Terms/Concepts Flashcards
1
Q
Public Amusements
A
Vaudeville house, amusement parks, traveling exhibitions. Nickelodeons had advantages over these: not seasonal like amusement parks, cheaper than vaudeville houses, and more regularly available than traveling exhibitions.
2
Q
Camera Obscura
A
A dark room with a small hole in one wall. When it’s bright outside, light enters through the hole and projects an upside down image of the outside world onto the wall opposite the hole. “Pinhole Image”
3
Q
Magic Lantern
A
Primitive slide projector. At first, one image was shown at a time, but it didn’t take long for users to realize that images presented in quick sequence could make a projected picture appear to be moving.
4
Q
Zoopraxiscope
A
An early type of motion-picture projector, designed by Eadweard Muybridge, in which the images were drawings or photographs placed along the rim of a circular glass plate, the shutter was a rotating opaque disk with radial slots, and a limelight source was used.
5
Q
Phenakistoscope
A
Optical illusion device, earliest animation device demonstrating continuous movement. (The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the images reflected in a mirror. The scanning of the slits across the reflected images keeps them from simply blurring together so that the user can see a rapid succession of images that appear to be a single moving picture.)
6
Q
Zoetrope
A
Optical illusion device to demonstrate continuous movement. (a cylinder with vertical slits down the sides. The inside of the cylinder displays a band with a set of sequenced images. When the cylinder spins, the user can see the pictures inside as they look through the slits, which prevent the images from blurring together.)
7
Q
Chronophotography
A
A set of photographs of a moving object, taken for the purpose of recording and exhibiting successive phases of motion “The Horse in Motion”
8
Q
Black Maria
A
Film studio created by Edison and his assistant W.K.L. Dickinson. Purpose was to create films in order to exploit the Kinetoscope commercially. Films only lasted around 20 seconds, the longest run of film a Kinetoscope could hold.
9
Q
Kinetoscope
A
Created by Thomas Edison. A peephole device that ran the film around a series of rollers activated when viewers put a coin in the slot. Viewable to one person at a time. Uses 35mm reel stock with 4 perforations per frame.
10
Q
Mutoscope
A
an early form of a motion-picture device in which a series of photographs of an action sequence are viewed in quick succession, giving the impression of movement. Different from kinetoscope because it is not automatic, the mutoscope operated by hand. A penny-in-the-slot machine with a crank that turned a drum containing a series of photographs.
11
Q
Paper Print
A
Paper prints of films were an early mechanism to establish the copyright of motion pictures by depositing them with the Library of Congress. Paper prints were the positive opaque copies of their transparent film negative source. Edison first to register each frame of motion-picture film onto a positive paper print.
12
Q
Color
A
With the lack of natural color processing available, films of the silent era were frequently dipped in dyestuffs and dyed various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Hand tinting dates back to 1895 in the United States with Edison’s release of selected hand-tinted prints of Butterfly Dance. Tinting - dipping an already-developed positive print into a dye bath that colored the lighter portions of the images while the dark ones remained black. Toning- already-developed positive print placed in different chemical solution that saturated the dark areas of the frame while the lighter areas remained nearly white.
13
Q
Exhibition
A
After the first public screenings, film exhibitions spread quickly in England because more projectors were being sold. Films starting to be shown to wider public audiences. In the U.S., films were shown in vaudeville houses, amusement parks, small storefront theaters, summer fairs and even churches and opera houses.
14
Q
Trick Film
A
trick films were short silent films designed to feature innovative special effects. No narrative continuity, the purpose was just to showcase these effects. Effects prioritized over plot.
15
Q
Actualities
A
Early films that were nonfiction and captured candid events, daily happenstance like workers clocking out.
16
Q
Scenics
A
Short travelogues offering views of distant lands.
17
Q
Travelogues
A
films that depict the places visited and experiences encountered by a traveler.
18
Q
Nickelodeon
A
Small movie theaters that emerged in 1905, admission typically cost a nickel. Offered continuous showings of one- and two-reel films.
19
Q
Piracy
A
Movies not yet copyrighted, prints were sold rather than rented, making it hard to monitor circulation of films. Edison’s pictures often duplicated and sold and Edison profited from duping films imported from France and England.
