Buster Keaton Two Reelers

• Describe production context in terms of Buster Keaton contexts (2) - No set synchronised score, however audiences would never watch in silence with a soundtrack played along to heighten and emphasise comedy - All two reelers produced by Joseph M Schenk
• Representations in the two reelers in terms of Buster Keaton contexts (2) - Women function as romantic interests and are integral to the plot for example keatons wife in One week is both his equal and foil to his gags - Women retain a certain amount of independance throughout his films
• Buster keatons auteur characteristics in terms of Buster Keaton contexts (3) - Characters lack biological origin - suggesting keaton wants the audience to focus on the present with no historical distractions - Keaton does not conform to traditional narrative closure - not using the three act structure conforming to a cinema of attractions style structure - Role of the clown - keatons persona is unknowable like that of a clowns
• Describe Andre Bazin in terms of critical debates specialist study area - Began the realist vs expressive debate in the 1940's believing filmmakers had a moral duty to be realist in their art
• Characteristics of realist debate in terms of critical debates specialist study area - Limited role of the filmmaker with visual aesthetic representing the natural world allowing room for spectator to reflect
• Example of realist debate in terms of critical debates specialist study area - Lumiere brothers - french inventors and pioneers of photographic equipment, developing the early motion picture camera and recording everyday life to advertise their equipment - First screenings took place in 1895
• Describe realism debate and keaton in terms of critical debates specialist study area (4) - Use of outdoor locations, long takes and long shots and use of natural lighting - Tells story through actions rather than intertitle cards - Spectator is positioned eyeline with keaton optimising very few canted angles unless to promote emotion, this also aligns us with keaton, alignment is a realist technique - Rooted in the real worl through references to real life events like the ford motor company 'home made' advertisement and heavy references to housing crisis in the scarecrow
• Describe classicism in terms of critical debates specialist study area (2) - Middle ground on the realist to expressive spectrum - Idea of verisimilitude, where the the movie develops its own rules and reality and the start, with a good movie not deciphered by whether they are realist or expressive but instead whether it breaks its verisimiltude, keeping the audience immersed
• What is cinema of attractions in terms of critical debates specialist study area - The style of cinema prior to the use of narratives - keatons films lie inbetween as they show elements of narrative features (mainly in cops)
• Describe expressive debate characteristics in terms of critical debates specialist study area - Highly mediated role of the filmmaker with highly constructed visual narrative intending to manipulate the spectator through the way the film is perceived
• Example of expressive debate in terms of critical debates specialist study area - George Melies - early french experiementer being the first to film fictional narratives like 'a trip to the moon' and 'voyage across the impossible
• Describe expressive debate and keaton in terms of critical debates specialist study area (5) - Elaborate mechanised sets and physical stunts defying logic with keaton foregrounding film form (sibil breaking fourth wall in one week) - Rotating house in one week develops picasso style cubic expressionism similar to the impossible gags being very expressive - Busters flat world - the idea that if we cant see the characters then the characters on screen cannot see each other - Keatons two reelers exist in a real world in which expressive things occur - Editing in the form of irising and intertitle...
• Describe narrative in One Week (3) - Narrative is divided by intertitle cards, broken into days with hurricane occuring on friday the 13th - this is unconventional, similar to how the marriage occurs at the start, conventionally this is expected at the end - Foregrounding of film form - sibil acknowledges the camera and breaks the fourth wall before she gets out of the bath - keaton is exposing the illusion of cinema with the cameraman covering the lens interrupting narrative flow - Omniscient narration - wek know the train is coming before keaton does, the audience always knows more than the...
• Context of One week (2) - Parody of ford motor company documentary called 'home made' released in 1919 - and educational short about prefabricated housing with parallels drawn through the wedding at the start and driving of ford model t car - In 2008 one week was added to the library of congress' national film registry - marking it as historically significant peace of art to be preserved for all time
• One Week (1920) Hurricane Sequence: Cinematography (3) - use of wide shots to demonstrate lack of symmetry and confusion within the cubist house - keaton framed centrally aligning the audience with the character - Rare usage of low angled shot as water seeps through the roof emphasising the inneffectiveness of the house and keatons inept masculinity
• One Week (1920) Hurricane Sequence: Mise-En-Scene (3) - Characters dressed formally for the housewarming gathering emphasises irony when hurricane hits - infers danger of remaining traditionalist and not embracing modernist change - House rotating on a turntable acts as a metaphor for dangers of married life - on wednesday the house has a cubist appearance references abstract cubist modern art - House almost acts as a metaphor for keatons masculinity as the house fails to complete basic task of providing shelter - Keaton is diminished by the mise-enscene emphasising how he is a small man domi...
