qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwerty uiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasd fghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzx cvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqThe Great Train Robbery
Certificate Three Screen Studies Research wertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiAssignment
DUE WEEK 6 Group A opasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfg Lecturer Brendan Humphreys Don Pugh hjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxc
vbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxc vbnmq wertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyui opasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfg hjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxc vbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmq wertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyui opasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfg hjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbn mqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwert yuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopas dfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklz The Great Train Robbery, a tale of Wild West bandits holding up a train, robbing, murdering, celebrating and fleeing in a torrent of gunfire, was produced and directed in 1903 by Edwin S. Porter, under the auspices of the American, Thomas A. Edison film studio. This film represented some significant advances in cinematography for its time but was particularly important for being a hit and disseminating the new techniques broadly. (Bunish, 2003) Porter included a new uninterrupted narrative style with beginning, story development, and climax, totalling twelve minutes over fourteen scenes. He combined multiple plots, involving tension-filled suspense, non- stop action, brutal violence, and unprecedented realism. These were supported by location shooting, a highly popular subject matter, props, costumes, settings, tinting, parallel action, and cross cutting; all new editing techniques for the time.
Not only was the film highly successful at that time, filling movie houses across the United States, but also, amazingly, it has maintained its vitality today. Carr (1995) suggests that the movie is probably viewed once a week today, a gross underestimate considering the YouTube site with over 200,000 viewings, nearly 800 comments and 600, five star ratings within the last three years. (FarmFeed1 2007)
As Bunish (2003) has noted, generally movies previous to Porter were largely created as adjuncts of the theatre; walk-in, perform, and walk off. They were frequently one-act, micro-documentary in style, lacking in plot, and character development, often uncut, and put together in short sections. Examples included Fred Ott’s Sneeze, 1894, the Lumiere Brothers Arrivee d'un train en gare a La Ciotat (1895) or La Sortie des Ouviers de L'Usine Lumière à Lyon, and Edison's The Kiss (1896). Perhaps, the exception was Georges Meliese's A Trip to the Moon, which did feature an early science fiction narrative with many special effects.
There are many reasons for the success and continued popularity of the film. Firstly, Porter’s themes, on which the props and settings were based, have been and are today highly popular; the Western, the heist and the action movie. These themes developed by Porter set the groundwork for many feature films to the present. Rouse (2003) notes the popularity of cheap Western novels prior to the film which help to create an ideology, the American myth of the frontier. This embodied rugged individualism, freedom, adventure, risk taking, guns and gun fights, fistfights, unbridled lawlessness and sudden death. These were all features in Porter's movie which was one of the first to develop these ever popular ongoing elements. Porter’s second theme was the heist or robbery which Norman (2002) suggests has been and continues to be highly appealing with its action, and suspense. There’s the simplicity of the dichotomy of white versus black or good versus evil with the viewer frequently identifying with the criminal. This was accomplished by Porter, with minimalist furnishings, a focus on dramatic shadowed lighting and dark dress for his robbers. Porter’s third theme was realism; murderous violence and disquieting unexpected death, based on real events of the time reported in the press. These themes were supported by nonstop action with frequent climbing and movement, up, over and through the train, throwing the body over the side, the exuberant communal dance and the desperate flight and fusillade through the woods to escape a vengeful posse.
In conjunction with these themes came wildly popular props in Porters movie; Western costumes, dance costumes, make up, location shooting with the omnipresent billowing steam engine, railway carriages, the six-gun, explosives, galloping horses, the woods and the excitement of the dance. All were highly authentic, some of which were new to the movies. Sounds could easily be added in the movie houses; whistles, bells, steam noises, stimulated gun shots and music for the dance hall as well as piano music. (Bunish, 2003) O’Connor (1993) and Ives (1988) report that trains as props are enormously popular and continue to be used today. These were supported by such special effects as tinting dresses, gun blanks and explosions, using projection to give the appearance of movement of the train at the station through the window, and movement of background from the train door and windows.
