The evolution of Cinema
Analysing Primitive Cinema
Arrival of train at La Ciotat (The Lumiere Brothers, 1895)
What are the common elements?
The common elements with other old films would be the short duration, staying in a fixed position filming from one angle, the music playing in the background without any dialogue. Playing in real time.
How do they differ from contemporary audio-visual entertainment (film and tv)?
A difference between this film and the modern-day television would be the fixed camera position having a huge lack in camera shots, as well as playing in real time. Although many short films today are non-dialogue this older film was seen as a normal length for a film and having only music. Being filmed in black and white.
What is present that is familiar?
In the modern day this film would be seen as a documentary.
What is present that is unusual?
Being filmed in black and white, the almost robotic movements of everything moving in the image.
What is absent?
A storyline, dialogue, audio, characters, shot types.
The lions cage (Charlie Chaplin, 1928)
What are the common elements?
Filming in black and white is a common theme throughout all the early films, still no audio only music but the characters are talking to one another. And the theme of comedy which is the most common theme of the early films.
How do they differ from contemporary audio-visual entertainment (film and tv)?
Yet again being filmed in black and white, just about all modern films are now in colour. The lack in sound effects.
What is present that is familiar?
The use of different shots to shift the focus of the audience and having a story line are the similarities with modern films. This film is also longer than most early films starting to become a longer story.
What is present that is unusual?
Incorporating a trained animal (Lion, Dog) further development of props, using a more elaborate environment (circus).
What is absent?
Audio (sound effects)
A Nagy dictator (Brahms: Magyar tancok, NO.5, 1940)
What are the common elements?
The common elements still being filmed in black and white, background music and sticking to a short time span. With a continuous shot the camera in a foxed position filmed in real time.
How do they differ from contemporary audio-visual entertainment (film and tv)?
Filming in black and white, the camera staying in a fixed position as modern-day films have many different shots as well as a longer duration.
What is present that is familiar?
The comedy theme, and the character Charlie Chaplin acting the way he would as usual.
What is present that is unusual?
There being dialogue and some sound effects, the man asking for the money and the sound of the till opening, the music also matched up with what the character was doing (speeding up and slowing down).
What is absent?
Different shot types, Multiple sound effects and a stronger storyline.
Evaluation:
What was the purpose of the task?
Before filming we researched about the beginning of cinema analysing examples of early on cinema films, this then enabled us to understand what needs to be included in our own film.
What did you do?
We first made a plan on what story line we wanted and the location, who is playing what character etc. When filming we had one person set up the camera ensuring we were all in the frame when running through it before pressing record. Three characters, two having a conversation and one causing the mischief .
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My 30 second Primitive Film:
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How did you do it?
To ensure the film was exact to the early on films we made sure to over exaggerate our actions as there was no sound aloud other then some music, trying a couple times developing on our actions each time. I then put the video into avid muting the sound track adding a black and white filter and typical music of the old movies.
What did you learn from this?
From this task I gained my own example of what the first films were like and how hard it is to express your emotions without words and multiple shots. We could of been a bit more creative with where we set up the camera and had some stronger acting, Which I know from making this example therefore the knowledge can be transferred to future projects such as short films.
(Pinterest, n.d.)
Analysing Classical Cinema
Classical Cinema IMR (Institutional mode of representation)
1914
Narrative construction
Longer duration
Character Driven (good guy, bad guy)
Direction match
Lighting
The new janitor (chaplin,1914):
This short film differs from the earlier films, showing development in cinema and the technology the duration increasing this film being 15 minutes therefor the cameras could hold longer film. Using closeups to direction match where the/what the character is looking at e.g., a letter, moving from room to room and following multiple characters, match on action of the man falling out of the window. The films are also becoming character driven with good and bad guys as shown in his film. Using Intertitles to ensure the audience knows what’s going on, the characters over exaggerating to use of screen space.
