In the four movies that I observed adequately, I noticed that each one of them had a unique visual element and stylistic technique. With a mixture of silent films, and sound films it was noticeable that as the years went on, the more complex films became. The difference between the camera shots and visual elements became more profound over time. Films started to become more movie like than theatrical.
For the first silent film we watched titled “A Trip to the Moon,” there was one specific stylistic technique that I noticed. They used a plethora of illusions throughout the film. This movie is about a Professor, who is their president, wanting to fly to the moon to see what it’s like. They all prepare for the trip by building a vessel to travel
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This movie was mainly about Keaton being framed for the crime of her Fiancée’s fathers pocket watch. Keaton takes it into his own hands to investigate the crime, and ends up daydreaming that he solved the entire mystery being Sherlock Holmes.
In this film I noticed a camera technique that was used often, which was the tracking shot. Tracking shot is “a shot produced with a smooth camera mocement that often follows the action, but which can also be independent of it” (Geiger and Rusty 1086). This camera technique is great because of Buster Keaton being known for the real stunts he does in his films. For every stunt he does the camera follows the action smoothly and seamlessly. While using this camera technique, they also use long shot to show his entire body during his stunts to prove that it really is him doing
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Keaton mimicked Cranes every move perfectly and so smoothly and the use of the tracking shot helped to elaborate his talent and his perfection. When Crane would take a step, so would Keaton about 1 inch behind Crane, and when Crane took a puff of his cigarette and threw it behind him, Keaton caught the cigarette and took a puff and threw it behind him. Keaton made it so perfectly that it was as if Keaton was Crane’s own shadow. That is one specific scene that I thought the tracking shot went well with the acting and stunts. The first sound film we watched was Orson Welles film called “Citizen Kane.” This movie is about a young boy who was sent away to live with a man named Thatcher. Kane buys his own newspaper and he became very successful. As time goes on, his relationships start to come to an end, and he ends up alone thinking about his childhood right before his
The film Jindabyne, is a story about death, marriage, and race in an Australian town in New South Wales called Jindabyne. In the film, four men go fishing, and one of them discovers the dead body of a young indigenous girl. Instead of reporting what they found to the police immediately, they decide to stay and continue fishing. They decide that there is nothing they could do for her, so they tie her legs to a tree and continue with their fishing, reporting the death only when they return home. After they are done with their weekend of fishing and report the incident, conflict starts, as the men are criticized for not respecting the dead. Through the story of the town’s reaction to the four fishermen’s response to the dead girl, the movie shows Australia to be fragmented and divided over white-indigenous relations.
There are types of main techniques such as zooming, craning, tracking and lighting. Zooming is one on going motion, the camera moves from an area to a close up shot. Tracking is when you move the camera towards or away from the film and it is designed to make the actor feel like they are part of the scene or is removed from the scene. And Craning is when the camera angel is place on a crane to make better interest to the location of the film. Last but not least is Lighting. Lighting is when the light changes throughout the film and draws attention to the objects and also lighting can be used to create their facial expression when it’s light or dark. The characters in the film wear a costume to represent the movie and to show the character personality of what they doing. Also in this scene you can see many other many cinematic techniques in this set. As it appears Dave has more lighting than Gail. That’s because since Dave was white and Gail is black. Black and white people can’t be in a relationship or get
...ot where the camera follows a subject within a frame and motion of the subject or its surroundings is involved. In this movie Lee uses the double dolly shot which includes the camera dolly and the actor mounted on a second dolly so the actor is moving along with the camera. The double dolly shot signature move is one of Lee’s favorites and also plays into his technical competence for the movie. This shot stars Detective Keith Frazier and happens just seconds after a hostage is “allegedly” killed by the bank robbers. In this scene the camera tends to shake and Denzel facial expressions display feelings of sadness and anger. In addition, a small cameo of Sal’s Pizzeria pizza boxes are seen when the head bank robbers makes a deal with the officers to get food for the hostages. Lee has lots of these connections within his movies relating back to Do The Right Thing.
The results help to shape the meaning of this film. Multiple eye-level shots between characters’ conversations, signifies equality between both individuals. The scene when the Richmond High principal and Coach Carter are arguing is a classic example of this. High angle camera shots are also used throughout the film to show characters in a state of vulnerability. When Damien is speaking to Coach Carter about playing for Richmond and not St Francis, a high camera angle portrays Damien in a position of authority, looking down upon vulnerable Coach Carter.
In cinema, lighting, blocking and panning drastically influence what an audience will notice and take away from a scene. Orson Welles’s 1941 Citizen Kane has numerous examples of effectively using these aspects within mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing to portray the importance of specific events and items in the film. The scene where Kane writes and then publishes his “Declaration of Principles” (37:42-39:42) in the New York Daily Inquirer after buying them focuses on important elements of the film, aiding the audience by combining lighting, blocking and panning to define significant roles and objects that further the movie as a whole.
