Thomas H. Ince and D. W. Griffith
Thomas H. Ince
1)Is chiefly remembered for his success as an independent producer.
2)He made studio filmmaking more efficient by preparing detailed scripts
that would control all phases of production.
3)What was called a “continuity script,” later known as a shooting script,
4)was a shot-by-shot description of the action,
5)with indications of costumes, settings, props, and sometimes lighting.
One Record - One Script
1)Having one paper record of all these elements allowed the cast and crew to coordinate their
work smoothly.
2)As stories became more complex and the continuity style of filmmaking demanded more
shots, the continuity script could provide a blueprint of the finished film.
3)During shooting, the director and cinematographer could write into the script any extra
shots they made, and so the editor would know where the footage should be inserted.
Ince
1)had directed short films early in the 1910s, and
2)he made one of several pacifist features that appeared before America’s entry into the
Great War.
3)Civilization (1916, codirected with two others)
4)sets its story in a mythical kingdom ruled by a warmongering tyrant.
5)Christ enters the resurrected body of a young pacifist who died in battle and
converts the king with a message of peace.
6)This was Ince’s last directorial effort, and
7)he concentrated on producing—including most of the Westerns of William S. Hart—until
his death in 1924.
Civilization (Thomas H. Ince, 1916)
Intertitle: The King in humility, feels the presence of a greater power.
In consternation he sees as in a trance -
"Oh King, let me reveal the harvest thou hast sown."
Then some mighty force --
Then some mighty force --
Intertitle:
"Look thou upon this and ponder well."
"See here thy handiwork?"
"Bread! Bread! We are starving!"
"Under thy reign thy domain hath become a raging hell!"
"The laughter of a happy people is hushed and in its place is heard the moans of the dying."
D.W. Griffith
1) In 1913, D. W. Griffith left the Biograph Company, where he had made over four hundred
short films since 1908.
2)Biograph was reluctant to allow Griffith to make films longer than two reels.
3)Despite the firm’s resistance, in the wake of the success of the Italian import Quo Vadis?,
he completed a four-reel historical epic, Judith of Bethulia (1913).
short films since 1908.
2)Biograph was reluctant to allow Griffith to make films longer than two reels.
3)Despite the firm’s resistance, in the wake of the success of the Italian import Quo Vadis?,
he completed a four-reel historical epic, Judith of Bethulia (1913).
4)But it was his last film for Biograph.
During 1914,
1)Griffith made four feature films for Mutual,
2)the independent distribution firm he managed; among these,
3) The Avenging Conscience employed fantasy scenes inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short
story “The Tell-Tale Heart” and poem “Annabel Lee.”
1)Griffith made four feature films for Mutual,
2)the independent distribution firm he managed; among these,
3) The Avenging Conscience employed fantasy scenes inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short
story “The Tell-Tale Heart” and poem “Annabel Lee.”
That same year Griffith
1) was at work on a far more ambitious project.
2) Independently financed from various sources, the twelve-reel
1) was at work on a far more ambitious project.
2) Independently financed from various sources, the twelve-reel
The Birth of a Nation told
an epic tale of the American Civil War by centering on two families who befriend each
other but are on opposite sides in the conflict.
3)During Reconstruction, Stoneman, Leader of the House and the head of the northern
family, pushes through legislation that gives rights to freed slaves, while the elder son of
the southern family helps start the Ku Klux Klan in response to northern policies.
4)Using many actors from his Biograph days,
5)Griffith created subtle portrayals of the two families.
6) His regular cinematographer, Billy Bitzer, designed shots ranging from epic views
of battles to intimate details of the characters’ lives.
7)Later scenes expanded Griffith’s technique of crosscutting for last-minute rescue
situations.
8)The Klan races to save the southern family, trapped in a cabin by attacking blacks,
and to free the heroine from the grip of the villainous mulatto leader,
who threatens her virtue.
other but are on opposite sides in the conflict.
3)During Reconstruction, Stoneman, Leader of the House and the head of the northern
family, pushes through legislation that gives rights to freed slaves, while the elder son of
the southern family helps start the Ku Klux Klan in response to northern policies.
4)Using many actors from his Biograph days,
5)Griffith created subtle portrayals of the two families.
6) His regular cinematographer, Billy Bitzer, designed shots ranging from epic views
of battles to intimate details of the characters’ lives.
7)Later scenes expanded Griffith’s technique of crosscutting for last-minute rescue
situations.
8)The Klan races to save the southern family, trapped in a cabin by attacking blacks,
and to free the heroine from the grip of the villainous mulatto leader,
who threatens her virtue.
What is The Birth of a Nation? (Jack Tucker, 2018)
Every generation has that movie, a movie that has to be seen, a blockbuster that blows people away... documentary - he talks for 16 minutes
This film has been known as a central building block of long form film itself.
1st act focuses on these families
Cameron - southern family
Stoneman - northern family
2nd focuses on reconstruction
The real controversy. Reconstruction shown as a disaster.
Griffith - Intertitle? The result. The Ku Klux Klan, the organization that saved the South from the anarchy of black rule, but not without the shedding of more blood than at Gettysburg, according to Judge Tourgee of the carpet-baggers.
We shall crush the white South under the heel of the black South."
Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more.
But instead - the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace.
Tech innovations:
Colorization of the film
Close-ups
fades, film masks to create non-rectangular images
panoramic long shots, tracking shots
complex staging
multiple angles
Close-ups
fades, film masks to create non-rectangular images
panoramic long shots, tracking shots
complex staging
multiple angles
Joseph Beil's 3 hour score. Known as first theme song from a movie
Dramatized historical storytelling
the plot built an exciting climax.