The main difference from primitive cinema and classical would be the change in location going from one room to the other/inside and outside compared to the primitive films staying in one place. For example, In the film ‘The Kid’ we go through many different locations, a park, the streets, a bedroom etc but in the film ‘grandmas’ glasses’ we only see the grandma sitting in a chair in the corner of the room the camera stationary. There are multiple shot types used throughout classical films going from long/wide shots to close-ups and even some jump cuts, seen throughout the film ‘The Kid’ when the guy is looking at the picture, we then move to a close-up of the image to ensure the audience recognise the lady is who we saw earlier. Compared to primitive films the camera stays in a fixed position continuing a long/wide shot creating a less dramatic storyline. The duration of films has become longer the classical film ‘The kid’ almost reaches an 1hr being a huge contrast to the primitive films made by the Lumiere brothers each film only reaching about 30 seconds, this shows the development in technology cameras were able to hold more film which then enabled directors more creativity for a longer storyline. Partly the reason technology began to develop was the audiences want for better entertainment by 1914 people had seen a moving image it was time for a story. The more time they had to film also meant they could add transitions and play around with editing, throughout the film scenes fade in and out there are also added intertitles which were not common in primitive films, they enable the audience to know what’s being said that’s important. This is because Films continued to be silent just the same as previous films, they only had some background music which developed to follow along with the character shown in the film ‘The kid’ implying how the character is feeling along with the actions they make. Another similarity of the primitive and classical films is the most popular comedy theme, due to the silence it was easier to portray comedy with little sound and the actors over exaggeration of everything, the falling always getting told off by the police in the film becoming a running joke, The comedy was also captured with some off screen space and example being when the character Charlie walked away to see what gender the baby is when asked the name creating silly humour. As the acting and storylines have developed the characters no longer make eye contact with the camera becoming less documentary. They have become more organised the characters know when they are out of screen, the camera then moves to the next position to capture the match on action of them walking/running through. In the film ‘the Gardner’ you can see the boy face the camera before officially walking off screen as he did not know how far to walk.
One Week (1920) -Buster Keaton
The Difference between this classical movie ‘one week’ and primitive films is a variety of things, one being the use of stunts when he falls off the house and when moving from one car to the other, you can also see that they are choregraphing a little fight as the man kicks the police framing another man. Primitive films where very short and therefor kept simple this shows the development in actors and the industry as acting becoming people’s jobs. Another difference yet again is the duration the films became longer allowing for a longer storyline and more tie to play with transitions and incorporating props to show time passing by, as they have compressed time in the film. Transitioning through fade outs to a calendar being changed, and the house being built more things being added, they developed props as most primitive did not use whole sets mainly only a room or one area. For example, the primitive film ‘the Gardner’ was filmed in a fixed position of one area of the garden, however this film moves from a church to the streets and finally a plot of land. A similarity between primitive and this classical film is the fact it’s still silent, although using intertitles to help guide the audience, they’ve also used very quiet background music as did many primitive films, but the music does not follow along with the actions/emotions of the character’s as classical films music does such as in ‘The Pawnshop’ following along with Charlie Chaplin. Developing further films have become much more character driven as has this film, with a good guy Buster and bad guy handy Hank this intrigues the audience causing a conflict, this was not seen in primitive as they did not have the skills then to film in a way the audience could know what was happening with the use of different shot types, such as the close-up in this film of the note. And parallel editing to show what is happing with all characters at the same point in time without missing anything the others are doing, for example whilst the couple decorate handy Hank messes around with the numbers of the boxes further showing the development of props. They even managed to make the whole house spin around developing technology. One thing absent from the classical film is the documentary theme that most primitive films had instead, it's theme is comedy which is what most films theme had become now that they were longer had had a story to tell. For example most of the Lumiere brothers films were short videos of people going about here day but as films shifted from primitive too classical people were more keen for characters.
Analysing:
The Kid (1921) -Charlie Chaplin
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Evaluation:
The purpose of the task was to film our own example of a classical film once having analysed classical films to gain the experience to develop our skills further and knowledge of the evolution of cinema. First we came up with a plan in recreating the classical film 'Partie de cartes' ensuring to have the 6 different shots we must have whilst still sticking to the 180degree rule. To do so we drew a storyboard editing it where need be until as a group we were happy with what were going to film. To film we were each given a role having four people acting and one person filming/directing (me) before pressing record running through the scene a couple of times until everyone knew what they needed to do making it easy to edit keeping continuity. Taking a couple of tries to get body language correct as it is a silent film which meant it needed some over the top acting which could be something to improve on. One problem I faced as the director was giving clear instructions I did of course gain experience which has enabled me to know what to do/ not do next time. Editing the clips together was quite simple as the actions of the characters managed to match up throughout the six shots keeping continuity, and by not breaking the 180 degree rule there were no jump cuts. We did also have to wait until the other group had finished filming before setting up the camera as we would of gone over to there shot, so instead we practiced without recording which helped me to note where to then record or what to ask people to change slightly.
When comparing our example to the classical film we were trying to recreate I believe we have done a good job, it was suggested to me to swap around some shots to break up the long establishing shot. However, I did not want to because upon watching the classical film 'Partie de cartes' the whole film is an establishing shot therefor the beginning of our example is more traditional the end being somewhat modernised.
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My Classical Film:
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Story Board:
Classical film
recreating
'Partie de cartes'
The evolution of sound
Habituation- Become desensitized through a habit
A repeated sound will become boring to the audience, add something knew don’t use the same sound effects for the same action/object.
