Chaplin 3

Chaplin 2

After Charlie was sent to live with his mother once again, another problem arose quite quickly.  The problem was that Charlie’s mother had literally lost her mind and Charlie was unable to take care of her.  Since he was so young and unable to care for his mother by himself he decided to have her committed to an  institution where she could receive care and treatment.  Though this was the only thing that Chaplin could do at the time he still felt very bad about it.  After some time of working in odd jobs, Charlie’s brother Sydney was able to get him an audition of sorts.   Charlie needed the job so badly that he literally did whatever it took to get hired as an actor in the theater.  After being hired Charlie became known for playing an old drunkard who would disrupt the act, and the crowd loved the act.   Though Charlie was fairly well known in the theater scene he still did not receive much respect at all because stage actors at that time were viewed very poorly.   Charlie traveled to America with the stage act and performed all over the country.   In Montana Chaplin saw his first film and was immediately drawn to the medium.

Chaplin

The film Chaplin (1992) stars Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin in a fictionalized recreation of his autobiography.  The film starts off in England where Chaplin is from and shows him as a small boy.  He lived with his mother and older brother Sydney in a small townhouse.  The film shows that Chaplin’s mother was a stage performer, but when she was heckled off the stage and Charlie, who was very young, stepped out and performed her song instead; she never performed again.   The only problem with her not performing was that she was no longer making any money and could not afford to pay her rent for the home that her and her two boys shared.  After some time of not paying, the police came and took Charlie and Sydney away from their mother because she could no longer take car of them.  The boys were taken to two different places, Charlie to a work camp/orphanage and Sydney was made to work on a ship.   After a few years Charlie was taken back to his mother who had began making gloves to support herself and Charlie.  The only real problem now was that she was no longer in a stable mind set and she was quite crazy to say the least.

“The Birth of a Nation”

In many ways D.W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation (1915) brought about the birth of numerous aspects of film that we are accustomed to today. Griffith used an Iris to transition between scenes, which means that there would be a circle that closed in to end one shot and then reopened to show the next shot. He also used a great deal of care when it came to lighting because he wanted to present a higher quality product than people were used to at that time. Another aspect that Griffith favored that was uncommon was the close-up which he often used to end films and scenes. Perhaps the aspect of Griffith’s film making that I noticed more than the others was his use of parallel editing and parallel story lines within the film to progress it further and further in a shorter period of time.

Though I have only seen clips of The Birth of a Nation (1915) it is clear to me that Griffith utilized all of his tricks in the film and he used them quite well. Though there was no dialog in the film, there was sound which aided in the flow of the film because there are battle scenes and scenes of people praying quietly in hiding. Griffith showcased all of his skills in this film and it is obvious that his work is well worth studying.

D.W. Griffith

The films of D.W. Griffith were quite innovative for the period of time that they were made. Griffith utilized almost every bit of technology available to him at the time. He also experimented with film as much as he was able with this limited technology. Griffith used close-ups quite a bit even though they were not very common in that time.

Griffith’s work, The Battle At Elderbrush Gulch is very interesting because he uses parallel editing, which allows for multiple stories to be shown to the audience at once. By using parallel editing Griffith is able to weave plot lines into one another and progress the film further and still have everything make sense. Another technique that was utilized by Griffith was to place the subtitles in the scenes rather than prefacing each scene with a summary of what was going to happen in that scene. This allowed for the film to move quite smoothly and it also allowed for the film to have more suspense because it kept the audience wondering what exactly was going to happen next.

The experimentation that Griffith did was very cutting edge and I feel that he really lead the medium of film in the direction that it is still going towards today.