Silent Film

The Lumiere Legacy Assignment Two: Part B

Task One:

1.  Who were the Lumiere brothers?

The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean, were the first filmmakers in history. They patented the cinematograph, which in contrast to Edison's "peepshow" kinetoscope allowed simultaneous viewing by multiple parties. The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were sons of well known Lyons based portrait painter Antoine Lumière. They were both technically minded and excelled in science subjects and were sent to Technical School.

Antoine, noting the financial rewards of new photographic processes, abandoned his art and set up business manufacturing and supplying photographic equipment. Joining him in this venture was Louis who began experimenting with the photographic equipment his father was manufacturing.

2.  When and where did they live?

The Lumière brothers were born in Besancon, France and moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), ran a photographic firm where both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images.

3.  Who ruled their country?

Laurent Fabius was born 20 August 1946; he is a French socialist politician who has been foreign minister of France since 16 May 2012. Previously he served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. He was 37 years old when he was appointed and is, so far, the youngest Prime Minister of the fifth republic. However Laurent Fabius was known as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development due to the actual Prime Minster in office from 17^th July 1984 to 20th march 1986 was François Mitterrand. 

4.  What was going on in the world around that time?

1985 and 1986 including the Westland crisis, which prompted the resignation of Michael Heseltine (the then Defence Secretary) from the Cabinet. They also reveal discussions around the financial arrangements for the UK nations and the deregulation of the financial markets known as the ‘Big Bang’.

Also during that time the government tackled social issues such as football hooliganism. They cover discussions on various ideas and strategies to influence behaviour at football stadiums. As ever, also reveal the comments and replies made by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her response to the defection of KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, where she provided comforting words of support, offers a different perspective of the Prime Minister who was well-known for being the ‘Iron Lady’. 

1985 As the spread of aids increases Governments round the world start screening Blood donations for AIDS. On the technology front the first .com is registered and the first version of Windows is released Ver. 1.0. Terrorists continue to perform acts of terrorism including the hijack of TWA Flight 847 and the Italian Cruise Liner "Achille Lauro ". Famine in Ethiopia is shown more on TV News in July and Live Aid concerts around the world raise many millions to help the starving in Africa and the pop industry in US joins together to sing "We Are The World". 

1986 Following a number of trouble free years in Space Exploration the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after takeoff watched by people live on TV around the world. The Internet Mail Access Protocol defined which opens the way for E-Mail and the same year the Human Genome Project is launched to understand the Human Makeup , this will open the way for great advances in the treatment of many illnesses. The worst ever Nuclear Disaster occurs as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station Explodes causing the release of radioactive material across much of Europe. In the UK (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease is identified which causes many deaths over the next few years and a major reform in farming practices. 

5.  What are the films about?

The Lumière brothers were born in Besancon, France and moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), ran a photographic firm where both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images. 

It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera, most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The original cinematographer had been patented by Leon on 12 February 1892. The brothers patented their own version on 13 February 1895. The first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on March 19, 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory. However the history of the film that was made by Lumière brothers was based on their life during the times in the 18^th and 19^th century. The film was based on real life stories and is to emotionally and intellectually be heart touching towards people and also a way of understanding and putting things into perspectives for people in the future.

6.  How long are they? Why?

Auguste and Louis Lumière are credited with the world’s first public film screening on December 28^th 1895, The showing of approximately ten shorts film lasting twenty minutes in total was held in the basement lounge of the Grande cafe on the boulevard des capucines in Paris. The first public demonstration of their device was called the Cinematograph which effectively functioned as camera, projector and printer all in one. However the Lumière brothers have been credited with over 1,425 different short films and had even filmed aerial shots years before the very first aiplane would take the skies. For example his film The “Arrival of a train at the station 1895” showed the train coming diagonally across the screen. a very unconventional method of framing. Therefore the Lumière pioneered not just the technical attributes of the camera but also its artistic attributes, creating a dialogue of realism.

7.  What can you say about the cinematography and other aspects of the films language?

The Lumière Brothers were not the only ones to claim the title of the first cinematographers. The scientific chronophotography devices developed by Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey and Ottomar Anschütz in the 1880s were able to produce moving photographs, as was William Friese-Greene's 'chronophotographic' system, demonstrated in 1890, and Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope (developed by W K-L Dickson), premiered in 1891. Since 1892, the projected drawings of Émile Reynaud's Théâtre Optique were attracting Paris crowds to the Museé Grevin. Louis Le Prince and Claude Mechant had been shooting moving picture sequences on paper film as soon as 1888, but had never performed a public demonstration. Polish inventor, Kazimierz Prószyński had built his camera and projecting device, called Pleograph, in 1894. Max and Emil Skladanowsky, inventors of the Bioscop, had offered projected moving images to a paying public one month earlier (November 1, 1895, in Berlin). Nevertheless, film historians consider the Grand Café screening to be the true birth of the cinema as a commercial medium, because the Skladanowsky brothers' screening used an extremely impractical dual system motion picture projector that was immediately supplanted by the Lumière cinematographe.

Although the Lumière brothers were not the first inventors to develop techniques to create motion pictures, they are often credited as among the first inventors of the technology for Cinema as a mass medium, and are among the first who understood how to use it.

