Early Hollywood

The silent era became a mass medium, the dominant American entertainment, recognised as a major modern art form.

First international stars such as Chaplin, Valentino and Garbo.

First major directors in this period.

Land mark films from this era include. Birth of a nation, The Gold Rush, Greed.

But silent cinema barely known today.

Destruction of American Silent Films

Only 25% of 10,919 silent films have survived.

Small original print runs.

Destroyed for legal reasons. When recreating sound versions of films.

Silent films were worth more in silver than in film. So many were destroyed in the 1930s.

Fires in vaults at Warner’s an Fox destroyed almost all of their silent films.

Across the great divide

Silent films reflect cultural, performance conventions of their own time.

Influence of Melodrama

Attitudes to social issues such as race, gender and sexuality have changed.

Absence of spoken dialogue necessitated stylised, highly gestural pantomime acting styles.

(Silent) Cinema

Silent films weren’t silent

Before 1910 films came with a narration

Music played with them.

Nickelodeons were interactive and raucous environments. (Nickelodeon era was 1900-1910ish)

Key Industry Shifts 1903-1915

From Manufacturing shift-led to entertainment-led.

From East Coast to West Coast

From Shorts to features.

Emergence of rationalised systematised production practices.

Emergence of a conventionalised narrative oriented cinema.

1903-1908 from attraction to industry

1905- Nickelodeon boom in the US

Expansion of film business. With larger more sophisticated companies with national distribution operations.

Production almost entirely concentrated in NY/NJ region.

Why Hollywood?

Film Production only became centred on LA from 1914.

NY based production companies sent teams to film during north-eastern winters in more benign parts of US.

California offered most reliable climate.

1909-1912: The MPCC and Hollywood Independents

1908 Motion Picture Parents Company (MPPC) established. Made money from licencing equipment.

1910 European films promote move towards feature films.

1912 US Court decision ends MPPCs ability to monopolise film production and exhibition.

1912-1913 Emergence of the studios

What is a movie studio?

Any space which is used exclusively or adapted to make artistic productions.

Features and Stars 1913-1914: Features and Stars

From 1910 – First features and Biblical and classical epics.

1913 – DW Grittith makes first 4-reel production.

The Star System

MPPC avoided named stars to avoid high salaries.

Independents used stars for product differentiation

Stars become central to US filmmaking and focus of popular cults.

Astronomical salaries for stars.

1915- The birth of a nation (AKA The Clansman)

Documentary Editing 2- Sound

Diegetic Sound -  Sound that comes from within the world we see on screen.

Non-Diegetic Sound -  Sound not from the world we see on screen.

Diegetic Sound

• Conversations on screen
• Music IN scene.

Non-Diegetic Sound

• Sound bridges - Flow and Rhythm
• Capturing space
• Music
• Sound design
• Voice Over (Could be from a different scene of the film could be the filmmaker could be an omnipresent voice).

Emotional proximity to characters can be created using sound.

Documentary Editing 1

Continuity Editing

• Cut on action
• Eye line match - Axis of action
• Cross the line. (180 degree rule)

Editing

• Cutting out the bad bits.
• Condenses time.
• Think about what the scene needs to convey.

We like to show something we recolonise in ourselves when we watch films.

Soviet montage theory - Combinations of shots to create new meanings.

You can re-contextualise an image by what you put next to it.

TA Week 4: Faith In The Image Or Faith In Real Life

Faith in reality where films are used to reveal reality rather than add to it.

Offside

• No Parallel Editing
• Move from one character to the next
• Adopts form of football match with the first non adjacent cut occurring at the half way point. (Relating to half time in a football match)
• Parallel Cutting is available to people who impose restrictions so Offside doesn't use them as they want to view the peoples perspective revealing and not imposing a viewpoint. The lack of parallel editing takes power away from authority.
• Soldiers are revealed as human beings.
• Emphasis on groups rather than individuals by not sticking with a single character.
• The prevention of movement has strong representation of boarders.
• The celebrations at the end of film are almost dream like as what it would be like if the barriers of sexism were broken down in the country.
• People are coming in and out of the vehicle freely by the end of the film contrasting with the rest of the film.

3 Points
1. Refuse of parallel editing attempts to reveal reality.
2. Movement from one character to the next portrays equality between people.
3. Movement from one character to the next takes the legitimacy away from the power.

