1. The Classical Hollywood Silent Era 1908-1927

2. In the beginning… As an art movement, The Silent Era follows…
Early Experimental Cinema (the inventors) in the US and France
The Brighton School in England

3. In the beginning…
Filmmaking was still in its infancy as an art—films were more money-making ventures and technological experiments
Directors were not encouraged to be artists—they were thought of as factory workers

4. Early Edison Films
The Kiss, 1896
Sandow, 1894

5. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
First Western
First to use editing as a storytelling technique
One of the first to use panning and close-ups
Moved from documentary to narrative
Based on a true robbery by Butch Cassidy

6. The Silent Era as Art
The Classical Hollywood Silent era is marked by the films that emerged with the first film studios
Silent films began to take on a narrative structure and use filmmaking conventions
D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation set the stage for modern cinematic storytelling

7. Birth of a Nation (1915)
Based Thomas Dixon Jr.'s anti-black, bigoted play, The Clansman
Its release set up a major censorship battle over its vicious, extremist depiction of African Americans. Unbelievably, the film is still used today as a recruitment piece for Klan membership.

8. Birth of a Nation (1915)
It was one of the biggest box-office money-makers in the history of film, due to its charge of $2 per ticket. It made $18 million by the start of the talkies.
Riots in Boston and Philadelphia. Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and other major cities refuse to show it

9. Birth of a Nation (1915)
Film scholars agree, however, that it is the single most important and key film of all time in American movie history
Introduces & refines camera angles, traveling shots, artificial lighting, realistic sets, flashbacks, split screens, soft focus, dissolves, fades, and irises.

10. Stars of the Silent Screen

11. America’s 1st Movie Star
Florence Lawrence
America’s 1st Movie Star

12. Mary Pickford
America’s Sweetheart

13. Charlie Chaplin

14. Harold Lloyd

15. Buster Keaton

16. Fatty Arbuckle

17. Keystone Kops

18. The King of Silent Hollywood
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
The King of Silent Hollywood

19. Clara Bow
The “It” Girl

20. Rudolph Valentino

21. Dorothy & Lillian Gish

22. Theda Bara

23. The Man of a Thousand Faces
Lon Chaney
The Man of a Thousand Faces

24. Tom Mix

25. Greta Garbo

26. Meanwhile, over in Europe… German Expressionism 1919-1926

27. German Expressionism WWI creates an isolated Germany in financial ruin
The new and booming film industry promises financial rewards
Germany can’t compete with the glamour of Hollywood

28. German Expressionism
External representation of internal emotion – this means that if the main character is in a “dark place” emotionally, then the setting must reflect that
Insanity/Obsession as a theme
Crime or the criminal underworld

29. German Expressionism Urban settings—but in a studio!
Twisted architecture – such as spiral staircases and ominous arches
Chiaroscuro – heavily contrasted black and white, whether with paint, or light and shadow