An extremely rare collection of silent films was recently discovered in the vaults of the United Artists Archives in Hollywood, California. What makes these silent films unusual is that they appear to be produced, directed, and edited by middle school students. The film shown above, The Fight for Love, is one of the examples from this rare collection. These films have caused a huge controversy among film historians because of disagreement about their authenticity.
Evidence from the films themselves show they were most likely created in the 1920s. For one thing, the music used in these films are old 78rpm cylinder recordings from the same era. The films also use the same camera angles that were prevalent in silent movies during this period, such as full body shots, two-shots, medium-shots, and close-ups. The characters are straight out of the silent film era: vagabonds and hobo muggers, pick-pockets, thieves, characters down on their luck, and jealous suitors.
The films are very scratchy, and have an aged film look to them that would be impossible to imitate. I, for one, think they are the real thing, and I’m amazed they were actually created by middle school students. Check out the rest of these newly discovered silent films on our class website, Watch Out!, and decide for yourself.
The Endless Pockets. A short film created in the style of the early Edison Kinetoscope films.
My two 7th grade film history classes have been learning about the earliest moving picture devices and the inventors who created them. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb and the phonograph, also invented the kinetoscope.
The kinetoscope was not a movie projector. It was a box-like device that viewers had to peer into in order to see the films. Many of his earliest films, like The Sneeze, made in 1894, appear like they’re in slow motion because they were still figuring out how many frames per second it took to make the films look realistic.
Untitled. A short film created in the style of the early Lumiere Brothers.
On the other hand, films made by the Lumiere Brothers, who invented one of the earliest movie projectors, appear much faster. Like Edison, they were also experimenting with the number of frames per second.
After learning some of the history of these early filmmakers and watching some of their work, students created short films in the style of both the early Edison kinetoscope films and the early Lumiere Brothers films. Students faced the same limitations as early filmmakers: one camera angle, one take of film, and no sound. They added aged film and black and white video effects during post-production.
To view other films check out our webpage, Watch Out!
Last week, my two 7th grade film history classes created flip books as a way to learn about the concept of persistence of vision. I found this definition of persistence of vision via Google: “When an image is flashed before our eyes, our brain holds it for a short time. If a second image follows close behind the first, our brain blends the two images. By flashing enough images in quick succession, the brain perceives the image stream as motion.”
A few students volunteered to help film all the flip books after school. It was pretty tricky, but I’m happy with the way it all turned out. Thanks to Trevor Kampmann, of the electro pop band, hollAnd, for allowing us to use one of his songs in our video.
This week, we’re watching some of the first movies ever created, and learning about the many devices used to watch these early films, such as the kinetoscope. Many of these early films can be found on YouTube today. Check out this mesmerizing film from 1899 created by the Lumiere Brothers titled, The Serpentine Dance:
I’m really excited to be teaching this new film history class, and having the chance to learn about the history of movies myself. I’m getting a new appreciation for modern cinema. I hope my students are too.