When it comes to directors F.W. Murnau is certainly one name that is prominent. Because he is one of the three great German expressionist filmmakers of the silent period his works have become significant in the course of film history. In 1922 he set out to adapt the book Dracula by Bram Stoker into a film, which he called Nosferatu. Nosferatu is very significant in film history because it is credited as the founder of the horror film genre. Nosferatu was filmed before the invention of sound so it is silent, but that is what German expressionism was all about and Murnau plays off of it well.
In this film he tended to use the stationary camera, and the majority of the film is shot in medium shots as opposed to long shots or close ups. Murnau was a genius when it came to shot composition and the majority of the shots are filmed with the characters framed inside of doors or windows in the background. …show more content…
Dracula is an example of Hollywood classical cinema, which is totally different from the expressionistic qualities of the German filmmakers. Dracula was released in 1931 in sound format, as opposed to the silent format of Nosferatu. It used both stationary and moving camera techniques with a wide array of shots, unlike the prominent stationary medium shot used in Nosferatu. Unlike the prominent use of the iris technique in Nosferatu, Dracula uses no irises and instead is composed of mainly straight cuts and a few fades in order to express the passing of