Hard work and evolution is part of all branches of art somehow. The art of cinematography has developed its own creativity, silent expressions and craftsmanship back in the days without the help of technology. Due to the enormous help of technology these days, this craftsmanship is seemingly shifted towards the computers and effects. I don't have enough knowledge about this subject to write a ciritique about the art of cinema and i am not intented to do so either. But i can take you to a small journey in the history and give you some noteworthy instances.
First, being able to convey your feelings and thoughts with the right words and usage, is a whole art by itself. But being able to express yourself without using words has always been an interesting subject for me. The most influential feelings are the ones that does not need words to be spoken or to be heard. This is why i don't merely think of just comedic, old school black and white movies devoid of technology. So it is also a whole art to be able to capture the audience and deliver a proper message with gestures or mimics or the screenplays in this movies, regardless of the plotline.
Turns out, creating the illusion of movement with popping up images sequentially has been thought and experimented way back in 1800 years. But probably due to the socioeconomic factors or the nations development levels, this idea has not been used for entertainment purposes for around 90 years towards 1890s. You need to study the history of art to have more knowledge in this matter. But maybe humankind did not see any profit potential by using this as a tool in entertainment sector. Or maybe there were people reluctant to experience this because they thought watching moving pictures is meaningless compared to watching a play in theater :)
The first movies that stores images on a magnetic tape and projects it to a screen have been produced around the year 1890 with the invention of 35mm magnetic films. During these times, they could not synch the audio and the images on the film. Therefore some theaters had voice over actors to read the script to audiance. Some theaters tried to play live scores for the movies while playing the movie. Some people even complained about the music being distractive while watching the movie. After a while, when technology allowed it, the first movies that play sound synchroniously have been produced around 1920s. And when it was 1930 years, some directors added dialogs into movies and brought them to the closest point to todays state or the industry. During these times Charles Chaplin insisted on making his some of his movies silent. Now it is time to talk about the rest of the story and i will dive into philosphical side but before that, let me give you some interesting example. The hard work to produce some of these movies are admirable.
"One Week", one of many short movies you can find on youtube, is created by the circus acrobats those times. Yes plain and simple circus acrobat Buster Keaton has turned his skills into a fun movie. This movie has no miniature models or stunt doubles in it. It is all real size props and the same people. This movie is restored in 2015 and there are couple of more videos restored from that era too. Anyways, this short movies plot is cute :)
Someone has collected the best stunts in this guys movies. It is easy to fly like Superman with CGI these days. I personally wonder why risk your life for a movie, after watching some of his stunts.
Of course it would be ridiculous to not to mention Charles Chaplin and talk about silent movies. Let me wirte down some important or interesting trivia about the top 3 movies i like.
Gold Rush (1925) is written, directed and acted by Chaplin and it is inspired by the gold hunters going to Alaska. He says this is the movie that he wants to be remembered the most. The edited part of this movie is 1 over 27th of the amount they have shot. In other words, for every 1 minute, they have shot 27 minutes and filtered out 26 minutes. This is called perfectionism. This movie is re-entered theaters in 1942 with the synchronized music. And most of the score is composed my Chaplin himself.
City Lights (1931) is Chaplins favorite movie. The plotline is about the tramp falling in love with a blind flower girl. The scene where Chaplin buys flowers from the girl in this movie has been shot 342 times, because Chaplin thought it was not convincing enough. This points out one of the difficulties of non-verbal expressions. It becomes vital to be able to express the message and feelings to the audiance since the audiance will have their own dialogs emerging in their mind. Turns out, Einstein has attended the premiere of this movie and he was in tears at the end. Chaplin has acted in front of each extra to show them how they will act for each scene. This movie has completed the shootings in 180 days, but for various reasons, it took 3 years to be released and post-productioned.
Modern times (1936) is tackling the industrialization in a humorous way. It is a comedic, sarcastic, engrossing and foresighted movie that realizes the industrialization is more of a machinization than modernization. There are 2 interesting scenes in this movie. In one scene Chaplin accidentally gets stuck inside a giant machines cogwheel and travels through it, like in the cartoons. He finds this very uncomfortable and decides to roll back to tape to make him look going backwards, insted of re-shooting in backwards. The other famous scene is the skating scene. Turns out, they have placed an image right in front of the camera to create the illusion of the fall and downstairs while shooting. In other words, there are no downstairs, it is just a cleverly positioned image :)
As i stated in the beginning, when it technology weren't available, humankinds craftsmanship came in. We may be watching people saving the world, who can't even walk straight on a line these days. Back then, audiance probably ignored couple of mistakes here and there in the movie. Now we became perfectionists and set our expectations higher because the possibilities are available everywhere. This also results in the concept of creativity being sacrificed for the sake of industrial agendas. Back in those day Buster Keaton turned his skills into a movie and it was almost revolutionary. Chaplin shot one scene for hundreds of times was a proof. A proof that they have tried to create a masterpiece. And a masterpiece must have permanence. Those days, the plots of the movies were simple but the movies are long lived. Nowadays, the plotlines and stories are complex but the movies are somewhat simple and short-lived. Chaplins famous quote: "We think too much and feel too little" is spot on. See you at the next post :)
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