Revealing reality.

Offside from oliverloom5

DH Week 1: When Old Technologies were New

La Fee Aux Choux
The first ever fiction film.
Uses an old traditional set and contains a performance of a fairy tail style sequence.

What was new in 1895?

• Projecting Images
• The first films were just of things happening. A train moving. People leaving work.
• The spectacle was the important thing.
• The Lumiere Brothers created global system based on going city to city around the world showing them their city and then going on and showing other city's the cities they visited.

Cinema combined still photo, magic lantern, kinetiscope i.e visual accuracy, projection and movement.

By 1910 movie making was a huge entertainment industry.

By 1920 feature films were shown in huge purpose built picture palaces.

Benjamin Peters - "Most modern media pass through 5 periods" 

1. Technical Invention
2. Cultural Innovation
3. Legal regulation
4. Economic Distribution
5. Social Mainstream

When Old Tech as New from oliverloom5

TA Week 3: Parallel Editing, Alternation and off Screen Space

Parallel Editing
Parallel Editing shows things happening in different places at the same time. The film The Martian uses Parallel Editing to show Matt Damon, the people on earth, and his crew mates on the space ship. Gravity chooses to use no parallel editing.

Off Screen Space

• Shot 1 we want to see what she sees.
• Shes looking to off screen space.
• Shots 1-9 the audience wants to see what the protagonist is looking at in shot 1 building up a desire for the audience. The absence is noticed as we wait so long to find out what she is looking at.
• Shot 10 the off screen space is revealed.
• The whole film suspends revealing who the witch is. You don't get to see her until the end.
• We are afraid with the protagonist rather than afraid for her.

Alternation
Alternation continues after films of the single reel era.
Patterns such as Character - Barn - Character and Character - Goat - Character are used through out.

 

The witch from oliverloom5

Awareness of Light

What is the importance of light?
Things look very different when lit by different kinds of light. It changes things.

Sometimes you just need enough light to be able to record an image. A photographic image is made up entirely of light.

Brightness leads the audience to where you want them to look.

Light can create an atmosphere and give us a feeling.

Different types of light suggest different things to the audience.

Be aware of the light where you are shooting. Identifying the light source around you.

Use any lights you can, ajusting how something looks by turning lights on or off, closing or opening blinds or curtains.

If you can position your subject where the light fall on them to best achieve the look you want. Move your subject to the light.

Technical Considerations

• Where is the subject?
• Where is the subject focus in regards to the light?
• Camera Angle
• Where is the exposure?

What to look for...

• Can you see the face of your subject? Their eyes?
• Is the light falling in the right places, can the camera see what it needs to see?

Is the atmosphere created by the light right for what you are filming?

TA Week 2: Montage

Montage - Two images being put together to produce something new.

Take what you can carry

• Continuity evident. Between scenes the continuity is not explained. 
• Objects are despicable however the feeling from a collision of two images is not.
• The sum of two images is not the answer but the product. 

Eisenstein cream separator sequence

• First 4 images people are looking in different directions though at the same object causing collisions. 
• Eliminated the intervals between the sharply contrasted polar stages of a faces expression. Causes greater sharpness. Doubt vs joy shown in faces.

88:88

• No story, no continuity. Disposable images with glitches and imperfections.
• Collides images of his friends together. 
• Birds collided with dust. Looking similar. Visual comparison. Undepictable beauty.
• Burger collided with donuts.
• Surfaces. Visual comparison of lines on surfaces puddle cracks on floor floor… 
• Same person. Colour vs none. Night vs day. Front vs back. How she is to him vs how she is to the world.
• He achieves pushing the realm of depiction to the realm of the idea.
• Characters Possibility. Characters Sensibility. Goes beyond facts.
• Time is a theme.
• Sharing, relationships, poverty.

88:88s name comes from...
Infinity.
What your alarm clock looks like when the power is cut.

88 88 and Take What You Can Carry from oliverloom5

What is Composition?

How elements of an image are arranged.

Composition isn't just about aesthetic quality, its also about creating meaning.

Anything and everything that is included in the composition of a shot will be interpreted by an audience as being there for a specific purpose that is directly related and necessary to understand the story they are watching.

Through composition we are telling the audience where to look, what to look at and then, through editing, in what order to look at it. It goes beyond the simple - 'Here it is'.

