Film History: Early Editing #1

One thing I that find endlessly fascinating is the development of film as its own specific art form. The earliest experiments in film go back way further than we might initially imagine; if we consider the invention of moving imagery as the first step in the direction of cinema then film history has its roots in a piece of 5200 year old pottery recovered from an archaeological site in Iran called Shahr-i Sukhteh.

When spun, the patterns on the outside of the pottery create the short animation above. But how did humans first come up with the idea of combining images to create movement? The answer to this perhaps goes back even further...

It's been theorised that some of the early European cave paintings, such as the Trois Freres paintings (which are estimated to be somewhere between 14 000 and 40 000 years old) may have been deliberately transformed into animations when they were lit by flickering fire. For a demonstration on this, see the video above.

Eventually, of course, the combination of this long-held knowledge with the 19th century invention of photography led to cinema itself - see here for a lesson based on the very first 'proper' films from 1875.

Experiments in Editing: Life of an American Fireman

We take a lot in filmmaking for granted now but there are certain editing techniques that didn't come naturally to the first directors and editors. It was their innovations in the earliest days of silent cinema that created the film grammar we now rely on to create narratives on the screen. 

Below is Life of an American Fireman, a six minute film directed by pioneering American director Edward S. Porter in 1903. 

In the film, a group of firemen respond to a call and rescue a family from the second floor of their burning house. Porter wanted to depict the action from multiple perspectives, showing the helpless family inside the house as they were rescued by the firemen and the firemen as they climbed up the ladder outside and brought the family down to safety. 

Today a director would show these multiple perspectives by cross-cutting back and forth several times. Porter, however, lacked access to this technique as it hadn't been invented yet. Often referred to as 'parallel editing', the idea of portraying concurrent sequences at the same time by cutting between them did not really solidify on film until 6 years later with D.W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat. 

Porter attempted to solve the issue in Life of an American Fireman by first showing the events within the house and then replaying the events afterwards from the outside.

It isn't the best way to show things happening at the same time. A modern audience finds it jarring to see events repeated in this way, and so it doesn't really work for us when creating a narrative. We can, however, see Porter attempting in his film to grapple with the concept of parallel editing. Even though he would not be the one to invent the technique of cross-cutting, Porter at least realised that - unlike the theatre - the medium of film had the potential to show events in multiple locations and to suggest that they were happening at the same time.

Film critic Mark Cousins calls this concept the 'meanwhile' of film grammar; we see something happening meanwhile something is also happening somewhere else. It was a radical jump in the crafting of film narratives as previously films had been content to portray events in a strictly linear fashion. This was the 'and then' of film grammar - it meant we would see one scene cutting to another to suggest that something happened and then something else happened next.

Students: Purpose and Methods

Getting students to understand film grammar is an intrinsic part of learning how to craft a film narrative. And understanding the history of this helps to highlight why taken-for-granted techniques such as cross-cutting are so important. One effective way of exploring film grammar with students is to have them film a relatively simple series of events (silent is better... introducing dialogue just makes things too complicated at this point). Students then edit their raw footage in multiple ways to show their understanding of cross-cutting and the differences between 'meanwhile' and 'and then'. By reflecting on this afterwards, students are able to develop their ability to articulate some of the terminology and reasoning behind editing and narrative-writing in general. 

It's beneficial for students to learn this for a range of reasons, and not just for the sake of developing their understanding of film or visual literacy. In terms of writing, the formulation of a narrative in this medium forces a degree of reflection that helps develop imagination and critical thinking. 

For More on Film Grammar

See also: The 180 Degree Rule.

See also: The Close-Up.

See also: Teaching Film as Language.

Film Studies: Making a Zoetrope

Okay. A little context before I start: I'm currently about a quarter of the way through teaching a two-year Film Studies course. This is a board-endorsed course that I'm currently running at my school as a Stage 5 English elective, and this term the class is looking at Special Effects. More specifically, students look at how key innovations have enabled new representations and shifts in meaning within the context of film narratives. 

The activity below could quite easily be adapted as a fun, practical exploration of film for any junior English class.

The Zoetrope

The zoetrope is an early innovation in film technology that helped to establish the fundamental premise for turning photography into a moving image. Variations of this invention had been around for quite some time by the 19th century and were used to show simple looped animations. It wasn't until 1878, however, that the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge invented a way to take a rapid sequence of photographs to depict a horse running. He combined this system (which utilised 24 separate cameras and a series of tripwires) with the existing technologies of the zoetrope and the praxinoscope (which was like a zoetrope with mirrors) to create what is arguably the first film, The Horse in Motion. I've recreated this above in the zoetrope example.

