Alexander Morrall

Word Count: 2,754

Still from Coopers opening title
showing his use of inexpensive footage
and dramatic lighting
How has the movement of German Expressionism influenced contemporary filmmaking?
Relevance is defined as closely connected to the matter at hand. Expressionist film, prevalent in the
1920s is the predecessor of many contemporary film conventions. Horror, Film Noir and even
modern day animations can trace themselves back to the iconic and stylish movement from 1920s
Germany. Their dark dramatically lit and often distorted cinematography informed my own work
within this unit. I shall analyse the influence these historic film have on contemporary filmmakers (as
well as my own work) and evaluate to what extent. If there is significant influence, I should aim to
answer why this style has lasted the years and where evidence of it can be seen today in the film
medium both visually and thematically. These aims will be applied to the contemporary artists
whom I have referenced in my own work where Expressionist influences can be interpreted.
Film within art is something which has always interested me; the combination of light, sound visual
element I find give the viewer a much more potent catharsis. I find my ideas and commentary is
easier expressed when contained within a film, furthermore I love the editing together of found and
shooting footage, finding meaning and connections in otherwise completely separate pieces of film,
finding rhythms that work and contrasting styles, colours and compositions, for me it is a very
experimental media. Film within a modern context has become extremely complex, detailed and
polished with high budgets and advanced technology. However, contemporary director Kyle Cooper,
who creates title sequences and short films for major production companies, pays homage to the
rougher, rawer and more modest ways of working developed within the 1920s Expressionist era.
Coopers style is far from polished, his way of cutting footage together in a jarring, juxtaposing
fashion and use of table top directing
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rejects the
advances in technology and champions the much more
modestly budgeted physical style of working. I find this
relevant to Expressionism in the sense that the very
nature of Expressionist filmmaking was a compromise;
due to inflation in 1920s Germany the film industrys
budget fell, forcing sets to be created flat, details be
replaced by heavy painted scenes and lighting to be
harsh and overly dramatic leading to the birth of
German Expressionist film as German Expressionism
was an answer to the grim reality of daily life- using the clutter left over from the Great War, imbued
with the grim darkness of everyday life
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. Kyle Coopers method of work mimics this through his use
of light, lack of production and all around raw aesthetic, demonstrated perfectly in his title
sequence for Se7en in which a serious of contrasting images flash quickly to tell a narrative of a
serial killer. The still to the left of a grey scale photograph of weathered hands being glued into a
notebook demonstrates Coopers use of light to cast intense shadows and highlights, revealing only
the fractions of detail he wishes to present, leaving negative space to add typography later, the light
is linear with parallel lines of highlights and shadows across a regular grid of lines enhances the angle

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A style of directing, using macro detail in small spaces i.e. creating an entire film on a table top. Motion
Graphics inspiration http://abduzeedo.com/motion-graphics-inspiration-kyle-cooper
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GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM: THE WORLD OF LIGHT AND SHADOW Kola
Alexander Morrall
Word Count: 2,754
My own use of smoke
The Shufftan Process
of the shot. The atmosphere is suitably dark for the nature of the crime thriller. Similarly in Coopers
body of work his American Horror Story title sequence received critical acclaim in the television
industry for its concise but effective introduction to the themes and atmosphere of the series
(themes of murder, suspense, perversion and innocence). This piece shows a more experimental use
of cinematography using a range of visual effects to achieve a pleasing aesthetic, such as: flames
cracking glass in macro detail, shooting through liquid ,filming objects underwater and smoke being
passed over images; all physical processes as opposed to computer generated imagery. The smoke I
found particularly effective for the way it interacted with light to create translucent films of light and
how its writhing movement seemed to frame the entire composition of the shot it was in. It also
symbolised the layers of deception and secrecy within the series. This technique inspired me to use
actual smoke within my own filmmaking, however the symbolism behind my use was less cryptic; I
used smoke to show the toxic effects of a cigarette
smoking environment around a child, with the smoke in
the film mirroring actual smoke from a cigarette. Due to
the dramatic lighting used some of the smoke was lost
within the almost completely black negative space, with
only the luminescent light bulb head of the doll
highlighting the smokes forms in the air, this exaggerated
the forms of the physical doll behind as the smoke traced
the shape of the doll itself, framing not the entire
composition (as with Kyle Cooper) but the main subject
within the shot: the dolls body. Visual tricks such as
these pay homage to the landmark developments made
in the German Expressionist era, such as the Schufftan
Process
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, painting shadows physically onto floors and
walls and background canvases
intended to capture shadows.
I feel without the influences of the
Expressionist era, Cooper would not
have been critically recognised,
Expressionist directors inspired a refusal
to advance with the times and remain
with more traditional, inexpensive
materials to create narrative films in a
distorted and dramatic way .
This work ethic is echoed within my own
work; my films rely heavily on practical manipulation of the formal elements through camera angle,
lighting positioning, sculpture and stop motion animation, as opposed to technology to distort the

