1. History of Gangster Genre
The first gangster film was ‘The Musketeers of Pig Alley’ it was
produced in 1912 by D.W Griffith and Anita Loos . It’s an
American short film that’s 17 minutes long. . It is also credited for
its early use of follow focus, a basic tool in cinematography. The
Musketeers was a black & white, silent film with no sound, music
and dialogue at all. It had short titles coming up every now and
then during the film to tell us what’s going on in the story.
The film was released on October 31, 1912 and re-released on
November 5, 1915 in the US in New York. There were many other
early film studios in America and they were based at the beginning
of the 20th century. The location shots were in New York City,
supposedly used real street gang members as extras during the
film.
It was also shown in Leeds Film Festival in November 2008, as part
of Back to the Electric Palace, with live music by Gabriel Prokofiev,
performed in partnership with Opera North.
Believed to be the world's first movie about systematized crime, it’s
also notable for its early use of follow focus. D.W. Griffith
persuaded his committed cameraman, G.W. Bitzer, to fade out the
background when the three gangsters walk towards the alley in the
opening scene. The cameraman was judged on how in focus and
clear his pictures were throughout this time, so Griffith had to
take him to an art museum to demonstrate to him how the
background was out of focus and the characters were in focus so
he can influence him to do the effect on the shot.
In a street series, a young girl can be seen staring at the camera.
This wasn’t an error; D.W. Griffith had perceived that, in
documentary films, people tended to stare at the camera, and felt
that having her do just that would make the scene feel more