Muybridge suffered a irreparable brain injury in a horse-carriage crash, which led to erratic and eccentric behaviour, and it was after this point that he came up with his impressive innovations in photography. It's believed that his accident damaged his orbitofrontal cortex, leading to an erasure of social inhibitions that allowed for increased creativity in his mind.

Some students will be interested in hearing this stuff, but all of my class were able to remember the content much more comprehensively after they themselves have had a go at making their own zoetropes.

My first prototype was more complicated then it needed to be - there are a couple of things in the picture above that I ended up not needing.

Preparation

There are lots of instructions online that give an idea of how the zoetrope and similar devices can be made in the classroom but I wanted to ensure that I was able to create one myself before I put it into the hands of the kids. This was invaluable because I quickly learned that some aspects of the process could be streamlined or were best avoided altogether. Click here for teacher creation-instructions, which were written after I'd fine-tuned the process.

Initially I set out to use a wire and wire cutters to set up a frame from which the device could spin but my wife Nicole pointed out that it was much easier to simply hold the string by hand and spin it that way. 

 

Additionally, the cutting of the cardboard strip also requires a fine blade and the idea of handing Stanley knives out to my Year 9 class made me break out into a cold sweat. So I pre-prepared the cardboard strips they would use in order to take this element out.

Here's what you'll need before handing over to the students:

• Black cardboard (enough for the whole class)
• Paper (to measure the cardboard strips)
• A scalpel or Stanley knife 
• A cutting board
• Plastic picnic plates (make sure they have a raised rim - this will allow for the cardboard strip to be held in place)
• A single-hole punch
• String, or thick thread
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Sticky tape

Use the paper to create a 'master' strip - this is what you'll use to measure and cut each of the black cardboard strips you'll be giving your students. The best measurements (that work with a standard-sized plastic plate) are as follow:

• 10 frames in length - 60mm per frame.
• Entire strip to be 100mm in height.
• The frames will sit in the bottom 40mm.
• Above the frames are 10 slits approx. 2mm wide and 40mm long. These sit above and between each frame. 

As you can imagine, 2mm is quite finnicky so you'll need that fine blade. Measure it all out on white paper and overlay the paper on the black cardboard to cut the black strips out. Use sticky tape to place the white paper in place and do it all on top of a cutting board. I made about 14 black strips and got my students to work in pairs (that way I had some spares in case the kids accidentally wrecked them on their first go).

In Class

I'd already covered the concept of the zoetrope in class a few times before so the students had a rough idea of what they were making. I also brought in my one to show them what a finished product should look like. This helped to really motivate the students because they could see what they were working towards. 

I gave students a series of different animations to pick from (this gives them some ownership over the final product) or the option to create their own animation (this is more time-consuming but there are a few students who appreciate getting to exercise their creativity in this way). 

Students (or student groups) are then provided with:

• 1 pre-made black cardboard strips.
• 1 plastic plate.
• A ruler to measure their own animations and to space the string-holes evenly on the plate. 
• Access to a single-hole punch to create the string-holes.
• String to cut (I let them measure and cut this themselves).
• Choice of animation or option to create their own animation.
• Access to sticky tape to fix their animation into the black cardboard barrel. 
• Instructions on how to make it. 

Some of the student zoetropes - great job guys!

The most time-consuming part of the whole process is creating the black cardboard strip but, as I'd already done this for the students ahead of time, this meant it only took approximately 1 hour for students to put the whole thing together. The instructions above are a simplified version of the teacher instructions and are easily followed by Year 9 students.

Metropolis: A Study Guide

Metropolis artwork by Martin Ansin for Mondo posters

Resource can be found here: Metropolis Study Guide.

Clocking in at over 2 hours, without sound, filmed in black and white, and coming from a non-English speaking country; Metropolis can seem like a daunting text for students to get to grips with. Many students have never watched a silent film before, nor do they voluntary engage with cinema made before the advent of colour. The concept of watching a film that asks for the modern day audience to put some degree of effort into engagement is, understandably, challenging for some Year 12s students. 

As the comparative companion for George Orwell's 1984, Fritz Lang's Metropolis occupies the unusual position of being a film that's older than the book that's being studied - and this is a novel that is already viewed as somewhat historical and 'old' by 21st century students. 

Theme and genre aside, Metropolis is an important text because it requires the students to work at establishing a relationship with it. It's not something that the vast majority of them would necessarily watch of their own free will (at least not at this point in their lives); it's a film that has been deliberately placed in the HSC Prescriptions list because it challenges and stretches the understanding of our students. And that's a good thing.