Diminution- to reduce something, hide it (lighting, sound)
Accentuate- to increase something, make it obvious (lighting, sound)
Impression- Natural sounds, building the world around
Expression- An impression of a sound. Using sound to cause emotions, exaggerating.
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Sound: expression Vs impression
An example of expression in sound would be the dual scene in star wars IV, the over exaggerated mummer and clash of the lightsabres creates the illusion of futuristic and almost mythic quality representing the force of these weapons and the setting/characters. The sound of the clash of the lightsabres is increased to cause the audience to jump heightening there senses and causing tension, if the lightsabres were to be silent you would loose the effect of risk the audience would have no knowledge of someone being hurt disconnecting them from this magical world. Another example of expression in sound would be Marvels dare devil hallway fight scene, as the camera pans away from the fighting the noise is dimmed then getting louder the closer the camera is to the fight this places the audience in the scene. The sound effects of grunts and moans although subtle the tell audience people are hurt without these noises the scene would be less effective at creating tension, the pauses in between fighting also help's as the sound almost appears silent other then the breathing of the main character, but once the fighting begins again all noise is returned creating a rush following the actions on screen.
An example of impression in sound would be in the clip from midnight cowboy where they are walking around New York city, the noise of cars beeping in the background fills the space around the characters along with other people talking and footsteps this also shows that they are in New York due to the business building the setting. Because one of the characters has a slight limp there footsteps are heard slightly louder and in sync pushing the fact they have a dodgy leg. All of these noises place the audience I the scene because without them it would confusing on where to look when the character has a car almost hit them you can hear the sound build up as the car is closer to the character. Another example of impression sound would be the clip on the beach in jaws, the sounds of children laughing, the waves crashing gently and even the radio build up the business of the surroundings as if to help represent the stress in the mind of the chief because of how calm/gentle all of these noises are soon as there is a scream it could make you jump as its so much louder among the chill setting of everyone having fun and relaxing.
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Steamboat Willie paper cut:
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Evaluation:
The task was to recreate the sounds on a 20second clip from the cartoon 'Steamboat Willie' only using paper, the purpose of this task was to make our own examples of sound after learning about the evolution of sound developing these skills to ensure next time is even better and acknowledging how hard it can be to recreate such a simple sound with only one object. Before recording we first experimented seeing what movements made with the paper sounded similar to the actions being made on the screen, we then went and recorded in a quite area however when we listened to the audio we realised there was too much background noise from this mistake we learnt that you need to be in a very quite space in order to get clear audio this then led us to using the radio room which I'm sure will be used in future sound projects. We decided on recording the sounds separately making it easier to place when editing, the original sound's were quite far apart so I decided to add sound to other actions to make it flow, the first set on sounds I made quitter as this was the case for the original sounds however to ensure you could hear the tapping of the feet I increased the volume this technique I was taught whilst editing which will really help on future projects.
The purpose of the task was to gain experience of how to record and edit our own sounds learning what to/not to do for improvements when doing it again in the future, the task was to recreate the sounds we heard on a 20second clip extracted from the cartoon 'Steamboat Willie' only using paper. To do this we first in a pair experimented with what sounds the paper could produce using a audio recorder trying to mimic the sounds heard on the cartoon, then once we felt comfortable with how to make the sounds we went out to find a quite area to record. However we ran into a problem as once we listened to the audio there was to much background noise therefor the audio could not be used. This then led us to using the radio room w
The princess bride Foley:
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Evaluation:
The task was to create our own sound Foley to edit over a 1 minute clip taken from the movie 'The princess bride' the purpose of this was too develop our knowledge and skills on sound Foley to use on our own future videos. And to also gain an understanding of how sounds are created, the creativity that goes into recreating the sound out of material and random objects. We decided on a 1 minute clip to then record and edit the sound for, to do this we firstly experimented with different props to see what movements made a sound we could use this then led to the practicing of the sounds we needed to recreate e.g. the sword scene re-enacting the movements for each time the swords hit. We then recorded the sounds in the radio room, making every example we could think of with different props to have as much options we could when it came to editing. We did however run in to a problem as a lot of the footage had speaking in it therefor we had to cut out a lot learning from this mistake when recording sound in the future. By spacing apart the sounds made we could easily identify what noise was meant for which part on the video allowing everything to be synced. The pre-planning of what sounds we wanted to record is really helpful and will be used throughout all my future sound projects,
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as this enabled us as a team to then move on to finding what objects can recreate this sound ticking of the list until we were ready. The creative decision of walking over bubble rap in various different ways made the footsteps sound as though the characters were walking on gravel as shown in the video, along with creating a wind sound by blowing on the microphone to close the sound gaps having a continuous sound building the atmosphere. The sword sounds being made by two tall Alan keys being hit together the same amount of times shown in the video, tapping them lightly when the sword is hit out of there hand twice and by dropping them together we were able to create the illusion of the sword hitting the ground in the video. By catching a stapler we could use this for when he caught the sword along with whipping the air with a belt to get the quick swinging sound. Hitting a book for the thump on the head and when the two character land after jumping. Wobbling a piece of laminated paper to mimic the sound of the sword spinning. When editing all of these sounds I was able to adjust there volume making them more realistic and balances when layered, also by cutting up the sounds I was able to put them exact to the action being made on screen this tactic will make future editing a lot easier making the outcome video satisfying.