The whole thing is a technical marvel with a singular vision from its director, producer, editor and screenwriter.
No second unit. No asst. directors. No script. No notes.
Shot over 4 months - only one shot took a second take
Original budget $40k,
Griffith spent over $110k or 2.5 million in today's dollars
Griffith spent over $110k or 2.5 million in today's dollars
His 400 films we short reels about 12 minutes long?
Sometimes said, The Birth of a Nation is the first American full-length film, which is false
but the first America 12 reel film. making it a far more epic affair than other feature films,
but the first America 12 reel film. making it a far more epic affair than other feature films,
which were averaging 4-6 reels,
Two influences:
1)"New South Revisionism" : movement remembering the Civil War as war of northern aggression and Reconstruction as a punitive failure. - Not true, not started by the North.
1)"New South Revisionism" : movement remembering the Civil War as war of northern aggression and Reconstruction as a punitive failure. - Not true, not started by the North.
2)The book - The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr. A historical romance of the KKK a 1905 novel. pro-segregation - became a popular play
He thought he was presenting the simple facts of history
He took false ideas a face value
4 years later wrote Broken Blossoms -a chinese and white girl couple
Film had a massive impact:
Rave reviews in LA premiere - Feb 1915
NAACP formed 6 years before - took action, protests called for censorships and bans
NAACP formed 6 years before - took action, protests called for censorships and bans
no film boards were willing to ban. Riots broke out - but may have been highest grossing movie until Gone with the Wind.
Filmed 44 weeks in NY
Griffith - worried about critics - released Intolerance with profits.
Never reached that level before.
Caused rebirth of KKK which was dissolved in the 1870s
Burning a cross - done in the movie - used as a training film for Klan
Burning a cross - done in the movie - used as a training film for Klan
would last for 30 years.
No black people in film - only actors in black face.
No black people in film - only actors in black face.
3.500 lynching across the south.
Revolutionized film lead ways
It gave way to new methods filmmaking and structure while expanding the scope
of what could be put out on the screen to new heights
However, a Trojan Horse. What was widely accepted as a spectacle
smuggled and perpetuated a disregard for historical accuracy and a belittlement of
black Americans that would reap real life consequences for years and now more than a
century after its release we're still grappling with these conversations of:
Freedom of Speech
Racism
Alternative facts
Public protest
and how the media changes how we look at ourselves and the people around us.
END of documentary
Accompanied by a special orchestral score Griffith had commissioned, the film previewed in Los Angeles and San Francisco and then opened in New York and Boston early in 1915. It played in large legitimate theaters at high prices, was enormously successful, and brought a new respectability to the movies.
Not surprisingly, given its bigoted account of African Americans’ role in southern history, The Birth of a Nation also aroused heated controversy. Many editorials in white- and black-owned newspapers alike denounced its racism. The film was based on a novel, The Clansman, by a well-known racist author, Thomas Dixon. Although Griffith had toned down the worst excesses of the novel in favor of a concentration on the white families, many commentators treated the film as primarily a creation of Dixon.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had been founded in 1909, and the struggle for civil rights was under way by the time the film appeared. Realizing that the artistic qualities of The Birth of a Nation made it effective as racist propaganda, NAACP officials pressured the censorship boards in New York and Boston to cut the most offensive scenes or to ban the film outright. Ironically, segregation meant that these NAACP members could not even attend the film in theaters but had to see it at a screening arranged for them.
Supporters of the film won out, however, and The Birth of a Nation was exhibited all over the country. Black leaders realized the desirability of African American–produced films to counter such racism, but funds were lacking. Only somewhat later would films with all-black casts aimed at African American audiences emerge.
Intolerance
1) In his next film, Griffith tried to outdo himself.
2) Intolerance, released in 1916, ran roughly three and a half hours.
3) Griffith used an abstract theme, the idea of intolerance through the ages,
to link four separate stories set in different historical epochs: the fall of Babylon,
the last part of Christ’s life, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France,
and a tale of a labor strike and gangster activity in modern-day America.
4)To stress the unchanging nature of intolerance, Griffith intercut these stories rather than
telling them one after the other.
5)Through most of the film, intertitles and an allegorical figure of a woman rocking a cradle
announce the shifts from one story to the next.
6)In the final section, however, as four separate rescues are attempted, Griffith suddenly cut
among them without such signals.
7)The result is a daring experiment in the use of editing to join disparate spaces and times.
8) Intolerance was also innovative in its cinematography, as when Bitzer mounted the camera
on a sliding elevator to create swooping movements over the huge set of the Babylonian
court.
2) Intolerance, released in 1916, ran roughly three and a half hours.
3) Griffith used an abstract theme, the idea of intolerance through the ages,
to link four separate stories set in different historical epochs: the fall of Babylon,
the last part of Christ’s life, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France,
and a tale of a labor strike and gangster activity in modern-day America.
4)To stress the unchanging nature of intolerance, Griffith intercut these stories rather than
telling them one after the other.
5)Through most of the film, intertitles and an allegorical figure of a woman rocking a cradle
announce the shifts from one story to the next.
6)In the final section, however, as four separate rescues are attempted, Griffith suddenly cut
among them without such signals.
7)The result is a daring experiment in the use of editing to join disparate spaces and times.
8) Intolerance was also innovative in its cinematography, as when Bitzer mounted the camera
on a sliding elevator to create swooping movements over the huge set of the Babylonian
court.
In the following scene, Griffith boldly cut directly from galloping chariots in the Babylonian story to a speeding train in the modern story.
Intolerance (D. W. Griffith, 1916)
Intertitle:
No. 8, after the train, leaps with a new impulse.
No. 8, after the train, leaps with a new impulse.
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