History of Acting

Origin of Acting
Little information about the origin of theatre has survived. The information we do have comes
from wall paintings, decorations, artifacts, and hieroglyphics that show the importance of
successful hunts, seasonal changes, life cycles, and stories of the gods. From these we see the
necessity of passing along the experiences of the old to the young through art, storytelling, and
dramatizing events. This practice gave the youth of a culture a guide and a plan for their own
lives.
Theatre emerged from myth , ritual, and ceremony. Early societies perceived connections
between certain actions performed by the group or leaders in the group and the desired results of
the whole society. These actions moved from habit, to tradition, and then on to ceremony and
ritual. The formulation of these actions, and the consequent repetition and rehearsal, broke the
ground for theatre.
According to the mythologist Joseph Campbell, rituals are related to three basic concerns:
pleasure, power, and duty. Power- influencing and controlling events- was often the intention of
rituals such as ceremonies to guarantee a successful crop or to please the gods. Usually societies
had rituals that glorified supernatural powers, victories, and heroes. Often supernatural forms
would be represented using costumes and masks. Rituals that were practiced as duty to the gods,
also brought entertainment and pleasure.
These rituals are accompanied by myths. The myths enter the storytelling tradition, gaining a life
beyond the original rites. This new life allows the myths to move towards entertainment and the
esthetic. These stories now are performed for their own sake and move towards theatre.
Through these rituals, leaders, or actors of sorts, emerged. These acting/leadership roles were
often filled by elders and priests. In addition, the beginnings of acting spaces or auditoriums
developed as a result of more elaborate rituals.
The earliest example of ceremony and ritual evolving towards theatre comes from ancient Egypt.
"Pyramid texts" dating from 2800 to 2400 B.C., contain dramas sending the dead pharaoh off to
the underworld. These dramas also the continuity of life and the pharaoh's power. There is also
the Memphite Drama, recounting the story of the death and resurection of the god Osiris, and the
coronation of his son Horus. The most important Egyptian drama, though, was the Abydos
passion play. Like the Memphite drama, the Abydos passion play concerns the story of Osiris.
The paramont egyptian myth, this drama was enacted at the most sacred place in Egypt, Abydosthe
burial site of Osiris. .Performed annualy from 2500 to 550 B.C. and full of spectacle, this
passion play is the first of its kind ever recorded and is the first example of theatre.
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any
other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and,
usually, speaking or singing the written text or play.
Acting requires a wide range of skills, including vocal projection, clarity of speech, physical
expressivity, emotional facility, a well-developed imagination, and the ability to interpret drama.
Acting also often demands an ability to employdialects, accents and body
language, improvisation, observation and emulation, mime, and stage combat. Many actors train
at length in special programs or colleges to develop these skills, and today the vast majority of
professional actors have undergone extensive training. Even though one actor may have years of
training, they always strive for more lessons; the cinematic and theatrical world is always
changing and because of this, the actor must stay as up to date as possible. Actors and actresses
will often have many instructors and teachers for a full range of training involving, but not
limited to, singing, scene-work, monologue techniques, audition techniques, and partner work.
Greek theatre
The Greek theatre history began with festivals honoring their gods. A god, Dionysus, was
honored with a festival called by "City Dionysia". In Athens, during this festival, men used to
perform songs to welcome Dionysus. Plays were only presented at City Dionysia festival.
Athens was the main center for these theatrical traditions. Athenians spread these festivals to its
numerous allies in order to promote a common identity.
At the early Greek festivals, the actors, directors, and dramatists were all the same person. After
some time, only three actors were allowed to perform in each play. Later few non-speaking roles
were allowed to perform on-stage. Due to limited number of actors allowed on-stage, the chorus
evolved into a very active part of Greek theatre. Music was often played during the chorus'
delivery of its lines.
Tragedy plays
Thespis is considered to be the first Greek "actor" and originator of tragedy (which means "goat
song", perhaps referring to goats sacrificed to Dionysus before performances, or to goat-skins worn by the performers.) However, his importance is disputed, and Thespis is sometimes listed as late as sixteenth in the chronological order of Greek tragedians. Aristotle's Poetics contain the earliest known theory about the origins of Greek theatre. He says that tragedy evolved from dithyrambs, songs sung in praise of Dionysus at the Dionysia each year. The dithyrambs may have begun as frenzied improvisations but in the 600s BC, the poet Arion is credited with developing the dithyramb into a formalized narrative sung by a chorus. Three well-known Greek tragedy playwrights of the fifth century are Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus. Comedy plays Comedy was also an important part of ancient Greek theatre. Comedy plays were derived from imitation; there are no traces of its origin. Aristophanes wrote most of the comedy plays. Out of these 11 plays survived - Lysistrata, a humorous tale about a strong woman who leads a female coalition to end war in Greece. Greek Theatre Theatre buildings were called a theatron. The theaters were large, open-air structures constructed on the slopes of hills. They consisted of three main elements: the orchestra, the skene, and the audience. Orchestra: A large circular or rectangular area at the center part of the theatre, where the play, dance, religious rites, acting used to take place. Skene: A large rectangular building situated behind the orchestra, used as a backstage. Actors could change their costumes and masks. Earlier the skene was a tent or hut, later it became a permanent stone structure. These structures were sometimes painted to serve as backdrops. Rising from the circle of the orchestra was the audience. The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand. Acting The cast of a Greek play in the Dionysia was comprised of amateurs, not professionals (all male). Ancient Greek actors had to gesture grandly so that the entire audience could see and hear the story. However most Greek theatres were cleverly constructed to transmit even the smallest sound to any seat. Costumes and Masks The actors were so far away from the audience that without the aid of exaggerated costumes and masks. The masks were made of linen or cork, so none have survived. Tragic masks carried mournful or pained expressions, while comic masks were smiling or leering. The shape of the mask amplified the actor's voice, making his words easier for the audience to hear. Roman Theatre The theatre of ancient Rome was a diverse and interesting art form, ranging from festivalperformances of street theatre and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca. Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BC had a profound and energizing effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage. Roman drama was highly influenced by Greek drama. Roman playwrights included Seneca for tragedy and Plautus and Terence for comedy. Two of the most famous plays of the Roman Theatre were the Menaechmi by Plautus and Oedipus by Seneca. Roman dramas had two sets of actors. There was an actor who spoke the character's lines and a different actor mimed the part on stage. The gestures used were also stylized to emphasize the lines as were the masks that they wore. Roman Theatre props would have included easily moveable objects such as weapons including swords and daggers, goblets and plates, stools, torches, blood soaked clothing, wine or ale containers, whips, helmets, armor, false jewels, crowns and wreaths, skulls and bones, animal furs, standards and banners, caskets and containers and flowers and petals. Larger props might include larger items of furniture, statues, exotic plants and even trees. The scena was a partition reaching across the theatre and was made either to turn round or draw up, to present a new prospect to the spectators. The audience seating portion of the Roman theatre was called the Cavea and arrange in wedgeshaped seating sections. In the early Roman Republic (before the emperors emerged after Julius Caesar), women did not enter the profession; it was considered inappropriate for them. However, in the Imperial period, a number of women became famous actresses, and earned reputations as infamous as their male counterparts.Roman actors had bad reputations and their morals challenged even the decadence of Roman society. Their performances could be lewd, highly sexual and offensive, and they sometimes even appeared naked on stage and engaged in sexual acts. The Roman theatre was laid out like a Greek theatre. There was a backstage area, seating arrangements for the audience, and an orchestra. The Roman stage went through many different stages before reaching the form we all recognize today.[citation needed] Theatres started out as simple, temporary wooden structures. The layout of the stage was the same as in later stone stages: three doors, opening to the brothel, temple, and hero's house. The stage itself was enclosed by wings at each side, and the scene house had a roof. Sanskrit Drama The Mahābhāṣya by Patañjali contains the earliest reference to what may have been the seeds of Sanskrit drama.This treatise on grammar from 140 BCE provides a feasible date for the beginnings of theatre in India. Its drama is regarded as the highest achievement of Sanskrit literature. It utilised stock characters, such as the hero (nayaka), heroine (nayika), or clown (vidusaka). The major source of evidence for Sanskrit theatre is A Treatise on Theatre (Nātyaśāstra), a compendium whose date of composition is uncertain (estimates range from 200 BCE to 200 CE) and whose authorship is attributed to Bharata Muni. The Treatise is the most complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient world. It addresses acting, dance, music, dramatic construction, architecture, costuming, make-up, props, the organisation of companies, the audience, competitions, and offers a mythological account of the origin of theatre.[11] In doing so, it provides indications about the nature of actual theatrical practices. Sanskrit theatre was performed on sacred ground by priests who had been trained in the necessary skills (dance, music, and recitation) in an hereditary process. Its aim was both to educate and to entertain. Under the patronage of royal courts, performers belonged to professional companies that were directed by a stage manager (sutradhara), who may also have acted.[12] This task was thought of as being analogous to that of a puppeteer—the literal meaning of "sutradhara" is "holder of the strings or threads". The performers were trained rigorously in vocal and physical technique. There were no prohibitions against female performers; companies were all-male, all-female, and of mixed gender. Certain sentiments were considered inappropriate for men to enact, however, and were thought better suited to women. Some performers played characters their own age, while others played characters younger or older than themselves. Of all the elements of theatre, the Treatise gives most attention to acting (abhinaya), which consists of two styles: realistic (lokadharmi) and conventional (natyadharmi), though the major focus is on the latter.

