a. Editing continuity
The Birth of a Nation is a silent film from 1915 directed by D.W. Griffith depicting the Civil War and Reconstruction eras of American history. Widely regarded as the beginning of narrative film, The Birth of a Nation set standards that run to the core of the film industry today, from styles in film editing to the basics of cinematography. The Birth of a Nation employs various filming techniques and editing styles that made the storyline flow seamlessly for audiences. There are few techniques that Griffith is using such as Continuity Editing, Parallel Editing, Establishing Shots, Closeup Shots, Color Tinting, and Matte.
The Continuity Editing that Griffith is using help to keep the storyline flowing easily. Cuts were not meant to jar the viewer's eye, but move naturally with the action of the scene. He cut shots together in ways that will help audiences infer connections between events. This clip holds two different ways Griffith helped his audiences understand the scene or follow the action through multiple shots.
b. Titles
The title of the film was originally labelled as The Clansman depicted from a novel written by Thomas Dixon Jr. that was published in 1905. It was the second released of a trilogy on Ku Klux Klan or KKK.
c. Settings
The settings cover both indoor and outdoor portraying the life style of the northern and southern of people in America covering Americans and African Americans. Some scene was just taken in a studio.
d. Costumes
The costumes resemble the life of northern and southern Americans during the nineties. It also resembles the costumes of the African Americans or Negros as well as the KKK.
e. Props
The props in the movie portray house of the northern and southern Americans as well as the noble house where it is big and spacious as portrayed in the film reflecting the southern. During the war epic event, there are many prop being used to make the war scene comes alive especially during the battle where both southern and northern troops were fought. Guns, horses and flags are some of the prop being used during the war event in this film.
f. Story structure
The film covers the Civil war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the reconstruction of the South and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. D W Griffith astounded audiences with the introduction of many new filmmaking techniques that laid the groundwork for the future of cinema. Without exaggerating, practically every film made afterward must give some credit to `The Birth of a Nation'. The film is constructed and put together seamlessly and still looks amazingly fresh.
g. Impact - Political, economic, social and technological.
The content the film depicts racism. However, if we were to step out of the story and view the film for its composure then we would see it is a masterpiece. The film is indeed not appropriate for the viewing of children today as it portrays many conflicting agendas that can twist our children mind to fill with hatred and racism.
Nonetheless, to others it is a piece of history in two senses, one, because of its film innovation and two, because of its controversial material. The government should give funding for this film to be preserved. First off, there are questions about whether or not the government should give funding to preserve this film. One alone cannot decide which films will be preserved, for it would be censorship, and if one were to censor film then a form of art would be attacked. Next, because the film is explicitly racist and is used for Ku Klux Klan recruitment one must question whether the film is suitable for today’s society. Many of these techniques are now standard features of films, but they were first used in this film.
However, it still provokes conflicting views about its message. It should be used as a learning tool instead of an entertainment tool. grounds, the definitive usage of the still-shot, the technique of the camera "iris" effect (expanding or contracting circular masks to either reveal and open up a scene, or close down and conceal a part of an image, moving, panning camera tracking shots, the use of total-screen close-ups to reveal intimate expressions, the use of vignettes seen in or iris-shots in one portion of a darkened screen, high-angle shots and the abundant use of panoramic long shots, the dramatization of history in a moving story, an example of an early spectacle or epic film with historical costuming, staged battle scenes with hundreds of extras, extensive cross-cutting between two scenes to create excitement and suspense, and the cumulative building of the film to a dramatic climax.
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