Basic Film History

Homework Assignment
Sub code:
422

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Bijay Kumar Shrestha Fidel Sir

 Long Questions (Any 3)
1) Explain the rise andfall of the German Expressionist Cinema in the
20s in detail.

2) What led to the start of the Soviet Montage Movement? Briefly

describe the Soviet Montage Form and Style with examples.

3) Describe the Advent of Sound Era in cinema and how it

revolutionized the process of filmmaking?

4) How thepolitical development in the 30s shaped the cinema of

the USSR, Germany and Italy? Briefly explain with relevant case
studies.

5) How various governments used Cinema as a tool of

propaganda in the 20s, 30s,and early 40s? Explain in detail with
case studies.

6) Illustrate how the studio system of filmmaking took various forms

with references from the film industry in Britain, Japan, China and
India.

3) Describe the Advent of Sound Era in cinema and how it

revolutionized the process of filmmaking?
In simple terms sound is the vibration that travels through the air and can be
heard by another animal or a person. Humans and a lot of animals hear sounds
and some specific animals like bats depend on sounds to travel. In the context
of cinema in the early periods, sound was not yet possible to synchronize
alongside the “moving pictures” that began on late 18th century. Most people
consider that sound movies were not invented until 1928 with the release of
Warner's 'The Jazz Singer'. It is certainly true that this was the first film using
sound, but we must go back to the invention of the cinematograph to realize
that experiments were being carried out using sound as well as picture from
the very beginning. It was not until the invention of the ‘photocell’ by Hertz in
1887 and the 'Audion' valve by De Forest in 1907 that film sound became a real
possibility for large audiences. Fox released several short films in 1926 with a
Movie tone (The Movie tone sound system is an optical sound-on-film method
of recording sound for motion pictures that guarantees synchronization
between sound and picture, It achieves this by recording the sound as a
variable-density optical track on the same strip of film that records the
pictures) sound-track and a silent feature 'What Price Glory?' to which a
musical score had been added. Western Electric in 1925 developed a system
which successfully synchronized a turntable with a film projector. They tried to
interest Hollywood in the system but as the studios were doing good business
with silent films they were not interested. Warner Brothers on the other hand
were not making so much money since they did not own their own theatres
and were finding difficulty in getting their product screened. They decided to
give talking pictures a go. Signing exclusive contracts with Western Electric
they used the system Vitaphone and released their first sound movie 'Don
Juan' in 1926. Having been completed earlier as a silent movie the sound track
consisted of music and some synchronized sound effects, the screenings did
what Warner's had hoped for, and that was to raise the public's interest in
sound movies. 'The Jazz Singer' released in the following year was the film that
set the industry talking, the talkies had arrived.

Before the talkies, the process of film making was simple and everyone could
enjoy them without having to worry about language and things like how the
actor sounds in real life but the advent of sound created both opportunities
and problems in the process of film making. Sound made the cinema
experience even more amazing and realistic but at the same time it created
language problems, unlike the silent movies which could be understood by a
large number of audiences. The use of sound created racism in the sense of the
characters where most of the antagonists were Chinese, Red Indians or Jews
and also left some actors jobless just because the audience did not like the way
they sounded in real life. By the early 1930s, the talkies were a global
phenomenon. In the United States, they helped secure Hollywood's position as
one of the world's most powerful cultural/commercial centers of influence;
they had the big studios, newest techs and their own theatres. In Europe the
new development was treated with suspicion by many filmmakers and critics,
who worried that a focus on dialogue would subvert the unique aesthetic
virtues of soundless cinema. Sound cinema also influenced some censor boards
to make new laws of cinema, like the Hayes code , it was the set of industry
moral guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most
United States motion pictures released by major studios. Western Electric/ERPI
monopoly over sound in films forced other studios to look for alternatives but
in the format wars of the 1920s, however, the far more reliable optical sound
eventually won out and became the industry standard until the digital
revolution. The advent of sound revolutionized the film making process
globally and shaped the future of cinema as we know. In Japan, where the
popular film tradition integrated silent movie and live vocal performance,
talking pictures were slow to take root on sound but in India, sound was the
transformative element that led to the rapid expansion of the nation's film
industry.

