VSEVOLOD PUDOVKIN

Vsevolod Pudovkin (16 February 1893 – 30 June 1953) was a Russian and Soviet film
director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage. Pudovkin's
masterpieces are often contrasted with those of his contemporary Sergei Eisenstein, but whereas
Eisenstein utilized montage to glorify the power of the masses, Pudovkin preferred to
concentrate on the courage and resilience of individuals.
Vsevolod Pudovkin's major contribution to the cinema is as a theorist. He was fascinated by the
efforts of his teacher, the filmmaker Lev Kuleshov, in exploring the effects of montage.
Vsevolod Pudovkin was a Russian filmmaker who developed many modern influential theories
of montage. The five relational editing techniques of Pudovkin are as follows:
Contrast: Contrast forces the viewer to compare two opposing scenes in their mind.
Parallelism: Parallelism is often used to jump from one time period or a location to another.
Symbolism: Visual or auditory representation of another object. The use of one object or action
(a symbol) to represent or suggest something else.
Simultaneity: Action occurring at the same time in two different locations, the camera will cut
away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions
but this is not always the case.
Leitmotif: Repetition. Visual Leitmotif‘s (leading motifs or guiding motifs) is a theme, or other
coherent idea, repeated to associate with a particular idea, person or situation. It is a technique
that accompanies the reappearance of a person, object or situation. Clearly defined so as to retain
its identity if modified on subsequent appearances, and whose purpose is to represent or
symbolize a person, object, place, idea, and state of mind, supernatural force or any other
ingredient in a dramatic work.
Pudovkin's Film Technique simply explained that editing was the aspect of film art form which
was completely unique, and which separated it from all other art forms.
The ability to show a simple action like a man cutting wheat from a number of angles in a brief
moment, to be able to see it in a special way not possible except through film -- that this is what
it was all about

EISENSTEIN

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein ( 22 January 1898 – 11 February 1948) was
a Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage.
He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1925), Battleship Potemkin (1925)
and October (1928), as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the
Terrible (1944, 1958).
Eisenstein montage theory
A montage sequence is a technique in editing (i.e. using rapid editing, special effects and music)
in a series of short shots edited into a sequence to condense narrative. It is usually used to
advance the story as a whole (often to suggest the passage of time), rather than to create
symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory. From the 1930s to the 1950s, montage
sequences often combined numerous short shots with special optical effects (fades, dissolves,
split screens, double and triple exposures) and music. Soviet montage theory is an approach to
understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing (montage is French for
"putting together"). Although Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s disagreed about how exactly to
view montage, Sergei Eisenstein marked a note of accord in "A Dialectic Approach to Film
Form" when he noted that montage is "the nerve of cinema," and that "to determine the nature of
montage is to solve the specific problem of cinema."
Eisenstein 5 methods of montage
Eisenstein believed that film montage could create ideas or have an impact beyond the individual
images. Two or more images edited together create a "tertium quid" (third thing) that makes the
whole greater than the sum of its individual parts.
1. Metric - where the editing follows a specific number of frames (based purely on the physical
nature of time), cutting to the next shot no matter what is happening within the image. This
montage is used to elicit the most basal and emotional of reactions in the audience. * Metric
montage example from Eisenstein's October.
2. Rhythmic - The cutting happens for the sake of continuity. This creates visual continuity but it
may also be used in order to keep with the pace of the film. includes cutting based on time, but
using the visual composition of the shots -- along with a change in the speed of the metric cuts --
to induce more complex meanings than what is possible with metric montage. Once sound was
introduced, rhythmic montage also included audial elements (music, dialogue, sounds). *
Rhythmic montage example from The Battleship Potemkin's "Odessa steps" sequence.
3. Tonal - a tonal montage uses the emotional meaning of the shots -- not just manipulating the
temporal length of the cuts or its rhythmical characteristics -- to elicit a reaction from the
audience even more complex than from the metric or rhythmic montage. For example, a sleeping
baby would emote calmness and relaxation. * Tonal example from Eisenstein's The Battleship
Potemkin. This is the clip following the death of the revolutionary sailor Vakulinchuk, a martyr
for sailors and workers. Montage: methods of montage cont.
4. Overtonal/Associational - the overtonal montage is the cumulation of metric, rhythmic, and
tonal montage to synthesize its effect on the audience for an even more abstract and complicated
effect. * Overtonal example from Pudovkin's Mother. In this clip, the men are workers walking
towards a confrontation at their factory, and later in the movie, the protagonist uses ice as a
means of escape.
5. Intellectual - uses shots which, combined, elicit an intellectual meaning. * Intellectual
montage examples from Eisenstein's October and Strike. In Strike, a shot of striking workers
being attacked cut with a shot of a bull being slaughtered creates a film metaphor suggesting that
the workers are being treated like cattle. This meaning does not exist in the individual shots; it
only arises when they are juxtaposed.
Eisensteins contribution to editing
Eisenstein believed that editing was the foundation of film art. For Eisenstein, meaning in
cinema lay not in the individual shot but only in the relationships among shots established by
editing. Translating a Marxist political perspective into the language of cinema, Eisenstein
referred to his editing as "dialectical montage" because it aimed to expose the essential
contradictions of existence and the political order. Because conflict was essential to the political
praxis of Marxism, the idea of conflict furnished the logic of Eisenstein's shot changes, which
gives his silent films a rough, jagged quality. His shots do not combine smoothly, as in the
continuity editing of D. W. Griffith and Hollywood cinema, but clash and bang together. Thus,
his montages were eminently suited to depictions of violence, as in Strike , Potemkin , and Ten
Days . In his essays Eisenstein enumerated the numerous types of conflict that he found essential
to cinema. These included conflicts among graphic elements in a composition and between shots,
and conflict of time and space created in the editing process and by filming with different camera speeds.

