Greta Garbo
Friday, May 31, 2019
Scott Lord Silent Film: The New York Hat (D.W. Griffith, Biograph)
Directed by D.W. Griffith, the film features the first photoplay written by Anita Loos. Subsequently, Loos was to write the scenarios and screenplays to films which starred Douglas Fairbanks. The New Movie Magazine during 1930 nostalgically related that the film had also introduced Lionel Barrymore to the screen and that Loos, who had only been sixteen years old at the time of its release, had received “the large sum of $15” for writing the film.
In the short scenes of Griffith’s film, Mary Pickford is shown to the right of the screen in medium close shot, trying on a hat, her hands and elbows shown in the frame. Griffith cuts on the action of her leaving the frame to exterior shots. In a later scene, Griffith positions her to the left of the screen, and, his already having shown time having elapsed between the two scenes, then brings the action back to the right of the screen frame. As an early reversal of screen direction, or screen positioning, there is the use of screen editing in between the complimentary positions of showing her in the same interior. During the film the actress is, almost referentially, often kept in profile, facing to the right of the screen. Although Griffith may have been still developing editing techniques, it has been noted that the acting style in the film can be seen as an example of a more naturalistic and less histrionic acting style than that of other contemporary films.
Silent Film
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Scott Lord Silent Film: A Romance of Happy Valley (D. W. Griffith, 1919)
One specific use of technique Griffith uses in the film to depict narrative is a cut back and forth within the scene to an inserted close shot to reveal the character’s thoughts of another person. Lillian Gish is seen in close up during the flashback soliloquy insert.
Silent Film
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Saturday, May 4, 2019
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)