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.