FILM AS A MASS COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Mass communication is the study of how individuals and entities relay information through mass
media to large segments of the population at the same time. It is usually understood to relate
to newspaper, magazine, and book publishing, as well as radio, television and film, as these
mediums are used for disseminating information, news andadvertising. Mass communication
differs from the studies of other forms of communication, such as interpersonal
communication or organizational communication, in that it focuses on a single source
transmitting information to a large group of receivers. The study of mass communication is
chiefly concerned with how the content of mass communication persuades or otherwise affects
the behavior, attitude, opinion, or emotion of the person or people receiving the information.
Mass communication is "the process by which a person, group of people, or large organization
creates a message and transmits it through some type of medium to a large, anonymous,
heterogenous audience." [1] Mass communication is regularly associated with media influence or
media effects, and media studies. Mass communication is a branch of social science that falls
under the larger umbrella of communication studies of communication
The history of communication stretches from prehistoric forms of art and writing through
modern communication methods such as the Internet. Mass communication began when humans
could transmit messages from a single source to multiple receivers.
Broadcasting is the act of transmitting audio and/or visual content through a communication
medium, such as radio, television, or film. In the study of mass communication, broadcasting can
refer to the practical study of how to produce communication content, such as how to produce a
television or radio program. When broadcasting through radio and television, the entertainment
and information can be distributed by wire and wireless to other radio stations, television
stations, and networks. The channels offer informative and entertaining content of general and
specific interest. [3] Along with radio and television broadcasting, those presenting the
information could present the information live or recorded.

