THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOVIES: 1911 TO 1926

With American filmmakers starting their organized production, silent movies became very popular in both US and Europe. Film started being longer, slightly edited, they used minimal sound effects and musical tracks, and emphasis on professional-made narrative drama, romances and comedies.

The motion picture of the silent era was generally simplistic in nature; acted in overly animated movements to engage the eye; and accompanied by live music, played by musicians in the theater, and written titles to create a mood and to narrate a story. Within the confines of this medium, one filmmaker in particular emerged to transform the silent film into an art and to unlock its potential as a medium of serious expression and persuasion.

Other techniques that Griffith, who entered the film industry as an actor in 1907, employed to new effect included panning shots, through which he was able to establish a sense of scene and to engage his audience more fully in the experience of the film, and tracking shots, or shots that traveled with the movement of a scene, which allowed the audience through the eye of the camera to participate in the film’s action.