History of Film Editing

 Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. The term film editing is derived from the traditional process of working with film, but now increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film editor works with the raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms like poetry or novel writing. Film editing is often referred to as the "invisible art"because when it is well-practiced, the viewer can become so engaged that he or she is not even aware of the editor's work. On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor isn‘t simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates, or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film. Sometimes, auteur film directors edit their own films. Notable examples are Akira Kurosawa and the Coen brothers. With the advent of digital editing, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just that—picture. Sound, music, and (more recently) visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the assistant editors or even the editor to cut in music, mock up visual effects, and add sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements by the sound, music, and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture. Film editing is an art that can be used in diverse ways. It can create sensually provocative montages; become a laboratory for experimental cinema; bring out the emotional truth in an actor's performance; create a point of view on otherwise obtuse events; guide the telling and pace of a story; create an illusion of danger where there is none; give emphasis to things that would not have otherwise been noted; and even create a vital subconscious emotional connection to the viewer, among many other possibilities. Editors can completely control how the audience feels emotionally throughout a film. Chronology Before Editing Like almost every basic idea about movies, the idea of editing has its precursors. Flashbacks had existed in novels; scene changes were already part of live theater; even narrated sequences had been a part of visual culture from medieval altar triptychs to late nineteenth-century comic strips.But the very earliest filmmakers were afraid to edit film shots together because they assumed that splicing together different shots of different things from different positions would simply confuse audiences. In 1895 the Lumiere Brothers invented Cinematographe.Cinematographe was a three in one device that recorded, captured and projected motion picture. The Lumiere Brothers films were single, unedited shots .They found a subject they wanted to film, setup their camera and ran the camera until the film stock ran out. Although the Lumiere Brothers had a great invention, Edwin S. Porter came along and showed that film didn‘t have to be one long still in 1901. Edwin S. Porter also used footage to tell a different story unrelated to what the footage originally was meant to portray. The one-reel film, with a running time of twelve minutes, was assembled in twenty separate shots, along with a startling close-up of a bandit firing at the camera. It used as many as ten different indoor and outdoor locations and was groundbreaking in its use of "cross-cutting" in editing to show simultaneous action in different places. No earlier film had created such swift movement or variety of scene. The Great Train Robbery was enormously popular. Georges Melies was an illusionist who worked in the theater. He pioneered double exposure when his camera jammed while filming on the streets of Paris. This evolved into the first dissolve In 1908 D.W Griffiths film ―For Love of Gold‖ featured the first ever continuity cut when a scene cut...Griffiths then realised that emotions could also be portrayed through different camera angles and pace of editing and it wasn‘t all down to the actors.Griffiths was given credit for the narrative of a film, the production of the first American feature film and the discovery of the close up. This is his first directed one reel film... The Birth of a Nation film included camera techniques such as panoramic long shots, iris effect, still shots, cross cutting and panning shots. There techniques are widely used today to create films. The use of sound allowed the film to be more interested and to make the audience feel more involved. Discovery of the Kuleshov Effect was Soviet director and film theorist Lev Kuleshov. The Kuleshov effect was a montage effect on a film which Lev Kuleshov believed the audience would respond to more. Between 1910 and 1920, Russian Filmmaker Lev Kuleshov and V. I. Pudovkin experimented with editing and emotional response. They filmed an actors response to different images; a bowl of soup (hunger), a woman (lust) and a child in a coffin (sadness). Although it appears that the actors expression doesnot change, when juxtaposed with the three shots it may suggest to the audience that it does. Russian filmmaker Sergie Eisenstein believed film montage could create ideas that would have a greater impact on an audience. This allowed filmmakers to manipulate real time to a greater degree than just single shots. Note that Eisenstein is simply cutting using the naked eye and a pair of scissors. Editing Today Even in an era of incredibly advanced special effects, some filmmakers are still enamored of the photographic realism in sustained shots. Perhaps the most conspicuous is Jim Jarmusch, who will hold his camera on his subjects for an agonizingly hilarious amount of time.But the past 20 or so years has also seen the rise of "digital editing" (also called nonlinear editing), which makes any kind of editing easier. The notion of editing film on video originated when films were transferred to video for television viewing. Then filmmakers used video to edit their work more quickly and less expensively than they could on film. The task of cleanly splicing together video clips was then taken over by computers using advanced graphics programs that could then also perform various special effects functions. Finally, computers convert digital images back into film or video. These digital cuts are a very far cry from Méliè's editing in the camera. Digital video is a representation of moving visual images in the form of encoded digital data. This is in contrast to analog video, which represents moving visual images with analog signals. Standard film stocks such as 16 mm and 35 mm record at 24 frames per second. For video, there are two frame rate standards: NTSC, which shoot at 30/1.001 (about 29.97) frames per second or 59.94 fields per second, and PAL, 25 frames per second or 50 fields per second. Digital video cameras come in two different image capture formats: interlaced and deinterlaced / progressive scan. Interlaced cameras record the image in alternating sets of lines: the odd-numbered lines are scanned, and then the even-numbered lines are scanned, then the odd-numbered lines are scanned again, and so on. One set of odd or even lines is referred to as a "field", and a consecutive pairing of two fields of opposite parity is called a frame. Deinterlaced cameras records each frame as distinct, with all scan lines being captured at the same moment in time. Thus, interlaced video captures samples the scene motion twice as often as progressive video does, for the same number of frames per second. Progressive-scan camcorders generally produce a slightly sharper image. However, motion may not be as smooth as interlaced video which uses 50 or 59.94 fields per second, particularly if they employ the 24 frames per second standard of film. Digital video can be copied with no degradation in quality. No matter how many generations of a digital source is copied, it will still be as clear as the original first generation of digital footage. However a change in parameters like frame size as well as a change of the digital format can decrease the quality of the video due to new calculations that have to be made. Digital video can be manipulated and edited to follow an order or sequence on an NLE, or non-linear editingworkstation, a computer-based device intended to edit video and audio. More and more, videos are edited on readily available, increasingly affordable consumer-grade computer hardware and software. However, such editing systems require ample disk space for video footage. The many video formats and parameters to be set make it quite impossible to come up with a specific number for how many minutes need how much time. Digital video has a significantly lower cost than 35 mm film. The film stock itself is very inexpensive. Digital video also allows footage to be viewed on location without the expensive chemical processing required by film. Also physical deliveries of tapes and broadcasts do not apply anymore. Digital television (including higher quality HDTV) started to spread in most developed countries in early 2000s. Digital video is also used in modern mobile phones and video conferencingsystems. Digital video is also used for Internet distribution of media, including streaming video and peer-to-peer movie distribution. However even within Europe are lots of TV-Stations not broadcasting in HD, due to restricted budgets for new equipment for processing HD. Many types of video compression exist for serving digital video over the internet and on optical disks. The file sizes of digital video used for professional editing are generally not practical for these purposes, and the video requires further compression with codecs such as Sorenson, H.264 and more recently Apple ProRes especially for HD. Probably the most widely used formats for delivering video over the internet are MPEG4, Quicktime, Flash and Windows Media, while MPEG2 is used almost exclusively for DVDs, providing an exceptional image in minimal size but resulting in a high level of CPU consumption to decompress. Transmission of Color Color television is a television transmission technology that includes information on the color of the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television screen. It is an improvement on the earliest television technology, monochrome or black and white television, in which the image is displayed in shades of grey . In its most basic form, a color broadcast can be created by broadcasting three monochrome images, one each in the three colors of red, green, and blue (RGB). When displayed together or in rapid succession, these images will blend together to produce a full color image as seen by the viewer. The basic idea of using three monochrome images to produce a color image had been experimented with almost as soon as black-and-white televisions had first been built. Among the earliest published proposals for television was one by Maurice Le Blanc in 1880 for a color system, including the first mentions in television literature of line and frame scanning, although he gave no practical details.[5] Polish inventor Jan Szczepanik patented a color television system in 1897, using aselenium photoelectric cell at the transmitter and an electromagnet controlling an oscillating mirror and a moving prism at the receiver. But his system contained no means of analyzing the spectrum of colors at the transmitting end, and could not have worked as he described it.[6] An Armenian inventor, Hovannes Adamian, also experimented with color television as early as 1907. The first color television project is claimed by him,[7] and was patented in Germany on March 31, 1908. Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first color transmission on July 3, 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with filters of a different primary color; and three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination.Baird also made the world's first color broadcast on February 4, 1938, sending a mechanically scanned 120-line image from Baird's Crystal Palace studios to a projection screen at London's Dominion Theatre.[11] Mechanically scanned color television was also demonstrated by Bell Laboratories in June 1929 using three complete systems of photoelectric cells, amplifiers, glow-tubes, and color filters, with a series of mirrors to superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full color image. Linear VS Non-linear editing In the past, film editing was done in a linear fashion, where the film was literally cut into long strips divided by scene and take, and then glued or taped back together to create a film in logical sequence. This was time-consuming, tedious and highly specialized work. While linear editing is still relevant today, there is a newer and more user-friendly system available for editors: nonlinear editing. Curious about what these systems can and can‘t do and the pros and cons each system has? Well, let‘s take a look… Linear Video Editing Method Linear video editing is a process of selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound in a pre-determined, ordered sequence – from start to finish. Linear editing is most commonly used when working with videotape. Unlike film, videotape cannot be physically cut into pieces to be spliced together to create a new order. Instead, the editor must dub or record each desired video clip onto a master tape. For example, let‘s say an editor has three source tapes; A, B and C and he decided that he would use tape C first, B second and A third. He would then start by cutting up tape C to the beginning of the clip he wants to use, then as he plays tape C, it would also be simultaneously recording the clip onto a master tape. When the desired clip from tape C is done, the recording is stopped. Then the whole process is repeated with tapes B and A. Pros vs Cons There are a couple of disadvantages one would come across when using the linear video editing method. First, it is not possible to insert or delete scenes from the master tape without re-copying all the subsequent scenes. As each piece of video clip must be laid down in real time, you would not be able to go back to make a change without re-editing everything after the change. Secondly, because of the overdubbing that has to take place if you want to replace a current clip with a new one, the two clips must be of the exact same length. If the new clip is too short, the tail end of the old clip will still appear on the master tape. If it‘s too long, then it‘ll roll into the next scene. The solution is to either make the new clip fit to the current one, or rebuild the project from the edit to the end, both of which is not very pleasant. Meanwhile, all that overdubbing also causes the image quality to degrade. However, linear editing still has some advantages: It is simple and inexpensive. There are very few complications with formats, hardware conflicts, etc. For some jobs linear editing is better. For example, if all you want to do is add two sections of video together, it is a lot quicker and easier to edit tape-to-tape than to capture and edit on a hard drive. Learning linear editing skills increases your knowledge base and versatility. According to many professional editors, those who learn linear editing first tend to become better all-round editors. Nonlinear Video Editing Method The nonlinear video editing method is a way of random access editing, which means instant access to whatever clip you want, whenever you want it. So instead of going in a set order, you are able to work on any segment of the project at any time, in any order you want. In nonlinear video editing, the original source files are not lost or modified during editing. This is done through an edit decision list (EDL), which records the decisions of the editor and can also be interchanged with other editing tools. As such, many variations of the original source files can exit without needing to store many different copies, allowing for very flexible editing. It is also easy to change cuts and undo previous decisions simply by editing the EDL, without having to have the actual film data duplicated. Loss of video quality is also avoided due to not having to repeatedly re-encode the data when different effects are applied. Nonlinear editing differs from linear editing in several ways. First, video from the sources is recorded to the editing computer‘s hard drive or RAID array prior to the edit session. Next, rather than laying video to the recorder in sequential shots, the segments are assembled using a video editing software program. The segments can be moved around at will in a dragand-drop fashion. Transitions can be placed between the segments. Also, most of the video editing programs have some sort of CG or character generator feature built in for lower-thirds or titles. The work-in-progress can be viewed at any time during the edit in real time. Once the edit is complete, it is finally laid to video. Non-linear video editing removes the need to lay down video in real time. It also allows the individual doing the editing to make changes at any point without affecting the rest of the edit. Pros vs Cons There are many advantages a nonlinear video editing system presents. First, it allows you access to any frame, scene, or even groups of scenes at any time. Also, as the original video footage is kept intact when editing, you are able to return to the original take whenever you like. Secondly, nonlinear video editing systems offers the flexibility of editing. You can change your mind a hundred times over and changes can also be made a hundred times over without having to start all over again with each change. Thirdly, it is also possible to edit both standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) broadcast quality videos very quickly on normal PCs which do not have the power to do the full processing of the huge full quality high resolution data in real-time. The biggest downside to nonlinear video editing is the cost. While the dedicated hardware and software doesn‘t cost much, the computers and hard drives do, from two to five times more than the gear. . However, as the nonlinear technology pushes forward, count on big gains in digital video storage and compression, as well as lower prices on computers and hard disks in the very near future.

