PRO1 – Pre-production

“Silent film” By James Morgan

 

Fade In:

scene 1

The scene starts of with the narrator sat down on a chair looking into the camera.

narrator

Before making this documentary, I was appalled by the number of people who don’t know anything about silent film era of film making, even though it’s a big part of history itself. So, I set out to create an educational documentary detailing a few interesting topics about silent movies and hopefully you, the viewers learn something new.

scene 2

screen that says chapter 1 the making of silent film (This will be displayed like a silent film title card), appears on the screen then different movies appearing on the screen that have come out in recent years.

Narrator

Before the amazing soundtrack of Drive and the brilliant use of sound in the shining to create tension. We had silent film. But before we can talk about silent film, we need to know how film itself was created. The first documented use of film could be seen in use of magic lanterns which utilised a glass lens, a shutter, and a persistent light source to give the illusion of something moving. But motion picture really didn’t get discovered until 1877, when Eadweard J. Muybridge helped Governor Leland Stanford of California win a bet. In the bet the governor of California believed that at one point during a horse’s gallop, the horse would have all four hooves on the ground while his friend believed that the horse would not do this. To back up his point the Governor hired Muybridge to take a picture of a horse with all four of its hooves on the ground while it gallops. But taking a picture of a fast animal seemed to be a difficult task for Muybridge especially seeing as though it was 1877. But the problem was solved when Eadweard J. Muybridge found the help of John D. Issac who was the chief engineer for the southern pacific railroad. With his help they created a device with a system of magnetic releases to trigger a series of photos. The governor was thrilled with the visual proof that he had caught of a horse with all four of its four hooves on the ground. Muybridge later took all the credit for the machine, but he didn’t try to develop on the idea of moving picture. It wasn’t until 1889 when Thomas Edison had begun his experiments with film until the next breakthrough was found. With his findings he invented the kinetograph and kinetoscope. With these devices people could shoot films and project them onto the screen, but it wasn’t that great seeing as though the projector only allowed one person to view footage at once. After Edison’s invention Auguste and Louis Lumiere improved his invention by creating the Cinematographer, this was more portable and particle of a device and allowed multiple people to view the movies at once. They also made their first film, sortie de l’usine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894 and is considered the first true motion picture.

scene 3

The scene fades to black then a title card appears saying chapter 2: The movies

narrator

After the invention of film and projectors came the golden age of silent film. Movies where being massed produced and these movies where making millions. One of these movies was “Birth of a nation” which made up to $10,000,000 and is still one of the most successful silent films to be created. The came out in 1915 and was directed by D. W. Griffith. Before birth of a nation no other film had done what, it did, which was establish movies as an international art and industry almost overnight. At three hours long, birth of a nation was at least twice as long as an average film for that time. The movie story is spilt into two parts, the first part of the film which was more than a third of the total film. Dramatizes the events leading up to the American civil war and the war itself. In the movie especially, this part of the movie Griffith does an amazing job creating iconic scene that showed the impact of war and its effects on people. The second part of the movie is properly the reason why you know the movie because of its glorification of the Ku klux Klan and its treatment of the black community. This choice made by D. W. Griffith would later ruin his reputation and the reputation of what could’ve been a brilliant movie.

The second movie I want to discuss is the sci-fi epic Metropolis. Which was directed by Fritz Lang and was released in 1927. This movie is known for being the godfather of sci-fi itself and for its time one of the biggest movies ever made with 13,000 extras called in and 200,000 costumes made. Critics at the time applauded the beautiful visuals and its ambitious technical achievements, but other critics where also quick to attack the movie for being anti-technology and accused it of ripping off other works. With a run time of 2h 22m the plot follows a highly technical city of metropolis where wealthy industries reign at their high-rise towers, while underground-dwelling poor workers operate the great machines that power the whole city. Joh Fredersen a wealthy man goes down to the undergrounds after people are dying on the machines. After discovering the horrors of the underground, Joh helps the uprising of the workers and defeat the evil corporations that used them. The special effects in this movie are also fantastic thanks to the effects expert Eugen Schüfftan who used such effects as applying a camera on a swing or the Schüfftan process where mirrors where used to create the illusion that actors are occupying miniature sets. Overall this movie is brilliant and is still used to this day for inspiration for other movies.

 

scene 4

The previous scene fades to black and a new title card appears which says chapter 3: The Actors and actresses.

Narrator

With such great movies you would also need great actors and actresses to stars in roles for the movies. Because of this some people became famous within the silent film era. You may know even know some of these people yourself (not personally of course) The first actor I want to talk about is the famous Charlie Chaplin. Born 16^th April 1889 in Walworth, London, Charlie Chaplin became Probably the most famous artists of all time, Charlie had a unique persona when on screen where he would dress up in a bowler hat, baggy trouser, oversized boots, moustache and a funny walk. He was also known for directing must of the movies that he was in. His most successful movie of the silent film era was “The gold rush” which came out in 1925 and stars and is directed by Charlie Chaplin. The movie made $4,250,000 during its run. Another great actor that came out of the silent film era was the famous Buster Keaton who was a director, actor, screenwriter and stunt performer for most of his movies. Buster was known for doing all his own stunts when making his movies and made many successful movies like “cops” and “Sherlock Jr” and made many more, in fact by the end of his career he had completed nearly 150 films. But his most successful film was “The general” which was one of the most successful comedies of the silent era. My final actor I want to talk about is the actress Greta Garbo. Garbo was a Swedish-American film actress and one of the most glamorous and popular stars during the silent era.  Her first role was in a Swedish movie called “the saga of Gosta Berling”. Her performance on the film caught the attention of louis B. Mayer the chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also know as MGM. This brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She landed her first role in the movie “Torrent” and this quickly brought her on the radar. Then her third movie “Flesh and the devil” made her an international star. She would later receive the first of three academy awards throughout her life because of her performance on that movie.

scene 5

The previous scene fades to black and a new title card appears which says chapter 4: The fall of silent film.

narrator

Although the silent film era was massive and shaped how movies will be presented for years to come. Movies where being able to record sound for the first time and forced the movies industry into a new milestone. The first movie to use sound was the “jazz singer” which was released on October 6, 1927 and it only contains two minutes worth of synchronising talking but that was enough to make the silent film era shake and crumble and the era of sound to rise. Everyone had different thoughts on the large change of movies some actors like Greta Garbo liked the change and would later create some of her best movies thanks to sound. Others didn’t like the birth of “talkies” and for this their careers hit the floor some examples where Vilma Banky, Mae Murray and Norma Talmadge. For production companies they where all trying to produce the next big “talkie” and didn’t even considerer half of the time in creating another silent film. Audiences themselves where mostly thrilled with the change even if they were a little sceptical at first. All these factors came together to ensure that silent movies would stay down and would only remain as a part of movie history.

Fade Out:

the end