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fandomhigh2009-08-04 10:02 am
chosehumanity) wrote in fandomhigh2009-08-04 10:02 am
Entry tags:
Film Through The Ages, Tuesday, Period Three
"Sound!"
Mitchell wasn't looking more than averagely nervous this week. Really, he wasn't. If anything, overeager might have been the word. "The Jazz Performer came out in 1927, cementing the presence of sound in cinema," he started, grinning lightly and trying not to look too much in Jack's directionif he was there. "They'd been working on different ways to introduce sound to cinema since the early 1920s, but it wasn't until the 30s that it was really accepted. Studios thought that if they put sound to film, it might compromise what they'd been doing with camera movements, with mise-en-scene..." He clacked his tongue. "That was crap," he said, succinctly.
"Of course, The Jazz Performer only had a couple of talking scenes. Had to start simple. They had to develop a common standard first, between the studios, or nobody would be able to play each other's movies in their theatres. But by 1928 The Lamps of Philadelphia had come out, and sound had finally found its place in cinema. Internationally, different countries had their own developments. The Russians always liked to keep seperate, while Europe had the Tobis-Klangfilm company to add noise to their films. In Britain, it wouldn't be until 1929 and The Chanting Idiot before sound was even taken seriously. It took a big flight at that point, as Hitchcock made his big entrance through Extortion and began to experiment with sound, overlaying scenes with different soundtracks."
He drummed a rhythm on his knee. "In the US, during the age of sound, the studio system had expanded to form the big five, Paramount, MGM, 20th Century-Fox, RKO and, again, Warner Brothers. Sound a bit more familiar than the ones from last week, yeah?" He grinned again. "Then you had the little three, Universal, Columbia and United Artists, which suffered from the resignation of stars like D.W. Griffith. Things were exciting back then, as sound wasn't the only thing they dove into, there was colour as well. Those cartoons we talked about last week? Those were the first true colour films the world ever saw. At least, in the way we know it. Back in the 1920s, colour film tended to look like someone had thrown up on it."
He looked more than a little overly amused, yes. "It took a while to warm up to colour as well, as they debated back and forth: what do we use it for? Where does it help? Where does it hurt? In what kind of film does it fit? The coming of the optical print didn't help, as suddenly, there was loads of stuff people could do with film, like masking it or putting frames together like a puzzle," he made a gesture with his hand, "To help with montage or just throw a lot of news headlines at you."
He clapped his hands together. "All of this came together to birth new genres of film," he said, "Like musicals, and screwball comedy," he had a fond smile, at that, "Horror, gangsters, and film noir." He could be here into next week, really. "It was the real dawn of movies, the real coming of inspiration, of stories, of putting everything together and just-- flying with it. Capturing the human condition in all of its forms. We-- the crowds watched with wonder to catch everything as it came at them, something for everyone." He rubbed his gloves together. "But we'll go into genre some other time. You need to have time for films like The Cyprese Hawk or The Final Dictator. Really make some room for them. Right now, we'll be focusing on all of these new innovations, and what they might mean."
He nodded at the Danger Shop set-up, with its back-projected wall and the stereotypical 'car' prop set up in front of it. "Try out a scene," he instructed, "We'll run the back wall, and one of you will pretend to be driving while the two of you have a conversation." He might have enjoyed that too much. "I'd show you the great classic of the era, Denizen Blaine today, but that takes time. Go seek it out. We'll devote ourselves to another classic today-- Swinging Time. It's Rogers and Astaire. They used to be the big romantic team of their time."
[[wait for the ocd up! ]]
Mitchell wasn't looking more than averagely nervous this week. Really, he wasn't. If anything, overeager might have been the word. "The Jazz Performer came out in 1927, cementing the presence of sound in cinema," he started, grinning lightly and trying not to look too much in Jack's direction
"Of course, The Jazz Performer only had a couple of talking scenes. Had to start simple. They had to develop a common standard first, between the studios, or nobody would be able to play each other's movies in their theatres. But by 1928 The Lamps of Philadelphia had come out, and sound had finally found its place in cinema. Internationally, different countries had their own developments. The Russians always liked to keep seperate, while Europe had the Tobis-Klangfilm company to add noise to their films. In Britain, it wouldn't be until 1929 and The Chanting Idiot before sound was even taken seriously. It took a big flight at that point, as Hitchcock made his big entrance through Extortion and began to experiment with sound, overlaying scenes with different soundtracks."
He drummed a rhythm on his knee. "In the US, during the age of sound, the studio system had expanded to form the big five, Paramount, MGM, 20th Century-Fox, RKO and, again, Warner Brothers. Sound a bit more familiar than the ones from last week, yeah?" He grinned again. "Then you had the little three, Universal, Columbia and United Artists, which suffered from the resignation of stars like D.W. Griffith. Things were exciting back then, as sound wasn't the only thing they dove into, there was colour as well. Those cartoons we talked about last week? Those were the first true colour films the world ever saw. At least, in the way we know it. Back in the 1920s, colour film tended to look like someone had thrown up on it."
He looked more than a little overly amused, yes. "It took a while to warm up to colour as well, as they debated back and forth: what do we use it for? Where does it help? Where does it hurt? In what kind of film does it fit? The coming of the optical print didn't help, as suddenly, there was loads of stuff people could do with film, like masking it or putting frames together like a puzzle," he made a gesture with his hand, "To help with montage or just throw a lot of news headlines at you."
He clapped his hands together. "All of this came together to birth new genres of film," he said, "Like musicals, and screwball comedy," he had a fond smile, at that, "Horror, gangsters, and film noir." He could be here into next week, really. "It was the real dawn of movies, the real coming of inspiration, of stories, of putting everything together and just-- flying with it. Capturing the human condition in all of its forms. We-- the crowds watched with wonder to catch everything as it came at them, something for everyone." He rubbed his gloves together. "But we'll go into genre some other time. You need to have time for films like The Cyprese Hawk or The Final Dictator. Really make some room for them. Right now, we'll be focusing on all of these new innovations, and what they might mean."
He nodded at the Danger Shop set-up, with its back-projected wall and the stereotypical 'car' prop set up in front of it. "Try out a scene," he instructed, "We'll run the back wall, and one of you will pretend to be driving while the two of you have a conversation." He might have enjoyed that too much. "I'd show you the great classic of the era, Denizen Blaine today, but that takes time. Go seek it out. We'll devote ourselves to another classic today-- Swinging Time. It's Rogers and Astaire. They used to be the big romantic team of their time."
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