American Silent Film - Essay Example

American silent film A silent film is made up motion pictures combined together, but with no synchronized recorded sound.The pictures in motion form a dialogue that tells a story. The audiences are drawn into the firm because of its seductive atmosphere that demands them to use its imagination. The silent film was popular in America during 1920s. It became the world’s most popular form of entertainment with recognizable stars that spread the American culture around the world. However, the popularity of American silent film came to an end in 1929 (Pierce 16). This was after the introduction of a synchronized dialogue in films which involved recorded sound. The dialogue was made possible through an advanced technology called the Vita phone. Because of the desire to advance films through synchronized dialogue, the filmmakers were involved in shortsighted decisions and neglected American silent films which led to their disappearance. The American silent films were the world’s most popular form of entertainment between 1912 and 1929. During the 1920s, the American silent films would trap the audience’s attention and drive it into the world of imagination. Pierce says that, “the silent film had an unparalleled capacity to draw an audience inside it, probably because it demanded the audience use its imagination” (21). Indeed, the filmmakers, of the time, gave the silent films the ability to form a seductive atmosphere. These films were made of motion pictures that could tell a story. This made it not only just a movie, but also as an experience. In addition, American silent films attracted audiences to attend theaters more than the current films. Throughout the entire evolution of film production, filmmakers have always had the desire to advance their films. Films have evolved from the invention of the first public screen exhibition, to maturity of motion pictures, and finally to talking pictures. The first public screen exhibition was invented by the Lumiere brothers in 1895 in Paris. This was often considered as the birth of film because it was the first time for a motion picture to be projected onto a screen. The program lasted for 20 minutes with 10 short films shown to invited audiences at the Grand Café of Salon Indien in Paris. In addition, the program included a famous comedy called the L’Arrouseur Arrose. The Lumiere Brothers also come up with a 50 second short called “Arrivee d’un train en gare a La Ciotat.” More film makers joined the film production industry to advance on what the Lumiere Brothers had invented. This led to motion pictures growing to full maturity in 1920s and was commonly referred to as the silent film (Pierce 18). During the silent era, the film makers continued to be more innovative in advancing the silent films to improve their quality. The first innovation was coming up with intertitles. Silent films did not have sounds to form a synchronized dialogue between the characters in the films. Intertitles were, therefore, used to present key dialogue, narrate story points, and sometimes comment on the action for the theater audience. They led to the introduction of two separate professions in silent film who included: the title writer and the scenario writer who came up with the story. In addition, the intertitles became graphic elements, featuring abstract or illustration, decoration that made comments on the action. The second innovation was the use of live sound and music. The Filmmakers saw the importance of including a pianist to present a live music and sound to the audience while the silent films were being played. This was a way of advancing the atmosphere of the cinema hall and giving vital emotional cues to the audience. In most cases, the neighborhood and small town film theaters had a pianist. In addition, large city theaters had organists or an entire orchestra. The musicians would form theatrical organs that would simulate orchestral sounds together with some percussion effects such as cymbals and bass drums and sound effects such as rolling thunder, galloping horses among others. The filmmakers together with the pianist, orchestra conductors, and organist also compiled music from photoplay music and created a cue sheet which would accompany the film. A successful type of this kind of film was the’ the birth of a nation,’ composed by Joseph Carl Breil in 1915 (Pierce 12). The filmmakers also invented acting techniques to be used by actors in the silent films. These techniques involved the use of emphasized facial expressions and body languages. The techniques assisted the audience to understand what the actor was portraying and feeling on screen. Furthermore, the filmmakers wanted the audience to increase their naturalness on screen. The other innovation was the use of projection speed. Filmmakers used variable speeds to shoot the films which ranged from sixteen to twenty three frames per second. They were very careful with the projection speed to prevent the film from appearing unnaturally fast and jerky. However, the filmmakers also intentionally cranked some scenes in the film during shooting to accelerate the action. This usually happened in slapstick comedies (Koszarski 2). The desire of the filmmakers to advance the film industry right from the innovation of the first film by the Lumiere Brothers, led to the perishing of the American silent film. During the silent era, the filmmakers continue to upgrade the production of films which consequently led to the disappearance of the silent film. In late 1920s, film makers were drawn into the desire of wanting to include sounds in the films. However, due to the challenges of synchronization and amplifying the sound to be loud enough for the audience, a lot of effort was made by sound specialists. A new technology was introduced by western electric and Bell Telephone Laboratories called the Vitaphone. It was a sound on disc system that allowed filmmakers to place audio track on the films. Since the silent films did not have sounds, film makers used sound experts to mate sound to motion pictures through a Vitaphone system. The technology used a condenser microphone and an audion amplification tube to solve the volume problem (Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress 42). In 1926, the first musical track film called ‘Don Juan’ was produced. The film consisted of sound and music effects but did not have spoken words. The Vitaphone system was later advanced to solve the