From the perspectives of many analysts and viewers, The Birth of a Nation, a 1915-film directed by D.W. Griffith is a landmark film in the history of Hollywood. More specifically, the film set the basic standards for the use of cinematic techniques to drive an agenda of the producer, successfully combining the techniques in a seamless manner so as to influence a course. Indeed, The Birth of a Nation is a reflection of the American society at some very crucial chapters, albeit in ways that have come to be considered largely problematic. The interest here is, however, not to look at the problematic nature of the film itself, but how the producer made use of cinematic techniques that were not only innovative but also made his film a really powerful medium of influence. With a strong silent narrative story driven by great cinematic techniques such as camera framing, editing and sound techniques, The Birth of a Nation moves beyond the scope of many films to provide a distinctive exploration of racism at a critical point in American History.
Background
In order to appreciate the cinematic techniques applied by the producer and thus the influence they have on the viewers, it is critical to understand the background of the film's authorship. The Birth of a Nation is a tale of crucial chapters in the American history, covering Civil War and the Reconstruction period in the aftermath of the war (Griffith, Dixon, & Triangle FilmCorporation, 1915). Through the eye lenses of two families, one in the South and then another in the North, Griffith adopts a story from the incendiary novels of one Thomas Dixon, Jr. - a playwright and a preacher (Fabe, 2004). The film is about racism and its implications at those crucial points in the history of America and how such a vice led to the reconstruction of the history of a society, albeit from Griffith's own perspective. Griffith provides a raw account of what happened, vividly describing the raw symptoms of racism against African Americans and against whites, especially white women who were targets of sexual harassment by blacks. There were rising concerns about infiltration of the white nation by blacks through the latter siring children with white women. Consequently, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) took it upon itself to preserve the pure white womanhood in the South at the expense of the lives of African Americans (Griffith et la., 1915). When white women are finally saved and the natural racial order of things is restored in the South, a new nation was born with rigid racial or color lines according to Griffith. The preceding insight into the background of the film shows an effort to deconstruct a myth about Reconstruction and to influence the society to think afresh about a nation's birth. For that kind of influence to be attained, Griffith needed to be innovative beyond what his colleagues in Hollywood cinema would achieve at the time.
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Emotional Appeal through Camera Framing and Editing Techniques
Griffith knew very well that the success of his film would rely not only on the strength of the narrative alone but on how he told it too. Consequently, he envisioned to accomplish his goal of driving a political propaganda—an influence on the perception of Americans about the Civil War and Reconstruction eras— through the application of innovative and creative cinematic techniques. Indeed, Griffith managed to chart a way ahead for the entire industry through his creative and innovative techniques that were way beyond the techniques used in the filming industry around the time the film was premiered in 1915 in Los Angeles (Fabe, 2004). A keen analysis of the filming techniques employed by Griffith reveals a producer who understood very well the endless possibilities with a film as a medium of influence. Keen to arouse emotional appeal among his audience, Griffith made use of both camera framing techniques such as camera shots, angles, and movement in addition to editing techniques that achieved the mental and emotional experience he had wanted among his audience.
Camera Shots
A camera shot represents the length of a frame in a film or scene in a film. Camera shots are useful in introducing settings, themes, and characters in a film. Griffith uses a variety of these in The Birth of a Nation. For example, the producer uses an extreme long camera shot at the beginning of the film to establish the location or setting of the film, both in the North and in the South (Fabe, 2004). Through the extreme long shot, the producer provides the vivid view of the two locations. He augments the extreme long shot that provides a substantial amount of landscape with long and full shots for each of the two families whose dynamics the narrative is based. The long shot, which contains more landscape but provides the viewer with a more specific idea of the setting, is used in the film to shed light into the differences between the Camerons of Piedmont who live in South Carolina and the Stonemans of Pennsylvania. It is clear to any viewer that the Camerons descend from Dixie aristocracy and are under the leadership of a benevolent patriarch who presides over his slaves as well as children with what Griffith wants his audience to understand as kindly paternalism. On the other hand, the Stonemans are a less fortunate black family that is led by a race traitor by the name of Hon. Austin Stoneman. Stoneman is presented as a radical Republican Speaker of the House with a moral weakling from the influence he gets from his mulatto mistress (Griffith et al., 1915). There would be a better way to shed into the dynamics of these two families and also to help viewers understand the relationship between various characters than to combine long shots, extreme long shots, and full-shots. In addition, Griffith also uses close-up shot an extreme close-up shot to help viewers understand the emotions of the characters in the film (Griffith et al., 1915). This is used in those scenes that are racially charged and depicts the kind of racial hatred of KKK towards blacks who target white women for sexual harassment. The same shots are also used for the radical blacks and basically set viewers into empathy or intense emotions as they interact, virtually though, with the film characters.
