Chapter 2 Inventions and Origins 63Th e emerging artistry of cinema was seen not only in editing but also
through the progress of cinematography, musical composition, and acting
suited to motion pictures.The Growth of an Art Form
Cinematographers and directors put the camera onto dollies in order to
create new perspectives for the viewer, add dramatic emphasis to scenes,
and augment the creative potential of visual artistry and storytelling in the
cinema. By the mid-1920s, camera movement became another tool commonly
used by directors to move through a space, reveal details, and enhance action
in a dynamic way, such as in fi lms by those mentioned earlier and Murnau
and Lang in Germany, Bernard and L’Herbier in France, Ito and Shimizu in
Japan, Borzage and Vidor in the United States, and Kozintsev and Trauberg
in the Soviet Union.
Filmmakers also paid more attention to the quality of photography through
the manipulation of light and art direction. Once again, artistry and advances
in technology are intertwined to tell the story of the cinema. In the 1910s,
references began to be made in relation to painting and the attention artists
give to light in the depiction of a scene. Technically, cinematographers began
to work in studios where complete illumination of a scene was required, thus
allowing them to experiment with varied styles of lighting. Conversely, some
fi lms used real locations to capture busy or gritty urban settings, such as Paris
or New York, or exotic locales, from ice-bound regions to jungles to deserts.
When surveying motion pictures from this period, it is clear that fi lm had
developed into a fully expressive art form, and virtually all of the basic tools
of fi lmmaking seen today were in place. Stunt work became quite remarkable
in a variety of fi lms, from the adventure movies of Douglas Fairbanks to the
comedies of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Visual eff ects were present
from the beginning of fi lm history, starting in the studios of Georges Méliès
and seen in the sophisticated matte work of early glass plate painters who
contributed to Hollywood motion pictures from the 1910s and became an
element of the studio system from the 1920s.
Th e variety of work necessary to produce movies that told interesting stories
was becoming more intricate and called for increasingly complex solutions.
Filmmakers needed to set up a convincing world in front of the camera and
to arrange shots into sequences that pulled the spectator along eff ectively.
Discussing the art of comedy in motion pictures, Buster Keaton observed,
Comic eff ects are fl eeting. Th ey must be initiated at a very precise
moment, allow the audience the time to recover themselves, then
following that circumstance, to be pushed to the brink or to recover
their progression. In their rhythm, it is necessary for them to have
a mathematical precision, and this rhythm is a science whose
responsibility is entirely dependent on the fi lm director. A fi lm
comedy is assembled with the same precision as the inner workings
of a watch.VIEWFINDER
“To my mind, the camera
placement and lighting
can help to tell as much
of the story as the script.
Photography is, after all,
writing with light, telling
the story with pictures.
For me, photography
visualizes feelings.”–Ernest Dickerson–
Cinematographer of Spike
Lee’s fi rst six feature fi lms;
director of feature fi lms such
as Juice (1992) and episodes of
television series including Th e
Wire, E.R., and Lincoln HeightsCopyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).