silent films

Reflections on silent films

By Paul Dudson

In today’s movie making industry, a film has to make a big impact on its opening weekend otherwise it is deemed as unsuccessful. What do people expect to see though when they go to the movies? Great acting, great lines, special effects, heart stopping moments. The list could go on and on. I for one can appreciate watching an old classic where quite often these examples were not always in place. However, I was quite taken back by the silent films I was watching in class the other day. Charlie Chaplin in his silent movies to “man with a camera”, which was a documentary with no story line or actors. While sat in class watching these shorts clips being played to me, it didn’t take me too long to see how far we have come today with the technology we can create, but at the same time, I could appreciate for the time how interesting the stories were told and how much though had to go in to creating a story with no sound or famous actors as seen in the early days.

The reason there were no original movie stars in the first few years was because the camera quality wasn't the best and didn't have zoom, so many of the scenes being filmed were so far away that the abundance couldn't really see the persons face clearly enough. This all changed eventually as technology became more advanced and more directors became more creative, we were able to see more and more close ups of faces as seen in films such as "A trip to the moon" and "The cabinet of dr. Caligari". These are just two examples of many, but what we started to see was the range of close ups with different angles and lighting to create a more powerful message, especially in films either scary or without words.

One silent film is called "man with a movie camera", which was written and directed by Dziga Vertov. There were no story lines or actors throughout the whole documentary film. At first I was curious as to how this would keep me entertained for the whole time, but as the film went on, I could see that Dziga Vertov had used a variety of cinematography techniques, which I aims sure was cutting technology. I could see plenty of slow motion, jump cuts, split screen, shots played backwards etc. "The film has an unabashedly avant-garde style, and emphasizes that film can go anywhere". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_with_a_Movie_Camera)

What I liked about "Man with a movie camer" was that its aim wasnt to tell a story, but to show the audiance what a camera could do with a bit of post editing. To look at this now, we can see how many films today have copied and used the styles shown, making this film even more ground breaking and impotant to the production of film. I can see that Dreyer wasnt afraid to test and try new ways of filming whilst also showing scenes that might not have been proved approprite for the view - The woman giving birth scene. These are scenes that were aimed at showing the day to day lives and happinging in his country.

A film I enjoyed watching a silent film by Carl Theodor Dreyer's called "The passions of Joan of arc", which I felt stood out for its camera work of the facial areas and mass amounts of close up shots which were very short and sharp. The film was based around the trial of Joan of arc, which lead to her execution. It seemed that if there was ever a question aimed at Joan, it required a close up of everyone’s face to get their expressions as she answered their questions. As this film used sounds such as choir singing, it allowed the director to add certain types of the song to specific scenes during the film, which in turn brought more emphasis on the picture.

I Think something these films had going for them was that they were visually intreiging as they were all in black and white. This along with how objects were placed in the shots and the angles the camera was placed at to grab such experimental images. I think people are able to learn a lot from the old classic films. I for one find some of the effects they did very interesting.