1.
D. W. Griffith
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David Wark D. W. Griffith was an American director, writer, and producer who pioneered modern filmmaking techniques. Griffith is best remembered for The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, the Birth of a Nation made use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its popularity set the stage for the dominance of the feature-length film in the United States. Today, it is noted for its radical technique and condemned for its inherently racist philosophy. The film was subject to boycotts by the NAACP and, after screenings of the film had caused riots at several theaters, Intolerance, his next film, was, in part, an answer to his critics. By the time of his feature, The Struggle, he had made roughly 500 films. Griffith is one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and he is credited with popularizing the use of the close-up shot. Griffith was born on a farm in Oldham County, Kentucky, Jacob was a Confederate Army colonel in the American Civil War and was elected as a Kentucky state legislator. He attended a one-room schoolhouse where he was taught by his older sister, after his father died when he was ten, the family struggled with poverty. When Griffith was 14, his mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville, Griffith then left high school to help support the family, taking a job in a dry goods store and later in a bookstore. Griffith began his career as an actor in touring companies. Meanwhile, he was learning how to become a playwright, but had little success—only one of his plays was accepted for a performance, Griffith then decided to become an actor, and appeared in many films as an extra. Griffith began making films in 1908, and released his first feature film, Judith of Bethulia. A few years earlier, in 1907, Griffith, still struggling as a playwright, Porter rejected Griffiths script, but gave him an acting part in Rescued from an Eagles Nest instead. Finding this attractive, Griffith began to explore a career as an actor in the picture business. At Biograph, Griffiths career in the industry would change forever. In 1908, Biographs main director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his son, Wallace McCutcheon, McCutcheon, Jr. however, was not able to bring the studio any success. As a result, Biograph co-founder, Henry Harry Marvin, decided to give Griffith the position, Griffith would end up directing forty-eight shorts for the company that year. His short In Old California was the first film shot in Hollywood, four years later he produced and directed his first feature film Judith of Bethulia, one of the earliest to be produced in the United States
2.
Thomas Burke (author)
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Thomas Burke was a British author. He was born in Eltham, London and his first successful publication was Limehouse Nights, a collection of stories centred on life in the poverty-stricken Limehouse district of London. Many of Burkes books feature the Chinese character Quong Lee as narrator, the Lamplit Hour, an incidental poem from Limehouse Nights, was set to music in the United States by Arthur Penn in 1919. That same year, American film director D. W. Griffith used another tale from the collection, The Chink, Griffith based his film Dream Street on Burkes Gina of Chinatown and Song of the Lamp. Thomas Burke was born Sydney Thomas Burke on 29 November 1886 in Clapham, Burkes father died when he was barely a few months old and he was eventually sent to live with his uncle in Poplar. At the age of ten he was removed to a home for middle class boys who were espectably descended, when Burke turned sixteen he started working as an office boy, a job that he deeply detested. In 1901, he published his first professional written work entitled The Bellamy Diamonds in the magazine Spare Moments and he also edited some anthologies of childrens poetry that were published in 1910–1913. Limehouse Nights helped to earn Burke a reputation as the laureate of Londons Chinatown, Burkes writing also influenced contemporary popular forms of entertainment, such as the nascent film industry. Indeed, D. W. Griffith used the short story The Chink, Burke continued to develop his descriptions of London life throughout his later literary works. He gradually expanded his range with novels such as The Sun in Splendor and he also continued to publish essays on the London environment, including pieces such as The Real East End and London in My Times. Burke died in the Homeopathic Hospital in Queens Square, Bloomsbury on 22 September 1945 and his short story The Hands of Ottermole was later voted the best mystery of all time by critics in 1949. Any attempt to accurately describe Thomas Burkes life is complicated by the many fictionalised accounts of his youth that circulated widely during his lifetime. As literary critic Anne Witchard notes, most of what we know about Burkes life is based on works that purport to be autobiographical yet contain far more invention than truth. Furthermore, in work he states that while growing up as an orphan in the East End he befriended a Chinese shopkeeper named Quong Lee from whom he learned about Chinese life in London. These romanticised tales of Burkes early life were accepted by the literary critics of the day. As Witchard notes, Burke, through his writing, positioned himself as a seer in a process of representing Londons sub-cultural Others. Despite a long list of works, recognition of Burke largely concerns Limehouse Nights, published in 1917, Burkes gritty tales of Londons Chinatown ignited immediate controversy. The book was banned by circulating libraries, not only on grounds of general immorality
3.
