Chapter 2

STORY TOLD BY THE CAMERA:

SHOT, SCENE AND SEQUENCE
Plot
Begin End
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Climax
Story

time order

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Shot, Scene and Sequence
A Shot usually refers to the cameraman
shooting one length of continuous
(unedited) action.
A scene is composed of several shots, usually
completed in one setting or relevant settings.
A sequence can be divided into one or
more scenes.
Edwin S. Porter (1870-1941)
Porter is an American film producer, director, studio manager and
cinematographer. As the Edison Manufacturing Company's director-
cameraman, he filmed The Great Train Robbery (1903).
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Discussion Qs for The Great Train Robbery (1903)
1: How many sequences can you identify from The Great Train
Robbery?
2: What are the scenes in The Great Train Robbery? Identify and
describe them.
3: Putting together the scenes, how did Dir. Porter tell the story in The
Great Train Robbery?
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Background

One of the milestones in film history was the first narrative film, The Great Train
Robbery (1903), directed and photographed by Edwin S. Porter - a former Thomas Edison
cameraman. It was a primitive one-reeler action picture, about 10 minutes long, with 14-
scenes, filmed in November 1903 - not in the western expanse of Wyoming but on the East
Coast in various locales in New Jersey (at Edison's New York studio, at Essex County Park
in New Jersey, and along the Lackawanna railroad).

The precursor to the western film genre was based on an 1896 story by Scott Marble. The
film's title was also the same as a popular contemporary stage melodrama. It was the most
popular and commercially successful film of the pre-nickelodeon era, and established the
notion that film could be a commercially-viable medium.

The film was originally advertised as "a faithful duplication of the genuine 'Hold Ups' made
famous by various outlaw bands in the far West." The plot was inspired by a true event that
occurred on August 29, 1900, when four members of George Leroy Parker's (Butch
Cassidy) 'Hole in the Wall' gang halted the No. 3 train on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks
toward Table Rock, Wyoming. The bandits forced the conductor to uncouple the passenger
cars from the rest of the train and then blew up the safe in the mail car to escape with about
$5,000 in cash.

The film used a number of innovative techniques, many of them for the first time, including
parallel editing, minor camera movement, location shooting and less stage-bound camera
placement. Jump-cuts or cross-cuts were a new, sophisticated editing technique, showing
two separate lines of action or events happening continuously at identical times but in
different places. The film is intercut from the bandits beating up the telegraph operator
(scene one) to the operator's daughter discovering her father (scene ten), to the operator's
recruitment of a dance hall posse (scene eleven), to the bandits being pursued (scene
twelve), and splitting up the booty and having a final shoot-out (scene thirteen). The film
also employed the first pan shots (in scenes eight and nine), and the use of an ellipsis (in
scene eleven). Rather than follow the telegraph operator to the dance, the film cut directly to the dance where the telegraph operator enters. It was also
the first film in which gunshots forced someone to dance (in scene eleven) - an oft-repeated, cliched action in many westerns. And the spectacle of the
fireman (replaced by a dummy with a jump cut in scene four) being thrown off the moving train was a first in screen history.

In the film's fourteen scenes, a narrative story with multiple plot lines was told - with elements that were copied repeatedly afterwards by future westerns -
of a train holdup with six-shooters, a daring robbery accompanied by violence and death, a hastily-assembled posse's chase on horseback after the
fleeing bandits, and the apprehension of the desperadoes after a showdown in the woods. The steam locomotive always provided a point of reference
from different filming perspectives. The first cowboy star, Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson played several roles: a bandit, a passenger who was shot in
the back, and a tenderfoot dancer. The remarkable film was greeted with the same kind of fanfare that Sam Peckinpah's violent The Wild Bunch (1969)
received many years later.

The Story

The action of each scene is told with only one shot. Almost every shot is a static, long shot, confining the action to the perspective of the camera at eye
level. Tension and excitement is achieved by moving the players, rather than moving the camera angles.

Beginning/Ending:

The ending (or the beginning - it was interchangeable) helped place the film in history books - a gun was pointed straight at the audience by a bandit and
fired right in their faces to startle them. (see end of film)

Scene 1: The interior of the railroad telegraph office:

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Two masked robbers enter a rural RR telegraph office and force the station's telegraph operator to get
the 'signal block' to stop an approaching train. Through the window of the station, the train is seen
coming to a stop. They make him write a false order to the engineer to take on water at this station
(instead of at "Red Lodge," the regular watering stop). The bandits crouch out of sight while pointing
their revolvers at him, as the train conductor approaches the window. The frightened telegraph operator
delivers the note with the fictitious order to the conductor. As soon as the conductor leaves, they knock
the operator out with a blow to the head. They tie his legs together and his arms behind his back and leave him on the floor. The bandits also place a gag
around his mouth. They quickly move outside to catch up with the train, seen starting to move through the window.

Scene 2: The railroad water tower:

The bandits hide behind the water tower near the station as the train slowly pulls up and takes on water - due to the false order.
The desperadoes stealthily sneak on board the train (between the tender, the car attached to the steam locomotive that carries
fuel and water, and the express mail car) just before it pulls away.

Scene 3: Side view of the interior of the express mailcar:

The car's mail messenger is busy at work in the mail car as the train moves along. Through the open side door of the car,
moving scenery can be seen. The worker is alarmed when he hears an unusual sound. He peeks through the door's keyhole
leading to the tender and locomotive cab and sees the two bandits trying to break through the express car door. After being
startled, he quickly recovers and locks the strong box containing the valuables, and throws the key out of the open side door. He
draws his revolver and crouches behind the work desk, just as the robbers break down the door and enter. After a pistol duel, the
messenger is killed.