20
Q
Aesthetic of Astonishment
A
Tom Gunning argues that the first people who watched Lumiere’s Arrival of a Train at the Station were not in shock because they believed that the train was real, they were astonished by the illusion they witnessed before them on the screen. In contrary to the myth that people feared that they were going to be killed by a train, Gunning stresses that the Audiences’ astonishment was derived “from a magical metamorphosis”(Gunning, 119). This metamorphosis is essentially cinema itself and the illusions it produces on screen. The successful effects are what shocks the audience not the belief that was is on screen is real.
21
Q
Trompe l’oeil
A
An art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. To deceive the eye.
22
Q
Uncanny
A
The effects could be unsettling?
23
Q
MPPC
A
Motion Pictures Patent Company. Edison created a company that would control all competitors by owning and charging licensing fees on the existing patents. MPPC limited the number of films that could join and import films to gain a larger share of the U.S. market. Hoped to control all three phases of the industry: production, distribution, and exhibition, setting the stage for an oligopoly.
24
Q
Archives
A
For many years the term “preservation” was synonymous with “duplication” of film. The goal of a preservationist was to create a durable copy without any significant loss of quality.
25
Nitrate
From the 1890s to the 1950s, this ‘film’ was largely what we call nitrate, which though highly flammable was tough enough to survive transport through cameras and projectors. nitrate film was unparalleled in its time. Its luminosity and metallic lustre came perhaps from all that silver. It took color well.
26
Restoration
Restoration is the act of returning the film to a version most faithful to its initial release to the public and often involves combining various fragments of film elements.
27
Preservation
For many years the term "preservation" was synonymous with "duplication" of film. The goal of a preservationist was to create a durable copy without any significant loss of quality.
28
Musical Accompaniment
Silent films were always accompanied by at least one instrument—originally to cover the sound of the projector and to overcome the “ghostliness” of the images. The theatres would hire a pianist or organist to play appropriate music for specific scenes.
29
Attraction
Drawing the viewers to the thrill of the images presented rather than going elsewhere for entertainment.
30
Display
From their earliest days as an exhibition attraction, motion pictures were accompanied by some form of music–typically a piano, a musical combo in more modest sized houses, and sometimes an entire orchestra in movie palaces
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Cinema of Attractions
Tom Gunning. The cinema of attractions directly solicits spectator attention, inciting visual curiosity, and supplying pleasure though an exciting spectacle - a unique event, whether fictional or documentary, that is of interest in itself.
32
Narrative Integration
Began releasing longer and more complex narratives to attract middle- and upper-class spectators. Every aspect of silent film style came to be used to enhance narrative clarity. Editing became a boon to filmmakers to make the narratives understandable to viewers. Intertitles added to guide audience.
33
Transitional Cinema
1908-1917. Widespread changes affected film form and film genres, filmmaking practices and industry structure, exhibition sites, and audience demographics. By the end of the period, cinema had moved toward the shape it would assume for decades under the studio system. i.e role of state censorship, emerging genres and audiences, evolving feature format, onscreen depictions of gender, race, and nationality, changing exhibition practices and theater locales, and the emergence of Hollywood.
34
Modernity
Characterized by experimentation in portraying the modern advancements of the time.
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Melodrama
a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.
36
Applied Psychology
Character psychology had not been articularly important in early films. Slapstick chases or brief melodramas depended more on physical action or familiar situations than on character traits. After 1907, character psychology motivated actions. By following a series of characters' goals and resulting conflicts, the spectator could comprehend action.
37
Popular Amusements
Amusement parks were popular at the time.
38
International Style
Germany, Italy, Russia, France, Denmark, Sweden. International explorations of storytelling techniques and stylistic expressivity led to a cinema that was surprisingly close to what we know today. By mid-1920s, and international avant garde style blended French Impressionism, German Expressionism, and Soviet Montage. Jean Epstein combined Impressionist camera techniques with Expressionist set design design to create eerie, portentous tone in "The Fall of the House of Usher."
39
White Slavery Scare
Films discussed the workings of organized prostitution. Women tricked into prostitution and shunned form families, films warn parents not to throw out daughters.
40
Leisure Culture
For middle-class American, 1920s was a decade of unprecedented prosperity, more disposableincome for the consumption of entertainment and leisure.
