history_01/pre-verbal/silent signs

The Pre-Verbal Language of Cinema , as follows:

“Through the use of different screen sizes and the framing of shots, the juxtaposition of camera angles and point of view, expressive music and lighting, and the principles of editing, they found that the camera can, uniquely, photograph thought. Since that time, those directors who have made the best use of the film medium have used the camera to communicate to audiences at a level far more immediate and primitive than the spoken word. By primitive I don't mean more simplistic and less subtle. Far from it. Cinema deals with feelings, sensations, intuitions and movement, things that communicate to audiences at a level not necessarily subject to conscious, rational and critical comprehension. Because of this, the so-called 'language' the film director uses may, in fact, make for a much richer and denser experience. Actions and images speak faster, and to more of the senses, than speech does. A recurring theme of these notes is that cinema is not so much non-verbal as pre-verbal. Though it is able to reproduce reams of dialogue, film can also tell stories purely in movement, in action and reaction. Cinematographic images, particularly when synchronised with recorded sound, deliver such quantities of visual and audible data that the verbal component (even, in the days of silent cinema, title cards) is overwhelmed and becomes secondary. Consequently, the essential and underlying meaning of film dialogue is often much more effectively transmitted by a complex and intricate organisation of cinematic elements that are not only not verbal, but that can never be fully analysed by verbal means.”

Silent cinema shares similar elements with live cinema, as neither uses verbal dialogues as the basis for communication. Silent cinema was also traditionally accompanied by live orchestra playing music in the movie theatres, which was sometimes referred to as live cinema.