Film
Talkies
- new imitations
- new departures
Notes:
As for more modern media, consider the visual conventions of early film. It is clear that they imitated theater, with one camera and one view for as long as one action was taking place. It would not be until the years of the First World War when geniuses like D. W. Griffith began to realize that film had “rules” of its own and possibilities quite different from those of the theater, including the close-up, the pan, and the fast cut: heroine in threat of her life, cut to horse and rider posse racing to her rescue, cut to heroine closer to death, cut to riders, etc. etc. The validity of this collection of techniques has proven itself over and over again in the history of film, especially in those instances which have tried to rebel against them. The result--which often make the claim of high art--are almost invariably boring beyond expression and movie-making of the worst sort.