FILM AS A MASS COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Film is a means of creative expression. It performs the functions of mass media. Such as
information, education, entertainment and transmission of culture. Films are widely popular and
their audio visual nature provides them a pervasive power for social influence.
Therefore, they have the potential to play an important role as a medium of entertainment,
information and education and as a catalyst for social change. Films are popular because they
entertain.
They are a facet of a mass culture and mass art. They generate mass mediated culture arising
from elite, folk, popular or mass origins.
Almost every person of the society has participated in the activity of going to cinema hall and
enjoying a film. According to Jovett and Linton, "obviously there is still something unique and
inherently appealing about going to the movies", and this is clearly different from other mass
media experiences".
The social institution of movie going is firmly established in our society and movies have played
an important part as one of the factors contributing to the dramatic changes which have taken
place in the last 50 years in the way we live and also in how we perceive the world around us.
They have provided us not only with entertainment, but also with ideas, and it would be difficult
to conceive of our society without them.
The films take as their starting point those aspects of society with which we have become
familiar. They create twist plots and use other narrative devices which infuse the story with
sufficient new elements to attract an audience.
Films draw heavily from reality, portraying situations that have resemblance to the everyday
stresses and aspirations of viewers' lives. The movies recognize the link between their lives and
films in both general and specific terms.
The ease of comprehension helps the viewer to assume the role of the characters and to identify
with them quickly and effectively. Films appeal to their primary emotions and sentiments. Films
provide photographic realism, vivid visual presentation in which the images are already fully
established, easily identified and followed.
Melodrama in films draws suppressed fears and desires into a public realm, but suggests personal
solutions. The viewers are active participants in the construction of the image that both
represents present reality and allows them to escape as future fantasy.
The films generate popular culture and create 'culture waves. Such as in fashions styles and
mannerisms. Moreover, by revolving the film stories and characters around the traditional ideas
and role stereotypes, they foster the role stereotypes in the society in general.
This implies that the cultural quality of cinema should be of good standard". The cinema has
always done a remarkable job in creating a type of visual public 'consensus'.
Mass production and distribution of message systems transform selected private perspectives
into broad public perspectives and brings mass public into existence.
Films combine visuals, movement, sound, theatre, music all in one. Therefore, they are able to
communicate effectively and create impact which cannot be created by any other media. It is due
to this characteristic of films; masses from all levels are attracted to go to cinema.
Due to reality element, films have psychological impact on people. The extent of reality that can
be presented through films is far greater than television or any other medium. Their language is
universal and this helps in breaking any social or cultural barriers.
Therefore, media experts and development communicators feel that films can prove to be the
most effective mass medium in a country like India where literacy is low and people cannot
afford other media such as print or television due to economic reasons.
Many people from lower economic status do not mind spending for films as it is the popular
form of entertainment. Feature films are produced in several Indian languages. They provide a
viable alternative to the people in terms of entertainment.
Since it is a powerful audio visual medium, social, cultural, political, communal problems can be
projected well before the masses. Despite the growth of television and availability of other
means of entertainment, films have remained the most popular medium of entertainment for the
masses which is a basic necessity.
Films have been exposing under world elements, black marketeers, bureaucrats, unemployment
problem and so on.
They can stimulate values of good life and citizenship as also participatory virtues of
developmental activities.
Each genra of film is capable of creating impact on the masses. For example, comedy and
hilarious movies entertain people and relax them. Social or tragic movies provide outlet to the
emotions of the viewers.

History of Cinema (Chronology)

