New technologies invented during the industrial era inspired the experimentation with moving images that eventually lead to the birth of cinema. (Cavendish 2008, pp. 1001-1008) Early film makers used the new technology of cinema to display a variety of attractions to audiences in a style coined by Tom Gunning as 'cinema of attractions'. (Gunning 1993) Cinema of attractions was a style used to address and appeal to the audiences of the time, who were accustomed to a theatricalism, display, and exhibitionist style in popular culture.
Ostentatious edia and advertising (Tungate 2007, pp. 25-29) along with extravaganza-style live performances (Lewis 2007, p. 3) helped build the culture for which the style of cinema of attractions was appropriate. According to Gunning, cinema of attractions refers to a style of cinema that interacted directly with the audience, luring them in and inviting them to partake and immerse themselves in a show of exhibitionist images.Jennifer Bean describes "hysteria, or shock, or astonishment" as the key aesthetic of this early cinema.
(Bean 2004, p. 23) While the term 'silent film' is often used to describe he films of this period, Andre Gaudreault explains they were in fact fundamentally audio-visual, (Gaudreault 1990, p. 274) and presented in a style which appealed, thrilled and, as Stephen Bottomore suggests, sometimes shocked the audience of the time. (Bottomore 1999, p. 77) Eliciting these reactions in audiences was common to the established forms of entertainment in that era, which helped familiarise and popularise cinema as a new media.
(Halle & Margaret 2003, p. 17) Cinema of attractions is a term Tom Gunning coined to describe all cinema prior to 1908 (or so), when the style of cinema was focused on engaging the audience with a ariety of visually-arresting appeals and spectacles, spanning an assortment of styles and genres. Gunning 1993) Cinema of attractions was cinema that sought to attract, and have a relationship with the audience, rather than to simply position them in a voyeuristic role. (Gunning 1993)This style of cinema was used in order to appeal to the audiences of the time, for whom spectacle and variety were deeply engrained as accepted and popular forms of entertainment. (Lewis 2007, pp. 3-4) Showing an assortment of appeals in cinema of attractions was also a clever way for arly film makers to display the range and technical capabilities of cinema as a new form of media.
Gunning 1993) The perceived audience for cinema of attractions had been shaped by the innovations and popular culture of the time. By the time early cinema began, innovations in technology and the popularity of visual toys, along with an increase in communications and marketing and the popularisation of variety act performances helped form the culture in which cinema of attractions was a style of entertainment appropriate to appeal to the audiences of the time. (Cavendish 2008, pp. 01-1008)The industrial era saw the invention of technologies that paved the road for cinema, and aided its rapid popularisation and success. The invention of electric light, recorded sound, projection, photography and the motion picture camera each played a part in the ultimate creation of cinema. (Cavendish 2008, pp.
1001-1008) The popularity and fascination that the population had with moving images had been established through the widespread sales of visual toys such as photographic magic lanterns and the zoetrope. Enticknap 2005, pp. 7-10) These visual toys helped to rovide the technological basis for cinema, as well as giving inventors an objective with which to aspire to the invention of cinema, as the recognition and popularisation of moving images as entertainment and novelty was already well established. (Enticknap 2005, pp.
7-10)Along with the technologies used in cinema, the industrial era saw the creation of communications technologies such as the telegraph, telephone and improvements on the printing press (Cavendish 2008, pp. 118,1182) which, combined with the advancement of advertising to involve illustrations, colour and even photography; the ncreased use of branding; and the widespread use of magazines and magazine advertising which also occurred in the industrial era; helped the establishment of mass-marketing and eye-grabbing advertising as a highly successful way of proliferating popular culture. (Fox 1997, pp. 6-68) Advertising abounded, from electrified flashing signs all over the cities to full-paged colour ads, and by the end of the nineteenth century it became common for prevalent magazines to use almost as many pages for advertising as for editorial purposes. (Tungate 2007, pp. 29-31)The widespread use of eye-grabbing advertising meant that the audience for cinema of ttractions were a people used to having their attention drawn by images and display.
(Fox 1997, pp. 6-68) The use of spectacle and display in cinema of attractions fit well into an era where popular culture involved ubiquitous exhibitionism. Ostentatious advertising is not the only source to be credited for the culture of prominent exhibitionism at the time of cinema of attractions. Increased wages and leisure time towards the end of the nineteenth century meant that the population had the means by which to seek pleasure and entertainment. This entertainment commonly took the form of live performance.
