A Rough History of Film Technique

[haethos]

I’m putting together a post that traces the first uses of certain, or more specifically, popular film / story techniques and themes, and from which films made first use of them. I have always been curious to know what particular films made large use of / popularized / invented Techniques in narrative story telling, shot composition, camera movements / angles and other important aspects of film-making which have shaped modern movies.

This is basic list I have put together based off the top of my head and some Wikipedia / internet searching.

Technical Innovations:

Napoléon (1927) - Widescreen Cinematography
Citizen Kane (1941) - Popularized Low angle shots, large / extended use of deep (pan) focus, special affects make-up, innovative use of sound editing.
Breathless (1960) - Jump cuts, hand held camera movements.
Vertigo (1958) - Contra-zoom / Zolly Shot
M (1932) - First uses of Low angle shots.
Battleship Potemkin (1925) - The Montage
Bound for Glory (1976) - First use of Steadicam
The 400 Blows (1959) - Freeze-frame
Cabiria (1914) - Tracking Shot
Akira Kurosowa - Transition wipes (which films?)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Special Effects, Front-projection
Dollars Trilogy (1960’s) - Extreme close ups
Cupid Angling (1918) - First use of color in a feature film
The Jazz Singer (1927) - First use of dialogue
The Lonedale Operator (1911) - The Close up Shot
The Great Train Robbery (1903) – Matte, Cross-cutting
Psycho (1960) – Popularized fast cutting?
The Matrix (1999) - large use of bullet time, 360 freeze-pan.
The Apostle (1917) – First Animated feature film
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) – Point-of-view filming

Narrative / other innovations:

Quo Vadis? (1912) – First Epic, 2+ hour film.
The Seven Samurai (1954) - The Modern action Epic?
Scarface (1932) – First use of heavy violence/blood
Raging bull (1980) - Large Physical transformation by an Actor?
The Bicycle Thieves (1948) - Large use of non-actors?
Rashomon (1950) - Perception of Recollection
Intolerance (1916) – First Romance Feature film
Casablanca (1942) – Large influence on modern Romance drama.
Annie Hall (1977) - Piece to Camera (talking to the camera)
Chinatown (1974) – First Neo-noir?
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) – first Dark comedy?
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) - minimalist story telling?
Toni (1935) – Early influence on Italian Neo-realism.
The House of the Devil (1896) - the first horror film
Lights of New York (1928) –First musical?
Entr'acte (1924) – First use of Surrealism?
The Queens Messenger (1928) – First use of Multiple Cameras

Some other techniques which I’m not as certain about, but are important:

Rear projection( Hitchcock made large use of it, not sure about really inventing or even popularizing though ) , crane shots, Aerial shot, Philosophical / Existential themes (Bergman / Bunuel ?), improvisation, snorricam, trunk-shot ( Scorsese? ), Follow shot , whip pan, split screen, match cut, blue screen, stop motion, voice over, symbolism, large use of natural lighting, shooting in the round (breaking the 180 rule), day for night (filming in the day for a night scene), over the shoulder shot, Dutch angle. (If you have any other fairly important film innovations to add, please do.)

Films or techniques with (??) next to them I’m not certain about (not certain about many of these actually) and are taking an educated guess. If you would like to add a film or see an error or correction to be made let me know, I would like to get a good, accurate list going.

Also note: Some films might not be the absolute first to use a technique (e.g. 'The Matrix' with 'bullet time') but really put the use of said innovation to large use and popularizing it.(e.g. I can consider round hay garden scene to have invented the medium shot, but it obviously didn’t make any real use of it.)

Assuming I get any posts, I’ll try and update this as regularly as I can.

note: I'm sure there is a book out there that talks about this, but I'll create this anyway just for fun.

[aox]

The Hidden Fortress (1958) - Widescreen Cinematography

I'll start with the first one here: Gance's "Napoleon"

Dollars Trilogy (1960’s) - Extreme close ups

Dreyer's "Passion of Joan of Arc"

I am only moderately sure of this one.

[domino harvey]

I didn't bother to read the entire post but the innovations with Psycho are in exhibition and the narrative switch and the Hidden Fortress did not popularize nor crystallize 'Scope. The search for "firsts" is kind of a silly project, because you can't see everything, and as soon as you declare something as possessing the first of something ("the first break of the fourth wall," "the first flashback," &c), someone will come along right behind you and prove you wrong. And then someone will come in behind them. "One of the first" or "arguably popularized this technique" are probably more arguable and worthy lines of approach, but that's only the first step to actual insight.

[haethos]

Well i agree with you on searching for a first being pretty much endless and debatable. I'm not however really looking for the most obscure and small uses of a technique (much too hard), as there are way too many old films that have yet to be even put to DVD or shows, (some even destroyed). I'm looking just for the common / known examples, nothing to vague either (e.g. the medium shot). I looking for films that popularized affects and used them for a purpose, as opposed to just some obscuse 100+ year old experimental film (if its that case, 90% of the films probably wouldn't be on here). Something like vertigo for example is not the first time someone has used a contra zoom, but it first made it famous / popular and used it as a device.

Dollars Trilogy (1960’s) - Extreme close ups

Dreyer's "Passion of Joan of Arc"

I am only moderately sure of this one.

are you sure it used 'extreme close ups' e.g. close up of the eyes type of thing?

[aox]

#-o
Domino wins the thread.

[King Prendergast]

first thread that made me consider never reading criterion forum again

[domino harvey]

I know I shouldn't have used "arguably" and "arguable" in the same sentence, but it's not worth quitting over.