17th Century - Use of Magic Lanterns
1827 - First still photograph taken, using a glass plate technique Claude Niepce's photograph the
View from a Window at Le Gras took nearly eight hours to expose.
1832 - Joseph Plateau and sons introduce the Phenakistoscope. Like other toys of
its kind, the Phenakistoscope was one of the more successful illusion toys.
Pictures on one disc viewed through slots in the other, appeared to move when
the two were spun and viewed in a mirror.
1834 - Another illusion toy - the Zoetrope was introduced by
William George Horner. The Zoetrope used the same principle as Plateau's
Phenakistoscope but instead of discs the pictures and slots are combined in a
rotating drum. Zoetrope's were widely sold after 1867.
1839 - Henry Fox Talbot makes an important advancement in photograph production with the
introduction of negatives on paper - as opposed to glass. Also around this time it became
possible to print photographic images on glass slides which could be projected using magic
lanterns.
1846 - Important in the development of motion pictures was the invention of intermittent
mechanisms - particularly those used in sewing machines.
1877 - Emile Reynaud introduces the Praxinoscope. Similar in design to Horner's Zoetrope, the
illusion of movement produced by the Praxinoscope was viewed on mirrors in the centre of the
drum rather than through slots on the outside.
1878 - Eadweard Muybridge achieves success after five years of trying to capture movement.
Muybridge was asked, in 1873, by the ex-governor of California - Leland Stanford to settle a bet
as to whether horses hooves left the ground when they galloped. He did this by setting up a bank
of twelve cameras with trip-wires connected to their shutters, each camera took a picture when
the horse tripped its wire. Muybridge developed a projector to present his finding. He adapted
Horner's Zoetrope to produce his Zoopraxinoscope.
1882 - Etienne Jules Marey, inspired by Muybridge's animal locomotion studies, begins his own
experiments to study the flight of birds and other rapid animal movements . The result was a
photographic gun which exposed 12 images on the edge of a circular plate.
1882 - Emile Reynaud expands on his praxinoscope and using mirrors and a lantern is about to
project moving drawings onto a screen.
1888 - George Eastman devises a still camera which produces photographs on sensitised paper
which he sells using the name Kodak.
1888 - Etienne Marey (right) builds a box type moving picture camera which uses an intermittent
mechanism and strips of paper film.
1888 - Thomas A. Edison, inventor of the electric light bulb and the phonograph decides to
design machines for making and showing moving pictures. With his assistant W.K.L Dickson
(who did most of the work), Edison began experimenting with adapting the phonograph and tried
in vain to make rows of tiny photographs on similar cylinders.
1889 - Reynaud exhibits a much larger version of his praxinoscope.
1889 - Edison travels to Paris and views Marey's camera which uses flexible film. Dickson then
acquires some Eastman Kodak film stock and begins work on a new type of machine.
1891 By 1891 - Edison and Dickson have their Kinetograph camera and Kinetoscope viewing
box ready for patenting and demonstration. Using Eastman film cut into inch wide strips,
Dickson punched four holes in either side of each frame allowing toothed gears to pull the film
through the camera.
1892 - Using his projecting Praxinoscope, Reynaud holds the first public exhibitions of motion
pictures. Reynaud's device was successful, using long strips of hand-painted frames, but the
effect was jerky and slow.
1893 - Edison and Dickson build a studio on the grounds of Edison's laboratories in New Jersey,
to produce films for their kinetoscope. The Black Maria was ready for film production at the end
of January.
1894 - The Lumière family is the biggest manufacturer of photographic plates in Europe A Local
kinetoscope exhibitor asks brothers Louis and Auguste to make films which are cheaper than the
ones sold by Edison.
Louis and Auguste design a camera which serves as both a recording device and a projecting
device. They call it the Cinématographe.
The Cinématographe uses flexible film cut into 35mm wide strips and used an intermittent
mechanism modeled on the sewing machine.
The camera shot films at sixteen frames per second (rather than the forty six which Edison used),
this became the standard film rate for nearly 25 years.
1894 - During this year Woodville Latham and his sons Otway and Gray began working on their
own camera and projector.
1894 - In October of 1894, Edison's Kinetoscope made its debut in London. The parlour which
played host these machines did remarkably well and its owner approached R.W Paul, a maker of
photographic equipment to make some extra machines for it. Incredibly, Edison hadn't patented
his kinetoscope outside of the US, so Paul was free to sell copies to anyone, however, because Edison would only supply films to exhibitors who leased his machines, Paul had to invent his own camera to make films to go with his duplicate kinetoscopes. 1894 - Another peepshow device, similar to the kinetoscope arrived in the Autumn of 1894. The Mutoscope was patented by Herman Casler, and worked using a flip-card device to provide the motion picture. Needing a camera he turned to his friend W.K.L Dickson who, unhappy at the Edison Company cooperates and with several others they form the American Mutoscope Company. 1895 - The first film shot with the Cinématographe camera is La Sortie de l'usine Lumière a Lyon (Workers leaving the Lumière factory at Lyon). Shot in March it is shown in public at a meeting of the Societe d'Encouragement a l'industrie Nationale in Paris that same month. 1895 - In March of 1895, R.W Paul and his partner Birt Acres had a functional camera which was based partly on Marey's 1888 camera. In just half a year they had created a camera and shot 13 films for use with the kinetoscope. The partnership broke up, Paul continuing to improve upon the camera while Acres concentrating on creating a projector. 1895 - The Lathams too had succeeded in creating a camera and a projector and on April 21st 1895 they showed one film to reporters. In May they opened a small storefront theatre. Their projector received only a small amount of attention as the image projected was very dim. The Lathams did however contribute greatly to motion picture history. Their projectors employed a system which looped the film making it less susceptible to breaks and tears. The Latham Loop as it was dubbed later is still in use in modern motion picture projectors. 1895 - Atlanta, Georgia was the setting for another partnership. C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat exhibit their phantoscope projector but like Latham, attracts a moderate audience due to its dim, unsteady projector and competition from the Kinetoscope parlours. Later that year, Jenkins and Armat split. Armat continued to improve upon the projector and renames it the Vitascope, and obtained backing from American entrepreneurs Norman Raff and Frank Gammon. 1895 - One of the most famous film screenings in history took place on December 28th, 1895. The venue was the Grand Cafe in Paris and customers paid one Franc for a twenty-five minute programme of ten Lumière films. These included Feeding the Baby, The Waterer Watered and A View of the Sea. 1896 - Early in 1896, Herman Casler and W.K.L Dickson had developed their camera to go with Casler's Mutoscope. However the market for peepshow devices was in decine and they decided to concentrate on producing a projection system. The camera and projector they produced were unusual as they used 70mm film which gave very clear images. 1896 - January 14th saw Birt Acres present a selection of his films to the Royal Photographic Society - these included the famous Rough Sea at Dover and soon projected films were shown there regularly. 1896 - The Lumière brothers sent a representative from their company to London and started a successful run of Cinématographe films. 1896 - R.W. Paul continued to improve his camera and invented a projector which began by showing copies of Acres' films from the previous year. He sold his machines rather than leasing them and as a result speeded up the spread of the film industry in Britain as well as abroad supplying filmmakers and exhibitors which included George Méliès. 1896 - After agreeing to back Armat's Vitascope, Raff and Gammon approached Edison, afraid to offend him, and Edison agrees to manufacture the Vitascope marketing it as "Edison's Vitascope". April 23rd saw the first public premiere of the Vitascope at Koster and Bial's Music Hall. Six films were shown in all, five of which were orginally shot for kinetoscope, the sixth being Birt Acres' Rough Sea at Dover. 1897 - By 1897 the American Mutoscope Company become the most popular film company in America - both projecting films and with the peephole Mutoscope which was considered more reliable than the kinetoscope. 1899 -The American Mutoscope Company changes its name to the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company to include its projection and peepshow devices. 1900 - British filmmaker James Williamson produces "The Big Swallow" which demonstrated the ingenuity of the Brighton School (of filmmakers) of which he and George Smith were principle contributors. 1902 - Georges Méliès produces his magnificent "Voyage to the Moon", a fifteen minute epic fantasy parodying the writings of Jules Verne and HG Wells. The film used innovative special effect techniques and introduced colour to the screen through hand-painting and tinting. 1903 - British film maker George Smith makes Mary Janes Mishap which was praised for its sophisticated use of editing. The film uses medium close-ups to draw the viewers attention to the scene, juxtaposed with wide establishing shots. The film also contains a pair of wipes which signal a scene change. 1903- The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company begin making films in the 35mm format rather that the 70mm which boosted their sales. The company went on to employ one of the most important silent film directors - D.W Griffith in 1908. 1903 - Edwin S. Porter, working for Edison makes "The Life of an American Fireman" which displayed new visual storytelling techniques and incorporated stock footage with Porter's own photography. It acted as a major precursor to Porter's most famous film "The Great Train Robbery" also made in 1903 which displayed effective use of editing and photography technique. 1905 - Cecil Hepworth produced, with Lewin Fitzhamon "Rescued by Rover". A charming film in which Hepworth, his wife, child and dog, star.

