This blog contains weekly journal entries for glover's film history class at Champlain College in Burlington VT. The plain template is in effect because it does not crop the youtube imbeds. Students are expected to post a minimum of 1 response a week, plus 1 comment on a peer post. Feel free to add relevant imbeds or links, or to use the blog for related off-topic threads, or to post your presentations for use in class, or viewing after.
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November
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Monday, November 10, 2008
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Presentation YouTube Links:
1.The Gold Rush (1925) by Chaplin
One of Chaplin's best films. He is an Alaskan prospector in the Klondike gold rush, who just about starves. A great combination of pathos, sentimentality, and slapstick(Some of the earliest American developed film styles).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz1TM9y8vN8
2.The Jazz Singer(1927)
by Al Crosland
Jazz Singer represents a breakthrough in post WWI, American Cinema because it was the first "talkie" (film with ad-libbed dialogue).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpTvnSwBtJI
It is really interesting that the US took a relatively strong lead in the beginning of the film industry not because of true talent or any type of strategic thinking, but because there were no real competitors. I didn't know that. With other countries trying to defend either themselves or another ally in the middle of the first World War, there was not much for America to do besides sit back and work on movies, it seems.
It is also interesting that Chaplin began so early, a character still widely recognized today. Jazz Singer, also, is still known in today's world even among people not studying film. You had a lot of information and reminded me how important the past really was, both in the social contexts and technological advancement. Good job.
I think it's funny how war brings opportunities to stuff like becoming a leader in the film industry. It gave the opportunity for the US to take the lead because we had the funding after to war to put towards it. It kinda just makes you think what else the US could of accomplished after the war with that money instead of putting it into film. It relates back to when Mr. Glover showed us that video that talked about Government seizing opportunities after a tragedy to get the population on it's side. This relates somewhat, but are still different because the video talked about using tragedy to put into act things that the population wouldn't normally agree with while the funding for film after the war was capitalizing on our boosted economy. You can also apply this kind of stuff to today. What will happen after the war and can a big change such as being the leader in the film industry happen after this war on Iraq or will the US be taken down a peg or two?
In response to Matt's post-It wasn't so much that the U.S. had a boosted economy post WW!, its more that WWI was fought in Europe and begun with European armies, and took a huge toll on those countries' societies and economies. They essentially were 'taken out of the race' to get a major leg up in the industry, one of the reasons the U.S. was able to pull ahead during this time. Perhaps you are thinking of the fact that WWII is often cited as pulling the U.S. out of the depression.. economically.
Now, Garrett. provocative and informative presentation, well delivered. Good choice of clips, interesting to hear Chaplin's actual voice in VO. Also appreciated the illustration graph depicting cost of wwI for various countries. (can you post that here?)
chart2.gif (GIF Image, 792x720 pixels)
^^^This is the link to the U.S. investments chart^^^
Just catching up on folk's presentations. I found your presentation to be intriguing. A lot of what you discussed about how America became the stronghold was went over in class, but you incorporated the genre in style that defined it. That was a nice touch and showed some more insight. I'm wondering if you could have found any of the mentalities towards American cinema that people were writing. Like the soviets were doing, writing about their filsm, I wonder if American film makers were writing about what they wanted to pass through in their films, or were they just trying to make entertaining and rich films and they naturally just became timeless.
Everyone already talked a lot about the film industries boom due to the war but I am really interested in finding more out about Charlie Chaplin. I wonder if he was like a Brad Pitt sort of icon of the period, or a comedian like Chris Farley. I think it would be really cool to bring him into the future and see how his acting would hold up with the great actors of our time.
...So for my Scientific Revolutions class I have to find a contemporary occurrence which holds true to Darwinist theories. Seeing how I already touched base on this in my presentation I figured I would elaborate and also tie in some of Richard Dawkin's ideas of memetics.
In my presentation I spoke mostly of the circumstantial, economic reasons behind the growth of American cinema. I also mentioned that because of the circumstances brought on by WWI, American filmmakers were developing styles that became iconic to American cinema. However, circumstances alone do not account for the lasting power and corporatism that actually resulted and still remains today. So to take it a step further, I believe the study of Memetics offers a more in depth explanation.
As a meme is introduced into a culture it relies on some sort of broadcasting for it to circulate and expand. The amount of exposure and general acceptance the meme receives is therefore detrimental to its overall success in regards to cultural influence. During WWI American filmmakers were conceptualizing new styles, technologies and possibilities for film as an artistic medium. These concepts were nothing especially substantial and revolutionary. However, because we were propagating and exposing them--via the offered forms of communication (magazines, radio or word-of-mouth)--at much faster rate than any of our competitors, we reached a point of cultural acceptance that we still obtain today. Conclusively,an expectation for all films to achieve a similar level of public approval was developed.
Garrett, the fact that you chose such incredible clips really helped your presentation, in my opinion. I would have really liked if you did chose the specific clip from Gold Rush where Chaplin does the dance on the table with the dinner rolls, but that's just me. In terms of information relayed to us, I think you did a very nice job of really keeping it to the essential details and making sure that we really had a solid understanding of those materials, as opposed to lots of information and moderate amounts of information under those categories.
Here are links to a few charts showing world economies during WWI. They provide evidence of the circumstantial advantages we (Hollywood) had during the time. A lot of these do show the depression that followed shortly after, but acknowledge the amount of wealth that preceded it. This is what gave American Cinema the opportunity.
US ECONOMY:1920's
http://www.bulatlat.com/files/u6/chart-_for-US-ECONOMY-COLLA.jpg
US TAXES:1920's
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/images/bg1443cht3.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.heritage.org/research/taxes/bg1443.cfm&usg=__IhkbjN4OAX8i9arqA-dOVadibDQ=&h=453&w=547&sz=15&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=Qvb5I7I80sDaKM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3D1920%2527s%2Beconomy%2Bcharts%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG
US EMPLOYMENT GRAPH:1920's
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/US_Employment_Graph_-_1920_to_1940.svg/400px-US_Employment_Graph_-_1920_to_1940.svg.png
1920's LIFE CHARTS
http://www.worldgameofeconomics.com/1920-1929data_exp4.JPG
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