Fifty Years of American Cinema - Report Example

Fifty Years of American Cinema Today’s Contemporary filmmakers stand on the shoulders of rhetorical innovations and insights built in more than hundred years that grew from a field that was completely new and unfamiliar a little over a century ago. Creating the illusion of depth in an image by the English photographer Eadweard Muybridge was an initial step towards stylistic innovation. His experimentation of stereoscopic images of moving horses to the invention of the motion picture camera and the pioneering short films made by Edison (well known for pioneering American cinema) (Edison Art Company, 2007) and the Lumiere brothers, and the technical possibility of moving pictures that astonished the people of that era went on to become one of the most powerful mediums and a global phenomenon. On the other hand, the early pioneers of filmmaking did not know the power that films have or how to make use of that power. Through experimentation, filmmakers in the first decades of cinema saw the discovery of the elements of filmmaking, the invention of various techniques to forward these elements, the development of different genres and rhetorical innovations, and most importantly, the understanding of spectator’s perception and the influence of the story on them. In the beginning of production of films, they did not represent anymore than the awesome sight of moving pictures technically for the entertainment of the spectators. The short films made by the Edison studio in America and the Lumiere brothers in France were non-fictional materials that lacked narratives. Instead, these films, usually only a few minutes long, featured the everyday activities such as taking a walk in the garden or a dancing lady in Edison’s Serpentine Dances recorded faithfully with the artistic innovation and technical achievement of that time. However, in 1895, the same year public exhibition of projected films was documented; Louis Lumiere directed what might be “the first sight gag of cinema history” in a short film called Tables Turned on the Gardener. Several minutes long, the film follows a simple plot featuring a gardener taking his revenge on a young boy who played a prank on him. Within the next few years, the narrative element of the film turned out to be extensively utilized and widely received among the audience. At the same time as the Lumiere brothers had been prejudiced by photographic conventions but in great part avoided sensationalistic subject matter, Georges Melies’ 1902 film A Trip to the Moon featured groundbreaking rhetorical innovations and used the newly developed film medium as a means of implementing techniques he introduced as well as the rhetorical devices available for fiction filmmakers. The film itself implements an early illustration of the science fiction narrative as a group of astronomers who meet and decide to plan a trip to the moon. A capsule is built and shot like a rocket towards the moon. Upon reaching the moon the astronomers come out of the capsule and soon encounter Phoebe goddess of the moon. They then descend into a cavern and encounter a number of hostile beings. They eventually make their way back to the capsule and escape back to Earth. The implications this holds for the development of 20th century American cinema is abundantly clear, as fantasy and science fiction constitute keystone elements of the modern cinematic scene. In addition to this, Melies instituted a number of groundbreaking stylistic devices that continue to effect contemporary filmmakers. Melies’ use of special effects, including slow motion footage, dissolves, and superimpositions continue to be highly prevalent devices utilized in contemporary cinema. Highly strange for the time, Melies also considered and constructed his own innovative ideas that were utilized within the film to deliver the fantastical setting to the spectators. The film’s subject matter or topic was also highly prophetic; since in the early 20th century, actually traveling to the moon was truly considered a matter of fiction, and in fact considering it possible was as sensationalistic as many of the miraculous devices Melies’ had used throughout the production of this film. It is for these reasons that the film turned out to be such an influential element of the 20th century film canon, leading critics to label it as one of the hundred greatest films of the 20th century. While A Trip to the Moon represented one of the early science fiction films, Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 film the Great Train Robbery characterized rhetorical innovations and the advancement of the Western genre in films. The film implements an early example of the western sort as robbers hold up a passenger car and rob the mail contained in the car. The robbers then run away on horseback. While initially knocked unconscious by the robbers, the passenger car’s conductor ultimately wakes up and hurries to organize a gang. The film concludes as the posse or the gang, which sets out to bring the robbers to justice, finally catches up and surrounds the robbers. Porter, who had worked as a technician for the Edison film company, was already familiar with many of the stylistic devices utilized at the time, and also was particularly adjusted to creating sensational and engaging narratives. In this film, he instituted techniques that were truly cutting edge for the time. One of the most pervasively utilized in today’s cinematic environment is the close-up. An additional opening element that was implemented in this film was the practice of cross-cutting; namely, in cutting between the parallel action of the bandits escaping on horseback, and the passenger car conductor organizing the posse and their eventual pursuit of the robbers. The film popularized a new form of narrative exposition that was later adopted by D.W. Griffith and ultimately become a basic element of narrative filmmaking In 1927 the tacit era ended. Before 1927 all the movies were without sound, for the very first time German director Fritz Lang’s 1931 introduced sound in his film M. At the same time as Lang had made a number of soundless films, including the highly praised Metropolis, M was the film that popularized Lang with American audiences, eventually leading to his influence becoming an indelible feature of American film culture. As an early sound film, Lang’s combination of visual and sound elements also