Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Silent Film Revision - Coggle Diagram
Silent Film Revision
Context
-
Buster Keaton was the most surreal of all silent comedians - Was trained in vaudeville - Had star persona
1920s was an age of accelerated change due to the second industrial revolution - Was also the Golden Age of American Film Comedy
-
-
Main themes - Machinery, Modernity, Heterosexual Romance
Gag Based or Slapstick comedy were a popular genre - This was because of the high amount of migrants in America at the time allowing them to enjoy and understand the film
Biggest studio at the time was Keystone Studios - Common themes within their films was mocking authoritative figures
Some of Keaton's contemporaries consisted of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin
By the 1920s a 'Star System' was established in American film - Studios would create personas for actors and actresses, crafting a celebrity image for each performer
Keaton was able to bypass this due to Buster Keaton Productions - set up by Joseph M. Schenck - giving him complete autonomy in his filmmaking
-
-
Buster Keaton Film Form
Cinematography - Long shots followed by close ups - long shot encourages audience to look around the frame and see the joke, Keaton's character is often placed in the centre frame to allow the audience to focus on how how he interacts with the world around him, Uses natural flat lighting and reflectors to create an even and bright look
Mise En Scene - The sets can function as characters, Auteur signature was visual avoiding title cards and focused instead on gesture and action, Use of props
Editing - Long takes to construct stunts within the mise en scene rather than camera trickery,
Sound - Although they are silent films, early film audiences would always experience film with a musical accompaniment - There was no synchronised score therefore the musicians in the theatres would play along to the film to heighten and emphasise the comedy
Meaning and Response
Representation
The policemen in Cops are typical of how the police were often represented in silent comedy. They were often presented as bullies and figures of fun that serve as obstacles for the hero. Chase sequences involving policeman who are eventually outwitted by the hero were commonplace
Women often function as romantic interests and an integral part of plot. In One Week, Keaton's wife is both his equal and foil to his gags. The heroines in One Week and The Scarecrow always retain a certain amount of independence - Sybil Seely in The Scarecrow dances primarily to please herself
The house in One Week can be interpreted as a metaphor for the dangers of idealising married life. The obstacle Keaton faces with the house shakes his idealised masculinity, as Keaton loses control and even begins to struggle with simple tasks
Aesthetics
Keaton was involved in all aspect of production and a true auteur. He wrote, directed, produced, edited and starred in these two reelers. Most of these films were shot on location in the back streets near the studio lot
Keaton was interested in the geometry of a gag. This is evident with the use of frames, parallel lines and circles in all the two reelers. The composition of the hanging salt and pepper in The Scarecrow - The characters sit at the table at each end of the frame in symmetry and the hanging pots create horizontal, vertical and diagonal patterns
Many of these early Keaton films contained what he called cartoon gags - the gags are surreal and function almost as magic tricks. These films, not bound by narrative constraints, have a dream like quality, where one action or gag simply follows another