Filmmaking Techniques

Charlie Chaplin never spoke opening about his filmmaking techniques claiming this would be tantamount to a magician spoiling his own illusion. Chaplin never shot from a fully finished script until he began making spoken dialogue films with The Great Dictator in 1940. This made his filming and filmmaking unique, creating his own style and humour on the set, or during the post production phase. Chaplin's unique filmmaking techniques became known only after his death, when his rare surviving outtakes and cut sequences were carefully examined in the 1983 British documentary Unknown Chaplin.



Chaplin was an incredibly exacting director, showing his actors exactly how he wanted them to perform and shooting scores of takes until he had the shot he wanted. This is one reason why Chaplin took so much longer to complete his films than his rivals did, however this setback of taking longer to make the film became the BIGGEST advantage Chaplin had over his rivals. With his over exgaggerated directing helping the actors act more fluently and to the best of their ablities, shown in his amazing short and silent comedy films.