The frame is about guiding the eye and directing the attention of the viewer in an organised manner that conveys the meaning that you wish to impart. It is how we impose a point of view on the material that may be different from how others see it.

To create meaningful compositions the framing of your shots should reflect your understanding of the story in a way that conveys your perspective, your values, your idiosyncrasies, your vision.

Whole frame?
Colour?
Motion?
How are objects arranged?
Background/foreground?

The shape of the frame (Aspect ratio (I.e 16:9)) affects how the audience perceives your film.

Composing for movement is not the same as composin for still photographs - framing conventions.


For Documentary
Locations
Shooting Schedule
Script
Story board

Notes on Quirky (Reading Notes)

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/film/movie/contents/notes_on_quirky.pdf

Introduction 

• The word ‘quirky’ has become unavoidable in virtually all the discourses surrounding a certain kind of recent American movie. 
• From film reviews on amazon to leading film critics, magazines and newspapers. The word Quirky is being used to describe low budget ‘edgey’ cinema. 
• Mike Mills, director of Thumbsucker (2005), complains that his movie was ‘just lumped into this quirky independent box’ (Wyse, 2005: 1), and Jim Jarmusch, confronted with the term by an interviewer, exclaims, ‘Man, is that the only adjective they know? ... It’s like every time I make a goddamn movie, the word ‘quirky’ is hauled out ... Now I see it’s being applied to Wes Ander- son, too. All of a sudden, his films are quirky ... It’s just so goddamn lazy’ (O’Hagan, 2005: 1).1 
• The term is merely a vague avatar of difference, it can be exploited to any number of ends. 
• Marketing purposes ‘quirky’ suggests a film to be a unique 
• For critics, the word conveniently allows them to express both a film’s distance from one assumed ‘norm’, and its relationship with another set of aesthetic conventions. 
• Provide fans with ‘a sense of belonging to a particular kind of interpretative community’ (King, 2009: 31) 
• I will argue that such films share a number of conventions, and that these conventions – which 1
• May be used in greater or lesser numbers, and with greater or lesser degrees of emphasis – together contribute to what I am choosing to call the quirky sensibility.

Problems of definition 

• What sort of a category is quirky? I have so far called it a sensibility. 
• I see the problems of categorising quirky as similar to those surrounding film noir: we may know it when we see it, but it can become rather difficult to demonstrate its boundaries or constituent parts 
• quirky is not a genre, yet is also consistently drawn to certain genres. 
• Quirky films contain similar characters and settings but none of which are essential 
• key factor here is the notoriously tricky concept of tone

Quirky and Comedy 

• A commitment to a certain comedic mode seems key to the sensibility. 
• One obvious marker of the relationship with comedy is the number of actors with backgrounds in stand-up and sketch-comedy who have starred in quirky films, such as Bill Murray 
• awkward emotional comedy is evident across many quirky films. 
• Another style of comedy commonly used by the quirky is slapstick. 
• Awkward comedy is a common decision but not essential. 
• The tensions resulting from this effect are very important for the construction of tone.

Quirky and Style 

• Wes Andersons symmetry 
• The links between the initial aesthetic and the presentation of the dramatic action proper begin during the establishing shot of the Tenenbaum house, which fleetingly reveals Margo, Chas, and Richie (Amedeo Turturro) framed by their respective windows in such a way as to recall the hand-drawn picture from the ‘Prologue’ title screen. 
• static, flat looking, medium-long or long shots that feel nearly geometrically even, depicting isolated or carefully arranged characters, sometimes facing directly out towards us, who are made to look faintly ridiculous or out-of-place by virtue of the composition’s rigidity. 
• While such shots are not necessarily found in every quirky film – nor do other filmmakers use them so consistently as does Anderson – they are nevertheless common enough to be suggestive of the sensibility’s aesthetic inclinations. 
• the most striking aspects of these kinds of shots is their apparent ‘self- consciousness’ 
• Self-aware
• Cartoon images and animations and posters are typically used. Savages and napoleon dynamite 
• Quirkiness in the music 
• The pitch, repetitiveness, and insistent prettiness of much of this music often lends it a sound and feel reminiscent of the tinkling purity of a child’s music box.

