What Makes a Film?

Eadweard Muybridge’s The Horse in Motion

 What Makes a Film?

Workers coming out of the Lumière Factory

Arrival of a Train
What Makes a Film?

George Meiles’ A Trip to the Moon

 What Makes a Film?

Robert Zemeckis’ Polar Express & Beowulf

What Makes a Film?

James Cameron’s Avatar will use real

and virtual actors taking performance
capture to the next level

• Cameron developed his own 3D

cameras so he can see the actors
and the digital backgrounds at the
same time
 Telling a Story
Realism, Classicism, Formalism

Realism in A Perfect Storm

 Telling a Story

Formalism in
Footlight Parade
by Busby Berkeley
 Telling a Story

Formalism in
Rhythmus 21
by Hans Richter
 Telling a Story

Classicism - Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

Telling a Story

or Gladiator
 Telling a Story
Realism Classicism Formalism

Documentary Fiction Avant-Garde

Battle of Algiers The Seventh Seal

Salesman Rhythmus 21
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,
Gladiator
Telling a Story

Salesman
Telling a Story

The Battle of Algiers

Telling a Story

I am Cuba
 Telling a Story

Hans Richter’s Rhythmus 21

Rhythmus 21

Man Ray’s Le Retour à la Raison

Le Retour à la Raison

Banksy's The Punking of Paris Hilton

Telling a Story

8 & 1/2
 Telling a Story

Form and Content

“One way of understanding better what a film is trying to
say is to know how it is saying it.”

André Bazin

Content Pure Form

Reality, Subject Matter, Abstraction, Style
Simplicity & Formal Beauty
 Telling a Story

Form and Content

“The way a story is told is part of that story. You can tell the
same story badly or well; you can also tell it well enough or
magnificently. It depends on who is telling the story.”

Herman G. Weinberg

Weinberg's 1931 Autumn Fire