41
Consumer Culture
Influx of cash and advancements in technology led to new patterns of leisure (time spent having fun) and consumption (buying products). Movies became increasingly popular and actors turned into national icons. Movie palaces capable of seating thousands sprand up in major cities. A ticket for a double feature and a live show cost 25 cents. By the end of the decade, weekly movie attendance swelled to 90 million.
42
Exoticism
Exoticism referred to the showcasing of foreign cultures as "other" and feeding into stereotypes to make them fit into entertainment value and differing not relatable. Foreign actors were often cast in roles as villains. "The Cheat"
43
Technology
1896-1910s: Early movie industry
Initially, a lack of standardization meant that film producers used a variety of different film widths and projection speeds, but after a few years the 35-mm wide Edison film, and the 16-frames-per-second projection speed of the Lumière Cinématographe became the standard.
44
Gender
In 1920's and 1930's films, female roles reflected many of the misconceptions of women in society - the high tendency to be hysterical or weak came about especially when a character was placed under almost any kind of distress. Mass-produced masculinity.
45
Sexuality
Oftentimes characters seduced by that which is different or modern.
46
Reformers
many early silent movies took as their subject matter the major social and moral issues of the Progressive era: birth control, child labor, divorce, immigration, political corruption, poverty, prisons, prostitution, and women's suffrage. The tone of these films varied widely - some were realistic and straightforward; others treated their subjects with sentimentality or humor; and many transformed complex social issues into personal melodramas..
47
Censorship
Religious groups and social workers though nickelodeons would lead young people astray and movies were seen as training grounds from prostitutions and robbery. New York citizens formed the Board of Censorship in March 1909. MPPC submitted their films and financially supported the board to gain respectability. Producers were to submit films voluntarily and films that passed could include a notice of approval.
48
Audience
A body of individuals watching and/or listening to a show, concert, film, or speech. The cinema audience comprises people who assemble to watch films in cinemas and other venues, both public and private
49
Spectator
In film studies, the sociological or cultural notion of the cinema audience is commonly distinguished from the idea of the spectator, where spectatorship is understood as a relationship or engagement with the film text.
50
Parallel Editing
Also known as intercutting or crosscutting, is an editing technique used to jump between two different scenes. The sequence jumps between scenes happening at the same time. Parallel editing can increase the feeling of suspense and increase the pacing of a scene.
51
Travelogues
Travelogues filmed as an invitation for tourists. i.e. "New York of Today" by the Edison Manufacturing Company was filmed to as an invitation for tourists, especially from overseas, to visit New York.
52
Actualities
Early films that were nonfiction and captured candid events, daily happenstance like workers
53
Scenics
Short travelogues offering views of distant lands.
54
Newsreels
A newsreel was a collection of topical news films collected onto a single reel, and shown in cinemas as part of the general entertainment programme. In the silent era newsreels lasted around five minutes, and contained around five or six stories per issue. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, information, and entertainment for millions of moviegoers.
55
Scientific vision
Things for science research were captured through film.
56
Spectacle
defined as an impressive, unusual, or disturbing phenomenon or event that is seen or witnessed.
57
Documentary
A documentary is a film or video examining an event or person based on facts. The word can also refer to anything involving documents. The idea of documentary as meaning "pertaining to documents" came about at the beginning of the 19th century. Later, it came to mean a factual record of something.
58
Ethnography
ethnographic film is a non-fiction film, often similar to a documentary film, historically shot by Western filmmakers and dealing with non-Western people, and sometimes associated with anthropology.
"Nanook of the North" by Robert J. Flaherty considered forefather of ethnographic film. Visual manifestation of anthropological practice organized into moving media.
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Anthropology
the study of human societies and cultures and their development.
60
World Fairs
World's fairs (also known as world expositions) function as a way to bring culture, history, and new technology together in one event to people of many backgrounds. Between 1876 and 1916, almost 100 million people attended the international expositions held in 12 U.S. cities. Gathering of nations from all over the world to showcase their products and craftsmanship, to share with pride information about their hometowns and motherlands. Countries can showcase their innovations in filmmaking.
61
Salvage ethnography
the recording oof the practices and folklore of cultures threatened with extinction, including as a result of modernization.
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Indigeneity
A broad, working definition of Indigeneity is that it is a quality of a person’s and a group’s identity that links them to specific places with knowledge of and respect for original ways.
63
Insider ethnography
People from within the community create the ethnographic films, causing them to include less of Western stereotypes. Criticisms are accusations of over-involvement and bias. Advantages is that the ethnographer is a key informant.
