D. W. Griffith

1 8.8

An American film director and producer who used new camera and editing techniques like flashbacks and fade-outs

proper noun
/diː dʌbəljuː ˈɡrɪfɪθ/

: D. W. Griffith

Many film historians regard D. W. Griffith as a pioneer who introduced new storytelling methods in his movies.

Examples

Thus, A. van Domburg, in a collection of film essays published in 1936, ranked D. W. Griffith among the innovators of film for his creative use of montage.

Academic text (1990)
Crosscutting, as D. W. Griffith developed it, is a rupture looking forward to its mending, a disjunction rhythmically made to anticipate a resolving conjunction.

Academic text (1993)
You might remember the night of D.W.'s death—

Fiction book (2002)
D. W. Griffith is often credited with revolutionizing early cinema with his innovative directing techniques.
The impact of D. W. Griffith's work is still felt today in the world of filmmaking and cinematography.

Surface Forms

D. W. Griffith main

Morphology

D. + W. + Griffith

This is a proper name referring to a specific person; the constituent tokens ('D.', 'W.', 'Griffith') do not compose to the meaning 'American film director and pioneer of cinematic techniques.' Proper nouns are arbitrary and culture-specific, so a B1 learner who knows the parts would not infer the biographical/professional meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

D. W. Griffith was a film director who helped invent camera and editing tricks that make stories on screen stronger, such as flashbacks and soft fade-outs. Because he used these new ways to tell a story, his name is linked to the start of 'modern movies'.