Theatre had long been popular, but in the era leading up to the beginning of cinema, shows that leaned heavily on the use of spectacle and exhibitionism were widely popular. (Lewis 2007, pp. 7-12) These shows usually came in the format of variety- acts, with minstrel shows, burlesque, vaudeville and musical comedy all becoming popular offshoots of theatre. (Lewis 2007, pp. 7-12) These forms of entertainment sought to create a wide range of strong reactions in the audience; using anything from comedy to dance and song, to stunts and tricks, to nudity and even vulgarity in rder to draw out an audience response.A showman invited the audiences in, and the performances drew out audience involvement by eliciting reactions using variety and exhibitionism.
(Lewis 2007, pp. 7-12) The perceived audience at the time of early cinema was the audience among whom this type of entertainment was popular. The variety and theatricalism common to the popular entertainment at the time of early cinema informed the variety and exhibitionism used in cinema of attractions.A cinema showman, a device also used commonly with the other forms of popular ntertainment, allowed a direct address of the audience, luring them in and inviting them to take part in the show and novelty that cinema had to offer.
(Gunning 1993) Tom Gunning says about cinema of attractions, "by its reference to the curiosity- arousing devices of the fairground, the term denoted early cinemas fascination with novelty and its foregrounding of the act of display". Gunning 1993) The fascination with novelty and arousing of curiosity which formed part of the style of cinema of attractions also combined with more pronounced audience reaction, according to Stephen Bottomore. Bottomore 1999) Bottomore uses the term 'the Train Effect' to describe the "anxious or panicky reaction to films" when images of approaching trains or cavalry, or any fast approaching image would alarm the audience.This was due to the fact that the audiences were not accustomed to having images come at them and failed to realise that the fast-moving images were not in fact able to come out from the screen. This caused a genuine fear that Bottomore suggests did occasionally cause an audience to alarm, to the point of panic.
(Bottomore 1999) Bottomore explains that while frightening, these images were also among those hich most impressed the first cinema audiences. (Bottomore 1999, p. 78)Jennifer Bean describes this phenomenon as 'trauma thrills', in which the spectacle of a film can result in a reaction of astonishment, shock or hysteria in an audience, which, causing a sudden bodily response and a rush of adrenalin is ultimately deemed thrilling and pleasurable by the audience; who then seek more of the same style of entertainment, in order to recreate the bodily response. Bean suggests that "Cinema's historic affair with speed, shock and irrational mechanistic power" has een assimilated with 'cinema of attractions'. Bean 2004) Andre Gaudreault suggests that, when considering the audience reaction the audio- visual element of early cinema must be taken into account.
While the term 'silent film' is often used for the films of early cinema due to the lack of pre-recorded sound accompanying the images, Gaudreault explains that these early cinema shows were in fact nearly always audio-visual, adding sound through the use of live music, timed sound-effects, a commentator or lecturer and sometimes actors performing dialogue behind the cinema screen. (Gaudreault 1990, pp. 4-275)Being live rather than pre-recorded, the audio element of the cinema of attractions was "a unique performance, actualised anew for each spectacle, worked in a completely different way". (Gaudreault 1990, p. 275) According to Gaudreault, these live, unique audio additions to the imagery of the film helped to form a sense of presentness with the audience, addressing them directly and involving them in the immediacy of the entire production.
(Gaudreault 1990, pp. 274-275) Tom Gunning explains that cinema of attractions did not place the audience in the position of a neutral voyeur.The cinema showman invited the audience to participate. The exhibitionism of the imagery used combined with the live audio performance inspired captivation and awe.
And all of these elements combined to showcase the technological capabilities of cinema as a new media. Gunning says it was the "technological means of representation that constituted the initial fascination of cinema". (Gunning 1993) The technological, industrial and cultural developments leading up to the late nineteenth century and the beginning of cinema, informed the style of cinema early ilm makers used, referred to as cinema of attractions.Taking into account the widespread use of eye-grabbing media and the popularity of theatricalism and exhibitionism in live theatre; and with the purpose of showcasing the technological capabilities of film as a new form of media; filmmakers used the style now known as cinema of attractions to address the perceived audience in early cinema. Providing an audio-visual spectacular appealed to the culture of the audiences of the time, and derived audience reaction which helped the widespread popularity and success of cinema as a new form of entertainment.