constituted a rhetorical breakthrough for the emerging medium. Even these reasons play a significant role in film, perhaps its great significance and contribution to the film landscape is its articulation of the German Expressionist style that would come to influence to film noir and has even attracted contemporary filmmakers. While German Expressionism as a distinct rhetorical approach to film has largely vanished, its contemporary applications have lived on in all the way through the 20th century in film noir and the later neo-noir films. In the modern neo-noir representation “Sin City”, the Director Robert Rodriguez sets the film in the black and white world of the fictional city of Basin. At the same time as M utilizes the dark expressionist imagery to convey the devilish interiority of the characters, Rodriguez implement the stark black and white contrasts, shadowing many of the characters and settings, to convey the dishonorable and violent aspects of the city and the film’s overarching plot. Since filmmaking had highly developed, filmmakers also discovered the dual potential of the medium to both transform and match up the audience’s perception. This twofold capability became especially well-known during times of hardship and war. Musicals became popular with the birth of sound in films, serving as an outlet for the hard times caused by the gloominess, World War II and the aftermath by transcending the audience into a world of luxury, romance and idealism that is otherwise not present in their lives. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who teamed up for 10 films, were able to carry the audience into their world of luxury and romance through their style, grace and elegance, transforming the screen reality to the audience’s reality as in matching up their perception. The fine conditions of the New York City dance studio in Swing Time and the grandeur art deco design of the stage in Top Hat were remarkably different from the audience’s world. It was the world that the audience wanted to have and believe in, even just for the short length of the film. Perceptual correspondence is possibly being the best explored and utilized by Leni Refenstahl’s Nazi propaganda documentary Triumph of the Will. Beautifully made and with historically significance, Refenstahl used the recording of actual events to correspond with the audience’s reality and utilizing that perception of reality to get the propaganda message out through cautious manipulation of image. Using moving cameras, telephoto lenses, aerial photography, Refenstahl captured the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg through different perspectives, cutting between these different points of views and using sound and music to heighten the greatness of Hitler’s regime. Before the Nazi’s use of film for propaganda, most of the people had already discovered film as a powerful medium for communication. Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 film the Battleship Potemkin has been hailed by critics as one of the greatest propaganda film of all time in the film history. Even though the film was commissioned by the Russian government to commemorate the anniversary of the 1905 uprising against the Tsarist regime, its propagandistic element didn’t stifle Eisenstein’s creative potential as the film utilized these experimental editing techniques to great effect. The Odessa steps scene has come to be renowned as one of the influential film scenes in history for its ground-breaking and powerful use of montage editing techniques. In making the Odessa step series, and other emotional occurrences throughout the film, Eisenstein tried to generate a montage order that would cause an incredibly powerful intuitive impact on the viewer. Films play a significant role in development of society; trends that filmmakers introduce in films eventually become a part of society. It can create and impact on society in a positive way as it is the most influential medium now days. Earlier films were made on few known topic like fantasy and fiction but in contemporary films each and every topic has been covered. It can influence the spectators directly or later in the long run. Sometimes the riot in bad events in society is due to films. Sometimes films help in awakening the society to up for a cause or stand united. Even by giving a bird’s eye view to the history of film making we can wrap it up by saying that early film makers’ contribution played a remarkable role in establishing today’s extraordinary and astonishing techniques of film making. Earlier they played with still images and paintings; also they evolved a process in which they used shades to influence the audience, for example use of darker shades when highlighting the amoral or violent aspects of the character. Basically it is the contributions of these early filmmakers that provided the direction to the productions of today from the movement of image, to the use of effect to highlight a topic, to the use of colors to emphasize on a topic and the setting up of a tone that made the best use of storytelling nature of humans. It is their contributions, experiments, their resolute through the testing times when they were working on setting up this medium that now contemporary film industry have. Nowadays they play with moving objects and can totally change the visual effects, figures, and environment of film. The greatest innovation in today’s industry is emergence of 3-D films and it is being used in every fiction movie now. The best example of this 3-D movie is the recently launched movie Avatar, which itself means a computer representation of human being (3-D image) There is no doubt in saying that early film makers have established a foundation for today’s filmmakers and film industry. Benchmarks of a movie were set by them; now enhanced by contemporary filmmakers. This has made one of the most attractive and astonishing element of present day society. It was an invention which was stylistically innovated according to a different era and now converted into a complete science. None of the older techniques are being used by contemporary filmmakers, however, no one can deny the fact that due to those initial steps and inventions film industry is using stylistic devices and making world’s most influential and astonishing films. (Edison Art Company, 2007) www.edisonfilm.com, viewed on: 28-10-2010 “The Edison Film” from: http://www.edisonfilm.com/ Read More