As a silent film in the 21st century, the mode of communication used to convey the narrative of Metropolis is antiquated but not irrelevant. In terms of visual grammar it's actually a very accessible film that conveys its plot in ways that can be universally understood. Contextually speaking, this is for a few reasons:

1. Metropolis was made in 1927, the absolute peak of silent cinema. In this same year The Jazz Singer was made, the first film to have a soundtrack that synchronised with the visuals - making it the first film with dialogue. Whilst The Jazz Singer isn't a particularly good movie it's still safe to say that film was never the same again. In the years leading up to the arrival of sound, silent cinema had developed and creatively expanded to a point in which visual storytelling had become so refined, so precise, and so imaginative that it became a new and wholly legitimate art form. You have to keep in mind that the first moving pictures had been created for audiences back in 1895, meaning that silent cinema had been evolving for 30 years before Metropolis was made. 

As you might guess from this video cover, The Jazz Singer hasn't aged well. Truth be told, it's an incredibly boring film, and the sound only features in certain musical sequences. The use of blackface is also quite problematic.

2. The first sound films were called 'talkies' because suddenly they were filled with all these actors speaking lines of dialogue. Audiences and filmmakers weren't entirely sure how to adapt to this radical change. Charlie Chaplin, one of the most famous stars of the era, refused to bring dialogue into his films for a good ten years after it became a commonplace. Other silent stars, forced to speak on camera for the first time, revealed strange voices that viewers never expected, and their careers were never the same again. For the most part, 'talkies' took their cues from the theatre and all of the creative storytelling from the silent era went out the window. They were hampered by the new requirement of including lots of speaking, and the technology needed to record this also meant that the camera (which had developed into a maneuverable instrument in the 1920s) suddenly became still again. Films became stagey and, in comparison to the grand and epic expressions of imagination that had preceded them, films in the 1930s were invariably dull. This is why Metropolis looks so good compared to many of the films that came after it.

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, one of the last predominantly silent films. Made in 1936.

3. There was one other significant development that changed the nature of film after Metropolis, and this was the Hays Code. Active from 1930 to 1960, the Hays Code was a form of censorship that restricted the content of motion pictures. Rules ranged from the understandable to the downright offensive: sex and violence and swearing were out, but it also became taboo to mock authority figures, show characters benefiting from crimes, or depict relationships between different races. The result was the 'Golden' era of Hollywood - a time when storytelling became highly coded and stifled. In the case of Metropolis, had the film been made after 1930, the character of 'robot Maria' would most likely be very different (or at the very least the film would never have seen release in any English-speaking countries).

The Hays Code is part of the reason why some scenes were later cut from Metropolis. The image above, portraying the city's risque night life, is from one such removed sequence where worker 11811 gets seduced by the temptations of Metropolis.

So, yes, Metropolis can be a tricky film for some Year 12 Advanced English classes undertaking the Intertextual Perspectives module. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for these students by giving them a study guide that they can use while watching it. And by 'guide' I mean just that, a document that will guide them through the film.

All this means is that the 18 page document I've attached here takes the students through the entirety of the film with a collection of significant screen shots designed to cover all of the major plot points. The shots are arranged into a table with three columns, like this:

The first column contains some brief analysis of the shot, describing what is taking place and connotations or representations implied by certain aspects. The second column is the shot itself, and the third column is blank so the student can create their own links between the analysis and one of the lenses through which they are going to connect it to 1984 - Power/Control, Resistance/Rebellion, or Dystopia/Utopia. Underneath it all is a bar that lists some of the techniques and metanarratives/ideologies contained within the shot. The idea is to frontload, meaning that the students aren't left deciphering the shots when the real aim should be getting them to get stuck into the evaluation of how these shots can be ordered under a conceptual understanding of the text.

Here's an example from the booklet:

 

Explanation/Analysis: Maria enters, surrounded by waif-like children (symbolising her characterisation as a motherly figure). In stark contrast with the 1920s-style and highly-sexualised 'flapper' women, Maria is plainly dressed and has minimal makeup. The use of clouding around the lens (vignetting) signals her salience in her introductory shot and her overall significance in the narrative to come.

Techniques: Characterisation. Symbolism. Contrast. Vignetting. Salience. Costume and makeup.

The student's evaluation could then extend into one of the three aforementioned conceptual understandings. As an example of the dystopian/utopian theme this shot quite clearly demonstrates the disparity between classes - the homely Maria and her miserable urchins contrast against the opulence and decadence of the garden seen in previous shots. This is a society of inequality, where the rich are not even aware of the existence of such wretchedness. 

Here's the document again - Metropolis Study Guide.