Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century Free Audiobook Download by Dana Stevens

In Camera Man, filmmaker Dana Stevens talks about her decades-long love affair with Buster Keaton's films. Stevens argues that the twentieth century is largely a creation of cinema. She also addresses how Keaton's work influenced pioneering filmmakers like Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin.

The book starts by exploring the early days of film. It discusses how Keaton and his colleagues were responsible for creating a new genre and building an entire art form from the ground up. Eventually, most people will agree that Buster's contemporaries are better known, but if you're interested in understanding where it all came from, this is a good book to read.

"Truly the first movies were Buster Keaton's, the dawn of cinema itself," wrote Lewis Jacobs. The classic comedy film Sherlock Jr. was released in 1924, and most believe it to have been the first feature-length motion picture ever screened. According to Stevens, Buster Keaton was not only a pioneer of cinema but also contributed significantly to its overall development with his use of physical comedy and physical stunts. In his work, he experimented with different types of camera angles and used editing in a way previously unexplored by filmmakers

Photographer, Buster Keaton and film producer, Joseph Schenck were able to create a new style of cinema that took the world by storm. The first years of cinematography were chaotic and wild as they experimented with their new baby. Eventually, the two were able to perfect this style which would be the precursor for all future movie making.

Buster Keaton's silent films are a revelation. At the beginning of the century, cinema was just an amusement for rich people who had money to throw around on lavish productions featuring elaborate sets and costumes. Then Buster Keaton came along. He used a camera he bought from a hardware store, which was considered old-fashioned and useless at the time, to create crudely drawn vignettes that explored man's relationship to machines and daily life. Buster Keaton built his audience by giving them what they wanted – a film without dialogue or words – and he would continue to do so for decades.

The audiobook, which is narrated by the author herself, is an enlightening exploration of the work of Buster Keaton. In 1912, Buster Keaton launched a new age in film, taking Hollywood into motion pictures with the use of a hand-cranked camera. This was the first time that a medium had been made for capturing and sharing human experience in its entirety.