ll obvious in viewing the film today. Griffith was looking for a new visual language -- the mask, the vignette, powerful close-ups, the split and triple-split screen. Each personal drama, and there were many, was shown against a panorama of great spectacle, thereby amplifying the individual situation. These individual episodes had a very tight internal structure. All of these elements were seen by audiences for the first time in "The Birth of a Nation." The length of the film, the first Hollywood 12-reeler, almost three hours long, was also innovative, as was the original musical score played by a full orchestra. The original budget for the movie was $40.000, but it soon expanded to $110,000. To protect their investment in the fil
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