The general purpose of a film is to illustrate and portray a story through an entertaining narrative. Older generations did not have computers, the internet, and cellular phones that we have today. In the twentieth century, cameras, radios, and televisions were the dominating medium forms filmmakers used to eloquently convey a perspective scope of reality. As technology advanced during the Gilded Age Era of American history the documentary impulse slowly transitioned away from still photographs, letters, and personal written narratives. Sound recordings and moving motion pictures paved new paths for people to document for both personal and social reasons. The Lumière brothers are noted for filming the first motion pictures and the showing the first public screenings of their work which was built on Thomas Edison’s kinectoscope. “The Lumière brothers originated the movie projector in 1895 by shining a light through the strip of picture transparencies and enlarging the pictures with an optical lens”(Straubaar, Larose and Davenport 194). By examining the early works of the Lumière brothers, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison, one is able to consider how sound and sight relate to special effects in storytelling during this era to an audience.
To open, this writer opted to view the Lumière brother’s short film Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat dated 1895. The short film leads off with a wide angle viewpoint of a train approaching while people are waiting for its arrival. It is worth noting the entire scene in the film is also accompanied by delightful piano music which complemented, and enhanced the mood of the story. This enhancement and musical accompaniment is the job of special effects in film. It is this writer’s opinion that the impacts of special effects and other technology are positive when properly utilized to share a story because despite all the advances the intent to enhance remains the steadfast motive. With this in mind, there are points of exaggeration that the special effects of today can push overtop thus subtracting from the realism of the story being told. For example, if a historical based movie uses too many special effects/enhancements it can become clear to the audience that the computer generated scenes take away from the human element and timeframe being portrayed.
All in all, special effects in the film industry need to be used with a cautious balance so the audience is not turned off by the over the top electronic enhancements. The clichéd expression, “less is more” holds substance here because it follows the same intent as the Lumière films over one hundred years ago. An argument can be made that presentism can impact how we interpret historical film material, but it can also be stated that simplicity is the key ingredient which drives special effects. “Film editing used to involve unspooling miles of raw film footage and manually cutting and splicing to make a master copy. Now the filmed sequences are transferred to computer media where they can be accessed at random and spliced with the click of a mouse—a process known as nonlinear editing”(Straubaar, Larose and Davenport 195). Since technology has made the editing process simpler, shouldn’t the same logic be applied to special effects?
Works Cited
Straubaar, Joseph, obert Larose and Lucinda Davenport. Media Now, Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology. Boston,MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012.
