Realism/Classical/Formalism-
1. How would describe the characteristics of the camera camera work: composition, angle, movement
2. How would describe the difference in the edit?
3. How would describe the quality of the story being told/narrative?
Realist films are just that, films that largely incorporate a sense of realism within them. They often have sequence shots which are lengthy shots combined with sequence edits which do not have many cuts or edits. One of the most apparent of these realist films is called The Arrival of a Train which was one of the first documentary films. It was created by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895 and was only about a minute long. The duration of the clip consists of one continuous recording and the camera does not move at all but rather remains still in order to capture everything happening in the shot at that moment in time. The entire clip consists of a train arriving at a station and people boarding and departing from the train. The angle of the shot is diagonal and faces the train and creates an interesting use of lines along the platform of the train station. Since there is no editing involved, it creates no difference and that audience sees the integrity and realistic nature of the sequence. The use of camerawork and lack of editing techniques creates a story of the coming and going of a train. However, there is no real narrative being told. There are many people in the shot as the train arrives and it the only real action other than the train.
Classical films are different from realist films in that they use shots that are used to make the action as believable as possible. Realist films aim to show how things really look in the real world while classical films aim to show how things feel. They use cuts that add a dramatic feel and emotion to the shots to create a feeling through the film. They show cause and effect relationships between things and characters and put an emphasis on the emotional feeling rather than just physical communication through the shots presented. Also, they also incorporate cutting to continuity which shows an event taking place in a fluid nature and condenses them without taking any essential moments out of them. One famous film in this category is The Great Train Robbery. It fits perfectly because it really highlights how stories should be told through film. The film, directed by Edwin Porter, is about a real train robbery that took place in 1903. In this clip, the gang of robbers kidnaps a man working on the train and ties him up when the train arrives. Porter wanted to tell this story of a robbery and he is successful because his film gets the audience caught up in the characters and their problems and motivates them to feel what they feel. The shots resemble reality because they reenact true events and the exact way they happened while getting the realistic aspect of it spot on. The editing is crucial because it portrays the characters motivations and the way in which they rob the train. This is shown when they tie up the man and proceed to wait for the next train as well. The quality of the story being told is very high although this was one of the first film to ever be created.
The last type of film is formalist films that incorporate shots that are not usually used in a narrative style. They have very detailed and exaggerated sets and costumes along with complicated and camerawork that sometimes, in my opinion, random and confusing to understand. This style draws attention to itself without having any stories and characters altogether. Instead, they attempt to convey a particular mood or emotion by showing abstract images. A prominent film that incorporates formalism is Battleship Potemkin and more specifically the Odessa Step sequence scene which was created by Eisenstein in 1925. This film has a lot of abstract shots that don’t really have any relationship to one another. There are many angles and camera movements. In the clip you see shots of children and families and there is a calm and peaceful atmosphere and then suddenly you see armed soldiers who are chasing civilians who are running down a bunch of steps. The musical soundtrack as well as the quick jump cuts add to the weirdness of the clip. The narrative itself has some sort of continuity although it is to a lesser degree than other forms of film.
