d. w. griffith early career edison studios – porter – bitzer biograph studios

D. W. Griffith

• Early Career

• Edison Studios– Porter– Bitzer

• Biograph Studios

1908-1913

• Directed approximately 450 short films for Biograph

• 1913 Mutual and takes Billy Bitzer with him

Contributions

• Complex storytelling• Film could make people think and feel• Established the shot as the unit of film, not

the scene• Film becomes what the director wants the

audience to see • First “Auteur” filmmaker (wrote, directed,

edited, scored)

Content of Early Films

• Heavy moral messages (Victorian influence)• Definitive good and evil• Heavy handed subtitles • Allegorical names (Dear One, Brute Force)

Editing

• Developed sophisticated editing techniques– All future filmmakers credit Griffith with creating

film art• Eisenstein and Kuleshov• Welles• John Ford

Lighting

• Created to enhance the shot or scene– Natural (window or outdoors)– Night/Day– Lamp or fireplace– Mood– Highlight an object or person– Rembrandt (women look angelic)– Colorized film to create mood/effect

Company of Players

• Type casting• Rehearsals• More subtle• Created stars– Mary Pickford– Lillian and Dorothy Gish– Henry B. Walthall, Donald Crisp– Mae Marsh, Blanche Sweet

The Birth of a Nation

• Adapted from Thomas Dixon’s novel The Clansman

• Two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction

• 6 weeks to rehearse• 9 weeks to shoot

The Birth of a Nation

• Cost: $125,000• Grossed: $40 million ($2 million to Griffith• $2 instead of a nickel to see it• Nearly 3 hours in length (13 reels)• First film screened at the White House• Pres. Wilson calls it “History written in

lightning. ”

Criticism

• Racist Themes• Glorified the KKK• Touched off riots throughout the country• Banned in some areas of the South• NAACP condemns it• Griffith answers his critics with Intolerance, his

cinematic defense

Intolerance• $450,000 to make• 4 confusing storylines in different time periods inter-

cut• Reviewers called it “Intolerable” 16 reels long • Flop, puts Griffith in financial jeopardy and

dependent on other producers

Modest Success

• Broken Blossoms (1919)• Way Down East (1920)• Orphans of the Storm (1921)

Decline

• No new innovative ideas• His moral dramas no longer appealed to

audiences. • Society moving into “Roaring 20’s”• Far less creative control• Stopped writing his own screenplays

1875-1948