Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis [Paperback]

Barry Salt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2003

The first and only history of motion picture style. The relation of film style to film technology. New methods for the formal analysis of films. A practical approach to film theory. The application of all this to the analysis and evaluation of the films of Max Ophuls. A complete rewrite of the first twenty-five years of film history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barry Salt has a PhD in theoretical physics, and has worked as a film cameraman, among other things. He has researched film history and film analysis for the last forty years. He teaches filmmaking at the London Film School.

--This text refers to the Perfect Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 351 pages
• Publisher: Starword; 2nd edition (September 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 095090662X
• ISBN-13: 978-0950906621
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,233,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Film history about film making, not about the people who made them, March 17, 2010

By 

Scott W. Larson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis (Perfect Paperback)

Do you ever look at old movies and wonder how they were shot back then compared to how they're shot now? This book will take you on a decade-by-decade journey on how film technology and techniques developed through cleverness, insight and occasional desperation (i.e. early color systems!) by the people who made them.

Barry Salt researched magazine articles and manufacturer literature to chronicle how motion picture technology evolved through the decades while watching the films created by this new technology to see how they changed. There is far less emphasis on the famous people involved in film making and more emphasis on the tools and techniques they developed and used. The collection of information of even the oldest cameras, lenses, lights and film stocks is incredible. Lighting techniques are clearly shown with example frames from films -- we use the shadows to trace back to the light sources. Nothing is too trivial for Salt to tell us about if he feels it left a historical impression.

That information alone would have made a useful text, but Salt also chronicles the evolution of acting techniques, story development, camera movement, editing, and nearly everything else that could affect a film. Even continuity, now an essential part of film making, gets a section when it finally appears as a sign of good workmanship! There are few names attributed to these developments (no, D.W. Griffith did not invent them all) but are described more as trends in the industry as film makers watched other films and discovered what was possible with this new popular media.

Salt's opinions on films may offend some. If you are a fan of Expressionism, you'll be angered at his amusing description of it as a strange and pointless artistic movement. If you're interested in newer movies, you'll find the sections on modern film making too short. Salt has little good to say about modern films and he feels that directors other than Robert Altman are generally trend-following hacks. In fact the silent era alone fills more than half the book because surprising number of modern techniques were developed before films even had sound.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars refreshing alternative to theoretical film study, January 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis (Paperback)

Barry Salt takes on the highly theoretical schools of film studies and wins! His argument rests on linking film style with technical improvements in technology. Fundamentally, this 'physicalist' angle functions as an important tool for understanding how certain film styles came to be. The book benefits from the fact that Salt has seen practically every Western film made since cinema began. Must have book for any cinema lover's library.

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential, January 17, 2012

By 

lsnewton - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis (Perfect Paperback)

For those who are interested in the evolution of technology in motion picture, this is the right book. Complete and essential.