How It Feels To Be Run Over Analysis

‘How it Feels to Be Run Over’ and The Cinema of Attractions

Cinema on the whole has had a long and varied history. From the single shot films of old to those that modern audiences are more familiar with, the world of the cinema has evolved over the last century to become a medium very different from the cinema of yore.

The “cinema of attractions” was an aesthetic movement that came about in the early days of the film movement. Born out of a post-Industrial Revolution world, the “cinema of attractions” (as coined in the writings of Tom Gunning) was a cinema style that focussed more on the sheer existence of moving pictures and filmographic features, rather than any sort of narrative basis. With frequent ‘camera takes’ (actors looking at the camera) and tricks that wouldn’t be usual to see outside of a circus, this movement was quite unique.

Its existence from 1895 to 1906 brought about the very start of our filmic history and helped set a precedent for films in the future.

How it Feels to

This film, under a minute in length, shows an automobile driving towards the camera and ‘hitting it’, then quickly cutting to a series of title cards with writing on them. Several stylistic elements are present in this film, those of which include specialised cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing. “The cinema of attractions” is a very specific genre that only really existed at the turn of the century and in the beginning of film history. Hepworth’s use of cinematography, in this case a fully static camera and a lack of separate shots, highlights the essence of the genre. It is obvious which films came about as a part of the “cinema of attractions” genre as they rely on the mere existence of technology and realistically moving pictures on a screen in order to get their point