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My understanding was that in the early days of motion pictures, they simply borrowed most of the conventions of stage acting (for example, scenes would commonly

My understanding was that in the early days of motion pictures, they simply borrowed most of the conventions of stage acting (for example, scenes would commonly show an actor walking into a room, and continue all the way through the action or dialogue, until they had exited the set, rather than cutting out the unnecessary parts). So it would make sense for trained actors accustomed to projecting to a large audience (no wireless mics in those days), to continue projecting and enunciating in the same manner.

dredmorbius 10y ago
That's predating the talkie era. Yes, early films were shot square-on into the set, as one would film a stage production. That changed with The Great Train Robbery, which introduced a very large number of the set of camera techniques used in film since: long shots, close-ups, tracking, panning, dolly, cross-cutting, and other methods. All in 1903, by Edwin S. Porter. All that was well established by the time talkies started becoming widespread, particularly with sound-on-film in the 1930s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Train_Robbery_(1903_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Train_Robbery_(190... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_film https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_film