synching issue where it made it possible to match the sound with the moving pictures. The use of Vitaphone shifted the focus of film makers from American silent films to producing films with synchronized dialogue. One of the successful films was the Jazz Singer. It was the first film, of 89 minutes long, to incorporate a dialogue on the filmstrip. We find the actor, Jolson ad-libbed, holding a dialogue in the two scenes of the film. He says, “Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain’t heard nothin’ Yet.” Jolson speaks 294 words in the second scene and 60 words in the first scene. The Jazz singer signaled the end of the American silent film. It paved way to the future movies, usually known as the ‘talkies’ that consisted of audio soundtracks (Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress 14). After 1929, film makers engaged in shortsighted decisions in regard to the American silent films. They did not see the population demand of these films which could bring more money and fame compared to the later days of film making. According to Pierce, an average of 46 million audiences attended movie theaters in 1920s per week from 116 million populations (Pierce 8). This was 5 times the current per capita rate of attendance. The American silent films in the twenties and teens, before the emergence of cell phones, television, internet, and network radio, had a great influence compared to current modern films. Therefore, the use of advanced technology in film making reduced the number of audience attending movie theaters. The filmmakers did not realize that American silent films created an emotional visual experience that would capture audiences of all gender and age. For that reason, they would have supported the silent films in order to maintain their audience. Pierce says that “the silent cinema was not just a roll of film in a can but a complex social, aesthetic and economic fabric that would bring the power of the moving image into the twentieth century” (18). The shortsighted decisions made American film makers to lose focus in the silent films which would have been used to take the advantage of the primitive style of making films. Production of the American silent films influenced the spread of American culture throughout the globe. If at all the filmmakers would not have neglected these films, they would have used them to attract the current audience. Currently, Americans as well as people around the world would want to know the American tradition. The American silent films would permit people to see how the city streets appeared when horses used to walk on them before being displaced by cars. In addition, people would appreciate the villages and hamlets where the majority of the American people lived (Koszarski 4). The negligence of the American silent films discouraged many recognizable stars which consequently lead to films’ disappearance. The filmmakers lost focus in the film making industry, when they engaged in advanced technology. They made it difficult for the stars in the American silent films to cope up with the changes made in the film industry. Consequences are that it was difficult for the film stars to continue spreading the American culture across the globe. After 1929, the popularity of the silent films decreased rapidly. Furthermore, those films that survived only provided a mere breadth of the American silent film culture with no depth. Pierce says that “scholars cannot adequately document the art and science of film-making without primary sources, the films themselves, thus making it challenging, if not impossible, to write in depth about many of the people and companies that produced these films” (12). It was difficult to retain the culture of the American silent film after the filmmaker engaged in new ways of film production. Most of the film’s production values were destroyed and mainly affected the majority of the film stars. For instance, after 1929 48 films of Mary Pickford, a star who owned many American silent films, lost popularity, with only 8 films maintaining their fame in her acting career. In addition, for 39 films made between 1914 and 1919 by Theda Bara, only 2 survived. Others include 16 films of the commentator and humorist Will Rogers with 5 surviving; Norma Talmadge a star of “woman photos” with only 28 films surviving out of 48; and Pauline Fredrick, a dramatic actress with 2 films surviving out of 34. Furthermore, even when these films survived with intact content, its experience has been always substandard due to its worn elements or poor quality. However, there other film stars who decided to abandon the culture of American silent films. Pola Negri was one of them who transformed her career from American silent films to Paramount’s films in Germany. The quality of her early films in Germany seldom matched those of the American films. This implies that with such film stars abandoning the culture of American silent film, it was difficult to get them back. This led to the silent films collapsing even more (Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress 29). In conclusion, the invention of the first public screen exhibition by the Lumiere brothers set the platform for filmmakers to advance the American film production. The public screen exhibition consisted of motion pictures projected onto a screen and lasted for 20 minutes. The innovation motivated the filmmakers to come up with more lengthy films. In 1920s, the motion pictures grew and were commonly referred to as the silent film. They were later upgraded by improving their quality. The desire to improve the silent films, made the film makers more innovative. They included various features in the film such as the intertitles, live music and sounds, projection speed, and acting techniques. However, the consequence of this desire was the perishing of the American silent film. The filmmakers went to an extent of using Vita phone technology in the film production, which incorporated synchronized recorded sound in films. They eventually lost focus of America silent films by neglecting its style of production and adapting the new era of modern films. Works Cited Pierce, David. “The Legion of the Condemned- Why American Silent Films perished.” Film history 9.1 (1997): 5-22. Print. Koszarski, Richard. “Silent Cinema.” Film History 9.1 ( 1997): 3-4. Print. Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress. The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. Print. Read More