History of Television

The television has become such an integral part of homes in the modern world that it is hard to
imagine life without television. The boob tube, as television is also referred to, provides
entertainment to people of all ages. Not just for entertainment value, but TV is also a valuable
resource for advertising and different kinds of programming.
Timeline of TV History
Different experiments by various people, in the field of electricity and radio, led to the
development of basic technologies and ideas that laid the foundation for the invention of
television.
In the late 1800s, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a student in Germany, developed the first ever
mechanical module of television. He succeeded in sending images through wires with the help of
a rotating metal disk. This technology was called the ‗electric telescope‘ that had 18 lines of
resolution.
Around 1907, two separate inventors, A.A. Campbell-Swinton from England and Russian
scientist Boris Rosing, used the cathode ray tube in addition to the mechanical scanner system, to
create a new television system.
From the experiments of Nipkow and Rosing, two types of television systems came into
existence: mechanical television and electronic television.
Mechanical Television History
In 1923, an American inventor called Charles Jenkins used the disk idea of Nipkow to invent the
first ever practical mechanical television system. By 1931, his Radiovisor Model 100 was being
sold in a complete kit as a mechanical television.
In 1926, just a little after Jenkins, a British inventor known as John Logie Baird, was the first
person to have succeeded in transmitting moving pictures through the mechanical disk system
started by Nipkow. He also started the first ever TV studio.
From 1926 till 1931, the mechanical television system saw many innovations. Although the
discoveries of these men in the department of mechanical television were very innovative, by
1934, all television systems had converted into the electronic system, which is what is being used
even today.
Electronic Television History
The experiments of Swinton in 1907, with the cathode ray tube for electronic television held
great potential but were not converted into reality. Finally, in 1927, Philo Taylor Farnsworth was
able to invent a working model of electronic television that was based on Swinton‘s ideas.
His experiments had started when he was just a little boy of 14 years. By the time he became 21,
Philo had created the first electronic television system, which did away with the rotating disks
and other mechanical aspects of mechanical television. Thus was born the television system
which is the basis of all modern TVs.All the early television systems were black and white,
with color television being invented much later on. Since the early invention of television in the
beginning of the 1900s, history has seen many firsts in the area of television.
Communication in the age of electronic media
Communication has an incredible effect on our lives. It is how we interact with each other, gain
information, and learn new things. Communication takes many forms and mediums throughout
history; from oral histories and stories, to cave paintings, to town criers and newsboys shouting
―Extra, extra, read all about it on‖ street corners, to twenty-four hour news cycles. We just can‘t
seem to get enough communication. In today‘s digital age, it is easier than ever to find
information, but what impact has this new-found accessibility had on our perceptions, our culture
and the way we manage business?
―Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men
communicate than by the content of the communication. The alphabet, for instance, is a
technology that is absorbed by the very young child in a completely unconscious manner, by
osmosis so to speak. Words and the meaning of words predispose the child to think and act
automatically in certain ways. Electric technology fosters and encourages unification and
involvement. It is impossible to understand social and cultural changes without a knowledge of
the workings of media.‖
The Digital Age Has Changed Everything
To understand the workings of media one must also understand that the format, the medium, and
the shape of the way we project, communicate, or demonstrate our ideas shapes the message
itself. Today‘s digital devices demand our constant attention, completely changing the ways we
interact, advertise, work, entertain, gain knowledge, conduct business, create, communicate and
so much more.
Now, you can talk to anyone at any time. Ideas can flow quickly and are often quite explosive.
Managers are finding they need to communicate with younger employees in a whole new
manner. Businesses that do not understand the explosive nature of the digital communication
network can often find themselves struggling to catch up with a negative storyline. If McLuhan
conjectured that ―The goose quill put an end to talk,‖2 should we also ask ourselves, ―The internet put an end to what?‖ The digital revolution has given us the ability to easily copy and replicate things. While this maybe helpful in championing a product on the digital highway, it also means managers will need to work harder to protect their original ideas, product innovations, and copyrighted insights. Culturally, digital has changed the way we identify with one another and form communities. While 20th century consumers bonded in tight-knit neighborhoods, today‘s target demographics gather together in far-flung global communities. They can easily gather in chat rooms, YouTube communities, and online forums to share personal stories or provide advice. Business managers will need to do more to ferret out these new communities in order to find advocates and influencers who can help them build a brand message. As a result of photography‘s, perpetuated by digitization, impact, we have become a much more visual society. Images and photography have become an integral part of our culture and understanding. In fact, Maria Popova took Susan Sontag‘s On Photography and applied it to today‘s media obsessed culture in ―The Susan Sontag Guide to Photography in the Age of Digital Culture.‖3 While Sontag observed that there are a great number of images grabbing for our attention, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe,‘‖4 Popova concludes that events only happen now to be photographed and put on our ―timeline‖ or ―profile,‖ saying they were filled with notable moments.5 ―‗Ultimately, having an experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it, and participating in a public event comes more and more to be equivalent to looking at it in photographed form.‘‖ Now we are overrun with images, meaning that businesses will need to work even harder to stand out in a world of visual overload. Imagery and photographs used in communication and marketing must be clear, precise and meaningful. They need to add to the storylines that consumers are creating for themselves. Digital Has Changed the Way we Communicate The dynamics of communication change in cyberspace; people are more open and do not use as many filters as they would in face-to-face communications. ―‗Sometimes people share very personal things about themselves. […] [On the other hand] out spills rude language, harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats.‘‖7This feeling of over-familiarity confers undue credulity and equality on even the most pedestrian of bloggers. ―No one knows your credentials or lack thereof, so you are taken as seriously as everyone else.‖8 How can businesses stand out in what is now considered to be an equal playing field where everyone and anyone can create a website or blog, and say what they want? Perhaps they can take a lesson from the way today‘s celebrities, who are learning to interact with their fans in a whole new way. ―Prior to computers, magazines and cinema were the sole outlets influencing your perception of beauty.‖Now, lives are chronicled on a daily basis thanks to Twitter, blogs, online magazines and other easily attainable media, creating an almost intimate relationship between the public and the stars.‖10 While stars and celebrity fan sites may be focused on perceptions of gossip, beauty and popularity, business managers can use these very same outlets to build similar, almost intimate relationships with the consuming public. Our Sense of Self-Identity is Changing Online capabilities allow people to take on virtually any personality or body form. There are ―Avatar representations of who you ‗are,‘ but you can change them as you wish.‖11 This flexibility of personality makes it possible for celebrities to occupy multiple identities at once (such as Beyonce/Sasha Fierce), and for multiple people and graphics to occupy the same identity or role/function, similar to the Lara Croft, the pope, and kings.12 This blurring of the individual, cultural, and societal lines makes managing and marketing even more challenging in the 21st century. ―McLuhan recognized how our society had changed radically with the introduction of the visual language of writing and the further widespread impact following the introduction of the printing press.‖13 Recently, we have faced another revolution of communication, the digital age. But even he might have difficulty formulating an effective approach to today‘s employees, business colleagues and consumers. Building upon the evolution from quill pen and printing press to cyberspace, what is today‘s business managers to do to maneuver this revolution of technology, communication, and identity in order to appeal to their target audience? They could rely on the skills of anthropologists and ethnographers to help them understand the cultural changes in society, and their business sensibilities, advising them accordingly to adapt

French New Wave

The New Wave (French: La Nouvelle Vague) is a blanket term coined by critics for a group
of French filmmakersof the late 1950s and 1960s.
Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their
self-conscious rejection of the literary period pieces being made in France and written by
novelists, along with their spirit of youthful iconoclasm, the desire to shoot more current social
issues on location, and their intention of experimenting with the film form. "New Wave" is an
example of European art cinema.[2] Many also engaged in their work with the social and
political upheavals of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style and
narrative part of a general break with the conservative paradigm. Using portable equipment and
requiring little or no set up time, the New Wave way of filmmaking presented a documentary
style. The films exhibited direct sounds on film stock that required less light. Filming techniques
included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes. The combination of objective
realism, subjective realism, and authorial commentary created a narrative ambiguity in the sense
that questions that arise in a film are not answered in the end
Alexandre Astruc's manifesto, "The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera-Stylo", published
in L'Écran on 30 March 1948, outlined some of the ideas that were later expanded upon
by François Truffaut and the Cahiers du cinéma. It argues that "cinema was in the process of
becoming a new means of expression on the same level as painting and the novel:" "a form in
which an artist can express his thoughts, however abstract they may be, or translate his
obsessions exactly as he does in the contemporary essay or novel. This is why I would like to
call this new age of cinema the age of the 'camera-stylo.
Some of the most prominent pioneers among the group, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc
Godard, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette, began as critics for the famous film
magazine Cahiers du cinéma. Cahiers co-founder and theorist André Bazin was a prominent
source of influence for the movement. By means of criticism and editorialization, they laid the
groundwork for a set of concepts, revolutionary at the time, which the American film critic
Andrew Sarris called auteur theory.The auteur theory holds that the director is the "author" of his
movies, with a personal signature visible from film to film.
Characteristics
The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots . Also,
these movies featured existential themes, such as stressing the individual and the acceptance of
the absurdity of human existence. Filled with irony and sarcasm, the films also tend to reference
other films.
Many of the French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets; often shot in a friend's
apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to
improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots). The cost of
film was also a major concern; thus, efforts to save film turned into stylistic innovations. For
example, in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless , after being told the film was too long and he must cut
it down to one hour and a half he decided to remove several scenes from the feature using jump
cuts, as they were filmed in one long take. Parts that did not work were simply cut from the
middle of the take, a practical decision and also a purposeful stylistic one.
The cinematic stylings of French New Wave brought a fresh look to cinema with improvised
dialogue, rapid changes of scene, and shots that broke the common 180° axis of camera
movement. In many films of the French New Wave, the camera was used not to mesmerize the
audience with elaborate narrative and illusory images, but rather to play with audience
expectations. Godard was arguably the movement's most influential figure; his method of filmmaking,
often used to shock and awe audiences out of passivity, was abnormally bold and direct.
As a result of his techniques, he is an early example of a director who was accused of having
contempt for his audience. His stylistic approach can be seen as a desperate struggle against the
mainstream cinema of the time, or a degrading attack on the viewer's supposed naivety. Either
way, the challenging awareness represented by this movement remains in cinema today. Effects
that now seem either trite or commonplace, such as a character stepping out of their role in order
to address the audience directly, were radically innovative at the time.
Classic French cinema adhered to the principles of strong narrative, creating what Godard
described as an oppressive and deterministic aesthetic of plot. In contrast, New Wave filmmakers
made no attempts to suspend the viewer's disbelief; in fact, they took steps to constantly remind
the viewer that a film is just a sequence of moving images, no matter how clever the
use of light and shadow. The result is a set of oddly disjointed scenes without attempt at unity; or an actor whose character changes from one scene to the next; or sets in which onlookers accidentally make their way onto camera along with extras, who in fact were hired to do just the same.At the heart of New Wave technique is the issue of money and production value. Finally, the French New Wave, as the European modern Cinema, is focused on the technique as style itself. A French New Wave film-maker is first of all an author who shows in its film his own eye on the world.] On the other hand the film as the object of knowledge challenges the usual transitivity on which all the other cinema was based, "undoing its cornerstones: space and time continuity, narrative and grammatical logics, the self-evidence of the represented worlds." In this way the film-maker passes "the essay attitude, thinking – in a novelist way – on his own way to do essays.

