The films A Trip to the Moon, Man With a Movie Camera and Meshes of the Afternoon were all inventive pieces for their time. A Trip to The Moon (1902) was one of the first films to make a relationship between films and dreams. The story is about a group of men who take off to the moon, and get into some trouble with the natives and come back home. Some aspects of the film reminded me a lot of theatre, specifically that the camera never changes angles in the scenes, the sets were very two dimensional, and that the costumes were all very elaborate. However, this short film also featured forms of expression that was not available to other art forms, for example the animations. I was surprised at the quality of the animations for being made in 1902, and my favorite was the face in moon, and all the animated stars and meteors in the background. The cross-dissolve transitions are another aspect of the film that was new for the time, and unavailable to use in the theatre.
Unlike the still, boring camera movements of A Trip To The Moon, the film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) featured many new and interesting camera shots. This film was one of the first avant-garde American independent films, and represents the "interior state", or the contrast between imagination and reality. Cinematically, this film featured a number of different types of shots including jump cuts and slow motion. One scene I found extremely artistic and creative was when the woman was walking across the room, yet with each step she is walking in a different place, for example the beach, then the street, then back into her own house. The cinematographer for this film used a number of creative camera shots, with the most impressive being the camera movement while the woman is walking up the stairs, and you feel like you too, are falling against the walls with her. There were also a few point of view shots, which I think are always neat.
The third movie we watch was Man With a Movie Camera, (1929), which was out of the three, my favorite piece. It was an artsy film that was described as "a stunning avant-garde, documentary meta-narrative that celebrates Soviet workers and filmmaking." The film uses radical editing styles, and brand new techniques and camera angles, making it a beautiful piece of art.
Kagan, Norman. The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. Print.
Statement of intent: This formal report was written with the intent of discussing the mise-en-scene element of film which is used in two of Wes Anderson’s most popular films. Both films The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012) showcase the limited colour palette and costume aspects of mise-en-scene.
During this film, the first thing noticed that classified this film as an art film was the very first scene, when the music is playing and the earth slowly rises with the sun in the background. This goes on for about 3 minutes ...
The Alfred Hitchcock film; Vertigo is a narrative film that is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. I will be examining the following characteristics of the film Vertigo: 1)individual characters who act as casual agents, the main characters in Vertigo, 2)desire to reach to goals, 3)conflicts, 4)appointments, 5)deadlines, 6)James Stewart’s focus shifts and 7)Kim Novak’s characters drives the action in the film. Most of the film is viewed in the 3rd person, except for the reaction shots (point of view shot) which are seen through the eyes of the main character.(1st person) The film has a strong closure and uses continuity editing(180 degree rule). The stylistic (technical) film form of Vertigo makes the film much more enjoyable. The stylistic film form includes camera movements, editing, sound, mise-en-scene and props.
Just about everyone can voice their opinions on a film that viewed as we all do after leaving the theatre. It may be found to be useful when a friend or individual is interested in seeing the film themselves. However, I believe the only way that you could understand a film is by analyzing the film beyond the average person. When one begins to analyze they begin to develop an understanding of the film and may grow to love the film. The director Hitchcock is a fairly well known director. He has directed many different films from Vertigo to Psycho that are found to be popular with the viewers. In this paper I am going to analyze certain elements that spoke out to me during the film. Those elements that spoke to me the most during the film was the lighting techniques, camera movement, and symbols.
To say the least, the films were considered graphic, surreal, and sometimes morbid. In the Communist Government’s eyes, the films
...s appeared not so much to matter as the fact that he developed new techniques, devised camera approaches and sought always to bring out the potential of a still developing form. That he forgot--or overlooked--to bring the Marxist message to one of his films two years ago brought him that fatal kiss of all--the accusation from the authoritative Soviet magazine, Culture and Life, that his productions had been short on the prescribed Soviet requirement of art and interpretation of history” ("Sergei Eisenstein is Dead in Moscow”, New York Times, 1948) . In film, Eisenstein was known for his development of the montage sequence, his unusual juxtapositions, and his life-like imagery. In life he was known for his propaganda and belief in the plight of the working class. Eisenstein left an inevitable mark on his community, his time, the shape of a sub-culture, and his art.
