ABSTRACT
This chapter examines overarching cinematic and dramatic conventions that characterize and define the silent era. It parses story, storytelling, plot, narrative, and themes in order to help composers differentiate these structures in silent film. It looks at mechanical conventions that shape silent film: reels, establishing shots, close-ups, intertitles, film editing, continuity, special effects, the inescapable limitations and workings of period filmmaking. It looks at some of the cultural fascinations and anxieties of the silent era depicted regularly: science, technology, medicine, psychology, influenza, disease, warfare, as well as racism, colonialism, misogyny, and representations of queerness and gender that challenge contemporary composers’ efforts to faithfully interpret and present historic films. This chapter studies silent era screen acting styles, tracing their evolution from nineteenth-century anatomical studies, catalogs of poses and movements, and theatrical conventions of “controlled acting.” It highlights the work in these areas by Darwin, Bell, Coquelin, Delsarte, Dalcroze, d’Udine, and Pennington, accompanied by period illustrations of gestures correlated to their implementation in silent film.