64
Counterhistory
Developing an alternative account of the historical events.
65
One-reel dramas
a motion picture, especially a cartoon or comedy, of 10 to 12 minutes' duration and contained on one reel of film: popular especially in the era of silent films.
66
Historical Epics
take an historical or imagined event, mythic, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by grandeur and spectacle and a sweeping musical score. "The Birth of a Nation"
67
Parallel editing
cross cutting two scenes happening at the same time.
68
Protest
People unpleased with portrayal of Black community in Historical epics. Additionally, asking for limitations on film industry because the actors were being scandalous and the films used major budgets.
69
MPPDA
The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America created 1922. William Hays made president and enforced the Hays code which that 1. no picture should lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin. 2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented. 3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
70
Censorship
Hays code
71
Industry self-regulation
Pressures from social reformers during an "era of scandal" led the industry to self-regulate by creating the organization, MPPDA, in 1922 and paving the way for a Production Code (Hays code) that impacted film content and satisfied many anti-Hollywood activists for nearly two decades. Not outright censorship but a democratic process because "self-regulation educates and strengthens those who practice it." Hays offered a thirteen-point agreement that included eliminating from films overt sexuality, prostitution, cavalier depiction of vice, passionate love scenes, any ridicule of government or religion, and any salacious advertising. But the 1920s provided no shortage of scandalous material for Hays to moderate.
72
Race Film
Because of widespread racial discrimination, silent- era productions that fit the description of “race films”— that is, films designed for African American audiences— could be shown only in certain theaters or at certain times or in nontheatrical settings and were exhibited to racially segregated audiences. A genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts
73
Comedy
Silent comedy uses visual humor to tell a story. In the early days of film, before there was sound, it was the most popular form of storytelling. Silent comedians such Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton entertained millions with an art form that was simple and universal. Actors had to be very physical and exaggerate to get comedy across.
74
Slapstick
The physical comedy in these films contains a cartoonish style of violence that is predominantly harmless and goofy in tone. Silent film had slapstick comedies that included the films starring Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, the Keystone Cops and Harold Lloyd.
Silent comedies often place heavy emphasis on visual and physical humors, often including "sight gags", to tell stories and entertain the viewer. Many of these physical gags are exaggerated forms of violence which came to be called "slapstick".
75
Gags
Silent comedies often place heavy emphasis on visual and physical humors, often including "sight gags", to tell stories and entertain the viewer.
76
Hollywood
Classic Hollywood fame and industry becoming established and style of Hollywood cinema becoming a thing.
77
Stardom
Actors becoming the focus of films and fans forming parasocial relationships with them through magazine exposure.
78
Fandom
Fan magazines documenting the stars, their lives, and their attires. Some movies attended to because of fans of the actors not the film itself.
79
Classical Hollywood cinema
Psychologically defined individuals. A struggle to solve a problem or a achieve a goal. A conflict with other people or external circumstances. Characters have agency, and causality moves the story forward. There is a decisive victory or defeat.
80
Modernity
Films adapting to show modern progressions societally and technologically.
81
Gender
Characters fitting the stereotype of masculinity and feminity.
82
Masculinity
Men dominant in films.
83
Exoticism
"The Thief of Bagdad" The exotic as spectacle. Foreign as villains, Anna May Wong's character. Rudolph Valentino, "The Latin Lover."
84
85
National Cinema
German Postwar Cinema- Directly after the war, the leftist political climate led to a brief abolition of censorship, and that in turn fostered a vogue for films on prostitution, venereal disease, drugs, and other social problems which led to a reinstitution of censorship once the films were believed to be pornographic. A few major trends of genre and style gained prominence in the postwar era: the spectacle genre, the German Expressionist movement, and the Kammerspiel film.
85
Weimar Cinema
Their stylistic and technical innovations were profoundly influenced by the political turmoil of the time, most notably the emergence of Expressionism as a style, characterized by deeply shadowed lighting, distorted perspective, and intentionally artificial sets.
The cinema of the Weimar Republic – especially the years spanning from 1918 to 1933 – is considered to be the golden age of German film. In this era, German film was especially innovative and it had a huge impact on other cinematographies.
