| College Chums | |
|---|---|
 College Chums (Edwin S. Porter, 1907) shot 5 | |
| Directed by | Edwin S. Porter |
| Starring | Edward Boulden Miss Acton Miss Antoinette |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 11 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film |
College Chums is an American silent film directed by Edwin S. Porter, and produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company. [1]
While in a park, a young woman sees her fiancé being quite affectionate with another woman. When she calls him on the telephone to demand an explanation, he tells her that it was his sister. She is not satisfied, and insists on coming over to meet his 'sister'. As the young man broods over how to get out of trouble, a male college friend comes over and offers to pretend to be the sister. At first this works, but soon it has created even more complications as first his fiancée and then her father start flirting with the friend. [2]
The film was produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, and directed by Edwin S. Porter. It was shot in the new Edison studio in the Bronx in the summer of 1907 [3] and released in the United States on December 7, 1907. [4]
The film is composed of 5 shots including a split-screen shot representing a telephone conversation.
1. Full shot in a parlour. The man kneels down and offers a ring to the woman.
2. Wide shot in a park. The man walks by flirting with another woman. The woman walking with her mother sees him.
3. The man's parlour. The man is sitting down. He gets up and goes to answer the phone.
4. The man and the woman on the phone on opposite sides of the screen in circular vignettes with a model of a city between them, and their conversation animated with text that moves between them.
5. Other view of the man's parlour. A college friend pretends to be the sister, creating various quid pro quo with the fiancée and her family. [1]
André Gaudreault notes that the film has several shortcomings: it "has a complicated story to tell in one reel and in some ways lacks sufficient means to tell it. The main part of the story is told in a very lengthy shot of the characters in the college rooms filmed in long shot, as if we were looking at a stage set." As a result, one "can scarcely observe the facial expressions of the actors [...] and only the broadest of gestures are used." He considers that this "avoidance of the shock of the cut to another shot [...] [is] a reflex of the older style now about to give way to quite a different one." On the other hand, he notes that way the film uses cross-dressing is at the limit of what could be acceptable material for comedy when "the father of the girl is drawn to the cross-dressing young man masquerading as the 'sister' and carries on a suggestive flirtation until caught up by his wife." He also identifies this film as an early example of the use in cinema of a telephone conversation to carry "an important part of the narrative." He notes as a clever touch the way in which "the letters express the emotions in the conversation: when the lovers quarrel, the letters meet and crash in mid-screen." but considers that the split-screen representation of the telephone call "shows the resistance of [...] Porter to the concept of alternating edits between distant spaces, which soon [would] become the common way to portray telephone conversations and, more generally, to represent the various threads of a narrative." [5]
Michael Frierson considers that when staging "a telephone conversation graphically, with a man and a woman on opposite sides of the screen in circular vignettes, the distance between them depicted as illustration of a city scape seen from above, and their conversation animated with text that moves between them, Porter [...] is looking backward to lantern slides and strip cartoons for visual codes to delineate the scene and make it visibly concrete, a single image compositing the speakers, their spatial relationship, and their dialogue shown in animated text." [6]
Bernard Perron refers to this film to illustrate his theory of Transi-Sounds, i.e. representation of sounds used for transition in silent films: "Inside irises positioned at the extremities of the frame and placed above the image of a city, a couple is seen conversing on the telephone. To express their exchange, Porter animates letters, which seem to drift in the air toward the man and the woman, creating a wave connecting the interlocutors. This is a lovely example of a literal transi-sound!" [7]
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The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards.
Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over 250 films created by Porter, his most important include What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901), Jack and the Beanstalk (1902), Life of an American Fireman (1903), The Great Train Robbery (1903), The European Rest Cure (1904), The Kleptomaniac (1905), Life of a Cowboy (1906), Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1913).
The Night Before Christmas is a 1905 American silent short film directed by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. It closely follows Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem Twas the Night Before Christmas, and was the first film production of the poem.
Charles John Musser is a film historian, documentary filmmaker, and a film editor. Since 1992, he has taught at Yale University, where he is currently a professor of Film and Media Studies as well as American Studies and Theater Studies. His research has primarily focused on early cinema, and topics such as Edwin S. Porter, Oscar Micheaux, race cinema of the silent era, Paul Robeson, film performance, as well as a variety of issues and individuals in documentary. His films include An American Potter (1976), Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982) and Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch (2014).
Wallace McCutcheon Sr. was a pioneer cinematographer and director in the early American motion picture industry, working with the American Mutoscope & Biograph, Edison and American Star Film companies. McCutcheon's wealth of credits are often mixed up with the small handful of films directed by his son, Wallace McCutcheon Jr. (1884–1928).
Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison is a 1901 silent film produced by the Edison Studios arms of Edison Manufacturing Company. The film is a dramatic reenactment of the execution of Leon Czolgosz by electric chair at Auburn Correctional Facility following his 1901 conviction for the assassination of William McKinley. It is considered an important film in the history of cinema.
Waiting at the Church is a 1906 American silent film directed by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company.
Kansas Saloon Smashers is a 1901 comedy short film produced and distributed by Edison Studios. Directed by Edwin S. Porter, it is a satire of American activist Carrie Nation. The film portrays Nation and her followers entering and destroying a saloon. After the bartender retaliates by spraying Nation with water, policemen order them out; the identities of the actors are not known. Inspiration for the film was provided by an editorial cartoon which appeared in the New York Evening Journal.
Rube and Mandy at Coney Island was produced, directed, shot and edited by Edwin S. Porter Copyrighted on August 13, 1903, the 725 ft., 35mm film lasted roughly 10 minutes if projected at 20 frames per second.
Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show is a 1902 American short silent comedy film directed by Edwin S. Porter, featuring a naive spectator trying to interact with films projected onto a screen. It is an almost identical remake of a British 1901 film directed by Robert W. Paul, The Countryman and the Cinematograph. This film was the first to feature a film shown within a film.
The Child Stealers also known as The Kidnapped Child or Child Stealing is a 1904 British silent crime film about kidnapping, directed by William Barker and produced by the Warwick Trading Company.
The White Caps is a 1905 American silent drama film, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and Edwin S. Porter showing how a man abusing his wife is punished by a group of white-hooded men. It is one of the first American films exposing conjugal violence against women and showing the action of vigilante groups.
The Train Wreckers is a 1905 American silent drama film, directed by Edwin S. Porter showing how the daughter of a railway switchman and lover of a locomotive engineer is defeating outlaws trying to derail a train.
The Seven Ages is a 1905 American silent comedy film, directed by Edwin S. Porter inspired by the monologue All the World's a Stage in William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It.
What Happened in the Tunnel is a 1903 silent short film starring Bertha Regustus and Gilbert M. Anderson. The film was directed and shot by Edwin S. Porter, produced by Edison Mfg. Co., and distributed by Edison Mfg. Co. and Kleine Optical Co.
The 'Teddy' Bears is an American silent film directed by Edwin S. Porter and Wallace McCutcheon, and produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company starting as the fairy tale Goldilocks and ending as a political satire of United States President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Trainer's Daughter; or, A Race for Love is an American silent film directed by James Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter, and produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company.
The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog is a 1905 silent short comedy film directed by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. The five-and-a-half minute film was an adaptation of a popular picture postcard featuring a humorously named family. The film introduces each member of the Dam family, and then shows a raucous dinner scene that ends with the Dam dog pulling the tablecloth off the table, and ruining the Dam meal.
