Topic : Discuss in detail how American filmmakers Edwin Porter and D.W Griffith built on early films by the Lumiere brothers and George Melies. Use examples from the oeuvre of each filmmaker to substantiate your argument. This essay will outline an introduction to the premature years of motion pictures and developments that helped shape cinema as we know it today. This paper will explore the roles of the early pioneers and the extent to which their contributions shaped cinema. In particular, it will look at how E.S Porter and D.W Griffith improved on the early years of cinema as result of influences from Louis and Auguste Lumiere and George Melies. The 18th century has marked the commencement of the innovation of cinematography. The invention of cinema owes its existence to a few investors and scientists who are broadly known for laying down its foundation. Among those pioneers are the Lumiere brothers who were some of the earliest contributors to cinema, inventing the first real film camera called the "cinematographe", which effectively functioned as a camera, projector and printer all in one (Barnauw, 1993:6). Thus giving rise to the art of film making. Initially, in the early years of cinema since there was no developed structure [or language] to tell cinematic stories, the early Lumiere brother?s films such as Workers leaving the Lumiere factory (1895) and The Arrival of a Train at the Station (1895), were composed of a single shot, no camera movement and only one continuous action from beginning to end (Obalil, 2007). Also since the camera was fixed and captured only what were before its lens without any manipulation these films ... ... middle of paper ... ...ieved by the 08/02/2008. http://www.earlycinema.com/timeline/index.html: retrieved by the 08/02/2008. Knight, A. The Liveliest Art, Mentor Books, New American Library, (1957). p.25. Larson, E.H. George Melies, (2006). [Online] Available at http://www.nwlink.com/~erick/silentera/Melies/melies.html Lenin, M. Griffith classic: the making of birth of a nation, (2004). [Online] Available at http://www.leninimports.com/dw_griffith.html Louis Lumière, The Cinematograph, La Nature, 12 October 1895. In Auguste and Louis Lumière. (Jacques Rittaud-Hutinet, ed.) Letters. London: Faber and Faber, 1995. p.302. Obalil, L.J. Edwin S. Porter, (2007). [Online] Available at http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Pe-Ri/Porter-Edwin-S.html Smith, D. Cinematic Reflections, (2005). [Online] Available at http://www.cinematicreflections.com/BirthofaNation.html
Lewis, J. (2008). American Film: A History. New York, NY. W.W. Norton and Co. Inc. (p. 405,406,502).
2 Gustavon, Todd. Camera: A History of Photography from daguerreotype to Digital. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2009
In the beginning, all films were short. Audiences were not aware of this as they gazed at the marvelous new form of entertainment. As the 20th century began to approach, films started to get even longer. The very first film was introduced to audiences in 1894 through an invention created by Thomas Edison called the Kinetoscope. This device was made for viewing slideshows individually. Most films of the time depicted celebrities, current world affairs and other scenes in one shot scenes. The best known film from this era was the Lumière brothers’ Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat which was filmed in 1895. This film depicted a locomotive hurtling towards the audience.
Debord, Guy. "Society of the Spectacle." Society of the Spectacle. N.p., 1967. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
The concept of ‘cinema of attractions’ encompasses the development of early cinema, its technology, industry and cultural context. The explanation of how it is perceived by early cinema audiences is closely related to the effects of history at that time. How Gunning coined the term ‘cinema of attractions’ pertains to the history of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century and his interpretation of the audience and their reaction film technology. Single shots, the process of creating a moving picture and the juxtaposition of limited techniques, coupled with a new invention of showing a moving picture.
PŁAŻEWSKI, Jerzy; TABERY, Karel. Dějiny filmu : 1895-2005. Vyd. 1. Praha : Academia, 2009. s.79.
D. W. Griffith is widely recognized as a pioneer and father of early filmmaking, though in reality he was just a creature of circumstance. In 1907, Griffith departed his theatrical career as failed playwright and somewhat accomplished stage actor to work for the Biograph Company with his first role as the Father in Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest. Griffith entered the American film industry at crucial moment that would shape and define his career. During this time Edison Company was waging a war to monopolize the American film industry through lawsuits against other American companies using versions of Edison’s patented Kinescope without paying royalties. These lawsuits ravaged and prevented the industries growth as film’s popularity was increasing in the United States. In 1907, to meet the growing popularity of nickelodeons (early movie theaters that would charge a nickel for admission and show case 3-4 short films), 1,200 films were released in the United States, of those only ...
In this essay i am going to talk about the history of fim and the art movements which have a relationship to the cinematic modes of representation. the history of film began in the 1890s with the invention of the first motion picture camera. the first films were very short, usually less than one minute, and would usually be a single scene, from life or staged, of everyday life, public event or slapstick. there was no cinematic technique, no camera movements, and a flat compostition, like a stage. William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, is credited with the invention of a practicalle form of celluloid strip containing a sequence of images. the basis of a method of photographing and projecting moving images. Following this Thomas Edison introduced two pioneer inventions at the 1893 Chicago world fair, the kinetograph and the kinetoscope. the kinetograph was the first practical movie picture cameras. it was designed for films to be shown by one individual at a time, through a peephole window on top of the device. the first film publically shown on it was "Blacksmith Scene", directed by Dickson and shot by Heise. It was produced at the Edison moviemaking studio, known as the Black Maria.
After reading the article “The Myth of Total Cinema” by Andre Bazin, it opens the discussion of the origins of cinema whether to consider the economic and technical evolution impacted inventor’s imagination causing fortunate accidents that created a phenomenon in cinema. However, this leads inventors to compete with each other over techniques of bringing their imagination to reality but, all agreed that cinema needed to be transparent, flexible, and have a resistant base that was capable of capturing an image instantly.
The aim of the essay is to look at early cinema and compare and contrast between the editing techniques used by various filmmakers. The essay will look at editing techniques the French Filmmaker Georges Méliès’ applied in his films A Trip to The Moon and The Vanishing Lady, as I move forward I will look at American Filmmakers and their films such as Edwin Porter’s The Great Train Robbery and D.W Griffith’s Birth of a Nation and finally move to Russian Cinema in which I will look
Georges Melies was a talented magician, and one of the first great pioneers of motion pictures that has influenced modern American films profoundly. His work is very significant to modern American cinema today, as we use the same techniques and elements Georges had pioneered more than 100 years ago. His moment in the limelight during his lifetime was short, but little did he know his legacy and work would be carried on so prominently and all over the globe. We have much to learn about from this extraordinary man.
Gray, Hugh. What is Cinema? selected and translated from the first two volumes of Qu'est ce que le cinéma? . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.
“As regards montage, derived initially as we all know from the masterpieces of Griffith, we have the statement of Malraux in his Psychologie du cinema that it was montage that gave birth to film as an art, setting it apart from mere animated photography, in short, creating a language” (Bazin 24). This tool was, at the time, the best and most sophisticated available to the director, so that was the tool most often used. This routine use resulted in a deep understanding of what film montage could produce successfully. “Through the contents of the image and the resources of montage, the cinema has at its disposal a whole arsenal of means whereby to impose its interpretation of an event on the spectator. By the end of the silent film we can consider this arsenal to have been full” (Bazin 26). While this tool was able to produce great works it proved to be limiting. Montage was a film form, which produced great films of a specific variety. However, film still had a long way to go before it reached
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.