Silent Movies & Evolving Technology

       Many film scholars have said before that the formative years of film making was when some of the best stories were put on screen. Silent movies do that by taking away the distractions of speech and the fear of words being misunderstood or misinterpreted. Leaving the storytelling to the facial expressions, gestures, and body language of the actors as well as the musical score lets the audience get a sense of bliss as they are required to pay attention and follow the story. This early technology forced producers and directors to write out the best possible plot they could and have each scene explain as much as it could about the story visually. These early films also taught audiences the importance of symbols hidden within the background of the scenes.

       Some of the best silent movies were able to utilize the movement and actions of the actors before the introduction of sound made directors reliant on the dialogue. That is why it is easy to keep track of an action movie that is more action than dialogue. Sound and new technologies definitely supply filmmakers with more potential for their artistic expression, but that’s not to say that it didn’t make them lazy in a way.

       Our screening this week, “Sunrise”, focused on a very simple yet effective and important storytelling method. In this timeless story of betrayal by F.W. Murnau, a farmer is seduced by a woman from the city, and is prompted to kill his wife. The film revolves around each shot reflecting the drama and inner meaning behind the characters motives. The individual parts of the film such as mise en scene, lighting, and the camera position had to be highlighted so the audience could recognize the feelings, feel the pauses, and get a real sense of how they can all work in unison without being verbally portrayed.

       With all that in mind, the silent film era also gave birth to a litany of editing techniques that today’s storytelling process still relies on heavily. Both basic and advanced techniques have survived the test of time, some examples being: cross cutting, alternate endings, the 30-degree rule and the 180-degree rule, flashbacks, match on action, and so on. Things like the juxtaposition of images (the Kuleshov effect) and continuity editing are all filmmakers needed to go from minute long extreme realism to 90 minute masterpieces.

       Of course with longer movies comes more convoluted plot lines and therefore, bigger sets, more actors, and some ideas that require a little out of the box thinking. Some silent films could be credited with laying down the foundation for special effects work. Like in George Melies “Trip to the Moon” in 1902, which was pure fantasy at the time of its production. He experimented with disappearances, clones of the same person, and even hand painting his films to give them a little color. By 1927, as we can observe in Fritz Lang’s film, “Metropolis”, special effects had evolved and created its own genre of science fiction, forever unbounding the limits of creation.