Institutional Mode of Representation

The key code of how genres operate is the international languaage of film or Institutional Mode of Representation (IMR). In film theroy, the IMR is the style of films that developed during the Classic Era of Hollywood CInema and continues to this day. 

The 'Primitive Style' 

The "primitive style" of movie making predated classical Hollywood's continuity system (IMR). These techniques include frontal staging or a tableau style, exaggerated gestures, hardly any camera movement, and no point of view shots (POV). 

It is easy to forget, that before even this, early cinema was silent and unsophisticated - and could perhaps be easlier described as a melodramatic mime.

The FIrst ever films shown were made by The Lumire Brothers films from 1895. These films were extrodinary for their time, granted they were not the extravant plot lines we now see today, but audiences could not get over the awe of seeing a train moving towards them on a screen - some half expected for it to barrel straight into them (perhaps explaining how cinema eventually evolved to become 3D, and later even 4D). 

Some of the innovations still used today in film developed from Birth of a Nation, D.W Griffith (1915)

• The length of each shot was designed so as to influence out emotional response, with dramatic scenes cut faster
• The film was edited to create a lengthy, dramative epic narrative
• Subtitles were used
• Griffith filmed at night
• He used tinting extensively 
• Griffith used panning 
• He perfected close-ups to show emotion 
• First used the methof of cross cutting 
•  He varied his camera angles, using things like high-angle shots and panoramic long shots 

Astonishingly, Griffith achieved all this, using one camera and two lenses - in a mere nine weeks!

The Jazz Singer  (1927) introduced sound to the world of film

This was a revolutionary step in the world of film because it meant that sound could now be used to enhance the experience. It could develop the story further and added anotehr dimension. 

WIth the introduction of sound and the innovations of editing and camerawork - IMR was next... the reson you don't notice the IMR is because we don't really see films that challenge this mode. 

Examples of it are;

• Invisible camera and editing
• Psychological realism
• Linear narrative 
• Continuity editing 
• Codes of sound and image mean the same in every film