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

What do we mean by the “moving image”?  Recreating/recording natural motion  People, animals, machines

What do we mean by the “moving image”?  Recreating/recording natural motion  People, animals, machines  Creating motion  Animation (cel, photo, stop-motion)  Camera motion

What do we mean by the “moving image”?  Recreating/recording natural motion  People, animals, machines  Creating motion  Animation (cel, photo, stop-motion)  Camera motion  Juxtapositions  Editing

Look for all these types in:  Ballet Mechanique (1924)  La Jetee (1963)

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

Before its time...  Ballet Mécanique was originally written to accompany a Dadaist film of the same name, directed by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Leger, with cinematography by Man Ray. 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 on 24 September 1924 in Vienna presented by Frederick Kiesler, later a world- famous architect. Meanwhile, Antheil's music for Ballet Mécanique became a concert piece, premiered by Antheil himself in Paris in 1926.

Ballet Mechanique, 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 performance online:

After its time...  La Jetee  D: Chris Marker (nee Christian Bouche- Villeneuve)—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

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