CAS EN 175 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Boiling Point, Camera Lens, Russian Formalism

• School: Boston University
• Department: English
• Course: CAS EN 175
• Professor: Leland Monk

Document Summary

D. w. griffith: started as an actor and writer, worked his way up to director. He is sometimes called the father of film. He perfected the close-up, made them a standard procedure. Made hundreds of short (10-12 min) films, started with long takes, but takes got faster and shorter until the climax. 6 innovations: before griffith, most films had a theater model. The camera didn"t move and it was straight on. He moved the camera closer to the action: figured that the action itself should be beginning, middle, and end. Took out extraneous things: developed rembrandt lighting (one source of lighting, with shadow surrounding other things, gives more emotion, first part of the film are longer takes, then gets shorter and shorter as action builds. Shorter shot, more excitement: taught actors to act for camera, not stage act, tone it down, objects can act too. Griffith"s first feature length = birth of a nation, about the civil war, extremely racist, portrays.