FILM AS AN ART FORM

 When is Film Art? .But what marks the boundary? When is film art? Some might restrict the label to avant garde cinema, European art house films, and video installations, while others are inclined to expand the category to include films intended for wide audiences.Some have even suggested that the art/non-art boundary does not exist. All film is art, though some of it is better art or higher art. How, if at all, should be draw the line? This, it turns out, is not just a question for those with a special interest in film. It has interest for aesthetic theory more broadly, because film can serve as a test case for definitions of art. Some theories of art seem too restrictive, because they prevent us from classifying certain films that are aesthetic masterpieces into the category of art. In the early days of cinema, it was sometimes suggested that film is never art. Film is, at best, a photographic record of an artistic performance, but not an art form in it‘s own right. This view, echoing similarly dismissive attitudes towards photography, was difficult to sustain. After all, film is much more that a recording. The camera is no innocent eye. Filmmakers need to make numerous choices about every shot, and, of course, film production involves editing, and editing typically results in a final product that is quite different from what an eyewitness to the filmed events would or could see. These days it is hard to find anyone who would seriously defend the claim that film in never art. More typical is the opposite view that all or most film is art.. films produced for mass consumption, including television sitcoms, quality as art. films have genres and forms that are descended from genres and forms of works that are uncontroversially considered works of art. Second, the creators of sitcoms and other popular works engage in activities characteristic of artistic practice: writing, acting, choice of shooting styles, and so on. Third, such words would count as art according to leading accounts of the nature of art.. Consider, for example, the genre comedy. The question, ―Are comedies always art?‖, seems to be as unsettled, as the question, ―Is film always art?‖ Indeed, both questions are unsettled for similar reasons. All comedies clearly share certain things in common, but are those things sufficient for being artworks . Is the use of actors and the choice of camera angles sufficient for counting as an artwork? The answer is far from obvious, and it seems to be precisely what is under debate . most films satisfy the conditions laid out in prevailing classificatory theories of art. A work of art is an artifact of a kind created to be presented to artworld public

D.W. GRIFFITH

The basic problem that confronted filmmakers early in the nickelodeon era was that audiences could not understand the causal, spatial and temporal relations in many films. If the editing abruptly changed locales, the spectator might not grasp where the new action was occurring. An actor‘s elaborate pantomime might fail to convey the meaning of a crucial action. Filmmakers came to assume that a film should guide the spectators attention, making every aspect of the story on the screen as clear as possible. So, this problem of narrative clarity was greatly handled by one of the greatest filmmaker D. W. Griffith. After appearing in a string of Porter produced one-reelers, Griffith moves to Biograph where he directs his first film ― The Adventure of Dollie(1908)‖ a blunt remake of Rescued by Rover.He produced and directed hundreds of short films and developed a unique sense of shot composition. For him, the camera should obey the action, not the other way round. He also break the theatrical scene into a series of shots and still preserved the unity of action so that he could increase the dramatic intensity of my films. In many of his films, he introduced the action using establishing shot, then cut to a medium shot for more clarity and go to a close-up for specific detail or dramatic effect. Griffith in particular, explored the possibilities of enlarging facial expressions. In his film The Painted Lady, Griffith places the camera relatively close to the heroine, framing her from the waist up so her slightest expressions and movements are visible. Angry at Biograph‘s reluctance to make feature length films, Griffith leaves the studio for an independent California company Mutual/Reliance –Majestic. He takes his personal cameraman and his entire acting ensemble along for the ride. After several feature-length movies. Griffith is ready to take on his own independent project, The Birth of a Nation(1915). Despite its blatant racism and historical inaccuracies, The Birth of a Nation remains a milestone cinematic achievement. This movie tight narrative would have been even tighter if the NAACP didn‘t force him to cut some scenes out. However, Griffith was pleased with the human aspect of this historical drama, well orchestrated battle scenes, period detail, innovative storytelling techniques such as crosscutting, flashbacks, flashforwardsd, mind screen, fades, masking, irising, tilting, panning dollying etc Cinema finally gains artistic prestige and is universally proclaimed the most powerful medium of expression.Griffith decided to make a grand and extravagant movie. Intolerance (1916) was that movie. Costing nearly forty times as much as an average feature film, Intolerance tells four parallel stories set in four separate time periods. Unfortunately, the audiences don‘t care for Intolerances complexity and grandeur. The movie, although a brilliant example of continuity storytelling, lacks the human touch of the Birth of a Nation. It was a financial disaster and marks the beginning of Griffith‘s decline as the preeminent figure in the world‘s cinema.