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A filming process by which actors are placed onto and can interact with large model sets using mirrors. to
create the illusion of large looming set pieces in times of financial hardship. This process is said to be the
Father of the green screen Metropolis: A Case Study by Sara Leedom
Kyle Coopers use of smoke
Alexander Morrall
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primary recordings. German Expressionism influenced my use of dramatic lighting in frames such as
the one to the right. The light here is shone from behind the object casting elongated shadows
towards the viewer, dominating most of the composition with darkness (as seen in Coopers use of
positive and negative space). Only fractions of
detail are revealed giving an indication to the
forms of the subject, but most lies in shadow.
Tonally there is a high amount of contrast
between highlight and shadow, with little
midtone leading to a dark and foreboding
atmosphere due to the concealed parts of the
sculpture. This particular shot describes the
dolls defilement by symbolic toxins such as
drugs violence etc., here the shot is lit to exaggerate the opening of the leg and the entrance point
for the toxins, using the light almost as a beacon for the pollutants. The angle is distorted giving a
surreal, typically Expressionist aesthetic whilst also including an iconic theme typical of German
Expressionism: betrayal. The betrayal here being of the child doll by his/her parents. German
Expressionism inspired and informed many of my filming decisions and is evident throughout the
final piece whilst Kyle Coopers modernization of these influences aided my translation of the 1920s
style into the contemporary era with his use of text, colour and music.
All dynamic elements within my film making are stop motion. I have sculpted the characters in a
way which allows them to be manipulated into various postures and positions to tell the narrative of
a child doll being incarcerated by its parent and tainted by environmental toxins. Stop motion came
to be my primary ideal through my research into the Quay Brothers and their stop motion
filmmaking and model creations. As seen in
their critically acclaimed film Street of
Crocodiles released in 1986 depicting an
animated mans descent into a nightmarish
world of animate objects and grotesque figures
the Quay Brothers used stop motion to
animate all parts of their film whilst using light
to make the movements and miniature set
look larger than they are; the layers of light
used add depth and authenticity to the small,
table top set boxes. Similarly light is used
symbolically as a representation of innocence, notice how in the still to the left how the Quay
brothers placed a bulb inside of a figures head to
illuminate its hollow eyes creating an angelic image
with an atmosphere of divinity and purity; inspired
by Empire of Light by Magritte where it's daytime
above this beautiful blue sky and then you pan down
and there's this dark forest and this little house
where the lights are on. This links to my own
practical use of light by which I shone a torch
Street of Crocodiles Still
My use of internal light
Final Piece Still
Alexander Morrall
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through a doll sculpture to create the illusion it was glowing from the inside, however given my
films dark palette and unnerving soundtrack the internal light gives at atmosphere of something
alien and unnatural with the flesh tone of the doll glowing in an orange hue being reminiscent of
flames similarly leading to the idea that light does not symbolise innocence in my film, contrasting
the Quay Brothers use of it did.
It is interesting to note how even though the inspiration for some of my filmmaking derived from
the Quay Brothers (specifically Street of Crocodiles through their use of layering light, stop motion
and strange, collaged sculptures mixed in with my already German Expressionist findings) the Quay
Brothers themselves drew inspiration for Crocodiles from the downfall of German Expressionism:
The Nazis
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. With the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s German Expressionism declined in production
with many filmmakers immigrating to Hollywood to begin the successor to Expressionism: Film Noir.
Street of Crocodiles is directly inspired by figures like the Polish killed by a German Nazi officer
Bruno Schultz (1892 - 1942) and his suffering becoming inspiration for the nightmarish aesthetic of
the Quays work
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.Here Expressionist influence is not relevant, however the nature of its downfall is
with the Nazi invasion pulling almost all funding from the art industry (excluding propaganda media,
which became the compromise some German artists made to make enough money to live). I do find
this historical context relevant to the Quay Brothers in relation to the Nazi influences; however the
relevance of German Expressionism is something I find more tenuous, it is not so much German
Expressionism that is relevant, but the conditions surrounding and indeed causing its downfall which
inspired the Quay Brothers.
One thematic influence of German Expressionism and Nazi influence clear in Expressionist cinema in
oppression; present in iconic pieces such as Metropolis (directed by Fritz Lang) and Nosferatu
(Murnau) in which either a dystopian oppression over scores the entire film (Metropolis) or an
oppression born from fear, rendering
communities silent in their terror
(Nosferatu).
I ask every German and every man
everywhere under Nazi domination to
show the world by his action that in his
heart he does not share these insane
criminal desires - Franklin D. Roosevelt
March 24, 1944.
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Franklin Roosevelt asks for freedom from
Nazi Oppression in his statement to the
victims of the tyranny, it was met largely
with ridicule from the Nazi forces for its