[haethos]

first thread that made me consider never reading criterion forum again

If enough people think this is really that stupid, then ill just delete the thread. I however, thought it would be an intresting general reference.

And yes, some of the things on here at a bit pointless, but intresting i think none the less.

[MichaelB]

I don't think it's stupid so much as pretty pointless, as it's not at all clear what you're trying to demonstrate.

I mean, I could challenge your selection of Battleship Potemkin as an example of montage by pointing out that Eisenstein's earlier Strike is just as valid, as indeed is Gance's La Roue, an influence on both. But then, as Domino points out, it just becomes a futile pissing contest.

And if you object to obscure films, then what is The Lonedale Operator doing on your list? I'd argue that G.A. Smith's Grandma's Reading Glass is better known (it's certainly more widely available), and its pioneering close-ups were shot in 1900.

And Kind Hearts and Coronets the first black comedy? Words for once fail me!

[Matt]

note: posted this on IMDb but got no attention

I have a new-found respect for IMDb users.

[accatone]

I think this topic is a slap in the face because its the opposite to what people are elaborating here over the years - why is it still active? I am scared...

[Matt]

Yes, actually, I'm a little sorry to see you get the time-honored cf.org pile-on, but that's what happens when someone makes a fairly hubristic first post and we have no context for it.

So, in the interest of fairness and kindness, what is this list for? If it's a list of films to show to Intro to Film Studies students as early or famous examples of particular techniques, then it's a good list. If you are trying to make a list of "firsts" and "greats" for posterity or for the benefit of humankind, then film historiography has long passed you by. No one is much interested in firsts anymore, for the reasons several have mentioned above.

I mean, it's clear you're not an idiot and that you have a good grasp of film techniques, but maybe you still need to read a solid book on film history or two to understand what's important and what's not. If you've already read something like that, then Bordwell's book on film style might be just what you need.

[miless]

You have really glossed over some of the most important technical and narrative innovations.

The Lumiere Brothers helped to invent film (at least as a projected medium) and their aesthetic could be considered the first documentaries ever produced.

Méliès arguably made the first special effects (and made some of the first films comprised of more than a single shot)

Edison and company made the first horror film (an adaptation of Frankenstein that was also the first banned film), western, and one of the first films to cross-cut between two events happening simultaneously... and the invention of the motion picture (although many claim the Lumiere's did this)

D.W.Griffith inventor of editing and so many other important film/camera techniques that all I can do is encourage you to read more about the most important single director in the medium of film. without Griffith there would be no Russian montage (or at least it would be significantly different), and Hollywood would be a very different place (for better or worse). Plus, where do you think F.W.Murnau got his W?

I suggest reading more about the origins of film, and watching more, too.

I used to try and make lists, but it really is just a pointless endeavour. It's not about who does what first... it's all about what you like. Just because somethings the 'first ever' doesn't mean it's great.

[HerrSchreck]

It's a thread that's pretty much hopeless if you are not very well schooled on the films of the silent era.

[domino harvey]

It's a thread that's pretty much hopeless if you are not very well schooled on the films of the silent era.

I was waiting for you to pop in after he used a film from 1941 as a pioneering example of make-up effects

[foggy eyes]

This is basic list I have put together based off the top of my head and some Wikipedia / internet searching.

No kidding.

note: I'm sure there is a book out there that talks about this, but I'll create this anyway just for fun.

There are lots of books out there that would help you, and reading them would prove to be considerably more productive than using Wikipedia to construct your own lunatic version of film history. Posts like this are always the product of people who don't read nearly enough scholarship and criticism about movies (if at all), but I suppose if they did they'd have to come to terms with how stupid they sound.

Psycho (1960) – Popularized fast cutting?

Speechless.

Annie Hall (1977) - Piece to Camera (talking to the camera)

Annie Hall as the first instance of direct (verbal) address? Seriously?

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) - minimalist story telling?

What?

[swo17]

You forgot Crash - first film to address racism.

[mfunk9786]

First film to star Ludacris

[MichaelB]

You forgot Crash - first film to address racism.

Oh, was it about racism? It was so subtle that I didn't notice at first.

[swo17]

You forgot Crash - first film to address racism.

Oh, was it about racism? It was so subtle that I didn't notice at first.

I may be wrong, but I think it was also the first film to use subtlety.

[cinemartin]

You forgot Crash - first film to address racism.

Oh, was it about racism? It was so subtle that I didn't notice at first.

I may be wrong, but I think it was also the first film to use subtlety.

No, that was Cronenberg's Crash.

[Mr Sausage]

Annie Hall (1977) - Piece to Camera (talking to the camera)

Murnau's Tartuffe did this very thing 52 years earlier (and I'm sure it's not the first, either).

[Lemmy Caution]

Annie Hall (1977) - Piece to Camera (talking to the camera)

Murnau's Tartuffe did this very thing 52 years earlier (and I'm sure it's not the first, either).

I seem to remember Bob Hope doing this once per Road movie, although that pre-dates Woody, but not FW.

[fiddlesticks]

I seem to remember Bob Hope doing this once per Road movie, although that pre-dates Woody, but not FW.

I knew there was a category missing!
Road to Singapore (1940) - First use of Pat-a-Cake as effective fighting technique

[planetjake]

What about The Great Train Robbery? The final image (or first, depending on where you saw the film) of the the outlaw firing into the camera? Does this count?