Italian Neo realism

 Italian Neorealism (Italian: Neorealismo), also known as The Golden Age of Italian Cinema, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class, filmed on location, frequently using non-professional actors. Italian Neorealist films mostly contend with the difficult economic and moral conditions of Italian post-World War II, representing changes in the Italian psyche and conditions of everyday life, including poverty, oppression, injustice and desperation. Italian Neorealism came about as World War II ended and Benito Mussolini's government fell, causing the Italian film industry to lose its center. Neorealism was a sign of cultural change and social progress in Italy. Its films presented contemporary stories and ideas, and were often shot in the streets because theCinecittà film studios had been damaged significantly during the war. The first neorealist film is generally thought to be Ossessione by Luchino Visconti (1943). Neorealism became famous globally in 1946 with Roberto Rossellini'sRome, Open City, when it won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival as the first major film produced in Italy after the war. Italian Neorealism rapidly declined in the early 1950s. Italy's move from individual concern with neorealism to the tragic frailty of the human condition can be seen through Federico Fellini's films. His early works Il bidone and La Strada are transitional movies. The larger social concerns of humanity, treated by neorealists, gave way to the exploration of individuals. Their needs, their alienation from society and their tragic failure to communicate became the main focal point in the Italian films to follow in the 1960s. Characteristics They are generally filmed with nonprofessional actors—although, in a number of cases, well known actors were cast in leading roles, playing strongly against their normal character types in front of a background populated by local people rather than extras brought in for the film. They are shot almost exclusively on location, mostly in run-down cities as well as rural areas due to its forming during the post-war era. Neorealist films typically explore the conditions of the poor and the lower working class. Characters oftentimes exist within simple social order where survival is the primary objective. Performances are mostly constructed from scenes of people performing fairly mundane and quotidian activities, devoid of the self-consciousness that amateur acting usually entails. Neorealist films often feature children in major roles, though their characters are frequently more observational than participatory. The children play a key role in this, and their presence at the end of the film is indicative of their role in neorealism as a whole: as observers of the difficulties of today who hold the key to the future.Vittorio De Sica's 1948 film The Bicycle Thief is also representative of the genre, with non-professional actors, and a story that details the hardships of working-class life after the war. The period between 1943 and 1950 in the history of Italian cinema is dominated by the impact of neorealism, which is properly defined as a moment or a trend in Italian film, rather than an actual school or group of theoretically motivated and like-minded directors and scriptwriters. Its impact nevertheless has been enormous, not only on Italian film but also on French New Wave cinema, the Polish Film School and ultimately on films all over the world. Directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti are pioneers in Neorealism

Cinema of Nepal

Nepal does not have a very long movie history, but the industry has its own place in the cultural
heritage of the country. It is often referred to as 'Nepali Chalchitra' (which translates to "Nepali
movies" in English). The termsKollywood and Kallywood are also used, as a portmanteau of
"Kathmandu" and "Hollywood"; "Kollywood" however is more frequently used to refer to Tamil
cinema.
History
The making of Nepali films is said to have begun with D.B. Pariyar's Satya Harishchandra,
which was the firstNepali-language movie to be shot. It was produced from Kolkata, India and
was released on September 14, 1951.Aama (meaning mother) was the first film produced in
Nepal and was released on October 7, 1964. It was produced by the Information Department of
His Majesty's Government of Nepal (now Government of Nepal). It was directed by Hira Singh
Khatri and the lead actors were Shiva Shankar Manandhar and Bhuwan Chand, who are regarded
as the first actors in the Nepali film industry.
The first film to be produced under a private banner was Maitighar, which was released at the
end of 1966 by Sumonanjali Films Pvt. Ltd.
The Nepal government established the Royal Nepal Film Corporation in 1971. Mann Ko
Bandh was the first film produced by the corporation; Mann Ko Bandh was followed
by Kumari (the first Eastman color Nepali film) in 1978, Sindoor in 1980, and Jeevan Rekha in a
series. Their success opened up the avenue for private parties to enter into filmmaking as an
industrial endeavor.
Golden era
After the 1980s, some relatively more creative films were made and they became successful, too.
Thus, filmmaking started to appear as a more viable profession and the number of productions
increased a bit. After the introduction of private companies in the Nepali film industry, the time
came when more films were being made and they were much more accepted by Nepali
audiences. Samjhana, Kusume Rumal, Lahure, Kanchhi, Basudev, Saino and Koseli. In 1990,
Nepal witnessed important political change. The people‘s movement brought the monarchy to its
knees and democracy was restored. The society started to become open and vibrant. This had an
important consequence for the fledgling film industry: It began to grow rapidly or even to
"bloat".
There was an unprecedented growth in the number of productions. Within three years, some 140
films were made. Distribution started to develop. Share in the existing market increased and the
market itself expanded. Cinema halls increased to more than 300. Nepali filmmakers became
optimistic of displacing Hindi films, which had dominated the Nepali market.
Conflict era
The start of the Maoist revolution in Nepal in the mid-1990s was the beginning of the downfall
of the domestic film industry. In the period of war and conflict, a very small number of films
were made, and audience numbers fell sharply. It resulted in lower budgets and even lower
performances, which resulted in even smaller audiences. In the later years of the conflict, the
production and release of Nepali films had almost come to a standstill. Many actors and
filmmakers left the country in search for work abroad.
During the 1990s, some filmmakers, mostly with non-fiction base, started championing a new
kind of cinema. They denounced the crude imitation of Bollywood aesthetics and demanded
indigenous aesthetics and a more realistic approach. They made some films which have received
some critical acclaim at home and some international recognition. Historic movies
like Balidaan and Seema Rekha made during this period were appreciated by critics and
audience.
In 2001, the highest-grossing Nepali film Darpan Chaya was made. It was directed by Tulsi
Ghimire .
Present situation
By 2006, as the situation in Nepal calmed down and with Maoists coming into mainstream
politics, the Nepali film industry started to return to its previous state. Today, more films are
being made and released. The production companies and those in the industry are enthusiastic
about the country's new situation. The return of peace has opened more venues for the shooting
of films, and the industry is seen to be making good use of this time to revive its image.
New generation moviemakers geared up to make sensible cinema with entertainment rather than
Bollywood inspired socio-actions. Kagbeni, Sano Sansar,Mero Euta Saathi Cha, First Love, Kohi
Mero, etc. are some of the fine examples of quality cinema in terms of presentation,
performance, story and technical superiority. However, they lacked in connecting with the
audience.
In January 2012, a film named Loot was released and emerged as a blockbuster. It broke most of
the commercial records that were held by the movies before it and turned into a phenomenon
among the youth of the country. It was the first movie in decades to be screened more than 100
days in the cinema halls.. Kohinoor emerges as a highest grossing Nepali film .
Film Development Board
The Film Development Board (FDB) was established by the Government of Nepal for the development and promotion of the Nepali film industry. The Board is a liaison to facilitate the conceptualization, making, distribution and exhibition of Nepali films nationally. The Board attempts to bridge the gap between film entrepreneurship and government bureaucracy. The Board is a balance between the people at large, the government, and the process of filmmaking. It is intended to act as the safeguard of the interests of the people, the watchdog of the government, and the advocate of filmmakers

The Star System

Definition: A system by which Hollywood studios created and managed movie stars from the
late 1920s to the early 1960s. The system emphacized idealistic personas over acting, which
studios publicized and which actors were contractually obligated to promote and protect..
The star system was the method of creating, promoting and exploiting stars in Hollywood
films. Movie studios would select promising young actors andglamorise and create personas for
them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds. Examples of stars who went
through the star system include Cary Grant , Joan Crawford and Rock Hudson .
The star system put an emphasis on the image rather than the acting, although discreet acting,
voice, and dancing lessons were a common part of the regimen. Women were expected to behave
like ladies, and were never to leave the house without makeup and stylish clothes. Men were
expected to be seen in public as gentlemen. Morality clauses were a common part of actors'
studio contracts.
Just as studio executives, public relations staffs, and agents worked together with the actor to
create a star persona, so they would work together to cover up incidents or lifestyles that would
damage the star's public image. It was common, for example, to arrange sham dates between
single (male) stars and starlets to generate publicity. Tabloids and gossip columnists would be
tipped off, and photographers would appear to capture the romantic moment.
Another important aspect of the Hollywood star system is the stars' ability to convey the myths
and dreams of their society, such as the myth of the "self made man", which for many viewers
represents the belief that everyone has a chance of happiness in America.
For a consumer of the star system, looking at these stars is a way to continue believing that
anything is possible, regardless of class or money. Thus, the star system creates hopes and
preserves the ideals of a still young country. The film industry is more than aware of this, and
puts all of its power into the stars.

