D. W. Griffith

D. W. Griffith created his film 'Birth of a Nation' in 1915. Some of the innovations developed from the film are;

-The length of each shot was designed so as to influence our emotional response with dramatic scenes cut faster
-The film was edited to create a lengthy, dramatic epic narrative
-Subtitles were used
-Griffith filmed at night
-He used an extensive amount of tinting
-He perfected close-ups to show emotion
-He used cross-cutting
-Griffith varied his camera angles, using things like high angle shots and panoramic long shots
-He only used one camera and two lenses to do all of this, all in just nine weeks.

The IMR and The Primitive Style

The IMR

The International Mode of Representation- in film theory, the IMR is the style of films that developed during the Classic Era of Hollywood Cinema and continues to this day.

The Primitive Style

-frontal staging or tableau style
-exaggerated gestures
-hardly any camera movement
-no point of view shots

Early cinema was silent and unsophisticated, more like melodramatic mime.
The first films ever shown were the Lumière Brothers films from 1895.

Rick Altman- Genre Theory

Rick Altman is a theorist for film who wrote a book titled Film/Genre. He proposed the SEMANTIC/SYNTACTIC APPROACH.

With this approach, genre is considered in two ways:

1. SEMANTIC

These are the conventions of genre that communicate to the audience, such as the cast & characters, props, music, camerawork, and others. It is to show that these examples link clearly to the audience to identify the genre. An example of this is in a Historical film; the audience would expect everything to match up with the time period the film is set in in an obvious and clear way.

2. SYNTACTIC

This focusses on the structure of the narrative and how it follows a typical storyline. For example in a romance you would expect the plot to follow along the lines of: meet - dislike - like - love

This approach enables us to read any genre in a more sophisticated but simpler way.

Film Genres

The genre of a film establishes the theme, mood, and type of it. Different factors decide what genre a film is; an example of this is in comedy films- it is easily identifiable by the quantity of jokes and general sense of humour throughout the film. Additionally, the cast of a film can be a good indicator of its genre as many A-list stars stick to the same genre for the films they produce, and so can be looked at in the same way.

A2 G324: ADVANCED PORTFOLIO IN MEDIA

Hi, I'm Charlotte Bowers and this is my Year 13 A2 Media Studies coursework :)
On this blog I will be looking at short films and creating a short film for myself. This blog will show my journey to the final outcome, from initial ideas to the completed production. I am currently looking at short films to help me learn how to film and edit skilfully. To go with my short film (around 5 minutes long) I will also create 2 of the following:
1. A film poster for the short film
2. A radio interview promoting the short film
3. A magazine article on the short film