1
For your Silent Films there will be :
- No weapons
- All major actions in slow motion & floating
Time Line
Charlie Chaplin’s debut as “The Tramp”
First Serial: The Adventures of Kathlyn is released
July 26, 1896: Vitascope Hall in New Orleans opens
National Board of Review was contemplating whether movies were appropriate or not
Actor’s average salary = $175/week
Apr. 20, 1896: First time audience paid to see a movie at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall
- First film company arrives in Los Angeles
Average ticket price is 7 cents
-Chicago becomes first city to censor films
The Butcher Boy is released starring Buster Keaton
The average length of a movie is 3 reels = 30 minutes
1916
1915
1914
1913
Journal
1910
1907
Pick ONE of the Silent film actors from the presentation and explain the type of character that actor/actress was known for. Give at least two examples that would prove your point. You should think about their body movements, facial expressions, costumes, character relationships, status.
1896
Title Cards
What did he say???
Lillian Gish
Time: 22:00 min
Plays a young girl tormented by her alcoholic father. Take notice of her character as she displays the defenseless girl.
It was shot to create a feeling of enclosed space
The Scarlet Letter 1926
Title cards were used in silent films to help help with location or character dialogue.
Silent films did not have synchronized sound for dialogue therefore onscreen intertitles (title cards) were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the audience. The title writer became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the scenario writer who created the story.
- Started her career by acting on stage.
- In 1912 Gish started her work in movies.
- Gish was famous for portraying great emotion during climactic scenes.
- Melodrama actress: innocent, defenseless girl who needed saving
- She made her first “talkie” in 1930
1893, Springfield, Ohio
Mary Pickford
Poor Little Rich Girl (1917)
- Notice how Mary plays a child, she did this in many films, even when she was an adult
- Note how the camera remains stationary
- The film is very old, so is unfortunately degraded
Clara Bow
- Born in 1892 in Toronto
- She began acting at the age of 5
- Was known as “America’s Sweetheart”
- In 1929 she starred in the ‘talkie’ Coquette which won her an Oscar
- She also became a movie producer and a power couple with husband Douglas Faribanks
Bow Montage
- Many clips from older movies have been lost or destroyed
- Notice the facial expressions, the close ups.
- How she uses her hands, and her reaction to other characters
- 1:54 - Breaks the “fourth wall”?
- Note the final scene where she is crying; use of stillness
- Born in 1905 in Brooklyn, New York
- Played a shop girl in It and became known as the “It Girl”
- She is described as the leading “sex symbol” of the 1920s
- In 1929 she received over 45,000 fan letters
- After marrying in 1931 she retired and moved to Nevada
- Terrified of the microphone
Silent film actors emphasized body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen.
Silent Film
Betty Boop!!!
Inspirations for.....
Charlie Chaplin
1925-Gold Rush: Thanksgiving Scene
Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain
?
Did you know
that Gold Rush
made
$4,250,000 by
1932
?
Levels & Status
Take a look
Behind the Scenes
of City Lights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-rLA4POkI#aid=P7j8JT5VfZg
- Born in 1889 in London
- Became famous for his “Tramp” persona
- Came from a hard life
- Started acting on the stage in London
- Was scouted and became a huge star
- He was an actor, director, writer and producer
- He created many of the conventions of silent movies: mime, slapstick, clowning
- Note how Chaplin is able to represent the comedic and tragic elements
- Chaplin’s small stature was often used humorously
Harold Lloyd
While watching his films watch for...
Status
Costume
City Lights (1931) 1:13:40
Power Object
Power Symbol
anything that the character values or hold importance within the performance.
What is being used as a symbol of power in this film
Smile
?
Anything that a character values or holds value in the play
- Born in 1893, in Nebraska
- Was a comedian famous for doing his own stunts
- He is best known for his “Glass” character
- Safety Last (1923)
Character
Silent Film's
Stunt Man
NOT IN THIS CLASS
Buster Keaton
- Born Joseph Frank Keaton in 1895 in Kansas
- Character
- Is known for dead-pan expressions (little emotion)
- Influences actors such as Sheldon Cooper
- Stunts
- Known for performing his own stunts. For example running on a train or house falling on him
- He was also a director of films, and called “the greatest actor-director in the history of movies”