+Assignments 2 & 3 Video Plan & Video Essay:
Sample topics and Questions
FILM2000 From Silent to Sound Cinema



The following are a sample of possible topics and
questions in relation to which you can develop a more
specific video essay plan and, ultimately, your video essay.

Note: You must formulate your own guiding research
question (see Video Essay Plan template section 3).




The cinema of attractions
What are the dominant characteristics of the early “cinema of attractions”,
and what distinguishes this cinema from later silent films?

The chase film
What is the significance of the chase film in the development of early film
narrative?

D. W. Griffith
From ‘father’ of silent cinema to idiosyncratic stylist, D. W. Griffith’s remains
a significant figure in American silent cinema, and he developed a distinctive
mode of filmmaking in to the so-called single reel era. Develop your
perspective on Griffith’s single-reel aesthetics drawing on at least two
Biograph films of 1913 or prior.

Slapstick
Tom Gunning writes that a gag “undermines productive rationality by
connecting things which should not be connected.” Drawing on specific
examples, consider how gags achieve this and their broader purpose in the
context of histories of the slapstick genre.

Serialisation
How and why do serials solicit binge-watching in the 1910s? You may
compare an early twentieth century serial or series with a contemporary
film/television/web/streaming series or serial.

Uplift imaginaries
Why does most of Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul (1925) comprise an
extended dream sequence?

2
German Expressionism
Can Nosferatu (dir. F. W. Murnau, 1922) be considered an Expressionist film?
Consider the film’s visual style and narrative in the context of Weimar cinema
more generally. Alternatively, investigate the Nosferatu’s modernist concerns
with form and textuality, and their relation the film’s broader themes.

Montage
Montage as a Soviet artistic concept is more than just editing. Consider the
functions of montage (intellectual, emotional, political) as theorised by
Eisenstein and other Soviet filmmakers and how they were put into practice
in their films.

Novel uses of sound
While initially resistant to synchronised sound, René Clair used sound to
complex expressive effect in his early films. Consider the different forms that
sound takes in A Nous la liberté (and any of Clair’s other early sound films)
and its narrative, character and thematic implications.

Horror and early sound
Not only is Frankenstein’s monster mute, but he once he escapes he is
difficult to locate. Consider the range of sound effects (including silence)
deployed in Frankenstein and their relation to the horror genre.

Dietrich Icon
Why is Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) in The Blue Angel (1930) always
confronting images of herself?

Stardom and performance styles
Ruan Lingyu is considered by many to be one of the greatest stars of
Chinese silent cinema. Her stardom depends on both general and individual
styles of performance. Which features of Ruan’s style are general and which
are individual? Describe these styles and identify their specific elements in
The Goddess and at least one other Ruan film.


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