CIN201Y1 Lecture 3: lecture 3
Lecture I-3: Early Cinema in Transition I: Style
Lecture Structure:
1) Introduction: Two Phases of Early Film Style
2) Early Film Style as an Example of The Cinema of Attractions
3) Early Film Style Before 1907
--frontality / pov / emblematic close shot / temporal overlap
4) Transitional Style: 1907-1913
--mise-en-scène / cinematographic properties / editing
Introduction: Two Phases of Early Film Style
Question [from last week]: “How and why did cinema emerge at the end
of the 19th century?”
Possible explanatory frames: Cultural: 19th-century modernity’s changes
to conceptions of time and space / Technological: proliferation of relevant
innovations required for cinema / Economic: entrepreneurs capitalizing
on public’s desire for visual entertainment
Early cinema style falls into two distinct phases: 1895-1906/07 and
1907/08-1913.
New Questions: Why is early cinema style different from the later style
that we associate with the classical period (i.e. after 1917)? Why did it
change in the ways that it did at the time that it did?
Early Film Style as an Example of The Cinema of Attractions
Understanding early cinema as a failed version of the classical style
distorts its unique identity and suggests a teleological approach to the
development of film style.
Recall Tom Gunning’s characterization of early cinema until 1907 as a
cinema of attractions, aimed at display over storytelling.
Document Summary
Lecture i-3: early cinema in transition i: style. Lecture structure: introduction: two phases of early film style, early film style as an example of the cinema of attractions. -frontality / pov / emblematic close shot / temporal overlap. Question [from last week]: how and why did cinema emerge at the end of the 19th century? . Possible explanatory frames: cultural: 19th-century modernity"s changes to conceptions of time and space / technological: proliferation of relevant innovations required for cinema / economic: entrepreneurs capitalizing on public"s desire for visual entertainment. Early cinema style falls into two distinct phases: 1895-1906/07 and. Early film style as an example of the cinema of attractions. Understanding early cinema as a failed version of the classical style distorts its unique identity and suggests a teleological approach to the development of film style. Recall tom gunning"s characterization of early cinema until 1907 as a cinema of attractions, aimed at display over storytelling.