85
New Objectivity
A further reason for the decline of Expressionism lies in the changing cultural climate of Germany. Turned away from Expressionism toward realism and cool-headed social criticism. Such traits were not specific enough to constitute a unified movement, but the trends were summed up as New Objectivity. Street films were linked to New Objectivity. Reasons for decline: domination of extreme right-wing in German politics and the coming of sound to film.
85
Expressionism
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari initiated Expressionism's path into cinema. A reaction against realism. Expressionist paintings avoided subtle shadings and often used large shapes of bright, unrealistic colors with dark, cartoon-like outlines. Distortions were difficult for films shot on location, but Caligari showed how studio-built sets could approximate the stylization of Expressionist painting. The goal was to express feelings in the most direct and extreme fashion possible. Mise-en-scene, editing, and camerawork were necessary to make Expressionism work. Filmmakers used the style to create exotic and fantastic settings that were remote from contemporary reality.
85
Mise-en-scene
Sets , props, and costumes were used to capture the distortions of Expressionist ideas. Large shapes of unshaded color in the backdrops. Referred to the sets as "acting" or as blending in with the actors' movements.
85
Uncanny
Expressionist acting was deliberately exaggerated to match the style of the settings. Expressionist actors worked against an effect of natural behavior, often moving jerkily, pausing, and then making sudden gestures. Unrealistic performances but they contribute to the overall mise-en-scene.
85
Chiaroscuro
Lighting technique. One of the integral aspects of German Expressionist films is the contrasts of darks and lights and incongruous patterns to create a nightmarish world. The lighting technique that was employed by German Expressionist filmmakers to create these contrasts, angles, and to bring an overall sense of collective despondence is known as the chiaroscuro lighting technique. The term, which finds its roots in Renaissance art, refers to the use of light and dark to create the illusion that a work of art is three-dimensional.
85
Street Films
In these films, charcaters from sheltered middle-class backgrounds are suddenly exposed to the environment of city streets, where they encounter representatives of various social ills, such as prostitutes, gamblers, black marketeers, and con men. Came into prominence in 1923 with the success of Karl Grune's The Street.
85
Kammerspielfilme
A Kammerspiel film concentrated on a few characters and explored a crisis in their lives in detail. Avoided fantasy and legendary elements so common in Expressionism. Films were set in everyday, contemporary surroundings, often covered a short span of time. The narratives concentrated on intensely psychological situations and concluded unhappily. Because of the unhappy endings and claustrophobic atmospheres, these films intrigued mostly critics and highbrow audiences. The Last Laugh became the most successful and famous Kammerspiel film. By 1924, the genre ceased to be prominent in German filmmaking.
86
French Impressionism
These films displayed a fascination with pictorial beauty and an interest in intense psychological exploration. The directors viewed cinema as an art form. Film techniques function to convey character subjectivity.
87
Photogenie
Impressionists used the term photogenie to indicates something more complex than an object's simply being "photogenetic." For them, it was the basis of cinema. It gives cinema personality by capturing its motions and deciding what is being shown. Camera movements that convey subjectivity and enhance photogenie. designed to account for that which is inarticulable, that which exceeds language and hence points to the very essence of cinematic specificity. Photogénie is usually described as a moment of intense affect or revelation created by the cinema’s unique technological and formal capacity to transform our perception of the material world.
88
Cinegraphie
art films
89
Russian emigres
A lot of Russians went to France during the period of Impressionism and were active in the film scene?
90
Optical point of view & mental subjectivity
Superimpositions may convey character's thoughts or memories. A filter placed over the lens may function to suggest subjectivity, usually without the shot's beings taken from the character's optical point of view. Occasionally, Impressionists would shoot into a curved mirror to distort the image and create a POV shot. Throwing the lens out of focus could also convey subjectivity.
91
Dadaism
During the early decades of the century, painters and writers innovated a wide variety of modernist styles, including Cubism, abstract art, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. A movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values as a negative reaction to the horrors and folly of war during WWI. Some characteristics of Dadaism's most profound characteristics include humor, whimsy, artistic freedom, emotional reaction, irrationalism, and spontaneity. Fascinated by collage. Marcehl Duchamp "Anemic Cinema"
92
Surrealism
a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images. Surrealism is a style in art and literature in which ideas, images, and objects are combined in a strange way, like in a dream.
