D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation

D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation

Birth of a Nation is based on the novel and screenplay "The Clansmen" by Thomas Dixon Jr. The film portrays the white confederates as the heroes and the "marauding" black men as the villains. After their reformation in the 1920s, the KKK started using "Birth of a Nation" as a recruiting tool. The film was widely criticized for its portrayal of American Americans, shown the black men as rampaging, unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards american white woman.

In response to "Birth of a Nation" Africa American born director Oscar Micheaux made "Within our gates". The film portrayed a different America, showing what life was like for colour minorities under white supremacy.

D.W Griffith followed the film up with "Intolerance", a movie that tried to give off a much more liberal vibe.

George Melies, The magician of cinema.

George Melies

French born magician and filmmaker credited with creating many new film techniques. These techniques include substitution splices, multiple exposures of film, time lapse, live action stop motion, dissolves and fades, hand painted color film and stop frames.


These techniques can still be seen today, with techniques such as dissolves and cross fades still being common methods of changing scene in modern cinema. His use of live action stop motion would eventually give rise to stop motion animation and claymation and use of time lapse is now wide spread.


Out of my "Top 10 movie" list many have been influenced by Melies work in some way. Melies work in stop motion lead to the create of the style used in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Melies had a heavy influence in the creation of the Science fiction genre of films with movie such as "A trip to the movie. The Science fiction would later create four of my favourite films "Donnie Darko", "Looper", "Predistation" and "Ex Machina". Films such as "American Beauty", "Green Mile", "Into the wild", "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" and "Boyhood" all use editing and special effect techniques pioneered by George Melies.