or a person. They are usually used to show characters emotions as well as characters elaborate activities. D. W. Griffith - supported by some critics - claims to have invented the close-up. Nevertheless, earlier filmmakers such as Sergio Leone applied extreme close-ups in films where it showed only the actors eye. The most common close-up, a head-on shot, is used to depict emotions or details that are not obvious in wider shots. The silent Films The early American and Western Europe commercial films were merely visual arts. Actor cum director, Charlie Chaplin (Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr.) is famed as an influential and creative personality in the times of silent films. Directors such as the American Griffith and the European Fritz Lang also produced silent films. Although these silent movies had gotten hold on the audience imagination, in the beginning of the twentieth century movies were characterized by narratives accompanying the movie scenes. Later, the scenes would be divided into several shots of different angles and sizes. Further, the camera movement technique was developed as a way of depicting a film story. Moreover, by early nineteen twenties, most movies were accompanied by inclusive film scores especially on major films. In the nineteenth twenties, film makers were able to attach a soundtrack of music, speech and sound effects to the films. Other filmmakers accredited with development of the film medium include the European Sergei Eisenstein and F.W. Murnau as well as the American Buster Keaton. The Avant Garde film The Avant Garde cinema also known as experimental film refers to filmmaking styles, which are generally different form the mainstream filmmaking. The word underground, although it has other suggestions, has been used to describe the same. An experimental film is typically characterized by the lack of a linear narration and soundtrack, the use of abstracting techniques - such as scratching or painting on movie rapid editing, out of focus – or use of asynchronous sound. The purpose of this is to make the viewer more active and thoughtful whilst engaged to the movie. In any case through the nineteen sixties, many Avante Garde movies took an oppositional position against the mainstream style. Most Avante Gardes are created through low budgets and are characterized sometime by self financing or raising finances through grants. Moreover, the experimental films are made with the minimum crew usually a crew of only the filmmaker. Some sector asserts that experimental movies have become a movie genre and that most of its usual features like poetic or impressionistic or non-narrative approaches to movie construction describe the generally understood idea of experimental. The European Experimental film (Avant Garde) There are two circumstances that led to the emergence of Avante Garde in Europe. One is that the films had grown as a medium and intellectual opposition to mass entertainment declined. Second is the flourishing of the Avante Garde visual arts movement. Generally, the Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel’s Un chien andalou is the most popular Avante Garde. Moreover, an excellent illustration of a more abstract Avante Garde from Europe is Len Lye’s G.P.O. cinema and Hans Ritcher’s lively shorts. In France, a number of filmmakers created narrative cinemas not linked to avant-garde school where they used patronage financing and distributed the films to cinema clubs. These French Impressionists include Jean Epstein, Abel Gance, Dmitri Kirsanov and Marchel L’Herbier. Their films united camera and rhythmic editing, narrative, and stressed on subjectivity of the character. The Russian Avante-Garde The Russian filmmakers also explored modernist photography and painting through their montage theories. For instance, the movies created by Sergei Einsteion, Dziga Vertov, Alexander Dovhenko were influential in offering an optional model from the Hollywood classical models. Although they cannot be termed as experimental as such, the films contributed to avante garde film language. The Russian avante garde generally refers to the large and instrumental wave of contemporary art that thrived in the Soviet from about 1850 to 1930 ending in 1960. The time was characterised by art movements such as symbolism, constructivism, suprematism, primitivism, and futurism. These Russian avante garde showed great creativity and popularity between the period of the 1917 Soviet Revolution and 1932 where the avante garde ideas conflicted with those of the state supported Socialist Realism. The Metropolis (film) The metropolis, a silent film, describes a world which is beyond the times in which it was created. It was created by a German-Australian director Friedrich Christian Anton Lang better known as Fritz Lang. Although the film was produced and released in nineteen twenty seven, the setting is in the year two thousand and six in unusual Gothic skyscrapers of a commercial city-state; a futuristic built-up dystopia. Unlike in real life situation, the society depicted in the movie is grouped into two. One group is made of thinkers or planners living on top of the earthly setting in luxury while the other is composed of workers living underground doing the donkey work to maintain the lifestyle of the privileged. The whole film is dominated by futuristic technology. The Heart Machine and the M-Machine, for instance, are bizarre and unexplained technology. The Heat Machine, however, is portrayed as a station for electrical power for the city and looks like an enormous electric generator. The purpose of the M-Machine as well as the other huge machinery is not indicated. The dial machine used by Freder and used to run the Patemoster-lifts immense system in the Babel tower is extraordinary. In Federsen’s office, there are technological devices which are beyond the technological development of the twentieth century. For instance, a device similar to a television set allows Federsen to communicate with the factories foreman as the electronic console enables him to close and open doors remotely. In addition, Federsen’s office displays two unusual clocks: one is a ten hour clock that marks the length of the labourer’s shifts while the other is a twenty four hour clock. Further, the robotic gynoid that was created by Rotwang (a scientist) is futuristic as is the airships and monorails in the city. The characters in the movie are of an extraordinary nature. For instance, the beautiful and evangelical Maria predicts the coming of a mediator that would unite the two divisions and it turns out to be true. Moreover, the heroism of Freder is not an ordinary experience especially in the context of the year nineteen twenty seven. Furthermore, the movie raises a new concept of urban management as depicted by the reign of Johan Fredersen. The movie contains thematic and cinematic links to European expressionism. However, the architecture depicted in the movie is based on contemporary Art deco and modernism. At the time in Europe, this Art Deco was still new and only a symbol of the bourgeois. Moreover, the Rotwang’s laboratory of Art Deco is a precursor to modern styles and culture. References: Ally, Acker. Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema (1896 to the Present). B.T. Batsford, London. 1991. David, A. Cook. History of Narrative Film, 2nd edn.). W.W. Norton, New York. 1990. David, Parkinson. History of Film. Thames & Hudson, New York. 1995. Eileen, Bowser. The Transformation of Cinema (1907-1915). Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990. Geoff, King. An Introduction to New Hollywood Cinema. Columbia University Press, New York. 2002. Geoffrey, Nowell-Smith. The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press, 1999. Kovalenko, G.F. The Russian Avant-Garde of 1910-1920 and Issues of Expressionism. Nauka, Moscow. 2003. Richard, Abel. The Cine Goes to Town: French Cinema (1896-1914). University of California Press. 1998. Yuri, Tsivian. Silent Witnesses: Russian Films (1908-1919). British Film Institute, 1989. Read More