Early Sound and The Artist

The 2011 movie "The Artist" has alot in common with with older silent films which it is based off of, but introduces a few modern concepts here and there I think to make it appeal to a modern audience.Here are some of my observations form the film in regards to how it compares and contrasts to older silent films.

Camera Work
The camera angles in The Actor somewhat resemble earlier silent films by pulling the camera back in many scenes. the thing that makes it obvious this is a modern film in this regard (other than picture quality) is that there are alot of three quarter shots used in this. In early silent/voiced films, there still wasn't a solid concept of proper shot size, so full shots were still fairly the norm if i am not mistaken.

Sound and Music
The sound used in this film is somewhat reminiscent of the early synchronized sound films as it has orchestra playing different parts that are suited to the scene, not an overarching soundtrack like in ones of the silent era.

Dialogue/Speech
the speech and text dialogue confuses me a little bit honestly. Its obviously going for the silent film aesthetic as it has notecards that come up, and I assume having it in another language as the main writing is part of that effect, but the reason for it somewhat eludes me really. 

Editing
The editing in The Artist, is in my experience, much more up to modern standards than compared to the old style of editing. there are alot more cuts and transitions used here than in older works, which would have had alot more static or drawn out shots overall.

Special Effects
I feel as if they really tried to subdue alot of the modern special effects in this film to try and make it feel more authentic overall, and to pretty darn good effect. the part where he momentarily hears sound in the dressing room was a startling event int he movie and was definitely evidence of modern editing techniques.

Genre codes and Conventions
I'd say overall that The Artist uses alot of technical codes instead of symbolic ones. heavy editing from our modern era gives it a slightly different overall feel from its old predecessors and in that way goes against the conventions of the time. 

Acting
The acting in this film was pretty good overall for a silent type film, but I feel as if they forgoed some of the dramatization to differentiate between the film and the in movie filming scenes, and instead used alot more notecard prompts to indicate speech as well as just using more subtle actions.