Quirky and Childhood 

• Innocence in music 
• Costume and props lending themselves to childish notions. Eagle and the shark 
• Nostaligc artifacts 
• often revealed that adult characters are still plagued by some form of trauma they experienced as children, which occasionally seems to have left them with a degree of emotional immaturity. 
• Finally, adult characters will often behave like children. 

Quirky and Tone 

• ‘experimenting with tone as a means of critiquing ‘bourgeois’ taste and culture’ 
• ark comedies that play for (extremely uncomfortable) laughs such subject matter as paedophilia, unrestrained misogyny, and the accidental killing of a stripper, respectively. 
• we might even say that the quirky is actually a particular type of smart film. 
• Irony heavy 
• Ultimately, all these elements help construct what is perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the quirky: a tone that exists on a knife-edge of judgment and empathy, detachment and engagement, irony and sincerity. 

Conclusion 

• As I made clear towards the start of the article, I see the quirky as offering a sliding scale of representational possibilities, a spectrum upon which films can be placed closer to one end or another.

Form Emotion and Character

Documentary is the creative treatment actuality - John Grierson

The purpose of documentary is not just to give us reality on a plate but to make us think about what reality is - Errol Morris

4 Documentary Principles

1. Story is king. 
2. How can form help your story. 
3. Show not tell. What we experience, not what is said. 
4. Authorship - a documentary is always subjective. 

Evolution of Documentary

• Access - Accessible technology 
• Direct cinema an observational 
• Cinema Verite - The crew become active participants. Reflective in progress. 
• New camera give footage greater integrity. 
• We can record action as it unfolds. 
• Point of views helps us to get emotionally closer to the story.

TA Week 1: The Bourne Ultimatum

4 Characteristics of Classical Cinema

1. The scene is analysed through editing. 
2. Follows interactions of characters with each other and their environment. 
3. It follows the continuity of character movement or characters sense of experience from one shot to the next. (Seeing or hearing something then moving to the corresponding thing) 
4. Adapts an invisible style. 

David Bordwell (2006) - Classical filmmaking constitutes not just of one stylistic school.

North by Northwest (Classical Continuity) (Scene Analysis)

• Symmetry in shots 1-3. Wide to tight to wide again. 
• Shot 4-5 shows protagonist looking at a newspaper interacting with his environment. 
• 6-16 shows A-B cutting. The pattern is broken when the ticket man looks at the picture however he is looking at a picture of the protagonist which supports the pattern.. 
• Symmetry and repetition appear to forward the sequence. 
• Shot 16 is the same as shots 1-3. It cuts to the phone and then goes back again. 
• Repetition and variation. 
• Rise and release. 

The Bourne Ultimatum (Intensified Continuity) (Scene Analysis) 

• Bourne uses less than half the amount of screen time for the same amount of shots as in North by Northwest. 
• Shots 1-3 are all in the same direction. 
• Shot 2 blocking is added as an extra stimulus. 
• Shot 3 follows Bournes movement and attention. 
• Shot 4 (Cameras view) Movement follows Bourne although there is no indication that Bourne has been spotted. 
• Shot 6 shows the transaction of buying a phone. There is an emphasis on hands and faces. 
• Shot 7 and 8 cut to a parallel space. 
• Shots are linked by acts of looking 
• There is a message sent from shot 11 to shot 12. 
• Hands to head from shot 14 which matches shot 7. 
• Shot 19 articulates the relationship between two spaces.

Similarities

Editing directs 

Characters relationship with space

Characters lead the film

Follows patterns

Differences

Bourne intensifies classical film

Bourne has much more action

Bourne has an always reframing and moving camera

The pace is different

Bourne has physical urgency compared to the clean comprehension of North by Northwest.

Documentary Form

Andre Bazin- Every film is a documentary.

(This is due to a film being a reflection of what is going on in the world at the time it is being created. Such as pop culture, politics and fashion)

Documentary Modes

• Poetic - Abstract with no sound. (1920s) 
• Expository - Like propaganda (1920s) 
• Participatory - Filmmakers interact with subjects rather than just observation. (1960s) 
• Observational - A fly on the wall approach to documentary making. (1960s) 
• Reflexive - With more accessible equipment there is a better relationship between filmmaker and audience (1980s) 

Now we can document on our phones making documentary filmmaking more accessible than ever.

Assessment Briefing Sheet