Clyde Jeavon: The Significance Of Silent Film

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

Film has revolutionized the world as we know it. In the current day and age film is quite advanced. You can watch movies with special effects and insane resolution there were never thought possible before. But film has not always been this way. Over the decades since around the 1900s when the first film was made there been amazing advances in technology and in acting. An examination of the past hundred or so years will show the amazing advances film has taken to come to what we know of it today.

In “A Century of Cinema”, Susan Sontag explains how cinema was cherished by those who enjoyed what cinema offered. Cinema was unlike anything else, it was entertainment that had the audience feeling apart of the film. However, as the years went by, the special feeling regarding cinema went away as those who admired cinema wanted to help expand the experience.

“You ain’t heard nothing yet,” is one of the most popular lines from the first talkie ever produced. That being The Jazz Singer. With this quote, movies were inherently changed forever. Starting from the beginning, in the 1920’s economic prosperity spread like wildfire in America. With that, came more leisure time for the average person and movies, being a cheap source of entertainment, boomed along with the stocks. The hotspot for this movie epidemic was in Hollywood, California. With that being said, movies and Hollywood had a significant impact in the 1920’s and modern times through societal changes and technological advancements.

1960s cinema reflected the good and the bad of the decade. 1960s cinema influenced many of the films we have today. 1960s cinema brought attention to movie musicals, which were movies that had many song and dance numbers along with dialogue and blocking. Three of the biggest hits of the decade were movie musicals. Some of the decade’s biggest hits, including the movie musicals, are still popular today. In the 1960s, there were many popular movies, both in theaters and on television, which were produced with money and lots of work. However, 1960s cinema also had a downfall.

2) Many early films, and even films today, use what is called Freytag's Pyramid. Freytag’s Pyramid refers to the way a film is structured narratively, creating a similar pattern among the beginning, middle, and end of most films. I believe that The Immigrant mostly complies with this structure. Typically, a movie’s narrative using Freytag’s Pyramid will be laid out in a way that starts with a exposition, where the characters, scene, and mood is introduced. The Immigrant happens to comply with the pyramid on this point. The film opens with a shot of a ship, then continues on to show a rolling boat, its seasick passengers, and Charlie Chaplin’s comedic character. Most everyone aboard is sick except Charlie, and a few others. However, We don’t quite get much detail on the characters backgrounds, other than they are obviously immigrants from another country. Next, usually an inciting incident would occur that would trigger a conflict. When eating in the ship's dining room, charlie looks up from his table where a girl standing that he shows much interest in, and gives his seat to her. I personally believe this moment is the inciting incident that drives the rest of the story. Charlie’s drive to “get the girl” ends up causing him to give her all of his money after her mother had her money stolen. Later, after everyone is dispersed onto land, Charlie is left with no money. However, he finds a coin on the ground and decides to spend it on a meal in a nearby restaurant. Eventually, he spots the girl that was on the ship with him, and offers her a meal. Eventually, the scene shows a man being beat up and kicked out of the restaurant for being 5 cents short on his bill. Later, the waiter brings Charlie his bill, and as charlie reaches into his pocket for the coin he found and realizes the hole in his pocket. This could be seen as rising action, the next part of the pyramid. This moment escalates the conflict of not having money, since now Charlie is in clear danger. Tension rises as many minutes pass of Charlie stalling by ordering more food, and the waiter growing impatient with him. At one point, he even finds the coin again and the waiter

This essay will analyse and discuss The Great Train Robbery (1903) in relation to the narrative structure of silent cinema. The Edison Manufacturing Co, with the estimated budget of $150, produced The Great Train Robbery. Directed by Edwin S. Porter the film has a runtime of 11 minutes, with an aspect ratio of 1:33:1. The film was printed on 35mm hand coloured film and ran at 18 (FPS). The film was later released on December 1st 1903; the majority of the film was shot in New Jersey, USA.

When silent movies were beginning to be replaced by movies with sound, or ‘Talkies’, controversy began to surround Hollywood and it stars. Between Fatty Arbuckle hitting an actress at a party

Widescreen Movie Screen No-one knew that one day this would be the an invention that would change American history for a lifetime. The Widescreen projector ( also known as the Movie Screen ) is a huge part of American culture today. Millions of people continuously go and watch movies. Many people go to the movies for so many reason.

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was one of the most popular silent film star in the 1920s, which appropriately led to him being nicknamed the first ‘King of Hollywood’. So, when newspapers wrote a story in 1952, thirteen years after his death, about how his son Douglas Fairbanks Jr. found his forgotten and lost collections, it was a great achievement in the preservation

The museum I chose to visit was the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. There, I saw original seating from the Niles Essanay which has now no longer standing. A projecting Kinetoscope created by Thomas Edison dating back to 1898 meant for film projection along with other old camera equipment. I saw that there were many posters put up advertising various films such as, Captain January (1924), Three Friends (1913), and many others. I also saw Baby Peggy (Diana Serra Cary) herself arrive to the museum, she was there in celebration of her 96th birthday (Museum Schedule). Which is why the back and the rest of the museum were closed off unless we were there to view the silent film with her in attendance.

This essay will analyse and discuss The Great Train Robbery (1903) in relation to the narrative structure of silent cinema. The Edison Manufacturing Co, with the estimated budget of $150, produced The Great Train Robbery. Directed by Edwin S. Porter the film has a runtime of 11 minutes, with an aspect ratio of 1:33:1. The film was printed on 35mm hand coloured film and ran at 18 (FPS). The film was later released on December 1st 1903; the majority of the film was shot in New Jersey, USA.

The introduction of sound films in the late 1920’s was a divisive issue among those involved and interested in the emerging motion picture industry. Even though it wasn’t the sudden breakthrough it is often perceived to be, the addition of sound and voice to mainstream cinema revolutionized movie making and led to conflicting viewpoints as to whether or not this innovation was a positive progression for film as an art and as an industry.

Every day millions of Americans go to theaters with their families to enjoy movies. Watching films has become one of the most popular activities to do. Although plenty of people know of Charlie Chaplin, most do not know any real information about him. Charlie Chaplin has been a major contributor to America’s advancement in the film industry from his innovative beginnings, and perseverance to improve and succeed, to his overall achievements in history.

No matter who a person thinks invented the motion picture camera, whether it was Louis Lumiere or Thomas Edison, I'm sure they had no idea what it would become at the turn of the century. Motion pictures, has become an entertainment medium like no other. From Fred Ott's Sneeze to Psycho to Being John Malkovich, the evolution from moving pictures to a pure art form has been quite amazing. Different steps in filming techniques define eras in one of the most amazing ideas that was ever composed. Silent to Sound. Short to long. Black and white to color. Analog to Digital. All were important marks in the History of Motion Pictures. "It's different than other arts. It had to be invented"