SEPTEMBER 26

Films:
Broken Blossoms (Griffith 1919) DVD 244
excerpts from Birth of a Nation (Griffith 1915) DVD 1179, chapters 15-16
Intolerance (Griffith 1916) DVD 1156, chapters 24-25
Way Down East (Griffith 1920) Blu-Ray 113, chapter 8

Reading (to be done by October 2):

Roberta Pearson, “Transitional Cinema” and Vsevolod Pudovkin, “On Editing,” both in course reader.

Paper topic (paper due October 3):

Write again about the scene you explored last week, this time focusing on the editing. Instead of describing the content of each shot, talk about how the shots work together. The crucial questions are: how long is each shot held, and why? And why do you think the filmmakers change from one camera position to the next in the course of the scene – what does the audience get from these shifts in perspective? Finally, how noticeable are these cuts as you watch the film?