[Week 3] Reflection-The beginning of the editing

As a film major kid who is really interesting in editing, The Silent Cinema Reader's reading of this week truly intrigues to me. The writing style Lee Grieveson and Peter Karmer use to depict the beginning of the cinema is lively and engaging. The way they talk about audience's feeling when they first see the edited 3 shot film by Smith successfully brought me back to the time and seeing the early cinema from the old audience's eyes. By comparison, I found Simon Popple and Joe Kember's reading too tedious...I just don't have that much patience to keep my interest on that book...

Since I talked a lot about view point in this week's forum already, I'd like to express some thoughts that I found in another theory G&K mention in their reading which is the Kuleshov Effect. Kuleshov describes the "essence of film art" as "the artistic vehicle of the cinema lies in the composition, in the way filmed pieces succeed each other"(51, G&K).  This effect is the magic of editing, the fact that in the world of editing, the editor can give meaning to the shots by arranging them in different way is so power and intriguing to me. With the film The Kiss in the Tunnel(1899) by George Albert Smith being brought out, I had a journey with the people in the past on the way to discover the power of cinema editing.

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The three simple shots with the beautiful composing background music on this version of The Kiss in the Tunnel(1899), I feel myself understood more how the people sees the world of cinema from the first time. It is also very interesting that every big events in the early cinema are all related to the train: Lumière borther's Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat Station (1895) as the beginning of the cinema, The Kiss in the Tunnel(1899) as the new wave of "Phantom Ride" and beginning of narrative film. I wonder what will come next and why do people are so fascinated by the train at that time period. Is that because not everyone has the experience of taking train so in this way everyone can sit in front of a screen but experience taking the train? or the moving camera as "dolly" shots viewing experience on the train is more a special fact to consider?

I also start imagine that what if I was in that time period and was a filmmaker? What will I decide to film that can attract the audience from a new perspective, what big creative moves I will make? Instead of filming on the train, I might want to try present something from the bird's eye view or bug's eye view!

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Comments

  1. AmyJune 12, 2020 at 8:02 PM

    I think that the Kember and Popple reading seems more tedious because they are really committed to the details of the historical moment which I think is the thing that I actually love about the book. The really understand a moment so removed from our current moment it is necessary to have the full picture otherwise we fill in the gaps inaccurately. That's just my two cents on it. Trains were a new technology so its natural that film rotated around it since it was also a new and awe inspiring technology. Also, they offer a unique and dynamic perspective and they appealed to filmmakers for that same reason.

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