My film professor claimed all silent films were shot “flat” and “were basically filmed stage plays.” Not just early stuff, but even ones from the 1920s.
I love the guy but… no. That is like the broadest generalization ever. And a wrong one considering many silent films from the 1920s were the apex of that medium’s art, telling stories that felt like cinema and not theater’s red-headed step-child. I resent the idea that silent films were all primitive shit before we got to “Real movies” in the 1930s and 1940s.
Migratory Cocoanuts 