The film is traditional in that it’s largely continuity based with scenes told by single static long shots from eye level perspective. Action is created by moving actors rather than shifting the camera. But to some extent it also represented the genesis of editing. (Bunish, 2003) Unlike earlier films, the camera changes location from the station to the railway to the dance hall to the woods. Scenes eight and nine employed the first pan shots, panning left to the hillside and following the robbers down the side and panning left as the robbers mount their waiting horses. Rather than using only continuity shots as used in most movies up to that time such as in The Life of an American Fireman, Porter uses parallel action, to examine different characters and localities in the same time-frame. There is, for example, the discovery of the telegraph operator in the movie by a young girl while the bandits dance in the dance hall in scene 11. Ellipsis is used when the film jump-cuts strictly to the dance from the telegraph station, dropping unnecessary material, a new technique then. A final novelty replicated in later movies was the realistic and terrifying shooting of a foreshortened final gunshot fired in a threatening manner by George Barnes. The gun was aimed directly at the viewer's eye level and the shot could be used as the beginning or end of the movie.
In retrospective, the success of the movie lay in its popularity, serving as a prototype for the later narrative style Hollywood genres of the Western and the Heist. The film established the movie industry by merging those cinematic techniques of his time into an integrated story-telling framework. Some new innovative techniques were used, but it's not that difficult to be an innovator as a pioneer of a nascent industry, barely a decade old. Within five years, Porter was eclipsed and fell into obscurity but The Great Train Robbery established his reputation for future generations and marked the beginning of a huge film industry.
REFERENCES
Alanen, A. 2006, ‘An Innovative Portrait of a Pioneer Revisited’, Journal of Film Preservation, Nov 1, retrieved on 1 March, 2010 from High Beam Research
Atkinson, M. ‘Edison: ‘The Invention of Movies’, The Village Voice, Mar 2, 2005, pp. 35 – 36.
Bunish, C. 2003, ‘Thomas Edison The Great Train Robbery: the film that helped change editing. (Back in the Day: Film).’ June 1, Retrieved on 19 February, 2010 from High Beam Research http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-103994416.html
Carr, J. 1995, ‘`Movies Begin': exploring the vitality of first films,’ The Boston Globe,’ Nov. 30, p. 98. Retrieved on 27th February, 2010 from High Beam Research Dirk, T. 2010 ‘Timeline of Influential Milestones and Important Turning Points in Film History’, retrieved on 28th of February, 2010 from AMC Filmsite http://www.filmsite.org/milestonespre1900s_2.html Ives, P. 1988, ‘Film; The Heartland Still Belongs to Trains’, Feb. 28, p. 223. Retrieved on 5 March, 2010 from The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/28/movies/film-the-heartland-still-belongs-to-trains- ives-pg-39.html Feedfarm1, 2007, The Great Train Robbery, Retrieved 28th February, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc7wWOmEGGY Norman, N. 2002, ‘Why we love a heist,’ The Evening Standard, Aug. 22, p. 54. Retrieved on 27th February, 2010 from High Beam Research http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-90635472.html> O’Connor, J. J. 1993, ‘Review/Television; Danger, Romance, Travel: Trains as Prop in the Movies’, Dec. 2, retrieved on the 16th February, 2010 from The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/02/movies/review-television-danger- romance-travel-trains-as-prop-in-the-movies.html Rouse, K. L. 1998, ‘Westerns’, in Dictionary of American History, The Gale Group, New York, retrieved on. 27 Feb. 2010 from High Beam Research Salas, R. A. 2005, ‘DVD Set Shines Light on Early Edison Films’, Chicago Sun- Times, Apr 8, p. 32. Retrieved Don 28 February, 2010 from High Beam Research, Thomas, B. 2003, ‘Birth of the film industry: The Great Train Robbery Premiered 100 Years Ago’, Albany Times Union, Dec 20, retrieved on 27 Feb. 2010 from High Beam Research Tuleja, T. 1994, ‘The Great Train Robbery,’ in The New York Public Library Book of Popular Americana, The Stonesong Press, Inc., New York. P. 94.