Technical Thrills

 

The development of film transforming from a single image to flickering shots creating an illusion of movement that has evolved through the study of light developed by Thomas Edison. After Edison developed the technical sides of the motion picture, the Lumiére brothers took it to the next level my creating short documentations of the 1895 lifestyle and projecting them to show the public. What fascinates me the most of the evolution of film is the way cinematography has developed to improve the flow of the narrative. For example, Scandinavian film makers in the 1910’s were important elements in the discovery of light experimentation. Directors such as Benjamin Christiansen introduced the power of lighting to the cinema world by experimenting with the strong scandinavian natural lights to enhance the power of the story. 

 

The technical developments of the film industry fuelled the improvements of storylines by making psychology the driving factor of films. Directors began to use reverse angles to move away from the classic, almost theatrical way to shoot films. Shooting the actors in different angles opened a whole new way to develop the narrative. For example, in Jean-Luc Goddard’s  “Vivre Sa Vie” the use of a reverse shot of the back of Anna Karina’s head expresses a sense of suspense and mystery. The experimental use of cinematography was the driving force of making the film industry into an art form which had just been introduced to the world.