Unit 4 - Silent film

For this Unit we have been working on Silent films. A silent film is a film that has no dialogue or any audio at all so actors in the film need to exaggerate their movements and facial expressions for the audience to understand what's going on. 

History of Silent films

In the 1800s inventors like Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers worked on machines that projected images. The term 'silent film' is a bit wrong as these films were almost always accompanied with live sound. During the silent era (mid-1890s to late 1920s) a pianist, a theatre organist, and small orchestras would often play music to accompany the films. Pianists or organists would either play from a music sheet or improvise. Theatres in small towns usually had piano accompaniment, while larger theatres would just bridge the gap between a piano and an orchestra with massive theatre organs. Just like contemporary films, music was seen as essential to the viewing experience, changing the mood of the film as well as providing the audience with emotional cues. Sometimes a person would even narrate the intertitle cards for the audience. Intertitle cards were first seen in 1903 and consisted of framed texts either written or printed, that were inserted randomly between sequences of the film for one of a variety of purposes. Generally there were two types of title cards: dialogue inter titles which were used to convey dialogue, and expository intertitles which provided a narrative incase what was photographed couldn't convey the full situation by itself.  Title cards were also used for narrations in the same way that films today use voiceovers. There was even an Oscar given to a film for an extraordinary use of intertitles.

Though experiments in synch-sound motion pictures date back to the Edison lab in 1896, it wasn't until the 1920s that the necessary technology, such as vacuum tube amplifiers and high-quality was available to make "talkies" commercially viable. Over the next several years, there was a race to see which company would bring silent films into the sound era in the best, most efficient way. It could have been done in a number of ways:

Sound-on-disc

Sound-on-disc would involve using a phonograph to play a film's sound in sync with the film, but with a separate system with a mechanical interlock to keep the audio and video systems syncronised.
 

Sound-on-film

Another option was sound-on-film, which involved physically recording the sound onto strip of film alongside the frames of the picture. This made synchronisation of sound and picture seamless but that meant new and expensive projection equipment.

Acting in silent films was a much more physical process. Since actors weren't able to speak, they relied on body language and facial expressions so the audience could understand what's happening in the performance. In some cases, directors wanted their actors to portray a larger-than-life body language and expressions to add emphasis to scenes. Slapstick comedy was a common acting form due to it being very visual; actors could be funny with their outlandish movements and not need to have much emotional range or depth as actors. Actors such as Charlie Chaplin was very well known when it came to slapstick comedy. However, American audiences began to express their preferences for more natural and realistic performances as early as 1914. As the frame sizes grew and the audiences could see in more detail, it allowed for more subtleties and allowed actors to be more experimental with their emotions. After the invention of film, exploring methods of communicating dialogue to the audience led to title cards, intertitles. First used in 1903s 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', intertitles made translating films for foreign audiences simple: All you'd have to do is replace the title cards with translations of the text, put the new cards in the same place in the film, and the film could be enjoyed by viewers in other countries. This is where the idea of subtitling came from. However, when the invention of sound was invented in the 1920s intertitles were no longer needed, so foreigners could hear the dialogue but could not understand it. Studios considered making films where the actors would shoot multiple scenes in different languages but this was too expensive and would take too much time.

websites:
Link: https://octaneseating.com/blog/history-of-silent-movies/
Link: https://www.vicaps.com/blog/history-of-silent-movies-and-subtitles/
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film

Silent Film Shorts

In class we had to work on a short silent film that could be a romance, comedy, or horror that have to include transitions, intertitles, and music. In groups we had to come up with a storyline then record using our phones making sure we had different scenes and camera angles. In my group I was with Aya, Ola, Duana, and Keana. Our short silent film is about two robbers who plan to kidnap this rich lady's daughter and in return to get her daughter back she needs to pay them £2 Million. However, the robbers have a few setbacks along the way. This was an idea I suggested to the group and everyone agreed and went along with it. When it came to the setting and what locations we should use as we were meant to have different scenes it was hard for us to choose so we all agreed on just using one room for the whole short film. Our first time recording we just did a practice run through to see what our scene would be like and planned it through step by step to get an idea of what we want our film to be like and played around with camera angles to see what we thought looked better for the film. Overall, I thought the film went really well and we all worked together and had fun. This helps because it works on our communication skills and team work as well as making sure we are paying attention and listening to each other. 

Solo Silent Film

During online lessons we also did our own silent movies which also had to be romance, comedy, or horror themed. During online lessons we got to watch a silent movie called 'Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages' (1968). The whole short film was basically about the director Benjamin Christensen's study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German guide, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of witch-hunts. This was helpful when watching as it gives an idea of what a silent film looks like and how it should be filmed and helped me with what kind of silent film I'd want to make in the process.

We also had to draw a plan on what our we want our silent film to be like. My silent film is Horror themed and it's about this person who is home alone watching tv when suddenly they hear a knock on their door, they go to check who it is but nobody's there. They go back to watching tv thinking they're alone when in dark someone or something is lurking watching them. Recording this silent film was really fun and I had fun in creating the story and messing with different camera angles to see what was best for the film. If there was anything I would say to improve on that it was a bit rushed and I didn't use many different camera angles so if I ever had to do any sort of film in the future I would take my time and be more experimental with the camera angles and make sure that everything is perfect instead of rushing things just to finish them. Doing this project helped me become more independent when it comes to creating things like this and coming up with ideas on my own and tested my creativity when it comes to coming up with ideas leading up to recording the silent film, if I had a chance in the future to do something like this again I wouldn't mind because this was really fun to make.