Abstract
This essay demonstrates how multimodal analysis and scholarly collaboration fostered by the Media Ecology Project (MEP) can offer a methodological intervention in the study of performance in early cinema. This research asks what distinguished the performances of Florence Lawrence (known as the “Biograph Girl”) from other performers’ acting modalities during the rise of Hollywood’s star system. To help answer this question, the author created a set of movement annotation guidelines, using Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) as an analytical framework, which a team of scholars used to annotate digitized films of Lawrence and her contemporaries from the Library of Congress’ Paper Print Collection. The broad applicability of this system makes this approach to studying actors’ movement applicable to many research questions related to performance styles. This project demonstrates the utility of MEP’s integration with the Mediathread and Semantic Annotation Tool platforms for collaborative data generation, outcome analysis, and dissemination of data to other formats for further visualization. The resulting analysis of Lawrence’s figure movement reveals her to be a versatile actor with an expansive physicality who quickly grasped the economic and aesthetic benefits of generic repeatability.
Recommended Citation
Oyallon-Koloski, Jenny
(2024)
"Annotating FloLo: How the Media Ecology Project Fostered Early Cinema Performance Analysis and Collaborative Research,"
The Journal of e-Media Studies: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1938-6060.A.498
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/joems/vol7/iss1/6
Figure 1. Jenny Oyallon-Koloski’s annotations of Florence Lawrence’s staging in Mrs. Jones’ Lover (Griffith, 1909). Courtesy of the Paper Print collection at the Library of Congress.
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Figure 2. Jenny Oyallon-Koloski’s annotations of Florence Lawrence’s gestures in A Baby’s Shoe (Griffith, 1909). Courtesy of the Paper Print collection at the Library of Congress.
Mrs. Jones_ Lover (1909) Clip 3 - Oyallon-Koloski.mp4 (49811 kB)
Clip 1. Lawrence crouches and crawls in Mrs. Jones’ Lover (Griffith, 1909). Courtesy of the Paper Print collection at the Library of Congress.
Mr. Jones at the Ball (1908) Clip 4 - Oyallon-Koloski.mp4 (9397 kB)
Clip 2. Lawrence falls down in Mr. Jones at the Ball (Griffith, 1908). Courtesy of the Film Preservation Society and the Paper Print collection at the Library of Congress.
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Figure 5. Florence Lawrence in The Salvation Army Lass (Griffith, 1909). Courtesy of the Paper Print collection at the Library of Congress.
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Figure 6. One of Anna Morgan’s drawings of a Delsarte posture for “Go!” in An Hour with Delsarte (34).