2) What led to the start of the Soviet Montage Movement? Briefly

describe the Soviet Montage Form and Style with examples.
After the 1917 revolution in Russia (a period of political and social revolution
across the territory of the Russian Empire, commencing with the abolition of
the monarchy in 1917, and concluding in 1923 after the Bolshevik
establishment of the Soviet Union at the end of the Civil War). When the
Bolshevik Revolution washed over the country, the number of films in the USSR
dried up. One of the few movies available at VGIK, aka The Moscow Film
School, was Griffith’s sprawling Intolerance .Lev Kuleshov, a young teacher
there, started to take apart the movie and reorder the images. He discovered
that the meaning of a scene was radically changed depending on the order of
the shots. This led Kuleshov to try an experiment: he juxtaposed the image of a
man with a blank expression with a bowl of soup, a young corpse in a coffin
and a pretty girl. To prove his point, the filmmaker cut together various images,
each of which changed the audience's reading: The same facial expression,
applied to different situations, will be interpreted entirely differently by the
audience depending on its collective context; this was called the Kuleshov
effect. In this way, Kuleshov was applying tools more commonly associated
with literature and language, forming sequences as you would a sentence
rather than composing a scene as if it were a live theatrical production. After
the war Fresh film stock was in short supply because of the revolution and the
first world war, filmmakers learnt by experimenting with found footage (shots
from old films) looking at what happened if they put them together in different
ways. They found that people would respond to a shot differently depending
on what images came before and after it. The Russian Revolution meant that
there was a huge demand for propaganda. Revolutionaries like Lenin thought
film was the ideal way to get revolutionary ideas across to people who couldn’t
read. Soviet theorists had a clear job before them: theorize in order to aid the
cause of the Communist Party. The dimensions explored in film's potential
helped to reach the millions in far reaches of Soviet territory, where literacy
was scarce. Film was a tool with which the state could advance the dictatorship
of the proletariat. Using the French word for assemble, Kuleshov called this
"montage." At the school, however, there was considerable debate over what
montage exactly was. One of Kuleshov’s students, Vsevolod Pudovkin
envisioned each shot as a brick, one small part that together with other small
parts created a cinematic building of many bricks; he later acted on a lot of
Sergei Eisenstein’s films and directed many films, out of many one of them
being “mother (1926 A.D)”. Another student, Sergei Eisenstein briefly attended
the film school established by Lev Kuleshov and the two were both fascinated
with the power of editing to generate meaning and elicit emotion. He was the
big theorist of montage, writing books like ‘Film Form’, where he looked at
how things such as changing the duration of a shot (how long it stayed on
screen), using movement in the shot, and its emotional content, would affect
audiences. The most famous montage sequence of all is the Odessa Steps
scene from Battleship Potemkin, where protesting citizens are mowed down by
Tsarist troops. Lastly, Dziga Vertov who used montage to make the filmmaking
obvious, instead of trying to hide it like films made with the continuity system.
His (1929) Man with a Movie Camera is a ‘city symphony’. Several of these
films were made in the 1920s. This one covers lots of different kinds of events
during a ‘day in the life’ of the city. Soviet Montage came from the concept
that film theory doesn't necessary have to align with theatrical frameworks, as
the filmmaking process provides an entirely new set of tools. Eisenstein's
articles and books—particularly Film Form and ‘The Film Sense’—explain the
significance of montage in detail. His writings and films have continued to have
a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing
could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a
"linkage" of related images—as Kuleshov maintained. Eisenstein felt the
"collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience
and create film metaphors. He developed what he called "methods of
montage", below are the methods of montage with examples from The
Battleship Potemkin (1925) by Dir. Sergei Eisenstein:

1. Metric Montage

Metric montage is the practice of cutting footage according to exact

measurement regardless of the content of the shot, shortening the shots
abbreviates the time the audience has to absorb the information in each shot.
This increases the tension resulting from the scene. For example the use of
close-ups within shots creates a more intense sequence.

2. Rhythmic Montage

It is the method of cutting footages according to the content of the shots, or

continuity editing. This is the most commonly used form of montage. Each
shot’s length derives from the specifics of the piece and from its planned
length according to the structure of the sequence. For example in the Odessa
Steps sequence of Potemkin (1925), soldiers march down the steps from one
quadrant of the frame, followed by people attempting to escape from the
opposite side of the frame.

3. Tonal Montage

It is the process of cutting according to the emotional tone of the piece. This
type of montage is a bit more subjective in the sense that we do not cut
towards any physical aspect of footage. Instead, it’s a combination of both
metric and rhythmic montage to highlight any emotional themes that may be
present at that particular point of time in the story. These shots can be
matched by both video and audio. For example in the Odessa steps sequence,
the death of a young mother on the steps and the following baby carriage
sequence highlight the depth of the tragedy of the massacre.

4. over tonal Montage

Over tonal is the practice of cutting according to the various “tones” and
“overtones” of the shot. This one is even more abstract than tonal montage.
Over tonal montage is the intermixing of larger themes (whether political or
religious or philosophical) with the emotional tones of the piece through the
use of metric and rhythmic montage. For example In the Odessa steps
sequence, the outcome of the massacre should be the outrage of the
audience. Shots that emphasize the abuse of the army is overwhelming power
and exploiting the citizen’s powerlessness.