The silent era in film occurred between 1895 through 1929. It had a a major impact on film history, cinematically and musically. In silent films, the dialogue was seen through muted gestures, mime, and title cards from the beginning of the film to the end. The pioneers of the silent era were directors such as, D. W. Griffith, Robert Wiene and Edwin S. Porter. These groundbreaking directors brought films like first horror movie and the first action and western movie. Due to lack of color, the silent films were either black and white or dyed by various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Now, we begin to enter towards the sound era and opposed to the silent era, synchronized sounds were introduced to movies. The classic movie, The Jazz Singer, which was directed by Alan Crosland, was the first feature length film to have synchronized dialogue. This was not only another major impact in film history, but it also played a major part in film technology and where film is right now.
Jackie has the ability to use any prop in his fighting scenes from ladders to dresses. He uses this to introduce comedy in his action with the coexistence of natural everyday objects into fighting mechanisms. This is similar to Keaton’s “Impossible gags” that he used in his early days of cinema before he joined MGM. (Figure 1.5) Not only has Jackie Chan been influenced by the stunt work of Buster Keaton but also in several of his films Jackie pays homage to several stunts Keaton is famously known for creating. Doing so reveals these scenes as sort of an artifact of the silent era’s movement. Specifically in the action movie Project A where a falling partition literally crashes on top of Jackie Chan. (Figure 1.6) This scene is an exact replica of Keaton’s film Steamboat Billy Jr. where a partition of a house literally comes crashing down on
The decade was largely dominated by silent films, but the creation of movies with sound followed afterwards. These innovations greatly improved the movies and made them more immersive and exciting for the viewer. Soon after the invention of sound in movies, the silent era movies...
It is true that movies have a certain connection to the time period in which they were created. For example, during the Depression, movies like The Wizard of Oz (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) were a way for people to escape worry from everyday life surrounding the economy. In this way, silent films in
One popular camera technique used in films is panning. Camera panning can emphasize emotion in films. According to a writer on camera techniques, "Following the subject's gaze down to the floor may symbolize rejection or desperation and loss. The moves work because they are related to your story" (Stevenson). In the movie Requiemfor a Dream, panning came into play in a particularly important scene. Marion, a main character, was walking down a hallway. She just had sex with someone she didn't like to get some money for drugs. The camera was right in front of her face, and portrayed the emptiness in her eyes. She was glancing towards the floor and looked like she was going to throw up. The camera also followed her face so closely, that you could tell how fast she was walking. The panning portrayed her feelings and actions so well, that it made the scene more interesting. It was a lot better than just seeing a view of someone head-on.
Brownlow, Kevin 1994, ‘Preface’, in Paolo, C, Burning Passions: an introduction to the study of silent film, British Film Institute, London: BFI, pp. 1-3.
Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, was an exemplary and ground-breaking work. In narrative structure and film style, Welles challenged classical Hollywood conventions and opened a path for experimentation in the later 1940s. Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography and Welles’ use of low-key lighting are often discussed aspects of the movie. True, these were areas of innovation, but when watching the movie in class I was particularly struck by the use of camera movement, or “mobile framing” as described in Film Art. In this historical analysis, I will take a detailed look at how Welles and Toland use camera movement to develop and challenge the Hollywood style. By referring to other movies viewed in Professor Keating’s class, including The Cheat, Wings, Applause, Double Indemnity, The Last Laugh and Bicycle Thief, this paper traces one aspect of innovation and diffusion in the movie many call the greatest film ever, Citizen Kane.
Film was not always as it is today due to the digital sounds and graphic picture enhancements of George Lucas's THX digital sound in the late 1970s to enhance the audience's perceptions. Sound was first discovered in 1928 and the first films before that were silent. There is a social need to heighten an audience's film going experience and it allows each person to color their own views of what they see and presents either directly or indirectly society's moral values.
The Associate is an entertaining movie that brings forth gender disparities in the workplace. Whoopi Goldberg, Laurel Ayers, portrays a financial analyst who has been stuck in a position that does not give her true credit for all of her hard work and talents. The Associate exemplifies the sexism that is occurring in the workplace through satiric wit and a strong story line.
The introduction of sound to film started in the 1920’s. By the 1930’s a vast majority of films were now talkies. ‘If you put a sound consistent to visual image and specifically human voice you make a “talkie”’ (Braun 1985 pg. 97). In 1926 Warner Brothers introduced sound to film but, other competing studios such as FOX, didn’t find it necessary to incorporate sound to their motion pictures production, as they were making enough money through their silent movies. Warner Brothers decided to take what was considered a risky move by adding sound to their motion picture, a risk taken, as they weren’t as successful in the silent movie department. But this risk paid off with the hit release of ‘The Jazz Singer’ in 1927. Though sound in films was then acceptable and successful it wasn’t until the 1950’s that it became feasible to the public as sound was introduced to cinema by the invention of Cinerama by Fred Waller. The Cinerama used 35mm film strip and seven channels of audio.