Throughout my college experience, I found myself getting into countless debates on theatre vs film. My position on the matter has always been that film is theatre caught on camera. Ho-ho, do tell that to a film major, in this hyper-sensitive world they tend to take it personally, and my own fellow theatre majors, though a bit more sympathetic, tended to smile and think I was a loon. However, in the course of my studying of film and theatre side by side. I have felt that my position has strengthened.
Theatre has always been the home of storytellers. Starting as early as ancient Egyptian mystery plays and the Greek tragedies and comedies. Stage plays have evolved since the days of Aeschylus and Euripedes. With acting methods, lighting and sounds designs, set pieces, costumes, artistic movements and styles that originate from individual storytellers; I'm looking at you, William Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht. If it wasn't for the evolution of theatre we wouldn't have what we know as film today.
With the invention of the motion picture camera there came a wide variety of uses for it, some you can often find in some evolved forms today. Whether it was for scientific analytics, or fifteen-second amusements, i.e. Edisons Kinetoscope. No one at the time really could foresee what modern day film would become. Not even Georges Méliès, who in his own right was a stage performer, a magician. Georges the father of cinematic narrative and visual effect. Which led to more and even greater narritve marvels: Edwin G. Porter, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Orsen Wells, Alfred Hitchcock, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and JJ Abrams.
In the early days of film, it was exactly that, capture a play on camera, but as the film evolved and the camera started to move around within the scene, capturing moments from different shots and angles. Once you subtract the camera you're still left with lights, actors, costumes set pieces and a story. You're left with theatre.
Personally, I find it beautiful that film and theatre are one and the same. Sure if you really want to argue over the technical minutia of how they are different. I'll listen and you'll be right and also wrong, because film and theatre are two sides to the same coin, and the coin is story.
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