5. Intellectual Montage

It is the practice of cutting according to the shot’s relationship to a highly

charged and emotionalized sequence. An example of intellectual montage
from the Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein cuts from the shot after the
battleship bombs Odessa to a shot of a statue of a sleeping lion, and then he
cuts into a shot of a statue of a lion that is awake, and then to a shot to a
statue of a lion that has risen.

6) Illustrate how the studio system of filmmaking took various forms

with references from the film industry in Britain, Japan, China and
India.
In short, the studio system is a method of film production and distribution
dominated by a number of "major" studios in Hollywood or any other
emerging industries. Historically, the term refers to the practice of large
motion picture studios between the 1920s and 1960s: producing movies
primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often
long-term contract, and dominating exhibition through the ownership or
effective control of distributors and exhibition, guaranteeing additional sales of
films through manipulative booking techniques such as block booking. The
studio system was challenged under the anti-trust laws in a 1948 Supreme
Court ruling which sought to separate production from the distribution and
exhibition and ended such practices, thereby hastening the end of the studio
system. By 1954, with television competing for audience and the last of the
operational links between a major production studio and theater chain broken,
the historic era of the studio system was over.
In the early stages of cinema, all around the world, cinema was being more and
more culturally influenced and different nations started practicing their own
style of storytelling. Eventually they started their own studio systems too;
below I will illustrate how studio system of film making took various forms with
references from the film industry in Britain, Japan, China and India:

Studio system of Britain

While the Hollywood Studio System had clearly taken shape by the late 1920s,
a British version was also emerging which consisted of two 'majors', British
International Pictures and the Gaumont-British Picture associate production
company as part of the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation. Michael Balcon
and Alexander Korda were key figures during this era of British cinema,
establishing international reputations as studio heads. Balcon established
Gainsborough Studios as a source of popular films, which continued with film
production through to the post-war years and became an associate production
company as part of the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation. In 1938 Balcon
took over as head of production at the newly established Ealing Studios,
remaining there until 1959. Major studio facilities were built at Shepperton
and Pinewood. British International Pictures united with the exhibition
company Associated British Cinemas, and in 1929 produced the first major
British sound film, which was also Alfred Hitchcock's first 'talkie', Blackmail.
Other studios moved into producing sound films, some of which became
popular abroad as well as in Britain. Sally in Our Alley (Basil Dean, 1931) was
popular with audiences and was unusual in that it focused on working-class life
at a time when films tended to avoid themes relevant to contemporary Britain.
The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century.
While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of
British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which
the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, (with Emeric Pressburger) and Carol
Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have
accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Maggie Smith,
Roger Moore, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench,
Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the
largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom,
including the third and fourth highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter
and James Bond). The identity of the British film industry, particularly as it
relates to Hollywood, has often been the subject of debate. Its history has
often been affected by attempts to compete with the American industry but
numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan
and Ridley Scott, and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant, have
achieved success primarily through their work in the United States.

Studio System of Japan

Studio system of japan has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has
one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2010, it was the
fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Films have been produced
in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived. Three of the
oldest Japanese studios Shochiku, Nikkatsu and Toho have been around since
at least the 1930s and are still active today. Toei arrived a little later, as did
Daiei, which was eventually incorporated in the assets of a relatively new
player, Kadokawa, a publishing house founded in 1945. At present, the four
members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ) are
Toho, Toei, Shochiku and Kadokawa. These are in effect the four ‘majors’ of
the current Japanese film industry.

Like the Hollywood studios, some of the Japanese majors have at different
times attempted to run fully integrated film operations with producing studios,
distribution companies and exhibition chains. One slight difference has been
that live action venues, especially kabuki theatres have remained in their
portfolios – but another similarity is an interest in theme parks and studio
tours etc. Japanese films gained popularity in the mid-1920s against foreign
films, in part fueled by the popularity of movie stars and a new style of
jidaigeki. Directors such as Daisuke Itō and Masahiro Makino made samurai
films like A Diary of Chuji's Travels and Roningai featuring rebellious antiheroes
in fast-cut fight scenes that were both critically acclaimed and commercial
successes. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa created a production company to
produce the experimental masterpiece A Page of Madness, starring Masao
Inoue, in 1926. With the rise of left-wing political movements and labor unions
at the end of the 1920s, there arose so-called tendency films with left-leaning
tendencies. Directors Kenji Mizoguchi, Daisuke Ito, Shigeyoshi Suzuki, and
Tomu Uchida were prominent examples.

Studio system of China

Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, Dingjun
Mountain, was made in 1905. In the early decades the film industry was
centered on Shanghai. China was portrayed in western movies as a fantasy, a
place to have sex or to daydream, but then Chinese people themselves began
to make movies. Bu Wanchang’s ‘Romance of the West Chamber’, made in
1927, probably the first great one, contained hints of what was to follow. The
first sound film, Sing-Song Girl Red Peony, using the sound-on-disc technology,
was made in 1931.