Page "History of film" Paragraph 135

The use of insert shots, i. e. close-ups of objects other than faces, was established very early, but apart from the special case of Inserts of a letter that was being read by one of the characters, they were infrequently used before 1914.

It is really only with his * The Avenging Conscience * of 1914 that a new phase in the use of the Insert Shot starts.

As well as the symbolic inserts already mentioned, The Avenging Conscience also made extensive use of large numbers of Big Close Up shots of clutching hands and tapping feet as a means of emphasizing those parts of the body as indicators of psychological tension.

Griffith never went so far in this direction again, but his use of the Insert made its real impression on other American film-makers during the years 1914-1919.

Cecil B. DeMille was a leading figure in the increased use of the Insert, and by 1918 he had reached the point of including about 9 Inserts in every 100 shots in The Whispering Chorus.

He also pushed the insert into areas of visual sensuality inaccessible to D. W. Griffith, with such images as a Close Up of a silver-plated revolver nestling in a pile of silken sexy ribbons in a drawer in Old Wives for New ( 1918 ).