Silent films have changed significantly over the past century due to advances in technology. The Kid (1921) used limited camera techniques and had no sound or color, while The Artist (2011) utilized modern camera movements, special effects, and sound despite being a black-and-white silent film. Early silent films told stories through only physical acting and intertitles, while later ones could incorporate more visual elements through improved cameras, lighting, editing, and animation. The development of sound in the late 1920s marked the transition between solely silent films to "talkies," changing the medium.

1. Comedy Movie
How has technology changed the silent film?
I looked at old, vintage, and new, contemporary, silent movies to compare how technology
has changed over the years. I researched one old filmcalled The Kid (1921) and one new
film called The Artist (2011). These two films were made 90 years apart. However, despite
this the two movies have a lot in common. They are both filmed in black and white.
The two used different technologies. The Kid (1921) no camera movement, no colour
(before the development colour television by 1928) and only few shots like close up,
medium shot, long shot and extreme long shot that’s all. By comparison The Artist has
everything: sound, camera movement, lots of shots, special effects and studio lighting
technology.
Most new films have the best quality studio lights to make the scene look bright and clear.
The Kid used a camera called The Standard Cinematograph Type 2709 hand-cranked camera
from The Bell and Howell. This camera has three different sizes of focus for zooming in and
out. This camera could only stand, it wasn’t hand-held shooting a limited range of shots;
close up, medium shot, long shot, extreme long shot and two shot.
The camera was still new, invented in the 19th century. During in 20th century the director,
producer and cameramen started getting new technology to improve cameras: focus,
camera movement, editing, green screen background, studio lighting and sound effects. This
changed the look of film. (Robinson, Jack. (1982). Bell & Howell Standard Cinemachinery
Type 2709. Available: https://chicagology.com/silentmovies/bellhowell2709/. Last accessed
9th January 2020.)
The Kid (1921) used some intertitle (title cards) and the actors used their physicality, body
language and facial expressions to tell the story, there was no need for lots of intertitle.
However, The Artist (2011) has lots of intertitle, using three to five sentences, on average,
per scene. The use of intertitles ended in 1927 because the technology has developed to the
point where we had sound in the movies. The new films became known as “Talkie” From
1928, the films were starting to increase in the use of the audience found it interesting to
listen to the actor’s voice. The last silent filmwas released in 1936. (Unknown. (2010). Silent
Film. Available: https://www.filmsite.org/silentfilms.html. Last accessed 9th January 2020).
Before the 1940s, there was no computer and green screen background. They used
miniatures, animation, illusion of motion (Pepper’s ghost) and mask-making. They created
the background using painting, Stage hands in black clothing would move objects around on
screen to create the special effect. Large fans would be used for wind or tornados, flashing
lights for lightning. Also, there has some dissolves from 1890s that they used it for editing in
the beginning and ending film scenes (Unknown. (2019). Special Effect. Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_effect#Early_development. Last accessed 9th January
2020.)