Introduction of studio system and institutionalized mode of production

The five largest producing companies in Hollywood at this point - MGM, Universal, First
National, Paramount, and Producers Distributing Corporation proceeded cautiously in relation to
sound. If firms acted individually, they might choose incompatible equipment. Since each firm's
theaters had to show other companies' films, the lack of a common standard would hurt business.
In February 1927, they signed the Big Five Agreement, pledging to act together in adopting
whichever sound system proved most advantageous. The two leading choices were the Western
Electric sound-on-disc and the RCA sound-on-film systems. By 1928, Western Electric also had
a sound-on-film technology available - and it offered more favorable contracts. The Big Five
opted for Western Electric's system.
Because many theaters had already installed phonograph-style projectors, the Hollywood firms
continued for a few years to release two different kinds of prints of most films: some with
phonograph discs, some with sound-on-film. Only Warners continued to use discs during
production. In 1931, however, it joined the rest of the industry by switching to sound-on-film.
Once the Hollywood studios decided what systems to adopt, they quickly began installing
equipment in theaters. Independent theaters often used one of the cheaper sound systems. Many
smaller theaters could not afford to buy any sound equipment at all, especially since the spread
of sound coincided with the onset of the Depression. As a result, many American films were
released in both sound and silent versions. Still, by about mid-1932, the conversion to sound was
virtually complete in the United States.
Sound changed not only the film, but also the film's presentation and its relation to the viewer. In
fact, the roots of silent film culture had to be demolished to give room to the rise of talking
pictures. In the first place, the transferral of the orchestra from the pit to the sound-track marked
the end of the cinema as a multimedia show with live performance, giving way to the cinema as
a single-medium event. Musical accompaniment by a local orchestra was made superfluous; nor
was it necessary any longer for the exhibitor to support his programmes with a live stage show.
Secondly, films no longer came to the theatre as semi-manufactured goods, but as final products.
The new technology put an end to local variations in presentation. Sound films could offer a
complete show in themselves, independent of local performers, and this show would be the same
in every theatre all over the world. Thirdly, the definition of film changed drastically when music
and sound effects, formerly a live element of the viewing context, became an integral part of the
recorded film text. As a result ofthis 'textualization' of the context, the film text as an
independent, autonomous artefact came into being. Finally, the conversion to sound did not only
change the conditions, but also the rules of film viewing.
In fact, sound ultimately stimulated internationalization, for the more films were produced as
selfcontained and final products, the more easily they could be distributed internationally as
complete commodities. Sound brought an end to local differences in exhibition, and guaranteed
uniform.
By 1931, the technique of mixing separate sound tracks after shooting had been refined. The
original music and sound effects could be combined with new voices, and methods of
synchronizing voice and lip movements had improved. Moreover, subtitles were accepted more
widely. By 1932, dubbing and subtitles enabled talkies to cross the language barrier, and they
have remained in use ever since.

Advent of sound in cinema

Advent of sound in cinema
At the end of the 1920s the cinema underwent a revolution. The centre of this revolution was the
introduction of synchronized sound dialogue, but it affected other areas as well, leaving very few
untouched. It was a revolution that began in America and spread inexorably to the rest of the
world, though certain aspects of it had a specific European inflection and some remote corners of
the world did not feel the effects of any of it for some time.
The revolution can be conveniently dated from 6 October 1927, with the New York premiere of
Warner Bros.' The Jazz Singer in which Al Jolson pronounces the immortal line "You ain't heard
nothin' yet" with more or less perfect synchronization between his lips in the film and his voice
recorded in parallel on a disc. But that was only a beginning. By 1930 the sound-on-disc
technology pioneered by Western Electric was replaced by a simpler and more reliable soundon-film
system devised by the rival corporation General Electric. A European consortium led by
the German companies Siemens and AEG entered the fray and successfully seized a sizable
corner of the growing market for sound equipment. Within a few years thousands of theatres in
Europe and America were wired for sound using technology licensed from the powerful patents
holders. Only in the Soviet Union and Japan was the conversion to sound slow to take effect.
The transition from silent to sound film marks a period of grave instability as well as great
creativity in the history of cinema. The new technology produced panic and confusion, but it
stimulated experiments and expectations too. While it undermined Hollywood's international
position for several years, it led to a revival of national film production elsewhere. It is a period
with specific features that differentiate it from the years before and after.
The new sound movies were called Vitaphone movies which means the ―sound of life‖

Constructivism

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in
1919 and was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a
practice for social purposes. Constructivist Cinema served as an objective depiction of the world,
a put-together purposeful mediated reality, and not just a creative personal artistic endeavor.
Constructivist Cinema began in the Soviet Union in the 1920‘s. One of the important figures in
Constructivist Cinema was Dziga Vertov whose goal was to eliminate non-documentary
filmmaking methods. He believed that filmmakers had the obligation to chronicle the truth and
to produce material that served a specific function. One of his most famous creations is the silent
documentary film Man with a Movie Camera.It was a cinematic experiment that made use of fast
and slow motion, freeze frames, split screens, jump cuts, extreme close ups, tracking shots, stop
motion animation, footage played backwards, self-reflexive, and double exposure techniques. It
had no real story and no real actors. The scenes were shot individually without following a
specific plot.
It used bizarre scenes that involved superimposing the image of a cameraman setting up his
equipment on top of a second mountain-sized camera or placing the cameraman inside a beer
glass. There were even scenes with footage that were played backwards, instead of the usual
chronological sequence. The use of double exposure and seemingly hidden cameras and nonplotted
scenes made the film seem more like a surreal montage rather than a traditional, linear
motion picture narrative.
The film is strongly constructivist in the sense that it served as an objective depiction of the
world, a put-together purposeful mediated reality, and not just a creative personal artistic
endeavor.Man with a Movie Camera was a silent film when it was first released in 1929

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual
artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream
and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created
strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the
unconscious to express itself.[1]
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur
From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual
arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and
practice, philosophy, and social theory.
Surrealist cinema is a modernist approach to film theory, criticism, and production with origins
in Paris in the 1920s. Related to Dadacinema, Surrealist cinema is characterised by
juxtapositions, the rejection of dramatic psychology, and a frequent use of shocking imagery.
The first Surrealist film was The Seashell and the Clergyman from 1928, directed by Germaine
Dulac from a screenplay byAntonin Artaud. Other films include Un Chien Andalou and L'Age
d'Or by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí
Surrealism draws upon irrational imagery and the subconscious mind. Surrealists should not,
however, be mistaken as whimsical or incapable of logical thought;rather, most Surrealists
promote themselves as revolutionaries.
Surrealism was the first literary and artistic movement to become seriously associated with
cinema,[3] though it has also been a movement largely neglected by film critics and historians
Surrealist filmmakers sought to re-define human awareness of reality by illustrating that the
"real" was little more than what was perceived as real; that reality was subject to no limits
beyond those mankind imposed upon it.[2] Breton once compared the experience of Surrealist
literature to "the point at which the waking state joins sleep.
Many Surrealist films tease us to find a narrative logic that is simply absent. Causality is as
evasive as in a dream. Instead, we find events juxtaposed for their disturbing effect

Impressionism

Impressionism was a style of representational art that did not necessarily rely on realistic
depictions. Scientific thought at the time was beginning to recognize that what the eye perceived
and what the brain understood were two different things. The Impressionists sought to capture
the former - the optical effects of light - to convey the passage of time, changes in weather, and
other shifts in the atmosphere in their canvases.
French impressionist cinema, also referred to as the first avant-garde or narrative avant-garde, is
a term applied to a group of French films and filmmakers of the 1920s.
Film scholars have had much difficulty in defining this movement or for that matter deciding
whether it should be considered a movement at all.
The French Impressionist filmmakers took their name from their painterly compatriots and
applied it to a 1920s boom in silent film that jolted cinema in thrilling new directions. The
devastation of World War I parlayed into films that delved into the darker corners of the human
psyche and had a good rummage about while they were there. New techniques in non-linear
editing, point-of-view storytelling and camera work abounded
Key filmmakers: Abel Gance, Louis Delluc, Germaine Dulac, Marcel L'Herbier, Jean Epstein
French impressionism destabilized familiar or objective ways of seeing, creating new dynamics
of human perception. Using strange and imaginative effects, it altered traditional views and
aimed to question the norm of the film industry at the time.
Abel refers to the movement as the Narrative Avant-Garde. He views the films as a reaction to
narrative paradigm found in commercial filmmaking, namely that of Hollywood, and is based on
literary and generic referentiality, narration through intertitles, syntactical continuity, a rhetoric
based on verbal language and literature, and a linear narrative structure 6, then subverts it, varies
it, deviates from it

