Intro to Film as the Moving Image COM 320 History of Film Intro to Film as the Moving Image

What do we mean by the “moving image”? A series of static images:

What do we mean by the “moving image”? A series of static images: Recreating/recording natural motion People, animals, machines

What do we mean by the “moving image”? A series of static images: Recreating/recording natural motion People, animals, machines Creating motion Camera motion Animation (cel, photo, stop-motion) Via juxtapositions of images in editing

Look for all these types in: Ballet Mécanique (1924) La Jetée (1963)

Ahead of its time. . . Ballet Mécanique (1924) D: Fernand Leger—Dadaist, Cubist D: Dudley Murphy—American journalist, film director (e.g., The Emperor Jones with Paul Robeson, 1933)

Ballet Mécanique, the Concert Piece (music) by George Antheil The original orchestration called for 16 player pianos (or pianolas) in four parts, 2 regular pianos, 3 xylophones, at least 7 electric bells, 3 propellers, siren, 4 bass drums, and 1 tam-tam. As it turned out, there was no way to keep so many pianolas synchronized, so early performances combined the four parts into a single set of pianola rolls and augmented the two human-played pianos with 6 or more additional instruments. See a 2006 fully robotic performance online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZEtFwev630

More… Ballet Mécanique the concert piece was originally written to accompany the Dadaist film of the same name. Antheil himself was not a Dadaist, though he had many friends and supporters in that community. Unfortunately, the score ended up being between 20 and 30 minutes long while the film was only 16 minutes long. The film premiered in 1924, while Antheil's Ballet Mécanique became a concert piece, premiered by Antheil himself in Paris in 1926. (Antheil was American-born, but studied and lived in Europe for much of his productive career.)

After its time. . . La Jetée (1963) D: Chris Marker (nee Christian Bouche-Villeneuve; 1921-2012)—French New Waver known for his experiments with the manipulation of time A “photo poem” with voiceover narration Only one “moving image” shot—look for it Source material for Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys (1995)

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