View
219
Download
1
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
Silent Film was an Art Form
• Sophisticated Language of Film– Shot, Scene, Sequence– Lighting, Camera Angle– Editing– Mise en Scene (Staging the action)
Movies talk….
• Early experimentation with technology
– Synchronization
– Amplification
• By 1929 Silent film was history
– Early sound was characterized by inert camera encased in sound proof glass.
Problems with early sound…
• Limited or no mobility• Sound quality muffled• Microphone placement determined scene design• Mixing (sound realism)• SOF established at 24fps
– MOS or SIL was 16 fps
The Jazz Singer 1927
Basically a silent film with sound sequences
• Warner Brothers• Audiences were already intrigued with RADIO
• Heralded the ascendance of the “talkies”
• Jolson performs in blackface in several scenes
Major Economic Change in Industry
• Sound was expensive• New Needs
– Sound Stages– Theatres wired for sound– Many actors/directors did not survive the transition to
sound– Raided NY for
• stage directors• actors who could speak! • writers
Sound Revived the Film IndustryThe Little Three
• 1929– Paramount $15million vs. $8 million– Warner’s $17million vs. $2million– Fox $9million vs. $5million
It Happened One Night
• A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who's actually a reporter looking for a story. But then he falls for her...
• Director: Frank Capra• Release Date: 23
February 1934 (USA)
Screwball Comedy
• War of the sexes– Supplanted real sex – Verbal sparring/witty dialogue
• Women were equal or better
• Often took on or challenged the traditional roles or conventions for women
Famous Teams
• Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy– Adam’s Rib, Desk Set, Pat & Mike
• Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert– It Happened One Night
• Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn– Bringing Up Baby, Holiday
• Gable and Carol Lombard
Frank Capra 1897-1991
• 1903 Immigrant• WWI 2nd Lt. Navy
• worked for Mack Sennett • Later a director at Columbia
Pictures• Documentaries as well as
feature films (Why We Fight - WW2)
Recommended