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Born in Crestwood, Oldham County, Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a Confederate Army colonel and Civil War hero, David Wark Griffith has been called the father of film grammar. Scholars no longer dispute that few or any of his "innovations" actually began with him, but still he is given credit for a set of codes that have become the universal back-bone to the film language. In the broadest terms, Griffith contributed Mise en Scene and various film editing techniques to film grammar. That being said, he still used many elements attributed to the "primitive style" of movie-making that predated classical Hollywood's continuity system. These techniques include frontal staging, exaggerated gestures, hardly any camera movement, and no point of view shots.
Credit for Griffith's cinematic innovations must be shared with his cameraman of many years, Billy Bitzer. In addition, he worked on many of his best films with the legendary silent star Lillian Gish.
Griffith has been a highly controversial figure. Although popular at the time of its release, his film The Birth of a Nation (1915) was also considered responsible for the resurgence of the Ku Klux KlanThe Ku Klux Klan KKK originally referred to a secret and violent white-supremacist organization founded by veterans of the Confederate Army in 1865, but it was disbanded by 1880. The original group opposed the reforms enforced on the South by Federal troo in the United States. On December 15December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining. Events 687 St. Sergius I becomes Pope 1702 Forty-seven ronin, formerly in the service of Asano Naganori, assault the household of Kira Y, 1999For the album by Prince, see 1999 (album 1999 is a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the UN. Events Kosovo War Former child star Gary Coleman files for bankruptcy Y2K prep, declaring that Griffith "helped foster intolerable racial stereotypes," The Directors Guild of America's National Board - without membership consultation - announced it would rename the D.W. Griffith Award, the Guild's highest honor. First given in 1953, its recipients included Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick ( July 26, 1928 March 7, 1999) was a Jewish- American film director born in The Bronx, New York City who lived most of his life in England. His films are highly acclaimed for their technical perfection and deep symbolism. As a director he, David LeanDavid Lean ( March 25, 1908 April 16, 1991) was a British film director, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia''. He was born in Croydon, Surrey, and started at the bottom, as a clapperboard assistant. By 1930 he was working as a, John HustonJohn Huston ( August 5, 1906 August 28, 1987) was an American film director. He was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, the son of the Canadian-born actor Walter Huston. He began his film career as a screenwriter and made films mainly from pro, Woody AllenWoody Allen (b. December 1, 1935), original name Allen Stewart Konigsberg legal name Heywood Allen is one of the major American film directors and comedians of the second half of the 20th century. Introduction Following the example of Charlie Chaplin, he, Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa ( Kurosawa Akira also ) ( March 23, 1910 September 6, 1998) was a prominent Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter of movies. Work Kurosawa is perhaps Japan's best-known filmmaker. His films have greatly influenced a whole generation, John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and Griffith's friend Cecil B. DeMille.
Griffith began his career as a hopeful playwright but failed. He then became an actor. Finding his way into the motion picture business, he soon began to direct a huge body of work. Between 1907 and 1913 (the years he directed for the American Biograph Company), Griffith produced an astounding 450 short films. Such output allowed him to experiment with cross-cutting, camera movement, close-ups, and other methods of spatial and temporal manipulation. Convinced that longer films (then called "features") could be financially viable, he became a co-founder of Triangle (1915), which produced The Birth of a Nation, and later, as a reaction to the criticism The Birth of a Nation received, his most ambitious project, Intolerance. The film was a flop, and Triangle went bankrupt in 1917, so he went to Artcraft (part of Paramount), then to First National (1919-20). At the same time he founded United Artists, together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks.
He was honored on a 10-cent postage stamp by the United States issued May 5, 1975.
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