Feb 03 2009
Silent Films: the Birth of an Art Form, Pt. 3
Enabling this evolution of the art form as a social establishment was the technological and theoretical development that was making it all possible. As the physical machine capacity to record images grew (brilliantly exploiting persistence of vision), filmmakers were forced to move beyond the simple staged setups and individual shots of early flickers. They saw that audiences were becoming more sophisticated and constantly in demand of something more engaging. Thus, they were forced to develop not only their machines, but also their storytelling and communication skills. Enter Georges Melies, the “father of narrative film.” Melies played a crucial role in the early stages of film, taking pictures beyond the simplicity of the Lumiere’s staged skits into a complex new art form. His “A Trip to the Moon”, was not only one of the earliest movies to play with special effects and take advantage of visual illusions, but really took audiences on a journey to a whole new world of possibility never before imagined, and created a strong bond between films and science-fiction, and dreams and fantasy at large. This piece perfectly illustrated the bond between films and the sense of magic and wonder that we all long for.
Following Melies came D. W. Griffiths. Griffiths was responsible for most of the techniques that today we take for granted as the basics of cinema grammar, yet these all had to be created from scratch, or at least solidified for the first time into a unique application. It is staggering to see how within merely two decades of the art form’s conception, most of today’s established theories were already being discovered. Griffiths took the idea of an expanded narrative and really explored how to make use of what made film unique, creating an entirely new visual language. His use of close-ups, cross-cutting, subjective shots, flashbacks, camera movement and carefully composed shots set the standard for everything to follow, till this very day. It is easy today to take these things for granted, but it is really impossible to overstate the groundbreaking nature of these early pioneers.
