Paper 2; Silent Film Movements

"One Week"- Buster Keaton 1920

- Prefigure of Postmoderism as he already breaks conventions such as breaking the 4th wall (bathroom scene).

- The narrative of "one week" is based off of early adverts from the newspapers and in the narrative Keaton plays the "Everyman" as his persona.

Cinematography;

FRAMING: Close ups, wide shots and the circle frame. All of these shots reinforce the gags and jokes in the narrative.

LIGHTING; All lighting is natural and non-artificial, this makes the audience feel like the narrative is reality and relate to it more.

EDITING; Editing is only used when needed such as , to reinforce the humour in the jokes.

MISE-EN-SCENE; Contributes to the narrative and set pieces. Built and adapted props.

PERFORMACE; Body language , expression + movement and size.

TECHNIQUES;
- Stunts
- Use of mise-en-scene and physical objects
- Dead pa expression
-Layering of jokes
- Breaking the 4th Wall.

REPRESENTATIONS;
 -Marriage = Equal partnership
- Lower- Middle class aspirations
- The police are seen as figure of humour.

CONTEXTS;
- Silent comedy conventions
- Slapstick
-Post Modernism Techniques ( Breaking the fourth wall, intertextuality)

The sets in Buster Keaton’ shorts can function as characters. The house in One Week seems to take a life of its own. On Wednesday, the house takes on a cubist appearance, a visual gag that references the cubist movement, popular in the early 20th century and typified by objects and figures that appear abstract and fragmented.

Keaton was a visual director – he avoided title cards and focused instead on gesture and action. His comedy is rooted in his Vaudeville background (where he performed as a child), and gag-based slapstick comedy popular in the 1910s. Keaton’s trademark deadpan expression serves as a blank slate on which the audience can project emotions.

Props are an important element of Keaton’s films. Houses often feature secret doorways or specifically designed elements. The trick house in The High Sign with trap doors and escape mirrors exemplifies Keaton’s trademark ‘mechanical comedy’ – the use of traps enables the audience to guess what is going to happen, while Keaton’s deadpan responses and mastery of his stunts elicits surprise. The props in the kitchen sequence in The Scarecrow all have a duel function – the bookshelf is a refrigerator and the salt and pepper pots dangle from the celling.

"The Scarecrow" 1920's

REPRESNTATIONS;

- Dancing for herself rather than the pleasure of anyone else.
-Marriage is treated unseriously and is mocked.
- Lower class (The one room house)
-Women are perceived as independent ( first on the horse) Post WW1?

EDITING;
- Dog chase scene is heavily cut- difficult to work with animals but is also a convention to chase scenes.
- Second half of the film is more edited then the first.

PERFORMACE;
- Body language; the brother is clumsy but at the breakfast table, moves almost like a dance.
-Size; Brother in the car, portrayed as fat as the car topples over- shown through framing.

Keatons persona is the suitor.

CONTEXT;
- Vaudville theatre
-Modernist technogly

 Institutional

1. These films are four of 19 shorts produced for Buster Keaton Productions between 1920 and 1923. Film executive Joseph M. Schenck set up Buster Keaton Productions in 1919 and gave Keaton complete creative freedom in writing, directing and acting. The star system had become institutionalised by the 1920s, with Keaton one of the great silent comedians, alongside Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Each of these silent comedians had a distinct persona and style