Lillian Gish
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Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 in silent film shorts to 1987. Gish was called the First Lady of American Cinema, and she is credited with pioneering fundamental film performing techniques and she also did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s and closed her career playing opposite Bette Davis in the 1987 film The Whales of August. In her later years Gish became an advocate for the appreciation and preservation of silent film. Gish is widely considered to be the greatest actress of the silent era, despite being better known for her film work, Gish was also an accomplished stage actress, and she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972. Gish was born in Springfield, Ohio, to Mary Robinson McConnell and she had a younger sister, Dorothy, who also became a popular movie star. The first several generations of Gishes were Dunkard ministers and her great-great-grandfather fought in the American Revolutionary War and is buried in a cemetery in Pennsylvania for such soldiers. Letters between Gish and a Pennsylvania college professor indicate that her knowledge of her background was limited. Gishs father was an unreliable alcoholic, when he left the family, her mother took up acting to support them. The family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois, where lived for several years with Lillians aunt and uncle, Henry. Their mother opened the Majestic Candy Kitchen, and the girls helped sell popcorn and candy to patrons of the old Majestic Theater, the girls attended St. Henrys School, where they acted in school plays. The girls were living with their aunt Emily in Massillon, Ohio, Lillian traveled to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where Jamess brother Alfred Grant Gish and his wife, lived. Her father, who by then was institutionalized in the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane in Norman and he was able to travel the 35 miles to Shawnee and the two got reacquainted. She stayed with her aunt and uncle and attended Shawnee High School there and she wrote to her sister Dorothy that she was thinking of staying and finishing high school and then going to college, but she missed her family. Her father died in Norman, Oklahoma, January 9,1912, when the theater next to the candy store burned down, the family moved to New York, where the girls became good friends with a next-door neighbor, Gladys Smith. Gladys was an actress who did some work for director D. W. Griffith. When Lillian and Dorothy were old enough, they joined the theatre and they also took modeling jobs, with Lillian posing for artist Victor Maurel in exchange for voice lessons. In 1912, their friend Mary Pickford introduced the sisters to Griffith, Lillian Gish would soon become one of Americas best-loved actresses. Although she was already 19, she gave her age as 16 to the studio, Gish made her stage debut in 1902, at The Little Red School House in Rising Sun, Ohio
4.
Richard Barthelmess
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Richard Semler Dick Barthelmess was an American film actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two films in 1928, Barthelmess was born in New York City, the son of Caroline W. Harris, a stage actress, and Alfred W. Barthelmess. His father died when he was a year old, through his mother, he grew up in the theatre, doing walk-ons from an early age. In contrast to that, he was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford and he did some acting in college and other amateur productions. By 1919 he had five years in stock company experience, russian actress Alla Nazimova, a friend of the family, was taught English by Caroline Barthelmess. Nazimova convinced Richard Barthelmess to try acting professionally, and he made his screen appearance in 1916 in the serial Glorias Romance as an uncredited extra. He also appeared as a player in several films starring Marguerite Clark. He founded his own company, Inspiration Film Company, together with Charles Duell. One of their films, Tolable David, in which Barthelmess starred as a mailman who finds courage, was a major success. In 1922, Photoplay described him as the idol of every girl in America, Barthelmess had a large female following during the 1920s. Dick is getting more and more every day, and why. Because his wonderful black hair and soulful eyes are enough to any young girl adore him. The first play I saw Dick in was Boots—Dorothy Gish playing the lead. This play impressed me so that I went to see every play in which he appeared—Three Men and a Girl, Scarlet Days, The Love Flower, I am looking forward to Way Down East as being a great success, because I know Dick will play a good part. In addition, he won a citation for producing The Patent Leather Kid. With the advent of the era, Barthelmess fortunes changed. Barthelmess failed to maintain the stardom of his silent film days and he enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II, and served as a lieutenant commander. He never returned to film, preferring instead to live off his investments, Barthelmess died of throat cancer on August 17,1963, aged 68, in Southampton, New York
5.
