experimental film: - use of non diegetic sound - no sound track - no linear narrative - scratching on film - out of focus - the mise-en-scene can be deliberately unrealistic - surrealism or abstract expressionism
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'One Week' Usually, the camera remains around a mid shot to wide angle shots to show the plot to the viewer, eg. The house but also assist the actors as the silent use of body language due to the film is extensively used to represent feelings that are typical of the genre, such as the beginning scene in the car as the driver has a wide smile as he annoys the couple in the back. Usually, the transitions used in the film are used as the day changes as it fades to the calendar that changes to the next day and transitions to title cards to illustrate what the characters mean. The house is the film's key prop, as the man in the car changes the numbers on the parts of the house at the beginning, and the finished result is an incredibly distorted house that creates a humorous effect. From the beginning, stunts that were popular from silent movies are prevalent as Keaton and Seely are flipped over at heights and the final part where the house is spun around by the storm tos...
Filmmakers had to improvise because sound was not used in the cinema until almost 1930, and with that came genre conventions. In silent comedy, for obvious reasons, they used their body language to produce visual jokes rather than facial expressions and dialogue; those that were sound were not invented and close-ups at the time were very difficult to do. Because of this, many main personalities, such as Charlie Chaplin's hat and moustache or Buster Keaton's dead pan smile, adapted a distinctive prop to differentiate them. This is also why slapstick comedy, as well as Vaudeville, has become popular in silent comedy (in addition to the use of animals as props and an array of stunts and chases). Since Vaudeville was seen as the working class version of theatre, this greatly appealed to the mainstream working class audience. The use of mise-en-scene became important to the narratives, which appeared to be very simple and linear, because of these conventions. Many key figures of sil...