Script:
Listen to part of a lecture in a film studies class.
In the first two decades of the twentieth century, cinema established itself as a powerful mass medium. Movies were a popular entertainment for working people, but they were more than just entertainment. Movies were also regarded as high art by the intellectuals of the day. Many people believed that cinema—or film—would be the defining art form of the new century.
Even in its earliest years, film was developing its own style—a style that was distinct from that of the theater. But what do we mean when we speak of film style? To put it simply, style is the texture of a film’s images and sounds. It’s the filmmaker’s systematic use of the techniques of the medium—for example, staging, lighting, performance, camera framing and focus. Editing and sound also contribute to style.
A few filmmakers of the silent era were already developing film style, most notably in the editing technique of cutting. Cutting is when the action is broken up into separate shots, or pieces of film, and then the shots are recombined to tell the story in a coherent way. Before cutting, the action in films was like it was in the theater. The action took place far away from us. and it was continuous—it wasn’t interrupted by any closer views of the actors.
Early film critics didn’t like films that looked too much like theater. Theater was a well recognized art form with its own traditions and methods. However, film was something new. and well, it was an art form that owed its birth to the technology of the moving picture camera. The critics preferred to see stylistic camera work and editing—the techniques that set film apart from theater. A lot of critics felt that editing was the most important film technique. Cutting -the change from shot to shot - was regarded as the key to film artistry.
Another film technique—called cross-cutting—made it possible to tell two stories at the same time. Cross-cutting—it’s also called parallel action—it involves showing segments from two different sequences, moving back and forth from one to the other so the two stories appear to be taking place at the same time. Cross- cutting was used in the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery. The film shows bandits escaping from the scene of their crime, and then it cross cuts to a scene where the townspeople are dancing at a party, unaware the robbery has taken place. The audience easily understands that the two scenes are going on at the same time.
The person who usually receives the credit for inventing most film techniques is D.W′ Griffith. While Griffith didn′t invent everything about film actually he defined and redefined the innovations of other filmmakers—he created movies that critics and audiences recognized as a unique narrative form. This is because he perfected the elements of film “grammar” and the art of the story film.
Instead of having one camera shoot a scene from one position. D.W. Griffith filmed each scene from many angles, and then he pieced together the sequences in the editing room. He used editing to heighten and control the dramatic impact of a scene. He introduced analytical editing, that is breaking down a scene into shots that show closer views of people′s faces or gestures. These closely framed shots are known as close ups. The close up conveys a character’s emotions through subtle changes in the eyes, mouth, and brow. After D.W. Griffith, the close-up became a standard tool in the language of film.