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fandomhigh2009-07-28 08:39 am
chosehumanity) wrote in fandomhigh2009-07-28 08:39 am
Entry tags:
Film Through The Ages, Tuesday Period Three
"Last week, we talked about Europe," Mitchell started without much of a preamble. "This week, we'll be discussing the country you're standing in. The Great War gave a massive economic impulse to American society, but we're not here to talk about that kind of history. What matters is that in the 1920s, American film started to flood the markets. The Roaring Twenties were all about the fast pace of life and the big film studios really started to live. Paramount, MGM, Universal, Fox, Warner Brothers, all of these studios came to integrate themselves. They built their own studios with artificial lighting and editing systems."
He made a few gestures. "They developed many new forms of cinematography, like this blurry kind of image they created by taping bits of gauze to the camera." He had to let go of a laugh at... something, over that one. "They changed the film stock, too, so the camera could capture all of the colours, not just purples, blues and greens - and turn them into different shades of grey. It doesn't sound like much right now, but trust me, audiences were excited about it." He'd know, yes.
"It was also the rise of some of the first true star directors," he said, "D. W. Griffith had started early, of course, but you also had people like Cecil B. De Mille, who did The Ten Commandments, and John Ford, who shot a lot of the first early westerns. Europeans flooded the American shores again as well, looking for a bit of luck on film, see if they got anywhere. One of these blokes was called Charlie Chaplin. Some of you might've heard of him." He glanced around the room. "He used to do musical halls in Britain," he continued, fondly, "Sort of a big thing. But not as big as he became once he started doing comedies. Then there was Ernst Lubitsch, who shot Madame Ducherie and The Commitment Cycle and so on. F.W. Murnau who did Sunup, bringing expressionist style into American film. It didn't bring in a lot of money, but it had an effect like most could only dream about."
He swung his legs up. "Finally, the 1920s in America brought us animation," he said, "The techniques had been invented in the 1910s, but they didn't quite get it right until then. Brought us the first Mewix the Cat films. The Mouse came to be in that period, too - as Disney produced Big Boat Millie, which would establish them as the big cartoon powerhouse to be reckoned with."
"Animation was a big process," he said, "One artist would draw the key frames, another would draw the tiny movements in between, and then there was a lot of other stuff going on. I'd like you all to pair up and try that."
He made a few gestures. "They developed many new forms of cinematography, like this blurry kind of image they created by taping bits of gauze to the camera." He had to let go of a laugh at... something, over that one. "They changed the film stock, too, so the camera could capture all of the colours, not just purples, blues and greens - and turn them into different shades of grey. It doesn't sound like much right now, but trust me, audiences were excited about it." He'd know, yes.
"It was also the rise of some of the first true star directors," he said, "D. W. Griffith had started early, of course, but you also had people like Cecil B. De Mille, who did The Ten Commandments, and John Ford, who shot a lot of the first early westerns. Europeans flooded the American shores again as well, looking for a bit of luck on film, see if they got anywhere. One of these blokes was called Charlie Chaplin. Some of you might've heard of him." He glanced around the room. "He used to do musical halls in Britain," he continued, fondly, "Sort of a big thing. But not as big as he became once he started doing comedies. Then there was Ernst Lubitsch, who shot Madame Ducherie and The Commitment Cycle and so on. F.W. Murnau who did Sunup, bringing expressionist style into American film. It didn't bring in a lot of money, but it had an effect like most could only dream about."
He swung his legs up. "Finally, the 1920s in America brought us animation," he said, "The techniques had been invented in the 1910s, but they didn't quite get it right until then. Brought us the first Mewix the Cat films. The Mouse came to be in that period, too - as Disney produced Big Boat Millie, which would establish them as the big cartoon powerhouse to be reckoned with."
"Animation was a big process," he said, "One artist would draw the key frames, another would draw the tiny movements in between, and then there was a lot of other stuff going on. I'd like you all to pair up and try that."