CIN201Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Firefighter
Professor Charles Keil Sept. 30, 2016
CIN201 TUTORIAL 3
EARLY CINEMA (EXHIBITIONIST PERIOD TRANSITIONAL PERIOD)
1. EMBLEMATIC CLOSE-UP doesn’t quite fit into the film, not part of the narrative;
part of the EXHIBITIONIST PERIOD
2. DEEP STAGING during TRANSITIONAL PERIOD, people are lined up behind each
other, promotes depth on screen (uses mise en scène)
3. CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS directly solicits spectator attention through spectacle,
supplies visual pleasure, audiences are not interested in narrative; the spectacle is the
attraction, a unique event in cinema (Tom Gunning’s term for PRE-1907 film)
4. TEMPORAL OVERLAP showing the same action more than once so that the full
action can be shown without cutting away from the space; spatial integrity is more
important that the continuous narrative
Ex. “American Firefighter”
READING: MUSSER
• “rise of the Nickelodeon” (going to see a film for a nickel)
• cinema becomes more respectable
• films have to be improved and lengthened
• changes became reflected in the films
- pre-1913 era relied on audience familiarity (films could run very quickly, depending
on the demographic)
film couldn’t tell its own story without relying on exhibitors
- audio/narration changes sound effects of trains, people acting out dialogue and
others talking behind the screen, etc.
- editing was used to tell the story in an easier way
- understanding shifts to PRODUCER rather than EXHIBITOR
SCREENING FILMS
• various techniques are used to convey certain feelings (audience is expected to have more
emotion at this point); EDITING and CLOSE SHOT most often
- suspense (split screen)
- sadness (pan of landscape at beginning and end)
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