Why was DW Griffiths film birth of a nation so successful when it was released in 1915 and why is it so controversial now?

The Birth of A Nation was so successful because it was the first 12 film reel ever and it came out to three hours long. It is a silent film however they would use a theater organ in the cinema to play a score. It was so controversial because of the “KKK”, it is a film full of racism again African Americans. In this day of age racism is not accepted at all so controversy is still against this film.

Who were Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and are they still considered to be great cinema practitioners? name at least one film made by each director.

Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin are American directors. They were both very popular all over the world. They didn’t just direct the films they would also act in them.

The Belbin Team Inventory is a test showing behavior in certain situations. It is also the called the “Belbin Self-Perception Test”. It was devised by Meredith Belbin to measure preference for nine Team Roles; he had identified eight of these whilst studying numerous teams at Henley Management College.

When completing this task we had 7 sentences from 7 separate topics. We had to grade each of the sentences from 1 through 10, showing show confident we were the sentence or how much we personally related to it. At the end we had to collect all of our numbers into specific column and the highest number column showed what type of role we were.

My highest number was for ‘Company Worker’. Showing that I am organised and practical however I lack flexibility. This means that I wouldn’t necessarily be the team leader i’d be someone who helps and gets work done, however a change in process or work would take longer for me to understand.

Our group was a group of 4 and we got the year 1910. We had a short criteria to follow when making the presentation and we had to use as few words as possible so that both visual and verbal could understand as easily as possible.

Reflection of creative work – C. Reflection on collaboration in the core production team (8 marks )

After we all finished with the filming process and checked to see if the shots that we got were corrected and what we wanted, we shared the shot with each other so that we could each edit the same video, with our own personal touches.

Whilst editing our sequence I came across a few mistakes and possible problems with the shots that we took, however there was a few things that I did like and I cam going to explain why. Firstly I think that our overall communication during the filming process was really good and that if anybody had something else to include or perhaps a different idea, we would all think about it and try it out so that we could see what actually looked best with the screenplay. To add I think that our screenplay selection was good as we mainly thought about the location and what resources we already had.

However, we I did personally find some faults and mistakes that could have been changed. To begin I noticed that the screenplay we chose had very little dialogue which I personally think made the scene more confusing to watch as there was no descriptive dialogue to explain what was happening. Another thing I noticed was that the clips we got didn’t smoothly transition between each other even with editing, what I mean by this is that the shot we got might have been from the wrong angle or specific hand movements or placements might not have matched the shot before it, which doesn’t look good if noticed. A way we could have fixed this issue at the time is to have someone focusing on the movements or me as the director to completely plain what movement are where. Another way we could have fixed this is by pausing while completing an action so that the cameraman could move to another location without making the actual scene change.

Peter is walking out of the school with Mary Jane when they are ambushed by Flash.  He starts to ridicule Peter,
then threatens him.  Peter just clenches his jaw and backs
away.  Peter does not believe in violence... and he has
never thrown a punch in his life.  It just wouldn't occur
to him.

Through a row of bushes he sees Flash grab Mary Jane by
the arm and spin her around.  They are arguing.  Flash
slaps her across the face.  Peter is so enraged his hands
snap a four inch tree limb without him realizing it.

Flash is walking to his car after gymnastics practice.  It
is dark.  A figure drops silently down from behind him.
Flash spins and sees a guy in a black fishnet mask.
Thinking it is a robbery, Flash swings... only to grab his
own fist in pain.  It was like hitting oak.

Peter holds Flash with one hand and slaps him hard.

                          SPIDER MAN
          How do you like it?  Huh?

He slaps him again, backhand.  Then he cocks back his fist
and BLAM!

Punches Flash so hard he flies ten feet.  He picks him up,
gets him in a painful armlock... marches him to his
beloved Porsche and slams him brutally against it.  He
pounds Flash into the car until the jock collapses, semi-
conscious.  Peter then rips a signpost out of the ground
and pounds the car into junk.  Glass flies everywhere.

Peter leans close to Flash and tells him to stay away from
Mary Jane... or else.

As a group, we chose this screenplay as it was set in a school and we could mimic the location closer than other settings.

James- Camera man.

Micah- Actor (Peter Parker).

Harvey- Actor (Bully).

Morgan- Director / actor.

• How many cinema screens were there on Jersey during the “Golden Age” of cinema ? (1930s to 60s)

There was only 4 cinemas (Wests, Odeon, New Era and the Forum) in Jersey and each of these cinemas only had one screen so this lead to less choice in films and a more limited section.

•How many cinema screens are there now?

Cineworld is the only cinema in jersey, it has 10 screens all together however, it has fewer seats than the original cinemas but allows for more selection when choosing a film.

• What independent cinema spaces currently exist on Jersey?

Currently there is no independent cinemas because Cineworld is a commercial cinema.

• Explain why the number of cinema screens have declined over the years and what you think the implications are for the film industry in general.

Because new films are constantly being viewed all over the world which means more people are going to want to see lots of different film at roughly the same time.

Part 1:

What was the name if the first film made by Lumiere Brother and when was this?

Their first film was called People Leaving their factory, made in 1985.

What is the phantom ride?

When the camera is placed on a moving vehicle, specifically on the front or back, that gives the perspective of a ghost moving through a scene.

What was ground breaking about the silent films “the sick kitten” and “Life of an American Fireman”?

The sick kitten (1903) had the first close up in a film, they hadn’t done this before as they felt that the audience would be confused by one small segment of a scene. The life of an American Fireman (1903) used a technique called a cross cut between two locations.

What was the name of the first “film star” in Hollywood?

Florence Lawrence was the first film star in Hollywood, she was born in 1886 and died in 1938.

According to cousins, why did the hub of films production in the USA move from the East Coast of America to Hollywood?

Trying to escape Thomas Edison. They took some technology and ideas that Edison was using and took them to Hollywood as he was making people pay for his technology. They moved to Hollywood as it was far enough away to carry on with their lives.

The screenplay section below is from forest bump. The main thing that stands out to me here is the first two lines. It says “And we see a man, sitting on a bus bench, reach to pick it up. In his forties, he looks like he smells like fish.”

This stood out to me because it’s very descriptive but the “looks like he smells like fish” shows in a very specific way how they want the man to look. They won’t him to seem like he hasn’t washed in ages and that he would look like he “smells like fish”.

Film	Preference	Memorable scene	Film Element Focus
Dunkirk	7/10	– when they noticed the fighter plane heading towards the beach.	Sound

Foley artists add in sound affects to the movie in post production. examples:

Horse Hooves – Horse shoes would are created using coconut shells on a similar surface to the film.

Rain – rain is created by a bucket of water poured onto a panel.

Punch – Celery covered by a piece of fabric, being smacked onto a cushion creates the perfect sound of a punch impact onto skin, with the celery creating a smack/crack sound.