While one of the bandits stands watch by the door, the other one tries to open the strong box. When he
finds it locked, he vainly searches the messenger's pocket for the key. To open it, he attaches an
explosive to the safe and then runs for cover after lighting the fuse. The dynamite explosion blows the
box open, sending billowing smoke - tinted red - and bits of money into the air. They grab the valuables
and three mail bags, and leave the car through the door leading to the locomotive cab.

Scene 4: The tender and the interior of the locomotive cab, looking toward the front of the train:

The train is moving about 40 mph. While the two bandits have been robbing the mail car, another bandit
climbs over the tender and holds the engineer at gunpoint. A fourth bandit struggles with the fireman,
who has seized a coal shovel for defense and climbed up on the tender. They have a fist-fight on the
tender until they fall. The bandit has the advantage - he lands on top of the fireman. He takes a lump of
coal and strikes the fireman on the head until he is unconscious. Then after overpowering him, he hurls
the victim's body off the top of the moving train. [This was a startling special effect, although it was only
a dummy figure.] The two bandits force the engineer to bring the train to a stop.

Scene 5: Side-view of the stopped train:

At gunpoint, the engineer is forced to leave the locomotive, and walk back to uncouple the locomotive from the rest of the
passenger cars. They walk back to the front of the train and board the locomotive. The engineer is forced to pull the train ahead
about 100 feet, leaving the rest of the cars behind.

Scene 6: An exterior scene showing the coach section of the train - the holdup.

The train passengers are forced to leave the coaches. One of the gun-wielding bandits compels
everyone to keep their hands up. All of the passengers are lined up along the adjoining train tracks.
While they are threatened and covered with a gun, the bandits rob them of their valuables. One of the
passengers (Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson) runs away from the group in an escape attempt, but is
shot in the back. After everyone has been searched and robbed, the bandits terrorize the passengers by
firing their guns into the air. They make their escape to the locomotive at the front of the train. After the
bandits have disappeared, the passengers rush to assist the wounded man on the ground.

Scene 7: The bandits board the locomotive and leave the scene of the holdup:

The bandits board the locomotive with large bags of valuables. They force the engineer to start the train and move off into the distance to the left.

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The Story (continued)

Scene 8: The engine is brought to a stop and the bandits flee:

Farther along on the tracks, several miles from the scene of the hold up, the four robbers force the engineer to stop the
locomotive. They jump from the train and escape down the side of the hill next to the tracks (the camera pans after them).

Scene 9: Their escape on horseback:

The bandits run through a beautiful valley, approaching closer into view. They cross a narrow stream. In a unique, lengthy pan
shot, the camera slowly pans to the left where they mount their tethered, waiting horses in a nearby wood, and ride off toward
the wilderness.

Scene 10: The interior of the telegraph office:

Back at the RR telegraph office of the first scene, the station operator still lies bound, gagged and unconscious on the floor. His young daughter (Mary
Snow) enters the door (her cloak tinted red) with his dinner pail. She is startled to see him on the floor. She runs to him, shakes him, and then cuts the
ropes that bind him. However, she is still unable to rouse him. Finally, she throws a glass of water in his face that brings him to consciousness. He is able
to get to his feet.

Scene 11: The interior of a typical Western dance hall:

(The director of the film uses an inventive technique called jump-cutting or inter-cutting, to cover simultaneous actions in different locales.)

Four couples are dancing a lively square dance, as others watch standing against a wall. (A few of the
ladies' dresses are tinted yellow and red). One of the less accomplished, 'greenhorn' dancers, a
tenderfoot dancer (Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson again), is pushed to the center of the floor and
forced to do a jig. Bystanders are amused and shoot their six-shooters at his feet (seen in a small cloud
of colored smoke) to make him dance faster. He runs from them when he gets the chance. The
experienced dancers resume their quadrille.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and the exhausted telegraph operator runs in. (The film technique of an ellipsis is introduced
here - a leap forward in time by the omission of non-essential material.) He alerts them to the robbery that has occurred, causing
an abrupt end to the dance. Enlisting a posse, the men grab their rifles and follow him out the door. They hastily leave the dance
hall.

Scene 12: The posse chase:

Through a forested area, the four mounted bandits ride into view, pursued closely by the large posse. As
they ride, they exchange gunfire at each other, causing smoke (tinted) to blast from the weapons. One
of the bandits is shot and falls from his horse to the ground. He staggers to his feet and fires at one of
the posse members to defend himself, but is shot dead a few moments later. The posse rides on after
the other three bandits. One of the posse members stops and looks at the dead body.

Scene 13: Pursuit and shoot-out:

The remaining bandits have dismounted from their horses. After looking around and not seeing any
danger and thinking that they have eluded their pursuers, they dump the contents of their pouches on
the ground to examine their 'take.' As they kneel and crouch down and sift through their booty, they do
not notice the members of the posse approaching on foot from behind - until it is too late. They are
surrounded. A short, ferocious gun battle begins (smoke from the guns is hand-tinted) and one by one,
the bandits are killed. A few of the posse have also lost their lives. The members of the posse gather
up the stolen loot and confiscate the bandits' guns.

Scene 14: A life-size closeup picture of the leader of the outlaw band:

The film closes with a medium shot close-up of the bandit chief (with green-tinted shirt and red-tinted kerchief in some versions) (George Barnes) with his
hat pushed back on his head. He points and shoots his revolver point-blank, directly into the camera (and, of course, at the audience). This caused a
tremendously terrifying sensation at the time.

The Bandit Firing Directly at the Audience

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