The characteristics of surrealism include strange images or bizarre juxtapositions, unconsciousness as a valid reality, dream-like artwork or symbolic images, automatism techniques to create random effects, distorted figures or biomorphic shapes, depiction of perverse sexuality, and chance or spontaneity. Similar to Dadaism because of its disdain for orthodox aesthetic traditions. Unlike Dada films, they would not be humorous chaotic assemblage of events. Instead, it would trace a disturbing, often sexually charged story that followed the inexplicable logic of a dream.
93
Cinema pur
"Pure Cinema." an avant-garde film movement of French filmmakers, who "wanted to return the medium to its elemental origins" of "vision and movement". Their goals were to dispense with narrative, to return to film to its elemental origins, and to free film from any influence from literature, theatre, or even other visual arts. Abstract film that did not use animated drawings but rather everyday objects and rhythmic editing. "Danse macabre" and "Ballet mechanique."
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Abstract Animation
Abstract art is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect. A subgenre of experimental film and animation and a form of abstract art. The viewers do not have a complete understanding of its meaning as they would with a narrative structure. Influenced commercial cinema like Lottie Reiniger.
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City Symphony
Lyrical documentaries. These works were part documentary, part experimental film. Filmmakers experimented by taking their cameras outdoors and capturing poetic aspects of urban landscapes. "Manhatta" "Rain." "A Man with a movie camera" commented on soviet society by weaving together several cities in a "day-in-the-life" documentary.
96
Cine-clubs
a group formed to study the art of the cinema through discussion or the actual making of films. In England and the United States such clubs, or film societies, are chiefly interested in film making, while in other countries they concentrate on viewing censored, foreign, or experimental films.
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Abstraction
Abstract film or absolute film is a subgenre of experimental film and a form of abstract art. Abstract films are non-narrative, contain no acting and do not attempt to reference reality or concrete subjects.
98
Cinema and urban modernity
City symphony films able to capture the modern advances of cities.
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Kuleshov Effect
1921, obtained a small amount of raw stock from gov't and shot what are known as the "Kuleshov experiments and explored the editing principle now known as the Kuleshov effect. Based on leaving out a scene's establishing shot and leading the spectator to infer spatial or temporal continuity from the shots of separate elements. Relied on eye-line match. Major implication was that in cinema the viewer's response depended less on the individual shot than on the editing - the montage of the shots.
100
Montage
According to prominent Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein, there are five different types within Soviet Montage Theory: Metric- the controlled length of clips that create a beat. They are equal in measure and equally accelerate to create tension and maintain the original contextual nature of the images., Rhythmic- In other words, shots, and actions are matched to continue the structural nature of the scene. This montage does not adhere to a beat. Rhythmic montage is continuity editing, the most used type of editing. The “Odessa Steps” sequence is the ultimate example of this method. Tonal- is based on the characteristic emotional sound of the piece – of its dominant. The general tone of the piece.” In other words, tonal are the comparative elements in visuals, sound, etc. that carry over from one scene into the next. Overtonal - a composite of metric, rhythmic and tonal montage. This co-existence constructs the idea of conflict between the primary tone and the secondary overtone. Overall, this montage is about the incorporation of themes. For example, a mother giving birth could be edited with the death of the matriarchal role of the family. As one mother leaves, another is created. Intellectual- In other words, different scenarios, when cross-cut together, can produce meaning through metaphors for audiences. Soviet montage refers to an approach to film editing developed during the 1920s that focused, not on making cuts invisible, but on creating meaningful associations within the combinations of shots.
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Montage of Attractions
The montage of attractions asserts that an audience is moved emotionally, psychically, and politically by sudden bursts of aggressive movement. Eisenstein adapted this theory from the Proletkult to the cinema in his 1923 essay "The Montage of Attractions". “influencing the audience in a desired direction through a series of calculated pressures on its psyché.”Montage films downplay individual characters as central causal agents. Instead, drawing on a Marxist view of history, Montage films often make social forces the source of causes and effects. Characters do act and react, but they do so less as psychologically distinct individuals than as members of different social classes. Some films went so far as to eliminate major characters and to use the masses as the protagonist.
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Conflict & Dialectic
soviet montage as form of propaganda.
103
Creative geography
Creative geography, also known as artificial landscape, is a filmmaking technique invented in the 1920s by Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. It refers to the method of filming scenes at multiple locations or various times of the day but editing them in such a way that it appears to be one continuous location or time.