Donald Crisp
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Donald Crisp was an English-born, United States-based film actor. He was a producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley, Donald Crisp was born in Bow, London at the family home on 27 July 1882. He was one of eight born to James and Elizabeth Crisp. He was educated at the University of Oxford after serving as a trooper in the 10th Hussars in the Boer War, Crisp claimed to be of Scottish descent. While travelling on the S/S Carmania to America in July 1906, fisher, who immediately offered him a job with his company. Crisp spent his first year in New York City in Grand Opera, and it was while touring with the company in the United States and Cuba that Crisp first became interested in the theatre. By 1910, Crisp, now using the name Donald, was working as a manager for the renowned entertainer, composer, playwright. It was during this time he met and befriended film director D. W. Griffith, when Griffith ventured west, to seek his fortune in Hollywood in 1912, Crisp accompanied him. From 1908 to 1930, Crisp, in addition to directing dozens of films, also appeared in nearly 100 silent films, one notable exception was his casting by Griffith as General Ulysses S. Grant in Griffiths landmark film The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Another was his role in Griffiths 1919 film Broken Blossoms as Battling Burrows and this experience fostered a similar passion in Crisp to become a director in his own right. His first directing credit was Little Country Mouse, made in 1914, many directors would find themselves turning out a dozen or more films in a single year at this time. Over the next fifteen years, Crisp directed some 70 films in all, most notably The Navigator with Buster Keaton and Don Q and his final directorial effort was the film The Runaway Bride. Between working for Griffith and other producers, along with his acting roles. During the Second World War, Crisp answered the call to duty at a time when his career was at its peak. This time, he served in United States Army Reserve, where he rose to the rank of Colonel, with the advent of talkies, Crisp abandoned directing and devoted himself entirely to acting after 1930. He became a sought after character actor
6.
Billy Bitzer
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Gottfried Wilhelm Billy Bitzer was a pioneering American cinematographer notable for his close association with D. W. Griffith. He admired and learned the art of motion photography from Kinetoscope inventor W. K. L. Dickson, who directed the early Biograph shorts on which Bitzer cut his teeth, until 1903, Bitzer was employed by Biograph primarily as a documentary photographer, and from 1903 onward primarily as the photographer of narrative films, as these gained popularity. In 1908 Bitzer entered into his first collaboration with Griffith, during this time he pioneered the field of matte photography and made use of innovative lighting techniques, closeups, and iris shots. Bitzer provided assistance during Griffiths directorial debut, 1908s The Adventures of Dollie, in 1910, he photographed Griffiths silent short, In Old California, in the Los Angeles village of Hollywoodland, qualifying Bitzer as, arguably, Hollywoods first Director of Photography. The apex of Bitzer and Griffiths collaboration came with The Birth of a Nation, a film funded in part by Bitzers life savings, and the epic Intolerance. For all his innovation, Bitzer did not survive the transition to sound. His autobiography, Billy Bitzer, His Story, was published posthumously in 1973, in 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild named him one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history. Bitzer, it is said, developed techniques that set the standard for all future motion pictures. 2 A. M. G. W. Bitzer, Billy Bitzer, His Story, ISBN 978-0-374-11294-3 David W. Menefee, Sweet Memories, Bitzer at the Internet Movie Database
7.
United Artists
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United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century. On December 14 of the year, however, MGM acquired the 48% stake of UAMG it did not own. UA was incorporated as a joint venture on February 5,1919, by Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over salaries and creative decisions. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized, when he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, The inmates are taking over the asylum. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo, formed their distribution company and its headquarters was established at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each of the stars to produce five pictures each year, UAs first film was a success. Without selling stock to the public, following the other studios, as a result, production was slow and the company distributed an annual average of five films during its first five years. By 1924 Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis, veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had been producing pictures for a decade, and he brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada and then in Mexico, by the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied a share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox, al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including, Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO, and Wanger to Universal Pictures, in the late 1930s, UA turned a profit
8.