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FROM CALIGARI TO METROPOLIS: German Expressionist Cinema, 1917-1929
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Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay Biography by the European Graduate School
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http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/statement-on-victims-of-nazi-oppression/
Count Orlock from
Nosferatu
My Parent character
Alexander Morrall
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idealism. I personally found the repeated inclusion of oppression as a central theme within German
Expressionist film daring, with satirical comments in Metropolis condemning societys licentious
attitudes and Nosferatu criticising societys fear of difference and refusal to act under conditions of
hardship. From this my character creation of the parent figure was inspired, looking at Count
Orlocks deceivingly debonair faade masking his murderous intentions it is clear his lengthened
costume and tendril like limbs inspired my parents skeletal look and deceivingly upper class coat
tails and top hat masking his morals as a bad parent similar to Count Orlocks condition as a vampire;
instead of sucking blood it could be said my character drains the life of his/her child.
Contemporary thriller directors such as Alfred Hitchock (Psycho) and Stanely Kubrick (The Shining)
can trace their filmmaking inspirations back to German Expressionist cinema and directors such as
Fritz Lang, with masterpieces
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such as M. M, the story of a child murder evading capture and
eventually meeting justice in the hands of Berlins underworld, initially rejected by Nazi dictatorship
over interest of the public
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but forced into production by the directing powerhouse that was Fritz
Lang, making his first talking film. Lang was a pioneer, paving the way for contemporary cinema
with his Expressionist style and revolutionary use of sound. In his film M Lang employed German
composer Adolf Jansen to score the film. Until M was released in 1931 film not only in German
Expressionism but all mainstream cinema were confined to musical scores running over a scene
with little interaction with the action on screen but simply played over it. Fritz Lang requested
Jansons music be bespoke to each scene, changing
with the occurrences on screen. It is from this one of
Langs most relevant and influential legacy came; the
character specific theme. To draw in comparison with
more contemporary work, Bernard Herrmanns iconic
theme from Psycho: the shower scene has transcended
history as the scariest theme of all time
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, however
without Langs use of music within M the gauntlet for
scene specific composing would not have been there to
influence such contemporary as Hitchcock.
Fritz Lang is also noted for his use of sound in
combination with light; as we see the Hans Beckert
stare through a glass window in a slightly insane,
melancholy fashion we hear disjointed, sad orchestral
music, mimicking his movements exactly. Lang used
light combined with music top express his narrative in
less literal ways, often using mirrors and reflections to
create surreal compositions. To the left we see Hans

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The Mark of M By Stanley Kauffmann
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How Fritz Lang escaped the Nazis by Paul Gallagher
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PRS for Music -2009
Still from M
Still from my own primary recording.
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Beckert us
e a shop window as a mirror in which to see himself, the reflections of the shops interior frame
Beckerts face, creating a focal point, drawing the audience in to notice his absurd, near psychotic
facial expression, this coupled with the mirroring score gives a greater insight into the characters
mind, enriching the plot. This inspired my own use of light and sound, passing a spotlight over a
figures face in a primary film recording. I did this to enhance the expressionless face of the figure by
drawing the viewers eye similar to Franz Lang, with straight lines converging behind the head, using
the whole composition to highlight the face. This similarly was mirrored in music choice I used
Charlie Clousers American Horror Story Theme to score the piece, specifically the descending,
sweeping notes to mimic the drawing in effect of the light, as if both the light and sound were
pulling the audience into the figures expressionless visage. The effect is typically Expressionist;
angst, dark and dramatic with a suitably high contrast in tonality, with defined shadows and shafts of
light successful keeping the narratives tone. I feel without Expressionist influences from Fritz Lang,
contemporary filmmakers such as Hitchcock would not have explored sound in the way they have
done, using it to enhance the narrative and create iconic scenes through bespoke musical scores and
by extension inspire me to use parts of song I feel suit the visual aspects of me film the best.
To conclude this study I have found that the influence of German Expressionism within modern
filmmaking is incontrovertible; whether it is the Kyle Coopers stylistic choice of more tactile,
physical means of creation and refusal to advance with filmmaking technology paying homage to
German Expressionist directors compromise in less affluent contexts, The Quay Brothers narrative
drawing inspiration from Expressionisms decline at the hands of Nazi rule or Hitchcocks use of
music, inspired by Fritz Langs bespoke character based scores. Expressionism is in effect everywhere
in modern film in its light, sound, composition and narrative content. Within my own work, German
Expressionism has giving me a richer understanding about the means to express narrative, my style
is dark, dramatic and dynamically lit, incorporating themes of betrayal, lies and corruption all of
which trace back to the early German filmmakers and pioneers of the Expressionist movement. To
me, German Expressionism appears to be the pioneering parent movement of all modern film,
paving the way for modern greats and contemporary filmmakers to draw inspiration from, informing
their decisions stylistically and thematically.
Bibliography:
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM: THE WORLD OF LIGHT AND SHADOW Kola
FROM CALIGARI TO METROPOLIS: German Expressionist Cinema, 1917-1929
Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay Biography by the European Graduate School
Father of the green screen Metropolis: A Case Study by Sara Leedom.
The Mark of M By Stanley Kauffmann
How Fritz Lang escaped the Nazis by Paul Gallagher

Alexander Morrall
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