In The Beginning Study Guide Notes

Beginning of the 20th Century

The American screenplay consisting of three acts came from British theatre:

1.  Beginning/set-up

2.  Middle/conflict

3.  End/resolution

4. 

Early American producers also borrowed the formula of “stars and stories” from the British.

DW Griffith’s films (and the majority of films of this era) are based on an old testament point of view “what you see is what you get”, i.e. attractive people are good, unattractive people are bad, city is evil, country is good.

Three venues of entertainment:

1. Theater-upper/middle class

2. Vaudeville-lower class

3. Nickelodeons immigrant/working class

NY was the entertainment center.

Silent Comedy was held together by physical/slapstick elements of comedy.

*First movie ever filmed was a sneeze -1894

Thomas Edison claimed to invent film and copyrighted everything he could about film in hopes to monopolize it .

Edison formed the Trust- Monopoly of producers- trying to drive out the independent film producers. Drove them to Hollywood, where they flourished.

After world war I – Hollywood center of movies. Europe fell apart, the only other nation making films were the Germans.

*Great train Robbery First Short Narrative Film -EDWIN S. PORTER: prior to this documentary films were the main staple of nickelodeons.

*The Squaw Man 1914 – first feature film -C.B. DEMILLE

Set the trend for features, rather than shorts playing in nickelodeons.

After world war I – Hollywood becomes the center of movie making. European industry destroyed by war, with the exception of the Germans

THE ROARING TWENTIES

New Market 1920’s- they wanted more sophistication, reflecting their own lives, new stars. First generation of film goers.

DW GRIFFITH: OLD TESTAMENT FILMMAKER: BIBLICAL POINT OF VIEW RESULTED IN SENTIMENTAL & MELODRAMATIC FILMS

D.W. GRIFFITH was the first real independent filmmaker His favorite book was the bible, favorite author Dickens. He was VERY competitive and an ego maniac

Films: different (no sex) pure “old testaments”, his father was a colonel in the civil war as well as a Preacher in the South (his films reflected his father)

-  Birth of a Nation-created a racist problem- KKK reformed shortly after film released. First released as “The Clansman”.

-DWG established the basic grammar of film.

FRENCH

Able Gance films were similar to Griffith’s in content (sentimental & melodramatic) but innovative and experimental in technique.

-“Napoleon”- film used three split screens.

-First director to film actual combat scenes in WW1

Russians-

Sergei Eisenstein

Used movies for as a political tool

Marxist point of view.

Despised the sentimental and melodramatic films of DWG & Gance. His films were cold and analytical.

Collision editing – EDITING forceful---collision editing.(He wants the audience feel the frame)

History Of Motion Pictures Notes

February 4, 2010 *will be on test

*Sunrise won first academy award at first awards show

F. W. Murnau- first film school

-from Europe wanted to be treated like a Prince because he has money from Europe

horse = animal in the man

Murnau got in a car accident (14 year old valet was driving his car), he dies and only 10 people show up to his funeral.

Made in 1927… didn’t use sound even though the technology was out, made right before the transition, this is one of the reasons the film faded.

Reasons they didn’t use sound films

-More expensive to make, they’d have to remodel the theaters

-Need new equipment

-Needed to build sound stages

With the invention of the radio attendence dropped radically: many people quit going to the theaters . The success of the Jazz Singer convinced the studios to convert to sound.

The Jazz Singer–marked the end of silent era.