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EXPANDING AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY

 Today, Hollywood dominates the international market in entertainment media, as it does in many other industries. Before world War I, however, the United States was not yet the world‘s most economically important country. Great Britain still ruled the waves; its ships carried more goods than did those of any other country, and London was the globe‘s financial center> It was the war that allowed the United States to surpass England and other European countries. Prior to the war, American film firms concentrated on the swiftly expanding domestic demand and paid less attention to foreign markets. Between 1905 and 1912, American producers, distributors and exhibitors tried to bring some stability to the shifting and confused film business. Only then would they be able to turn greater attention to export. The Nickelodeon Boom By 1905, films were showing in most of the available vaudeville houses, local theatres, and other venues. The main trend in the American film industry from 1905 to 1907 was the rapid multiplication of film theaters. These were typically small stores, installed with fewer than two hundred seats. Admission was usually a nickel(hence the term Nickelodeon) or a dime for a program running fifteen to sixty minutes. Most nickelodeons had only one projector. During reel changes a singer might perform a current song, accompanied by lantern slides. Nickelodeons spread for several reasons. When production companies turned away from actualities toward story films, moviegoing became less a novelty and more a regular entertainment. Shorter work weeks left more time for entertainment. In addition, film producers took to renting rather than selling films. Since exhibitors no longer had to keep running the same films until they made back their purchase price, they could change their programs two, three, even seven times a week. As a result some of their patrons returned regularly. Nickelodeons could run the same brief programs over and over continuously, from late morning to mid night. Many exhibitors made huge profit. Nickelodeons has advantages over earlier forms of exhibition. Unlike amusement parks, they were not seasonal. They were cheaper than vaudeville houses and more regularly available than travelling exhibitions. Expenses were low. Spectators typically sat on benches or in simple wooden seats. There were seldom newspaper advertisements to alert patrons in advance concerning programs. There was almost always some sound accompaniment. The exhibitor might lecture along with the film, but piano or phonograph accompaniment was probably more common. In some cases, actors stood behind the screen and spoke dialogue in synchronization with the action on the screen. More frequently, people used noisemakers to create appropriate sound effects. During the nickelodeon boom, most film came from abroad. The nickelodeons also launched the careers of several important businessman. The warner brothers got their start as nickelodeon exhibitors. 

EDWIN STANTON PORTER

He was the most important filmmaker of this early period. Porter was a film projectionist and an expert at building photographic equipment. In late 1900, he went to work for Edison, whom he greatly admired. He was assigned to improve the firm‘s cameras and projectors.In early 1901, Porter began operating a camera there. At this point in cinema history, the cameraman was also the film‘s director, and soon Porter was responsible for many of the company‘s most popular films. Porter has often been credited with virtually all the innovations of the innovations of the pre-1908 period, including making the first story film ― Life of an American fireman‖ and inventing editing as we know it. In fact , he often drew upon techniques already used by Melies, Smith and Williamson. He imaginatively developed his models, however, and he undoubtedly introduced some original techniques. His position as the foremost filmmaker of the preeminent American production company gave his works wide exposure and made them popular and influential. He examined Melies A Trip to the Moon closely and decided to copy its manner of telling a story in a series of shots. From 1902, many of his films contained several shots, with significant efforts to match time and space across cuts. Porter‘s Life of an American Fireman is a notable attempt at such storytelling. His most important film The Great Train Robbery also made in 1903 used eleven shots to tell the story of a gang of bandits who hold up a train. Porter‘s film was gripping in its depiction of violent action. Indeed, a novel extra shot, showing one of the robbers in a close view firing a gun toward the camera, was included; exhibitors had the option of placing it at the beginning or end of the film. Perhaps no film of the pre-1905 period was as popular as The Great Train Robbery. Porter worked for Edison for several more years. In 1905 he directed The Kleptomaniac, a social critique that contrasted the situations of two women who commit theft. Porter left Edison to become an independent producer, but he was soon outshone by others just entering the field. From 1902 to 1905 , Porter was one of many filmmakers who contributed to an industrywide concentration of fiction filmmaking