[Week1-2] Reflection-the Best Time Period of Cinema

Study real old films from the beginning of the cinema time period is really an enjoyable thing to do. When watching all the old short silent films, I keep putting myself into the audience's perspective, pretend this is my first time in life to see special effect and moving picture on screen.

In Lee Grieveson and Peter Krämer's book The Silent Cinema Reader, they state that"Lumière films (and indeed many of the films made up until about 1903) tended accordingly to be brief records of actual events or real-life scenes, so called actualities, a form aided also by the relative lightness of the camera developed by the Lumière" (2, Lee Grieveson & Peter Krämer). In my opinion, the actualities films and videos are still indeed attractive for me even until these days. Me personally really enjoy taking pictures and videos to record every little detail sweet moment in my life. Only saving them in my mind by memorization is not enough, I value the visual record a lot more heavier. This is why I always run out of my phone storage. I have a bunch of videos on my phone which even contain less concept than the Baby's lunch 1895 film, which I found not any less interesting than any films!

from a Marilyn Monroe Film

On Thursday's class meeting time, Amy and us discuss about how we feel about the old films, some of the classmates replied those short films are weird, I do agree they provide us a special feeling which I never have when watching the contemporary videos. On the other hand, I think they are weird in an enjoyable way. Even though I know they are not that much interesting and complicated, I can't stop watching them. Here are some explanation I have to try to figure out why old short films are attractive to me:

The speed are somehow off occasionally, people's actions in the old films are sometimes robotic like due to the varied playing speed on screen. Unlike the digital video we have nowadays, which everything is smooth and high quality, the old films bring a pleasant glitch feeling to me. I guess this is a counter new media and new visual element for me, which I found really new and original. After seeing everything shooting on high quality camera with 30fps or even 60fps rate, smooth actions with not-questionable visual effect, go back to see films with a little bit of ineffectual "special effect" with "shoddy cut" become quite enjoyable for me. For example, the Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) film we watch is so absurd if we watch with our contemporary gaze, it is so easy to see the car explosion is a shitty cut. However, which the historical eyes, I see things differently. The cut is so simple and weird, but create such a unique feeling to me.  Simply seeing motion picture is attractive to me, with the little disfunctional action, the old films are just cute and funny.

I need people tell me where this comes from lol

As I mentioned in my introduction, pure visual pleasure always amaze me, in the beginning 19 years of cinema, people are all so creative and try their best to screen some cool video with simple illusion. I agree with amy a lot that this is such a beautiful time of cinema!


Comments

  1. christathepotatoApril 18, 2020 at 6:37 PM

    I very much agree, there is something very special about capturing a moment with a camera as opposed to just having the memory of an event. A lot of older films are just brief records of events taken by the filmmaker, it can appear to be weird or insignificant to some but hold sentimental value to the filmmaker just as the videos we take to record our lives hold value to us. I liked your question in class on Thursday about what makes a video a film as opposed to just a video. I found myself wondering that too when watching some of the films, it would be an interesting topic to discuss further throughout the course.

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  2. astra medeirosApril 20, 2020 at 10:42 AM

    I too constantly take videos of things around me for memory sake. I think about the way in which people would play the picture in the theater and I wonder about the technicalities. Was there a machine that did it in later years to make it run smooth? As they 'cranked' the lever? Silent film, in a way, makes me think about simpler times. For the most part, no one had stabilizers or big boom mikes or other technologies that made filming more complex. Not to say that it wasn't complex at the time.

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    Replies
    1. Jamie DongApril 20, 2020 at 12:48 PM

      I don't understand the idea of "play the picture in the theater" part on your comment, what do you mean by "a machine that did it in later years to make it run smooth"? do you mean that type of high technique which make shooting smooth in a preset trajectory actually make the audience lose the experience of watching the pure and simple cinematography as in the past?

      Delete
  3. afreketeApril 24, 2020 at 9:29 AM

    I think the observation that you make about your urge document and its similarity to early film is really spot on! In fact, many film theorists compare current platforms like vine, tik tok and youtube to early film. The aesthetic impulses are very similar. In fact, I think with the onslaught of new technologies that digital technology advances ushered in there is much in common between the two eras in terms of rapid cultural change.

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