Silent film

became the norm of entertainment for the public. Movies were being produced very early in the 20’s but had no audio and instead played a song over the film. Movies were helping in educating teens as they provided a whole new way to teach, being a visual aid with moving pictures as opposed to text or audible learning. Due to the success of the film industry, they made a 300 million dollar investment in order to upgrade to movies which contained sound which was revolutionary at the time. This…

Gene Kelly’s and Stanley Donen’s 1952 American musical comedy film that changed and made a mark in film history for his film techniques and is one of the greatest films of the sound era. It is a classic film for its joyous and cheerful musical numbers that burst with energy. The film blends a variety of genres such as musical, period and historical, romance, family, drama and comedy all into one. The storyline really captivates the audience’s attention and wins it way into your heart with it…

live orchestra to the silent film “The Mark of Zorro” directed by Fred Niblo made the film more thrilling. The bold music brought on a new approach to the humorous silent film. After viewing it, I now believe that all silent films should be viewed accompanying a performing orchestra or band of some sort. I loved how it offered an alternate source of not only entertainment, but information synchronized with moving images. Without the exhilarating background music, silent films seem tedious…

result that critics will continue discussing for nearly a century. However German director Fritz Lang, made such a decision for his 1931 film, M. Partly due to monetary constraints, and partly due to feelings that his own artistic vision would be compromised by including sound in his piece, the end result was a film with roughly a third in total silence. No film, as of yet, quite encapsulates the deafening power of silence like M. Lang uses sound, and lack thereof, to elicit emotional responses…

The development of sound in the cinema happened around the time two major social commotions were going on: the Great Depression and World War II. Before sound came about, most silent films were accompanied ranging from a piano/organ to a full orchestra. Inventors tried joining images to reproduce sound through phonograph records, but it was too difficult to synchronize the sound due to the inadequacy of loudspeakers for theater auditoriums. Finally in 1927, the Warner Brothers released The Jazz…

Dialogue in 1930s and 1940s’ Hollywood Films According to Bhullar’s experiment of testing intensity of emotions with AV(auditory-visual), VO(visual-only) and AO(auditory-only), audience perceived greater intensity of tested emotions, which were happiness and sadness, in AV speeches than those of VO and AO alone (Bhullar 193). Clearly, scientific evidence reinforces the cause of the storm of talkies. That is, dialogue conveys and augments the moods within the film, which directly influences…

director. Two films he participated, The Thief of Bagdad and Don Q, Son of Zorro, which brought the idea of swashbuckling into Hollywood for the first time and was continued to carry on by acting and directing, are landmarks in silent film industry. While I was amazed by his vividly-portrayed swashbuckling characters and his athletic charisma, I was also curious about the man behind his mask on the screen. What was his story? The early 20th century was the beginning of the Golden Age of film.…

Using different techniques and manipulations of sounds, audiences are influenced by this and become more immersed in the film. Some manipulations that are used in various films that we viewed throughout the course are things such as voice over narration that acts as a bridge while not completely breaking the fourth wall. As well as the careful planning of what soundtrack to use, which help to increase the influence a particular scene has on an audience such as in the Red Detachment of Women.…

individuals in the silent film era. According to Jon Lewis, his movies are mostly about intransigent racism or miscegenation. However, because the nature of racism in some of his work, it is understandably hard to appreciate the man for his craft. D. W. Griffith’s silent films are often Victorian melodramas with full of innovations to shot types in combination with editing to create compelling sequences. One of D. W. Griffith’s more recognized works is Broken Blossoms, a film about a Chinese…

assignment I thought I was going to be completely bored. I thought that since it was a silent film with music, I would not be able to understand what was going on and for a while I was right but as I continued to view the film, I completely understood what was going on. The Jazz Singer sparked a revolution by the film industry to have synchronized speech, singing, and music using the vitaphone. Even though the film only had two senses where the characters actually spoke and the rest of the…