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.In 1907, production was divided between sixty-sevenper cent comedies and dramas, against thirty-three per cent documen-taries.By 1908, the imbalance in output had increased to ninety-six percent narrative forms and only four per cent documentary forms.There is no clear evidence to suggest why this change should havehappened.Allen suggests that the growth in nickelodeon building createdan increased demand for new films that required producers to rethinktheir production practices.Documentary forms required shooting onlocation, which was not only costly but also placed crews in environmentswhere happenings did not occur under the total control of the crew and socould not be planned or predicted.Narrative production, either in the formof comedies or dramas, could be planned, contained and organised in thecontrolled environment of the studio, with material generated specificallyfor that purpose.Allen therefore speculates that the increased volume ofnarrative film-making came from the need to regularise production inorder to supply exhibitors: narrative allowed film-makers and distributorsto efficiently control supply to meet demand.While this argument may bea point for further research in film history, it is the effect and not the causewhich is important for the star system.Relying on the skilled performer,the increased output of comedies and dramas expanded the labourmarket for professional actors to work regularly in film.As film in the United States moved from a cinema of attractions to anarrative cinema, film-makers explored the possibilities of film form intelling stories.Early narrative film-making tended to photograph an entirescene in a single shot, with the camera set at sufficient distance from theaction so as to capture the whole body of a performer in long shot.Thismanner of filming made the frame equivalent to the proscenium arch in thetheatre.Like stage actors, a film actor had to be conscious of how he or she27 SHORT CUTSplaced the body in performance.Film performers were required to keep theirbodies at angles that were constantly open to the look of the imaginaryaudience represented by the fixed camera.Early narrative film thereforedisplayed a frontal style of performance, limiting the performance possibilitiesof actors.Filming actors in long shot, these tableaux scenes not onlydemanded a highly gestural and demonstrative style of acting but also setmembers of the audience at a distance that prevented the intimate identifi-cation necessary for stars to become a recognisable feature of film narrative.Janet Staiger (1985a) sees the American film industry undergoing anumber of changes in the development in narrative film productionbetween 1908-1912.During this period the industry moved more towardscharacter-centred narratives with dialogue intertitles.In a change to filmstyle, the camera was moved closer to the action, cutting actors off at theknees and, on occasions, framing the actor from head to waist in mediumshot.As the conventions of continuity editing were elaborated, so anincreased use of close-ups, patterns of shot/reverse shot cutting, andeyeline matching, were all used to bring further emphasis to the actor'sface as a source of meaning.Changes in staging methods thereforeestablished a complex performance space on screen in which the camerashifted its relationship to the bodies of performers.With this new performance space came a more physically reservedstyle of acting.Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Americantheatre had already seen many actors moving away from the declamatorystyle of acting associated with melodrama, preferring a more restrainedstyle of playing which was seen to introduce a new standard of realism inacting.Roberta Pearson (1992) identifies a similar shift occurring inAmerican film in the period after narrative film forms began to dominateproduction.The effects of this transition became most evident in the years1910-1911.As the use of camera more closely explored the details of theactor's performance, so actors drew on small gestures and facialexpressions.This combination of film form and performance styleconstructed a greater sense of interiority in performance.In the tradepapers of the period, commentators viewed this change as bringingpsychological complexity to film acting.28 THE STAR SYSTEMPearson argues this transition played an important part in raising thecultural status of cinema in America.The new acting style was not simply aproduct of the change in film form but an imitation of the stylisticpractices found in the legitimate theatre, signifying a sense of 'quality'
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