The Story of Film: Episode 1 – Birth of the Cinema

Episode 1 – Birth of the Cinema

Introduction

a lie to tell the truth- this is filmmaking

cinema used as an empathy machine

Romantic films always in a rush

there’s a pause in the story used to show realism

reflects truth that all humans feel that we can’t just produce mechanically.

images and ideas excite us

looking into bubbles to see trouble

much of what we assume about movies is off the mark. film making is racist by omission

1895-1918: The World Discovers a New Art Form or Birth of the Cinema

regular place documented in the first actualites’

created in the black moriah

Lumieres believed in actualites, the factory shot was the place of the first movie that was shown by them.

was innovative and unsettling to the audience

a conception of reality that people could witness

 

 

first jump cut ever used in film to make a man appear

first special effects  used by Georges Melies

inspired people with the dream to project because of Melies

first to film at the front of a train creating a slow tracking shot known as the phantom ride

Claude Lanzmann used the phantom ride to narrate the tracks that took the Jews to Auschwitz.

uses a tracking shot on light to make it feel as if the film itself is tripping

used the first close up to show the cat eating in more detail. created naturally and comfortably

closeups of a dead woman’s hand and hair being lowered by the bridge to show the feeling of despair in the scene.

zoom and extreme closeup used to show the people that he realized something deep inside Fonda.

became a quick way to show ideas and communicate

1903-1918: The Thrill Becomes Story or The Hollywood Dream

by 1903 film makers had developed many of the key shots to show a story but couldn’t edit, this was the first film that was cut to see a progression of events and time.

shot the first scene using double exposure to show that a man falls asleep to jump into a film.

first introduced parallel story structure, not what happens next. shows what happens at the same time

first film that they would allow actors to turn around, giving birth to a different look into action

was startling when he wouldn’t show the face of Anna Karina

girl in this film was anonymous

Florence Lorence was burned into peoples mind after media outrage

Less censorship meant actors could be more sexual and hollywood learned from it in what they could have

added an element of sublime to their film inspiring a dreamy fictional feeling to the film, or sense of surreal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Rebirth of a Nation (2007) dir. DJ Spooky

 

 

 

 

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