104
Kino-Pravada
Working mainly during the 1920s, Dziga Vertov promoted the concept of "kino-pravda", or "film-truth", through his newsreel series. His driving vision was to capture fragments of actuality which, when organized together, showed a deeper truth which could not be seen with the naked eye. recorded various everyday events using all sort of camera and editing tricks, the result being a film more about the power of cinema than about its purported subject.
105
Kinoks
a pioneering band of documentary filmmakers he called the kinoks, or “cinema eyes.” By making films to stir the masses, they hoped to change the world, and their most ambitious visual manifesto was Vertov’s final silent film, Man with a Movie Camera. "Machine eye"-camera
106
Compilation documentary
Esfir Shub pioneered the compilation documentary
reconstructed Russian history through editing diverse materials – newsreels, home movies, archival records. "The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty" (1927). Shub is credited as the creator of compilation film and is known for her revolutionary approaches to editing and assembling preserved and archived footage.
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Movements
Avant-garde movements in France and Germany after WWI, in the USSR, Soviet Montage emerged during the 1920s.
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Jidai-geki
period pieces featuring samurai and sword fighting. The bread and butter of Akira Kurosawa.
109
Gendai-geki
a genre of film and television or theater play in Japan.Unlike the jidai-geki genre of period dramas, whose stories are set in the Edo period, gendai-geki stories are contemporary dramas set in the modern world. Ozu
110
Kabuki theater
Important characteristics of Kabuki theatre include its particular music, costumes, stage devices and props as well as specific plays, language and acting styles, such as the mie, in which the actor holds a characteristic pose to establish his character. Kabuki, a vivid blend of drama, music and dance, mesmerizes with its elaborate costumes and dynamic storytelling.
110
Chanbara
"sword fighting" films, samurai cinema
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Benshi/Katsuben
Most Japanses cinema theaters at the time employed benshi, narrators whose dramatic readings accompanied the film and its musical score which, like in the West, was often performed live. Benshi sometimes called katsuben
112
Modernization
Audiences enjoyed live narration so integrating sound in film became a slower process than in the West.
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Shinpa theater
Shinpa is a modern form of theater in Japan, usually featuring melodramatic stories, contrasted with the more traditional kabuki style. Taking its start in the 1880s, it later spread to cinema. shinpa (literally meaning "new school") to contrast it from kyūha ("old school" or kabuki) due its more contemporary and realistic stories. Social and political struggles became new dramatic subjects, as did patriotic events.
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"Cinema"(eiga) vs. "moving pictures"
"Ei" (映画) is a general term that refers to any kind of movie or film, whether it's a feature-length film, a documentary, or an animated movie. It is the most commonly used word for "movie" or "film" in Japanese.
"Eiga" (映画) is a more formal and literary term for "movie" or "film" in Japanese. It is often used in titles of movies, film festivals, or other formal contexts. For example, "Tokyo International Film Festival" is called "Tokyo Kokusai Eiga Festival" in Japanese.
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Pure Film Movement
The Pure Film Movement was a trend in film criticism and filmmaking in 1910s and early 1920s Japan that advocated what were considered more modern and cinematic modes of filmmaking. Followers of the movement believed that certain traditional Japanese elements held film back from developing into a truly modern industry and art form. They were embarrassed at Japan’s low quality films, the hedonism of the benshi, and the level of interpretative authority that the benshi held. By increasing the importation of foreign films whose plots were more self-explanatory, reformers tried to shift the role of the benshi from entertaining an audience to simply making the film accessible to ordinary people.
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Independent narrative films
Films made outside big studio productions.
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Vertical Integration
The biggest firms jockeyed for power by combining production and distribution with expanding chains of theaters. Three-tiered vertical integration guaranteed that a company's films would find distribution and exhibition. the bigger the theater chain owned by the firm, the wider its films' exposure would be.
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Picture Palaces
Because big theaters were so important, the major companies made them opulent to attract patrons, not simply through the films being shown but through the promise of an exciting moviegoing experience. 1920s were the age of the picture palace, seating thousands of patrons and offering fancy lobbies, uniformed ushers, and orchestral accompaniment to the films. Air-conditioning included in the picture palaces. In big palaces, silent films were accompanied a live orchestra, smaller palaces might have a chamber group or pipe organ and small-town would only offer a piano player. There were conventional and atmospheric palaces.
