How Motion Pictures Became The Movies (1908-1920)

This video lecture by David Bordwell looks at the artistic choices and changes that emerged in feature filmmaking from 1908–1920. Its primary focus is a general account of the changes in film style across this exciting period. Studying those changes obliges us to analyze sequences, which Bordwell does in a series of stills. The secondary focus of the lecture is an effort to trace three ways in which historians have sought to describe and explain those changes.