15. Historical film / film history Research When using film to examine and discuss history and historical events, it is useful to look at the following areas in detail:

The film as 'history' - What is the event, how is it portrayed, how 'accurate' is it, what source is it based on, from whose point of view is it from?

The Birth of A Nation is a one film that was made reflecting a real American history.  It contained a fictional narrative and historical events that happened in America.  The story line can be considered accurate since it depicted a few historical event that were actually occurred such as the death of the president Lincoln, the Civil War, the birth of KKK and the suppression of black people.  The film was based on 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.


The film as 'film' - What from is used (e.g documentary, fictional narrative), what techniques are used to tell the story, how is film language used (i.e editing, framing, costume, cast, music and sound)?

The Birth of A Nation uses fictional narrative.  The film portrays historical events covering the Pre-Civil War and the Reconstruction Period.  The film story line was aligned chronologically based on factual events that happened in the past.  There are couple main techniques being used by Griffith.  He uses continuity editing to ensure the story line is placed accordingly to the factual events and parallel editing concept where he shows two different events simultaneously.to portray that the events were occurred at the same time to the viewer.  Couple shot techniques such as Continuity Editing, Parallel Editing, Establishing Shots, Closeup Shots, Color Tinting, and Matte being used throughout the film by Griffith to take audience to feel the movie as real possible.  The film had employed hundreds of extras to establish the war scenes and other scene that require many extras.  All costumes, houses, uniforms and furniture were made for the cast to resemble the life and atmosphere of the film.  When the movie was released to public, it sparked all sort of attentions (goods and bad).  In theater  the movie was shown along with life orchestral performance to create more dramatic experience for the viewer.


The film in context - When was it made, who is it made for, how was it marketed, what was the social and cultural background to its creation and how did that affect the film?


This approach is helpful to both historians and film academics as not only is the film examined as a method of showing a historical event or figure, but the text itself becomes an area of historical study, a piece of social and cultural history.


Historical film / film history Research each film to be analysed  should cover the following areas:
1. A brief historical background to the events portrayed.
2. How the film represents that history and the filmic technique used to explore themes and story.
3. The films own historical context.