The Great Train Robbery and Early Developments


Some Terms

STYLES

REALISITIC:

Audience looking out a window. What you see is real. Film does not call attention to itself.

Alfred Hitchock’s Rope (no apparent cuts)
Documentary
Basically photographic a real event
 Narrative:
Some story line, but may have lots of trick photography. Attempt is to look real
 FORMALISM

Montage ( 2 meanings) Russian: Film calls attention to itself. Juxtaposition of images. Important part is editing
American: overlapping images in the frame (see opening of Sunrise

IMPORTANT TERMS

(see film terms link)

frame (2 meanings)

1. what is encompassed by the screen
2. an indicidual picture on a celluloid strip

 Shot: the basic unit of film. The film from the time the camera starts to run until it stops.
Take: The number of times a shot is filmed
Set-up: The placement of the camera and the lights
Establishing shot: a long shot that establishes where the action is set and often the mood
close up: a shot which is quite close to the person - often just the head, hands etc.
medium shot: a shot roughly equal to speaking distance from the submject
long shot: further away from the subject than general speaking disrtance
one shot: one person in the frame
two shot: two people in the frame
three shot: three people in the frame
Camera Movement Pan: camera moves horizontally on it own axis (comapre tracking shot)
Tracking: Camera moves on a moving object - track, wheel chair etc.
Tilt: camera moves vertically on its own axis.
Boom: camera moves vertically on a book or crane,

 Lenses

Wide angle (allows widest range from left to right (accetuates movement to and from camera)
normal: things appear as they do normally (movement appears more normal to and from camera)
telephoto: things appear much closer. (movement appears much less to and from camera)
 Transitions

cut: a switch from one shot to another
form cut: the two adjacent shots are linkde by a common shape in the film
jump cut: There is no link between the two shots
wipe: one shot appers to "push" another off the screen
iris In/out) Picture shrinks in a circle down to a dot (iris in) or dot enlarges to fill screen (out)
fade (in/out): picture grows darker until screen is black (fade out); picture grows from black to lighter and image is clear (fade in)
dissolve: fade in which overlaps fade out
superimposition: two images are apparent - one over the other.
rack focus: Not really a transition between shots, but where the focus changes during a shot so that what was in focus is no longer in focus and what was not in focus now is.
Vertigo Shot: Zoom in Dolly Out
 Some of these are done "in the camera" and some are done with optical printers. These are called "opticals".

What are films?

Film refers both to a strip of celluloid on which miages can be rendered by exposure to light and an art form.

What is art? (consider core – art, music required. Not film)

Many definitions.
If everything is ar then, nothing is art. No contrast
Art is a category that people use to classify certain things
We do not discuss people walking on the street as art – it is not presented that way. If we put people on a stage and have them walk we ask people to interpret it as art.
Kinds of arts

Graphic: 2 dimensional - painting
Plastic: 3 dimensional - sculpture
Performing: 4 dimensional (includes time) requires interpretation between creator and spectator – music, theater, film.

 Aesthetics

The study of art.
How does art “work” (depends on definition)
Does art have a message? If so how does it transmt the message.
Sender, code, medium message receiver etc.

 Theory (see Eleanor Rigby paper) Prague School theory - patterns are built and broken. The pattrn may be established in the culture or constructed by the artist
Where pattern breaks, the art form calls attention to itself.
Different art forms build patterns in different areas: poetry usessounds, grammar, choice of word and meaning (semantics).
Music uses harmony, melodic lines, different qualities of sound (timbre) by using different instruments and so on
Painting and still photography use color, texture, lighting, composition etc. Motion pictures use all those used by still photography PLUS editing and in more recent times, sound.

Film deals with PHOTOGRAPHY “writing with light” which is simlar in many ways to painting. Paintings and still photos are very similar the technique for producing the image is different, but certain aesthetic principles hole.- subject matter, positioning in frame (composition) use of light and shadow, color etc. What is a film: Piece of celluloid with many still photographs on it. Each “frame” is a still photo. It must have all the aspects of a still photo: focus, composition, and so on. It often contains symbolism. Historically: Zootrope: Round box like object with slits in the side. A paper with several images goes inside and when the box is spun on a spindle, the images viewed through the slits appear to move. Muybridge: Race horse problem: Are all four legs off the ground at once. Set of serial photos which are precursors to film

Theater and Film

Both are cooperative efforts with manypeople involved - some behind the scenes
Big different with theater – audience’s attention can be directed by camera work
Distance between audience and performers can be altered from extreme long shots to extreme close ups
 EARLY FILMS

Earliest films

Short films – length of film.
Special effects done by stopping camera
No camera movement: All action is by subjects on screen. Film documents performance. Like moving snap shot. No understanding yet of what can happen with camera movement, cuts and edits

Camera moves (phantom rides) Pans, tilts, tracks, dolly Edits

Cuts Jump Form Action Fast and slow motion
Reversal of film direction (sometimes by projectionist
Colorization in some scenes by hand painting; Others “tinted”
Little or no story telling => Trip to the Moon and The Great Train Robbery
 Early films have no editing (cutting between shots) Everything is in one “shot”. They tend to be documentaries: They document an event rather than being creative in their use of photographic techniques.Motion picture film begins to differ from still photography more and more as several possibilities are realized.

(1) time becomes an element along with motion (Motion requires duration or time)
(2) Some special effects appear early. If you stop the camera and start it again things can “pop” in and out of view.
(3) Camera begins to move
a. Initially on moving objects like trains
b. Later it “pans”
 (4) camera shifts its position relative to the subject (close-ups)
(5) Editing happens
(6) often little or no story telling
(7) special effects are in place - largely making things appear and disappear
In effect film becomes a distinctive art style largely through the introduction of mechanisms which are not available to other art forms. When a play is filmed, it may either remain static and appear the way the play would to a spectator, or the film can take on a life of its own based on camera movement, camera (both in placement and in actually moving – panning, tilting, tracking, etc.)
A film which documents a play has little to offer as a film, when the film becomes artistic is when the people involved in making the film exploit those areas (domains) that are unique to film – this includes all of the visual arts to which an element of time (which allows for motion) can be introduced.
In a single still photo (or single frame from a piece of film) there can be no camera movement, no change of position of camera and no editing.

Notice the use of special effects in Trip to the Moon. This exploits the dimension of film by doing things that could not be done on stage - none the less the film looks like a stage play.

In The Great Train Robbery notice the use of color. Where does it occur? Can you find a pattern?

The last shot shows Justus D. Barnes firing directly at the camera. This is one of the first uses of close ups in a narrative film. The shot (both by the camera and the pistol) were very popular and often shown at the neginning and end of the film.