"Napoleon" size does matter

This past March was the premier of the silent film "Napoleon" in the United States of America. You may be thinking, why is a film from 1927, getting its premier now? Well thats easy, we missed the band wagon that year with too much drinking and partying. However, that did not take away from the impact that this movie had on the filming world.

Cameras had been advancing greatly over the past few years. Getting smaller, advancing with the film quality, and become portable to take places. What was so amazing about this was that the effects had changed. Now the camera could be hand held, and you would see closer images, and the camera moving with shots. No longer did the scene have to play out in front of the camera, but it could play out almost anywhere and bring the camera along with the movements of the scene.

Some other notable camera uses for this movie that was never before seen, or greatly enhanced the quality of the effect.

The film producer used an existing technique of combining films by laying them on top of each other and splicing them together. This would run two movie segments at a time, allowing the directors to get two separate events in the same screen. This allowed them to enhance background activity to give the illusion of a cleaner picture, while still having the main focus playing as well.

ANother idea that they had was the movement of the camera, and having it stay in real time with the actors. This can be seen when the camera is taken out on the water, following soldiers through battles, and also the view points from the characters. These were such new techniques that it astonished viewers. Traditionally they had seen films that were generally a recording of a play, it may be a different idea behind it, but they would be on a stage in an enclosed space. Now though, the hand held camera could travel everywhere with the filming crew. They started developing dynamic angles and creating new methods of filming. This was part because of the "flaws" one can notice with the camera. Often you see it shaking because there was no technology to correct this as of yet.

There was also the introduction of film enhancements. The producers found that they could cut and splice together different parts of films allowing quick transitions and to connect two different stories together. This technique was great because now the directors began to have control over the audiences emotions. They were the ones that go to fully create what a viewer should experience emotionally through the film.

Not to mention that it had a wonderful arrangement played by a live orchestra to accompany the video. And what was SOOO Neat about the original productions, was that it played across multiple screens. This is the start of the large screen sensation the led to things like Imax views we have today.

here is a peak!