BFI Research

Cinematography through the decades.

Cinema has changed. No one can doubt that. There are a few key things that demonstrate that change through cinematography, their development, the acting and the use of sound of music.

For me, the best films to demonstrate this are The 39 Steps (1935), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Singing in the Rain (1952), The Pit (1962), Alien (1979) and Elephant Man (1980).

What I have learnt from early filmmaking in terms of the use of cinematography is that, in the early filmmaking directors liked to use transitions and extreme close ups. For example, in the 1935 film The 39 steps, they use transitions between scenes such as cross dissolves and fading. They also use extreme close ups so that they can see as much emotion on the characters faces as possible. Although this is a great way of capturing emotion, I feel that using extreme close ups looks unnatural and unrealistic. However, this soon changes in the 1940’s where we see more subtle techniques of capturing emotion where filmmakers use close ups or mid shots to capture emotion, such as the 1946 It’s a wonderful life. This film is shot is in black and white despite the fact that most mainstream films before that time had been in colour since the mid to late 30’s. The reason why some directors used black and white after colour was introduced was because it gave the film a vintage feel making the film look like a classic. In contrast to this, the 1952’s Singing in the Rain’s main focus was on colour as they even used different techniques to bring out as much colour as possible. For example, they put milk in the water for the rain so that it would stand out better on screen. However the 1962 The Pit had not only a lack of colour but also a lack of set so was minimalist and tried to set a new take on films by referring back to the old ways of filming. Although many did not continue with this and returned back to the modern ways.

As the decades have rolled on films have become more and more subtle. In the early years of filmmaking, directors tried to make there cinematography very obvious and big whereas from around the 1950’s onwards, directors tried to think of new ways to be as subtle as possible. For example, in the 1979 Alien the used new techniques such as dangling cause and the use of dark colour

Acting has also become more subdued. In the early films the acting was very dramatic and over the top whereas over the years the acting became more believable and realistic such as the 1980’s Elephant Man where we saw a huge leap in acting performances. This film is also an iconic film as it incorporates black and white to give the film a classic feel whilst incorporating new techniques such as film noir and dangling cause.

As we can all appreciate from such films as The 39 Steps, It’s a Wonderful Life and Singing in the Rain nothing was subtle when it came to sound. The use of sound was very loud and exaggerated so that the audience knew the theme of the scene. Whereas in the later years sound became quieter and more subtle.

So, whether it’s the visual effects, the actors themselves or the use of sound cinematography has slowly become more and more subtle. Will the next few decades see more films that will lack the louder, more exaggerated actors and visual effects? Personally, with the developments in technology, for example 3D, more advanced special effects and such films as The Avengers, Interstellar and Avatar I highly doubt cinematography will disappear into a mist of subtlety and silence.