D. W. Griffith's Film The Birth Of A Nation

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1. To answer the first question during the early 1910s, D. W. Griffith was sent by the his production company to the west coast. He started filming on a vacant lot in close proximity to Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. D.W then filmed his first short film ever, it was a melodrama about California in the 19th century, when it was under the ownership of Mexico. After that Griffith begun doing a lot of short melodramas which helped evolve his style. This all came together when he created The Birth Of a Nation. Griffith created the tracking shot, Closeup, as well as utilizing different colors to show whether it was night or not. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton popularized slapstick comedy during the silent area in America film and used the technique of speeding up the film to add to …show more content…

During the 1920s Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were the kings of silent comedy. Chaplin, most especially as the Little Tramp, maintains a dignified manner, whether shuffling along in his dirty rags or kicking a cop in the rear. The eternally poised bum, wandering around in a wistful gloom, Chaplin often interacts with both men and women through over-elegant, slightly prissy antics full of subtle facility. A good example of that is in his film “The Immigrant” where he interacts with a ton of characters that are both male and female. Keaton often relies on this dream device, which would seem an easy way out if it were not so linked with the comedian’s foundation in realism. Though he tricks big Joe Roberts (his Arbuckle-like foil) and whole police forces, he rarely fools the viewers, at least not without quickly letting them in on it. In the beginning of “The Balloonatic”, it’s unclear if Buster is in a haunted house or a fantasy of Hell, before he is ejected swiftly onto the street, and we see that he was merely in an amusement park ride called “House of Trouble”. Him being a human prop is also showed off in “The General” as Keaton is throw around the train during the