When we think of special effects, perhaps what comes to mind is great big explosions, crazy out-of space worlds and creatures created with steadily-improving post-production, CGI effects. What about the days before this incredible technology? Imagine an important meeting of astronomers planning a voyage to the moon, in a bullet-shaped capsule. Imagine their mission as they literally shoot off into space with the help of young women in sailor attire. Imagine as they land smack-bang in the moon’s eyeball, and imagine the fantastical events occur, from comets passing to umbrella’s transforming into oversized mushrooms. This is George Melies ‘La Voyage Dans La Moon’ or ‘A Trip to the Moon’, a film made in 1902, prior to the moon landing and any
Gunning, Tom 2000, “The Cinema of Attraction: Early film, its spectator, and the avant-garde.” Film and theory: An anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller, Blackwell, pp 229-235.
Filmmaker and theorist, Lev Kuleshov, is known today as the grandfather of Soviet Montage theory. His works include The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924), Death Ray (1925), The Great Consoler (1933) and We from the Urals (1943). Kuleshov’s life work has had a profound influence on the filmmakers around him and filmmakers today. One of his greatest triumphs was cofounding the Moskow Film School, the world’s first film school. In a time when filmmaking was still in its infancy, Kuleshov was perhaps the first to theorize about the power of this new story telling medium. These theories and experiments would pave the way for future Russian film giants like Pudovkin and Eisenstein (who briefly studied under him).
However, in stark contrast to The General, other films were being made around the world that did not follow a simple Hollywood structure, but rather were more experimental with what a movie could be. Man With a Movie Camera (1929), a very ahead of its time, utilized a completely different style of filmmaking that resonated strongly with the ideals of the Soviet Union. Thus, Man With a Movie Camera sought out to make the everyday people of the Soviet Union the stars of the film. This idea was completely revolutionary as well, and almost by necessity, introduced a new style of editing to fit the story—or rather the documentation—that director Dziga Vertov was trying to tell.
Montage is from the beginning of the twenties characterized as a process of synthesis, building something new and in terms of the physical planes also something quite simple. Most montage’s films were created as a dialectical process, where initially from a two meanings of consecutive shots form a third meaning.
In the early 1900’s Georges Melies introduced his film “A Trip To The Moon” to audiences in France. This film, when first seen by viewers at this time, was jawdropping. Melies who happened to be a magician, and illusionist before becoming a filmmaker, made one of the first-ever narratives in motion picture history. Similarily throughout “Trip To The Moon” and many of his later films, Melies, who also worked in theatre, took full advantage of what is known as Mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is defined as: All the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the settings and props, lighting, costumes and make-up, and figure behavior. In “Trip to the Moon” Melies created a world to which no one had ever seen on film, and utilized all the characteristics to which mise-en-scene is based upon.
Soviet cinematographer Sergei Eisenstein argues that the basis of cinema is dialectical montage. In his article “A Dialectical Approach to Film Form”, Eisenstein explains dialectics as “a constant evolution from the interaction of two contradictory opposites” (45). These opposites synthesize and form a new thesis, which then may also be contradicted. Eisenstein employs dialectical montage in his films due to its ability to invoke change, an important goal in a revolutionary society. His film Battleship Potemkin is designed to display this theory and create a psychological change within his audience, corresponding to his revolutionist ideals.
Fritz Lang’s M is very much a product of its time, receiving huge influences from German Expressionism during the 1930s. After World War I, this form of presenting film became very prominent in Germany reflecting the cynicism and disillusionment that encapsulated the country. As a result of Lang’s expressionist approach to the film along with his own unique take on the genre, M is also a very early example of film noir.