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On silent films
Oct. 22nd, 2009 08:13 amThe UK Guardian film blog has this wonderful post on silent films
http://www.guardian.co.uk
/film/filmblog/2009/oct/21/silent-movies-london-film-festival
which includes some nice quotes from various definitions of film. Although silent films might be thought to hold little appeal for a blind fan, I find them fascinating for two reasons: one, in that these films are, as Bergan's reference to Hitchcok's definition of "pure cinema" suggests, distinct from other art forms such as literature and theare, and second, because it seems that silent film still promises to be relevant to the design of new media such as computer games and virtual worlds. Remember the bit from _Snowcrash_ where Hero Protagonist admits that it is the female designer's invention of the code to include facial experssions in virtual worlds which really revolutionized the medium of virtual worlds? I think one fo the reasons why Charlie Chaplin remains so iconic, literally, is because he managed to produce an entire story through his facial and physical expressions, right down to the way he held his cane. A lot of new media still has managed to capture that level of minute detail, but when it does...
http://www.guardian.co.uk
/film/filmblog/2009/oct/21/silent-movies-london-film-festival
which includes some nice quotes from various definitions of film. Although silent films might be thought to hold little appeal for a blind fan, I find them fascinating for two reasons: one, in that these films are, as Bergan's reference to Hitchcok's definition of "pure cinema" suggests, distinct from other art forms such as literature and theare, and second, because it seems that silent film still promises to be relevant to the design of new media such as computer games and virtual worlds. Remember the bit from _Snowcrash_ where Hero Protagonist admits that it is the female designer's invention of the code to include facial experssions in virtual worlds which really revolutionized the medium of virtual worlds? I think one fo the reasons why Charlie Chaplin remains so iconic, literally, is because he managed to produce an entire story through his facial and physical expressions, right down to the way he held his cane. A lot of new media still has managed to capture that level of minute detail, but when it does...