2. How can you tell a story without dialogue?
The actors are used physical body language and facial expressions to show emotion and
action without any dialogue. The actors show emotions like happy, sad, angry, joy, cry and
other emotions. Not just physically the actor, there had including props, costumes, items,
backgrounds and the weathers
The actors used body language and facial expressions to show how is look like and what is
going on. The fact, before 1927 the televisions invented, the cinema has no sound and most
of silent films between late 1890s to mid-1920s. Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” was release in
1921, seven years before development of sound. Charlie Chaplin has professional body
language and facial expressions because he has given the audience the full details to
understand what is happening. His films are full of comedy, physical slapstick and
melodrama. There are more silent films by Laurel & Hardy. They use the same method as
Charlie Chaplin because their films are silent.
I will now briefly mention contemporary films which do not fall into the genre of Silent
Movies but tell a story with little to no dialogue. The movies Wall-E (2008) and Up (2009)
have some scenes with no dialogue. For example, in “Up” at the beginning, the couple show
they love each other used by hugging, holding hands, kissing and eyes sparkling. The
wedding is shown by using all the expected imagery; wedding dress, tuxedos and a church
setting. They move to a new house together. The couple, later, has a miscarriage and they
look sad and crying at the hospital with a poster of a baby to indicate to the audience that
they have lost their baby. They plan their dream travel with a picture of the country saving
some money in the jar with the label “Travel”. Then, his wife passes away leaving the man
alone at her funeral in the church. That scene has no dialogue and the couple use body
language and facial expression with lots of details, props, costumes, items, background and
music to make the audience know what the story about.
The movie called Wall-E (2008) is the same as some scenes have no dialogue. The scene
where Wall – E meets Eve has no dialogue. Therefore, Silent films must include Mise en
scene to make more sense because if there have no props or background will be more
difficult to understand. The props, background and items are important for the silent films
because they have deep details to describe about what the scene look like. Mise en scene is
the best describe in whole the scene like background, weather, items, props and costume.
How have silent films changed over time?
During the 20th century lots of directors, producers and cameramen started to development
some change technology like shots, colour, sound, camera movement, special effect, focus,
studio lighting and background. The person called Konrad Zuse from German, who was
create the first computer invented in 1936 but this is not use for editing because that
technology used for stored program computer. In 1953, IMB computer was introduce in
public and the created by Philip Don Estridge. The directors and producers start used the
computer for editing since 1953. (Unknown. (1998). When was the first computer
invented? Available: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm. Last
accessed 17th January 2020.)

3. Old films have only a few shots, limited focus, no movement, no colour and no sound.
During 90 years from 1920s to 2010s. The directors, producers and cameramen start to use
lots of shots, camera movements, sounds, colour and focus. Now, lots of movies look better
than old films because they have improved technology. The Artist (2011) is still a black and
white silent film because it’s a homage to the silent movie era. But include all the modern
technology to make it look so different than The Kid (1921). In early 1900s, the person (no
mention name) had developed only two camera movements pan and tilt. The Kid (1921)
used the rare camera movement pan only one or two scenes when Charlie chased by police
that scene used pan. In 1936, the person called Kenji Mizoguchi from Japan. He created new
camera movements track, dolly, truck and pedestal. Since 1936, the directors and
cameramen has improved the quality camera movements. The Artist (2011) has lots of
quality camera movement include pan, tilt, dolly, track, truck and pedestal. (Unknown.
(2019). Camera Movement. Available
https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-
maps/camera-movement. Last accessed 17th January 2020.)
Also, The Kid (1921) has hard statics with bit dark screen because the camera is not good
quality. But behind the scene, they filmed location where was plenty of sunny bright out
there. That is reason the camera technology used film strip border rolling. Strip border is not
clear enough because it’s dark and statics. When the finish filming, the directors and the
editor cutting the strip border and put some scenes together just like deleted scenes. Since
1930s the camera technology has developed to better quality which means the scene
became more clear and less statics. Since 2000s, the scenes have become full of HD because
the camera is modern and use a sim. This is simple put the simin computer, upload some
videos and editing in Premiere.
Since 1937 Disney movies has become increase because cartoon films have used skills over-
voice like silly, high-pitch, low-pitch, deep voice and various voices. The first cartoon created
by Emile Cohl in 1908. The cartoon film called Fantasmasgorie and it’s was very brief film
about nearly 2 minutes. During from 1908 to 1927, there has more cartoon films by
different directors in each film. All the cartoon films have same as no dialogue because,
obviously, some films created before the “Talkie”. In 1928 the most known the cartoon
created Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney in 1928 that is same year when the Talkie developed.
Mickey Mouse (1928) still no talking but used some sounds like whistle, screaming, stomp
feet, bell-ringing and honking. In 1937, Walt Disney created the famous feature cartoon
movie called Snow White and that filminclude voice-over into all the characters. Since 1937,
lots of directors and producers created lots of Disney movies with professional skills voice-
over by actors. Silent cartoon films have end in 1929 because Walt created Mickey Mouse
with dialogue, the directors and the producers get more idea to create other cartoon film
with dialogue since 1928. (Unknown. (2019). 9 Oldest Cartoons in the World. Available:
http://www.oldest.org/entertainment/cartoons/. Last accessed 17th January 2020.)