When watching the original audio with the 1 minute clip you can see a big difference, the main two being the absence of dramatic music and talking as this was not part of the task however I believe that by adding music it would have tied it all together so much more, as well as the talking building the characters personality without the speech you can not really gain what the characters are like compared to the original audio. But this was necessary to leave out to then hear the Foley sound we had created. I added in the background wind as a replacement to then fill in the blanks of sound keeping it continuous throughout. Most of the sounds I added to the video were already there only a little different sounding as they were not the original noises.
From the feedback I know my main strengths were how synced the audio is to the actions along with the variety and creativity of sounds to build the atmosphere covering all the sounds from the original audio, weaker areas being certain footsteps are louder then others and when recording ensuring to be suitable distance from the mic in order to not catch extra sounds. But the overall strength was my ability to level out the layered sounds blending them together nicely creating a flow of sound the attention to detail is clearly displayed. I was also advised to next time to add some verbal display that the characters are hurt to also build the characters.
The evolution of colour
Colour theory analysis:
From this screen shot of a scene in the movie 'Kill Bill' the white from the snow and second character makes the yellow tracksuit stand out to show how important its colour and the character is. The colour yellow in film is used to convey the feelings of madness, insecurity and obsession, which is what they wanted to express through the character wearing the yellow, her obsession to 'Kill Bill'. The white background also brightens the scene which contrasts with the fact it is supposed to be night, this puts into place the made-up world that has been created through a set, a fairyland reality. The greens of the plants represents the corruption of the women in the white and darkness that is to come, green is also a colour to represent greed which continues to relate back to the storyline, that the women in yellow has been robbed of a happy life. Although quite a dark/gruesome film the lighting is very bright throughout, creating a comic feel to the movie as a whole and over saturated colours.
Colour in film video:
Story Board:
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Evaluation:
The purpose of the task was to experiment with colour and how they can express certain emotions within a scene. Before starting the task we learnt about key words: Complimentary, monochromatic, primary and secondary etc. The task was to take inspiration form a scene in a movie/tv show adapting it to be clear in what colour we are trying to communicate. We decided as a group to take inspiration form the table scene in 'Mean girls' (YouTube, 2021) ensuring to highlight the colour pink; which represents innocence, sweetness, empathy and beauty all things this scene is not. In the original scene the three girls are discussing that they wear pink on Wednesdays, incorporating it with another scene
where they are telling one of the girls that they can not sit with them because she is wearing the wrong thing. To make the other character stand out we used the complimentary colour to pink, green; enhancing both colours when editing. By incorporating pink/purple props we were able to further push this idea of innocence from the three 'mean girls'. We did run into the problem of lighting, we used a pink gel on one of the LED lights which overpowered the camera causing it to not pick up all the details. To overcome this problem we left the other LED light blank to balance out the pink as well as enhancing it, making the scene look as though a dream which I believe adds power to the three 'mean girls' . The lighting could be further controlled in editing, in which I decided to enhance both the green and pink ensuring to keep it continuous throughout the clips however next time I do need to lessen the brightness of the LED's as it causes the highlights to blow out losing the features of the actors faces. The audio quality is also very loud due to the echo and hard to hear, therefor next time I need to keep in mind when speaking that there is a recorder present. From this project I have learned how creative you can be with colour and how important it is to a scene although small it can make a huge difference when trying to convey a certain mood/theme, and will be something I will keep in mind and use in all future projects.
I believe the main strength was our thorough pre-planning, by deciding to use two cameras and recording them at the same time from two different angles we were able to get the editing exact and keep continuity, it also saved us time by not having to film the scene again from the second angle. Another big strength would be the lighting although not prefect I believe the creativity of using a pink gel which made the scene stand out as it created a different style to what we have filmed before, as well as making it obvious to what colour we were trying to enhance giving the three 'mean girls' power throughout the whole scene. The obvious areas for improvement would have to be the audio making sure to next time use a zoom recorder.
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