• One Week (1920) Hurricane Sequence: Editing (2) - Use of intertiels and iris shots as a new day begins - intertitles take on a largely functional use driving the narrative with the hurricane beginning on friday 13th - Use of crosscutting between the interior and exterior of the house spinning in the hurricane developing the two separate narratives and gags
• One Week (1920) Train Sequence: Cinematography (3) - use of long shots coupled with long takes to allow the audience to digest the gag encouraging the audience to look around the frame and spot the gag themselves - use of long shots emphasis emotion in the sequence and helps build tension as the train approaches - Shot outdoors enabling the audience to engage with keatons environment - building tension as the use of omniscient narration allows for the audience to acknowledge the dangers of the forthcoming train as we see a close up of it approaching
• One Week (1920) Train Sequence: Mise-En-Scene - The house, now positioned on the track, mimicks the shape of a human face - acting as a metaphor fo the struggles of married life
• One Week (1920) Train Sequence: Editing - Crosscutting to the train when keaton and sibil begin moving the house building tension and foreshadowing a future gag - Long takes in this sequence begin to restrict the narrative - the audience begins to wonder where the train is and whether keaton is to escape it
• One Week (1920) Train Sequence: Performance - A slapstick gag that relies on keatons deadpan expression and reaction
• Describe the Narrative in the Scarecrow (2) - Convoluted narrative expressed through the twisted routine of the roomates and the rivalry between them for sibils affection - Melodramatic narrative - contains events with dispense emotion and sentimentality
• Describe context in the Scarecrow (2) - References to the housing crisis in the usa in 1920 - Luke the dog plays the mad dog - a famous staffordshire bull terrier owned by roscoe fatty arbuckle - this was luke the dogs final film
• The Scarecrow (1920) Breakfast Sequence: Cinematography - Mid shot usage allows geometric symmetry to be achieved by composing the table with the salt and pepper shakers - creates lines representing the randomness of modernist art
• The Scarecrow (1920) Breakfast Sequence: Mise-En-Scene (2) - Fairy expressive mise-en-scene referencing mechanism and keatons obsession with machinery - dual functionality of the items in the house -parodies the extent to which people are going to deal with the impacts of the housing crisis - Props in the house reference the artwork by Rube goldberg cartoonist
• The Scarecrow (1920) Breakfast Sequence: Editing - Crosscutting between the interior and the exterior of the one roomed house - explaining the outcome of the mechanist gags within the house
• The Scarecrow (1920) Breakfast Sequence: Performance - less critical use of performance in this sequence as a more 'invisible' performance allows the audience to digest the mise-en-scene and houses contraptions
• The Scarecrow (1920) Dog Chase Sequence: Cinematography (2) - Frequent shot reverse shots between the medium close ups - emphasises the action and intensity of the sequence - Keaton is framed centrally, like the dog interupts this symmetrical composition
• The Scarecrow (1920) Dog Chase Sequence: Mise-En-Scene - Derelict farm building represents the struggles of post war agricultural america
• The Scarecrow (1920) Dog Chase Sequence: Editing (3) - Use of an iris shot to focus on the hay bale, further exacerbates keatons portrayal of machinery on the farm - Fast paced continuity editing develops intensity as keaton cuts closer during intense action before slowing cuts down to create drama and construct gags - like keaton running from the dog - Match on action cuts used during this sequence, a way of developing the outcome of actions during a period of limited camera movement - building gags
• The Scarecrow (1920) Dog Chase Sequence: Performance (2) - Irony as Joe Roberts' character collects first aid supplements with the intention of keaton needing as a result of the dog - but he ends up getting hit by the car (driven by cline) - Use of luke the dog is a reference to keatons vaudeville performer history
• Narrative in the High Sign (2) - Blinking Buzzards are a secret society of extortionists and killers - keaton is sworn in and givena ssignment to kill local man who has just hired keaton as his bodyguard - More of a conventional narrative, coupled with cops this is Keatons first dabble with a overarching narrative departing from the cinema of attractions style
• Context in the High Sign - Keaton takes a more devious persona - begins by stealing and the whole two reeler parodies gang culture with the film being a lot more violent
• The High Sign (1920/1921 release) Final Chase Sequence: Cinematography - Use of deep focus in the four rooms, coupled with the change in aspect ratio - allows for greater focus on intricate mise-en-scene, which in this sequence drives the narrative
• The High Sign (1920/1921 release) Final Chase Sequence: Mise-En-Scene (3) - Gang is positioned in the backrooms of the house - represents class divide in society as buster is chased across his 2 dimensional 'flat world' - Mechanical trap doors and hatches positionings reference cubism movement - Adverse keaton two-reeler using guns and violence as props for humour - mocking the state of organised crime in the US before the 1930 introduction of the hays code
• The High Sign (1920/1921 release) Final Chase Sequence: Editing - Crosscutting between interior and exterior of the house developing the two parallel narratives
• The High Sign (1920/1921 release) Final Chase Sequence: Performance - Escapes and trap doors are rooted in vaudeville history
• The High Sign (1920/1921 release) Shooting Gallery Sequence: Cinematography - Use of wide shot to include the guns in the composition of the frame - once again referencing the use of guns as comical parodying US gang culture
• The High Sign (1920/1921 release) Shooting Gallery Sequence: Mise-En-Scene - Once again contraptions are used to develop the gag
• The High Sign (1920/1921 release) Shooting Gallery Sequence: Editing (2) - Crosscutting between the interior and the exterior of the shooting gallery - reveals the gag through editing, visual storytelling as the dog is chasing after the meat triggered by keatons contraption - Intertitle cards are used more frequently in the two reeler as the compelx narrative requires their usage