Camera Movement
Griffith adds splendor into the scenes of the film through camera movement techniques such as crane shot, tracking and dolly shot, and panning. A crane shot, which is achieved by putting a camera on a plane that can move upwards, is used in several scenes to signify their ends and also to signify the end of the entire film at one point. The crane shots are crucial points of transition for the narrative and for the viewers whose anticipation is heightened by such techniques. Moreover, Griffith also had composers use tracking shots and dolly shots to explore scenes in depth and to give viewers a detailed tour of situations, respectively (Schatz, 2009). For example, such iconic scenes as the arrival of KKK in splendor to save Elsie and the Camerons in would hardly achieve the kind of drama, pace, and intensity without creative camera movements. The scenes are rendered iconic in the sense that they are capable of manipulating the heart and mind of the viewer. The pursuit of Flora by Gus, apart from displaying camera movements discussed above, also shows the use of panning as a camera movement to provide a panoramic view of an important scene in the film which is capable of evoking different moods and dramatic effects among viewers.
Camera Angles
Much of the film relies heavily on the viewer's understanding of the relationship between characters. Apart from camera movement and camera shots in the preceding discussion that helped Griffith to explore scenes in depth, camera angles are important in exploring the relationship between characters. Griffith acknowledges the role of camera angles and makes use of them in many scenes.
The scene above shows a black man shot from a high angle, with the camera looking down upon the subject, making him look vulnerable. With such a camera angle, the viewer is put into the perspective of the character and when done along with an extreme long shot, the former is made to feel empathy as they view the frame from the perspective of another character.
Editing
Apart from the camera techniques discussed in the foregoing sections, Griffith also applied pioneering editing techniques that make it possible to decrease the distance between characters in the film and the audience. The importance of editing a film in that manner is that the emotional connection and virtual interaction between the audience and film characters create exceptional experiences beyond visual spectacles. The most important feature or technique in The Birth of a Nation is the wipes. These are used as transitional techniques for scenes in a film and are important in ensuring continuity, especially in a narrative film of this kind (Fabe, 2004). In particular, Griffith makes use of a clock wipe, given that the film is a narrative, to create the notion of passing time between scenes, as one scene disappears quadrants at a time, making the movie look more of a documentary with a series of stringed frames.
Sound Techniques
The Birth of a Nation is a silent film, with no soundtracks at all. However, Griffith acknowledged that it equally important for him to overcome the lack of sound in the movie in order to turn viewers who were sort of voyeurs into an audience intimately and immersed in the unfolding events in the screens of a film score. Film score here describes music that is of incidental mood in a film. Music included in the filming of the movie in form of symphony helped to shape the meaning and context of the film. The symphony music, as used when the film was first premiered at Clunes Auditorium in Los Angeles on February 8, 1915 (Fabe, 2004), was also limited to avoid causing a distraction in form of noise and instead, focus the attention of the audience on the unfolding events.
It is clear from the preceding discussion that Griffith had a well-thought development plan for his landmark film, The Birth of a Nation. Apart from the narrative bit of it that is presented in the sincere and clear sense of chronology, the film also relied on innovative and creative camera and editing techniques. In particular, the producer managed to use his film as a powerful medium of influence by using various camera techniques to explore scenes in depth and enhance emotional connection between the audience and the characters. Also, the producer's pioneering editing techniques made it possible to ensure that the scenes chronologically unfolded and provided a consistent narrative from the beginning to the end, eliminating any cluttering that would interfere with the final quality. Additionally, the sound techniques in form of symphony helped to fill in for the lack of sound in the silent film, making it engaging and captivating.
References
Fabe, M. (2004). Closely watched films: An introduction to the art of narrative film technique. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Griffith, D. W., Dixon, T., & Triangle Film Corporation. (1915). Birth of a nation . Los Angeles, CA: Triangle Film Corp.
Schatz, T. (2009). Film industry Studies and Hollywood History. In J. Holt, & A. Perren (Eds.), Media Industries: History, Theory, and Method . West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing.