Silent film
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A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936, in silent films for entertainment, the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, mime and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue. During silent films, a pianist, theatre organist, or, in large cities, pianists and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise, an orchestra would play from sheet music. The term silent film is therefore a retronym—that is, a term created to distinguish something retroactively, the early films with sound, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were referred to as talkies, sound films, or talking pictures. A September 2013 report by the United States Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature films are believed to be completely lost, the earliest precursors of film began with image projection through the use of a device known as the magic lantern. This utilized a glass lens, a shutter and a persistent light source, such as a powerful lantern and these slides were originally hand-painted, but still photographs were used later on after the technological advent of photography in the nineteenth century. The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by only fifty years, the next significant step towards film creation was the development of an understanding of image movement. Simulations of movement date as far back as to 1828 and only four years after Paul Roget discovered the phenomenon he called Persistence of Vision. This experience was further demonstrated through Rogets introduction of the thaumatrope, the first projected primary proto-movie was made by Eadweard Muybridge between 1877 and 1880. Muybridge set up a row of cameras along a racetrack and timed image exposures to capture the many stages of a horses gallop, the oldest surviving film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a film of people walking in Oakwood streets garden. Edison also made a business of selling Kinetograph and Kinetoscope equipment, due to Edisons lack of securing an international patent on his film inventions, similar devices were invented around the world. The Lumière brothers, for example, created the Cinématographe in France, the Cinématographe proved to be a more portable and practical device than both of Edisons as it combined a camera, film processor and projector in one unit. In contrast to Edisons peepshow-style kinetoscope, which one person could watch through a viewer. Their first film, Sortie de lusine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894, is considered the first true motion picture, the invention of celluloid film, which was strong and flexible, greatly facilitated the making of motion pictures. This film was 35 mm wide and pulled using four sprocket holes and this doomed the cinematograph, which could only use film with just one sprocket hole. From the very beginnings of film production, the art of motion pictures grew into maturity in the silent era. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style, the silent era was also pioneering era from a technical point of view
9.
Intertitle
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In motion pictures, an intertitle is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as dialogue intertitles, film scholar Kamilla Elliott identifies one of the earliest uses of intertitles in the 1901 British film Scrooge, or, Marleys Ghost. The first Academy Awards presentation in 1929 included an award for Best Title Writing that went to Joseph W. Farnham for no specific film, the award was never given again, as intertitles went out of common use due to the introduction of talkies. In modern film, intertitles are used to supply an epigraph, such as a poem, however, they are most commonly used as part of a historical dramas epilogue to explain what happened to the depicted characters and events after the conclusion of the story proper. The development of the soundtrack slowly eliminated their utility as a narrative device, for instance, intertitles were used as a gimmick in Frasier. The BBCs drama Threads uses them to location, date. Law & Order used them to not only the location. Guy Maddin is a filmmaker known for recreating the style of older films. Some locally produced shows, such as quiz bowl game shows, intertitles have had a long history in the area of amateur film as well. The efforts of home movie aficionados to intertitle their works post-production have led to the development of a number of approaches to the challenge. Frequently lacking access to high quality film dubbing and splicing equipment, intertitles may be printed neatly on a piece of paper, a card, or a piece of cardboard and filmed, or they may be formed from adhesive strips and affixed to glass. In the early 1980s, digital recording technology improved to the point where intertitles could be created in born-digital format, several specialty accessories from this period such as Sonys HVT-2100 Titler and cameras such as Matsushitas Quasar VK-743 and Zenith VC-1800 could be used to generate intertitles for home movies. Early 1980s video game consoles and applications catering to the scene were also adapted for the generation. Among these were included the ColecoVision, the Magnavox Odyssey², the Bally Astrocade, acknowledgment Billing Character generator Closing credits Credit Digital on-screen graphic Lower third Opening credits Subtitle Supertitle Title sequence WGA screenwriting credit system