German Expressionism

German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning
in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s. These
developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central
European culture in fields such asarchitecture, painting and cinema.
Among the first Expressionist films, The Student of Prague[1] (1913), The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari (1920), From Morn to Midnight (1920), The Golem: How He Came into the
World[1] (1920), Destiny (1922), Nosferatu[1] (1922), Phantom(1922), Schatten (1923),
and The Last Laugh (1924), were highly symbolic and stylized.
The German Expressionist movement was largely confined to Germany due to the isolation the
country experienced during World War I. In 1916, the government had banned foreign films
Various European cultures of the 1920s embraced an ethic of change and a willingness to look to
the future by experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic styles. The first Expressionist films
made up for a lack of lavish budgets by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically
absurd angles, along with designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and
objects. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with
madness, insanity, betrayal and other "intellectual" topics triggered by the experiences of WWI
(as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic films).
This trend was a direct reaction against realism. Its practitioners used extreme distortions in
expression to show an inner emotional reality rather than what is on the surface.
The extreme anti-realism of Expressionism was short-lived, fading away after only a few years.
However, the themes of Expressionism were integrated into later films of the 1920s and 1930s,
resulting in an artistic control over the placement of scenery, light, etc. to enhance the mood of a
film. This dark, moody school of film making was brought to the United States when
the Nazis gained power and a number of German filmmakers emigrated to Hollywood. These
German directors found U.S. movie studios willing to embrace them, and several German
directors and cameramen flourished there, producing a repertoire of Hollywood films that had a
profound effect on film as a whole.
Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism are horror film and film noir.
Expressionism emphasizes on design or mise-en-scène, uncanny atmosphere, and composition
(less on story and editing, unlike Hollywood). ―The film image must become graphic art‖
(Hermann Warm). Expressionism = Stylization that abstracts and transforms reality as we know
it (from the conventions of realistic art) through - photography (unexpected camera angles, little
camera movement) - lighting (stark contrasts of light and shadow for various effects) - totally
artificial, stylized sets (―paintings come to life‖), stripped of all realistic details and
psychology—sets that become symbolic diagrams of emotional states - overtly theatrical (antinaturalist)
acting style (actors move in jerky, slow, sinuous patterns) and heavy make-up -
integration of all elements of mise-en-scène to create an overall composition Such Expressionist
techniques aim to - abstract from realistic details and contingencies - bring out the ―essence‖ of
an object, situation, or state of being - express a subjective viewpoint - evoke mystery,
alienation, disharmony, hallucination, dreams, extreme emotional states, destabilization
Expressionist film in the 1920s is based on the premise that film becomes art only to the extent
that the film image differs from empirical reality: ―The world is there: Why repeat it?‖ The
―formative‖ power of film was seen in its ability to - resignify and rework reality (not merely
record it) - construct a self-contained aesthetic and symbolic world of the imagination radically
detached from the everyday Legacy .
Murnau‘s Faust and Fritz Lang‘s Metropolis (both 1926) were the last major Expressionist
films, both excessive in their production values.
Expressionism has been interpreted as - a challenge to our habitual perception of reality
(liberating in the sense that we see the world not as given or fixed but as constantly changing); -
a protest against the ―duplication‖ of empirical reality (liberation at least in the aesthetic realm); -
an exploration of film‘s materiality, i.e. its difference as a medium (experiments with expressive
lighting effects, subjective camera, design that externalizes the character‘s inner thoughts); - a
foregrounding of the signifier (showing film to be a constructed object designed to make things,
sets, and actors signify/express something); - a way to imbue inanimate objects and sets with
―life‖ (colored by the subjective vision of characters in distress or gripped by insanity, paranoia,
insecurity, disorientation), to let objects ―speak‖ Expressionist techniques—unrealistic sets,
theatrical composition, lighting, self-conscious or obtrusive camera—live on in Surrealist film,
avant-garde cinema, horror films, and in American film noir of the 1940 and 1950s

History of silent era

The silent film era extends from the late nineteenth century, with the earliest work by the
Lumière Brothers in France and Edison in America, into the early 1930s, when silent film gave
way to ―talkies.‖ However, most scholars situate the silent era in America during the 1910s and
1920s, when it matured as a tightly organized industry privileging the multi-reel feature film
after the waning of the nickelodeon, the move to Hollywood from earlier production
headquarters in New York and New Jersey, and the decline in competition from European
filmmakers caused by World War I.
D. W. Griffith's twelvereel feature The Birth of a Nation (1915) was a major commercial and
cinematic success showcasing many of the directions the industry was to take into the 1920s.
While the term ―silent‖ in silent cinema refers to the lack of synchronized sound, early cinema
was far from silent in other respects. From the nickelodeon era into the 1920s, films were
accompanied with live music, ranging from single pianos or reed organs to large orchestras,
depending on the nature and location of the venue—which also ranged from small store-front
theaters to thousand-seat picture palaces. Some studio releases came with specifically-composed
musical scores, and almost all with cue sheets that suggested musical themes for specific scenes.
Often, solo musicians more or less expert at reading the visual cues of the film improvised a
score on the spot, and exhibitors also drew on large published collections of sheet music
appropriate for stock scene types..
As the feature film became the central industry product, the use of lecturers declined and the use
of title cards for dialog became more realistic, gradually supplanting exposition cards. In 1925,
Warner Brothers created the Vitaphone process, a sound-on-disc system that began the end of
silent film, releasing The Jazz Singer in 1927; however, silent films would continue to be made
into the 1930s, and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) is sometimes described as the last
silent film.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the cinematic experience during the silent period because of
individualism in respect to the varieties both of aural accompaniment and projection speeds.
Though the standard projection speed was 16fps, exhibitors would often project films faster or
slower than taking speed to ensure the program began and ended on time. As a medium derived
from still photography, vaudeville, and theater, silent film adapted many of their presentational
methods; as the period progressed, however, the industry worked diligently to become more
respectable, seeking to dissociate its product from that peddled by vaudeville houses and
nickelodeons.
While older venues and distribution methods persisted, grand picture palaces of the silent era
dramatized the goals of the uplift movement—to create a safe, clean, family-friendly
environment for an orderly, middle-class audience in an economical fashion with vast seating
capacities, elegant lobbies, and impressive orchestras. Theaters exhibited varied entertainments
in a balanced program, which grew in length over the period. Exhibitors sought to begin and end
the programs at specified times, which sometimes meant, in addition to speeding up projection,
dropping items from the bill or even cutting reels from the feature, to accommodate continual
groups of audiences.
As the number of larger theaters increased, there was less need for rapid audience turnover and
the multireel feature film grew into the central attraction. The evolution of the film industry's
structure during the silent era was complex, and it is marked by new refinements in cinematic
production, distribution, and exhibition that brought about the feature film. Throughout the
period, the industry worked toward standardization; contracts, patents, and licenses bound the
industry into a tight network.
Within the existing system, multi-reel films were released one reel at a time, ensuring quick
audience turnover but retarding the development of complex narratives. Multi-reel features
would typically be shown as special attractions or outside of the established distribution and
exhibition system, and states rights distribution practices evolved to allow local exchanges to
contract with major distributors for territorial exhibition rights. Longer films were exhibited in
this fashion, because they could travel throughout a territory as a special attraction until the
audience pool was exhausted. Thus, early multireel films tended to emerge from independent
production houses or European film studios, which didn't experience the same limitations as
mainstream American outfits.
The devastation caused by the First World War had all but decimated the mainstream European
industry, and American companies, often building on already existing import agreements, began
to compete vigorously for prestige pictures. Independent American houses and European
companies realized that to compete they must be able to distribute their products as well, and they set up their own corporations; ultimately, a small number of these corporations would gain tight control over the industry. One important cause of the dramatic changes to the industry during the silent era was the method by which filmmaking was financed; by selling their stock on the public market, production and distribution companies not only acquired the influx of capital needed to compete but also made the industry more business-like. In conjunction with factory production methods, which ensured consistent quality and regular release schedules, these methods of financing transformed cinema into one of the nation's leading industries. Cinema, trending towards the feature film, was becoming both art and product. With standardization in production came a decrease in radical technological and artistic innovation, but an elevation in production values, set quality, costumes, acting, and lighting. Very early silent film tended to minimize the camera's presence, composing short films of single, static shots or simple linear cuts, typically showing actors full-frame as on a stage. With the multi-reel feature, scene dissection became much more common, and a grammar of film emerged. D. W. Griffith pioneered cross-cutting and editorial techniques designed to control pacing, and Mack Sennet used quick cuts to develop a distinguishing comedic style. With the rise of multireel feature films came a corresponding need for continuity, clarity, and character development; filmmakers introduced a more restrained acting style that emphasized facial expression over broad pantomime. The close-up became an important—though sometimes derided—stylistic device in the silent era, creating a new intimacy between audience and actor that opened the way for the star system. In the 1920s, few dramatic American innovations in cinematography occurred, but abroad, flourishing avant-garde movements produced a variety of experimental cinema in the wake of war; surrealism, expressionism, and impressionism offered alternatives to mainstream narrative film, and Soviet filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein developed rich montage techniques. The significance of the silent era in film history cannot be overstated. During the first decades of the twentieth century, a truly commercial popular art emerged bound closely to the image of a modern America. With the development of synchronized sound, the era drew to a close, but the modes of production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption inaugurated during the silent film era persisted, creating the film industry as we know it today.