While both films are considered to be the best of Buster Keaton’s body of work in the silent film genre. The General and Steamboat Bill Jr. have slight contrasts in their lighting. The cameras themselves, as well as the techniques and lighting effects, show the small gap in time between their release dates. Considering the films short span of time between the films’ respective completions, it comes as no surprise to find miniscule variance in the use of color, hard key lighting, and diffusion despite the fact the films treat the same subject. The General was one of Buster Keaton’s many films that he starred and directed in, in his quest to be one of silent films’ most recognizable faces. Among its predecessors were 1924’s release of Sherlock Jr. and Seven Chances in 1925. All directed by …show more content…
What makes The General significant is its use of diffusion and backlight. Bert Haines (1896-1991) shot the film on panchromatic film in sepia tone. Giving the film a pleasing dynamic image. Throughout the film, Haines capitalizes on the recent technological innovations in the 20’s with lighting instruments. Lighting the exterior of most shots balances the interior so that there are no harsh shadows on any of the faces. When lighting an exterior scene with a wide shot, not much could be done to balance levels. But when the director goes for a close-up or a medium shot, he uses diffusion or bouncing light to hide the hard quality of light from the sun. Diffusion and bounced light is in the movies since the late 1910’s and early 1920’s. Keeping the exposure of the actor’s face allows the audience to believe what is going on. The limitation of power on the non-studio shots makes lighting fixtures difficult to power. Thanks to tungsten lights, which began standardization in mid 1920’s, allows them to run directly to AC power instead of a generator. Director
Many films of the silent movie era are melodramas, which was a term used back then purely as a descriptive word to describe a movie and not a ‘negative’ term the way we use the term today. Chaplin’s film is a melodrama that invokes the emotions of his audience. Some elements of melodrama are present in Chaplin’s film The Gold Rush, the characteristics of a melodrama aid in analysing how melodramatic a silent movie is. An element of melodrama is, a situation - an occurring conflict in the film created by the screenwriter to evoke an intense emotional response from the viewers.
In both films, a lot of the actions were taking place outside, so mostly sunlight was used and for the interviews the light was adjusted
This was the main reason why they remained the standard for outdoor sports lighting in the next 50 years. How did LED lights become a first option for stadium
Film noir is a cinematic style that began in the early 1940s that focused on the crime and corruption that occurs in everyday life. Film noir was influenced by two major film movements, German Expressionism and French poetic realism (Schrader 8). While German Expressionism influenced lighting techniques, realism affected narrative and cinematography. The Great Depression and World War II shaped film noir’s cynical tone that fate is uncontrollable. A classic example of film noir is the 1945 film Detour, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.
Kishan Patel Art 2901 Exam 1 Essay 1 (100 points) Early films by Edison and Lumiere involved very simple cinematography, little to no editing and simple realist mise en scene. However, Georges Melies, a theater proprietor and an amateur magician, laid foundation for the new generation films. In A Voyage to the Moon, he becomes first person to introduce a sci-fi film.
The scene of Norma and Joe watching Norma’s old film in the living room is filled with low key lighting. The scene is shot with a wide-angle lens showing both the character and some headroom above for the projection light. The projection behind Joe and Norma lights up both of their faces while everything else is
Mise-en-scéne is crucial to classical Hollywood as it defined an era ‘that in its primary sense and effect, shows us something; it is a means of display. ' (Martin 2014, p.XV). Billy Wilder 's Sunset Boulevard (Wilder 1950) will be analysed and explored with its techniques and styles of mise-en-scéne and how this aspect of filmmaking establishes together as a cohesive whole with the narrative themes as classical Hollywood storytelling. Features of the film 's sense of space and time, setting, motifs, characters, and character goals will be explored and how they affect the characterisation, structure, and three-act organisation.
The lighting in Donnie Darko movie is a key component of composition which creates our sense of illuminating for people and things. This movie uses two sources of lighting; natural light, such as daylight, when the scene is in an outdoor area for example, walking from school, at home, waiting at bus stop, or playing outside of the school on sunny days. Another source of light is artificial spotlight which is used in the movie indoors to cut and shape the light at the dining table, in the classroom or in the psychotherapist's house. Also, distinct shadows are used as an essentially smooth surface that reflects hard light in the Halloween party to feature deep shadows and scary areas in function of the plot. Three-points of lighting create ominous shadows in the horror genre for all the actors at Donnie and Elizabeth's Halloween party with lighting from below the cast to create monstrous objects in real life.
These different lighting techniques are applied in the movie to help set the tone and mood for the film scene. The
There are many things that make “Citizen Kane” considered as possibly one of the greatest films every made; to the eyes of the passive audience this film may not seem the most amazing, most people being accustomed to the classical Hollywood style, but to the audience with an eye for the complex, “Citizen Kane” breaks the traditional Hollywood mold and forges its own path for the better. Exposition is one of the most key features of a film, it’s meant introduce important characters and give the audience relevant details and and dutifully suppress knowledge in turn. “Citizen Kane” does not follow this Classic Hollywood style exposition, instead going above and beyond to open the film with revealing as little information as possible and confuse/intrigue
S. Porter in 1920, and serves as a perfect illustration for Gunning’s examples on Aesthetic of astonishment. This movie retells what happened during that period of time, when movie is first introduced. The naive reactions of early audience are shown here when people were shown clips of movies with no narrative-- purely “cinema of attraction” where the film main function is to attract audience as an attraction without narrative. Uncle Josh is a representative of how the audience should not have reacted; his reactions to the clips are exaggerated, but clearly demonstrate how early cinema audiences reacted to films when they first watched them. The beginning of the film is showing uncle Josh watching Parisian Dance, a dancing
The use of background light was an important focus in this picture, there was less attention to lighting the actors faces but in almost every frame there is well placed background light often combined with a moving light source. Repetition was also evident within the visual composition of the frame, the actors were rarely positioned within the center of the frame but always to the left or the right with a light source covering them from behind. Ridley Scott perfectly matches colorful high key light with low key lights creating impeccable contrast, this lighting used could be described as a modern Citizen Kane style. Although this is overall a very dark and low light film, the motif of shadows and darkness allows the beauty of light to truly be
" Film & History (03603695), vol. 39, no. 2, Fall2009,
In the movie, Edward Scissorhands, Tim burton uses low-key lighting when Peg meets Edward for the first time in a castle. Edward was sitting in a dark corner and there was just enough light to see his face but not his clothes. This shows the amount of loneliness of Edward and that he was sad and frightened but also willing to make a friend when he approaches Peg. Also, in the movie, Charlie in the
Tim Burton 's use of this helps show the contrast of the insider and outsider world. When the viewer is watching they get a sense of suspense and start to second guess whether or not they should trust the outsider. In Edward Scissorhands Burton uses a high-key low-key light contrast when Peg is in her car and sees Edward 's house in her side mirror. When the viewers are watching they get a frightened sense and wonder whether or not Edward or whomever is in the house will