Narrative analysis of Charlie Chaplins The Fireman 1916

Charlie Chaplin in a very famous English actor who acts through silent movies.  The fireman (1916) is the second film that he has made.
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in England, on April 16th 1889. His father was a versatile vocalist and actor; and his mother, known under the stage name of Lily Harley, was an attractive actress and singer, who gained a reputation for her work in the light opera field. You could literally say acting was in his blood. He is not only famous for his silent comedies but also for his famous quote saying "All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman, and a pretty girl.”
  ( Charlies Website )


The Fireman 1916 film
Charlie Chaplin plays in this film as a fireman who always does everything wrong. A man talks the Fire Chief into ignoring his burning home (he wants the insurance money) unaware that his daughter (the love of the Chief) is upstairs in the house. When the house next door catches fire its owner rouses Charlie who rouses the force to help out.  A comical experience that can get everyone laughing, showing that you don't always need dialogue to entertain.
The actors, the main ones, include: Charlie Chaplin as the main fireman
                                                         Eric Campbell as his chief
                                                         Edna Purviance as the chiefs sweetheart

Narrative Conventions

We are all used to reading narratives because we have done it from a very early age, they come in forms of fairy tales mostly and it is here that most of the theories based on narrative analysis come from and then we are able to read these narrations and compare texts with others that we understand that show these conventions. Narrative is the series of events that happens in order to construct a story. However all events must be linked in order to make sense.

When unpacking a narrative in order to find its meaning, there are a series of codes and conventions that need to be considered. When we look at a narrative we examine the conventions of

• Genre
• Character
• Form
• Time

Time and editing
When we look at the editing and time side of the film we can first look at the camera. 
After trying different effects on film making softwares i've realised that the effect called "old stager" was used which helps to give the film the old effect; causing the picture to have occasional lines through or the crackling effect. Also everything is in black and white which is easy to edit on camera's now because they've added these effects to their recording devices, this may not have been the case for the first type of filming camera's of Charlie's time (1920's). The black and white show how old the film is considering in that time coloured camera's hadn't been invented. On certain editing softwares such as Vegas 9 you can also change how much you want the image to fade into the black and white, it rates on a rating of 1-5; five being the highest which was common for the old type films (not just Charlie Chaplins) and one being the lowest fading, which looks like you've photoshopped something to the lightest shades (mainly greys or browns can be seen). Charlies films use number 5 but highten the contrast and sharpen the camera's to create the clear bright black and white and not the dull and dark versions.  This allows audiences to clearly see every expression the actors may pull or any little icons that are important in the film for example in The Fireman, we can see that Charlie's clothes are too big for him (the trousers) which gives him a smaller statue against his chief which can then symbolise his child-like behaviour around him, and how high in status the chief is compared to him. 

Camera and Filming
When filming, a lot of the film is quickened to help make it into a short film and to make sure it moves the story along.  The rushing can also lead to more accidents happening which help make the audience laugh and enjoy the comedy.
The camera stays focused in one place throughout the short film, it never follows the actors, pans to the side, or zooms in.  This may be due to the lack of equipment of the time as their equipment isn't as developed as ours now.  They help the audience to focus on the character and keep up with what trouble the clumsy fireman will end up in next.  The long shots help to show the characters full body, allowing the comedy to come through in body language more than just facial expressions, especially since the body language is enhanced for the audience to easily follow. An example of this would be the way they overuse their hands when they talk to each other.

Characters
When looking at the visual aspects of a silent-comedy hybrid trailer like we have been doing, we must take into account that to look for the narrative aspect of it we must not look into the story but more the way in which people will make it into a story and use their version of the story to interpret what's happening.  With visual it can refer to what the directors want us to see i.e the costumes, the background, the setting, the props that maybe used or the things that are not as prominent, like subtle hints of something bad happening. Or even down to the way a characters appearance. The chief in the Charlie Chaplin's short film has been made to look bigger than Charlie which can give the imitation that he is helpless compared to him. The moustache shows us that he is angry or furious by the harshness of the ends sticking out, once again his body language also shows this as he often blows his whistle and then crosses his arms, stomps about with exaggerated movement of the arms or uses "silent shouts" (shouting but without the sound) at the clumsy fireman.
When it comes to the fireman and the chiefs sweetheart meeting, we can tell of their infatuation by the way the actors behave shyly towards each other, and over feminise the female; causing her to flutter her eyelashes, the big cheesy grins and the damsel in distress behaviour.  Vladimir Propp's theory suggests that she is the heroine for the protagonist which is the clumsy fireman. He believes that there are a certain amount of characters that will pop up to display the narrative in most movies and The Fireman (1916) shows these characters easily. Allowing the audience to identify almost instantly what character is playing what role.

GenreMany people get confused in thinking that silent film is a genre, however it isn't. In fact, with the exception of musicals (although Von Stroheim did a silent version of The Merry Widow) they can contain as many genres as the films of today. Chaplin for example shows his productions about comedy. Silent movies were a form of expressionism in Germany during the 1920's. 
This type of comedy however, shows slapstick comedy in which the actors mock violence and bodily harm for comic affect.