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"Big Three" and "Little Five"
The vertically integrated firms that controlled big theater chain - Paramount-Publix, Loew's (MGM), and First National- constituted the Big three at the top of the AMerican film industry. The Little Five were important films that owned few or no theaters: Universal, the Producers Distributing Corporation, the Film Booking Office, and Warner Bros.
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MPPDA
By the late 1910s and early 1920s there was increasing pressure for a national censorship law, and more local boards were being formed. In an effort to forestall censorship and clean up Hollywood's image, the main studios banded together to form a trade organization , The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. To head it in early 1922, they hired Will Hays. His strategy was to pressure the producers to eliminate the offensive content of their films and to include moral clauses in studio contracts. Helped promote the sale of American films abroad by gathering information and bringing more pressure against harmful regulations. The formation of the MPPDA provided a clear signal that motion pictures had become a major American industry.
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Classical continuity style
Continuity editing uses a variety of classic film editing techniques to blend multiple camera shots — some taken at different times or even different locations — into a seamless, consistent narrative. These elements include eye line, matching cuts with movement, and scene changes. Keeping the audience from getting disoriented due to breaking the 30 and 180-degree rules.
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Synchronized sound
sound recorded at the same time of the filming of movies
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Phonoscene
The Phonoscène was a forerunner of sound film. It combined a chronophone sound recording with a chronograph film shot with actors lip-synching to the sound recording. The recording and film were synchronized by a mechanism patented by Léon Gaumont in 1902. The first Phonoscènes were presented by Gaumont in 1902 in France. The last phonoscene was presented in 1917.
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Phonofilm
Phonofilm, system used in the 1920s to provide sound synchronized with motion pictures. A sound track was photographically recorded on the film by a beam of light modulated by the sound waves. The sound was reproduced during projection by directing a beam of light through the sound track onto a photocell, the response of which was electronically amplified.
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Sound-on-film
Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track, and may record the signal either optically or magnetically. The sound and film were always synced if something in the film needed to be cut.
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Sound-on-disc
Earlier technologies were sound-on-disc, meaning the film's soundtrack would be on a separate phonograph record. Music and dialogue were recorded on waxed records that were played in sync with the film via a turntable connected to a film projector through an interlocking mechanism.
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Vitaphone
a sound-on-disc system. The system was first embraced by the Warner Brothers and over 100 short subjects were produced at the Warner Brothers-First National Studios in the mid 1920s. The cumbersome equipment, used to produce and show the product, did not create a demand for more talking films and the inconsistent quality of the synchronized sound system often produced unintentional laughter from audiences.
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Movietone
an optical sound-on-film method of recording sound for motion pictures that guarantees synchronization between sound and picture. It achieves this by recording the sound as a variable-density optical track on the same strip of film that records the pictures.
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Photophone
a telecommunications device that allows transmission of speech on a beam of light. It used modulated light as a means of wireless transmission.
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Emigres
The 1920s were the first decade during which American firms systematically sought foreign talent and in which emigres had a major influence on Hollywood filmmaking.
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Vamp
vamping was a term that was used to describe a homewrecker, or feminine character who would publicly seduce the cameraman through various actions and behaviors. a term that could be used to refer to a femme fatale character. at the furthest end of the virtue spectrum in silent film was probably the vamp. She definitely did not inhabit the same solar system as the virgin or ingénue. Edgier than the flapper, the vamp conveyed a mystery and created a role which allowed actors of ‘exotic’ backgrounds to break into film. Anna May Wong inserted into this persona.
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Flapper
characters were fun, carefree, adventurous, and free-spirited, but never vampy or obscene. Colleen Moore, Josephine Baker.
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Femme Fatale
a seductive and beautiful woman who brings disaster to anyone with whom she becomes romantically involved. rejects motherhood and highlights the distinction between love and eroticism. She embodies sexuality unfettered by nuptial bonds and loosed upon society, she pursues pleasure as opposed to reproduction through sex, and she denies men the ability “to perpetuate themselves”
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Modernity
Modernity painted in negative light through city girl femme fatale or portraying city attitudes as hedonistic.
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Film Score
an original piece of music that is written and tailored for a specific film. before any music that fit the mood of the film was played but now there was music specifically made for the film that came with it.
