Rhetoric+of+Film

Frame Deconstruction [|Rhetoric of Film Playlist] Film rhetoric is something that viewers often take for granted, having been steeped in the fundamentals of this visual communication form since early childhood.

The Earliest Films
Imagine an audience that has never seen a picture in motion. What would their experience of viewing a film be like? What structures of film rhetoric would they be unfamiliar with?

This clip contains several of the Lumiere brother's earliest films, first viewed in small viewing parlors in France in 1895. Note the use of a single static shot and the lack of complex editing. These early films were quite literaly pictures in motion. At that time such a simple flim rhetoric was enough to hold the attention of awestruck viewers. media type="youtube" key="4nj0vEO4Q6s" height="315" width="420"

Imagine one of these early film-goers attempting to deconstruct the meaning of modern film rhetoric with jump-cuts, panning cameras, and split screens. Interpreting these complex rhetorical forms requires a level of cinematic literacy that did not exist in 1895. As the "language" of film has developed, more complex forms of literacy are needed to facilitate understanding.