Leaflet: Early Cinema

Narrative Theory

Ending Scene

Prop:  The problem with applying Propp's theory of character roles on the film Avengers Assemble (2012) is deciding who the hero of the film is, especially when u can see the assemble trying to save the country from the alien invasion and from Thor brother Loki. They had to shut down the portal which was created by Thor brother Loki to stop the alien coming through the portal to enter there planet which they luckily succeed at the end by shutting down the portal with Loki sword (Sceptre).Thanos, the Mad Titan, is a villain who has been part of Marvel Comics since his first appearance in "Iron Man" 55 in 1973. He is an Eternal, a species originating on Saturn's moon, Titan. And he is bad news. Thanos loves and worships Mistress Death, a physical embodiment of death that appears in Marvel Comics. Badass Digest explains that's why Thanos smiles when The Other uses the phrase "court death.

Todorov: By the end of the film the scene shows The Other, the leader of the Chitauri -- the alien race recruited by Loki in his attempt to vanquish the Earth -- talking to the mysterious figure sitting on a throne he has been reporting to throughout the film. The Other says that they were mislead by Loki and that humans are stronger than they believed. He tells the figure, "To challenge them is to court death.The figure turns, revealing the purple face and glowing eyes of Thanos. In an interview with /Film, writer/director Joss Whedon discussed why he wanted to include the character in "The Avengers." Whedon said, "He for me is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain." He went on to joke, "He's the great grand daddy of the badasses and he's in love with death and I just think that's so cute." He explained that he wanted to have someone behind Loki's machinations in the film, and that Thanos was the character in the Marvel Universe that fit the bill.

Barthes: In the movie the avenger assemble the mighty earth heroes are trying to save the world from the alien invasion which was caused by Thor step brother loki so they working has a team to stop him and take him back where he came from, the only way the stopped the alien invasion was is to destroy the teleport machines which was created by a scientist who works with nick fury which they were successful on there mission at the end and save the country.

Levi-Strauss: The Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the leader of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract, a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises Loki an army with which he can subjugate Earth. Nick Fury, director of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and his lieutenant Agent Maria Hill arrive at a remote research facility during an evacuation, where physicist Dr.Erik Selvig is leading a research team experimenting on the Tesseract. Agent Phil Coulson explains that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy.

Opening Scene

Prop: Captain america is looking at the ground like he has been defeated like all hope is lost. The woman also lost hope after seeing her team losing the fight trying to save her country. U could see Marie hill is having a meeting with her manager about the war which she is calling for retreat so she doesn't lose her hero's while rest of the hero's are trying to see how to end this battle.

Todorov:

Barthes:

Levi Strauss:

 

Cinematography

Analysis of Hot Fuzz

Sherlock Holmes sound analysis

Glossary

Diegetic - Diegetic sound is any sound that emanates from the story (or narrative) world of a film, which is referred to in film studies as diegesis.
Non Diegetic - Non-diegetic sound is sound whose origin is from outside the story world.
Ambient - Relating to or denoting advertising that makes use of sites or objects other than the established media (e.g. by placing slogans on the back of bus tickets).
SFX - The sound effects of the movie.
Mood - A mood is an emotional state.
Tone - Tone in film is very hard to separate from mood, setting the tone with sounds is very similar to mood as it sets the scene for whats happening.
Genre - A style or category of art, music, or literature.
Theme music - Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the intro, during title sequence and/or ending credits.
Voice over - Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations.
Musical Score -  Is original music written specific to accompany a film. The score forms part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects.
Synchronous sound - Synchronous sound is sound that is matched to certain movements occurring in the scene e.g when footsteps correspond to feet walking.
Asynchronous sound - Are not matched with a visible source of the sound on screen. Such sounds are included so as to provide an appropriate emotional nuance, and they may also add to the realism of the film. For example: A film maker might  opt to include the background sound of an ambulance's siren while the foreground sound and image portrays an arguing couple. 
Contrapuntal - composed of two or more relatively independent melodies sounded together.
Silence -   Is a film with no synchronised record sound, with no spoken dialogue.
Selective sound - Sound that focus on a particular character, to high light the scene.
Sound bridges -  Sound that begins with the carry-over sound from the previous scene before the new sound.

Sound is vibrations sound has pitch, rhythm, tempo, and volume. It resources, in film there types of sound diegetic and non diegetic. After watching a clip of Sherlock Holmes. In the scene I could hear sounds like:

• Gun loading
• Horse footsteps
• Piano 
• Glass broken
• Fire
• Crow 
• Doors tweaking 
• Gunshots

In the sherlock Holmes video the scene starts off with slow paced music then as the scene goes on the music get louder and faster they're also using classical music this is using non diegetic sound. in the scene you can also hear the horses moving and the sound of a bird and the man reloading his gun. Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the films world. It can also be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. This type of sound can create many different meanings for an audience. Non diegetic sound is either visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. Non diegetic sound is represented as coming from a course outside its story space.

After watching the opening of the Sherlock Holmes clip, the diegetic sounds being made are the guns getting cocked and loaded, the chains rattling, the scream at the start, the horses hooves clanking together, the crow squawking, the boots rattling from when he jumps and the glass breaking.