Griffith seems to have been the first to understand how certain film techniques could be used to create an expressive language; it gained popular recognition with the release of his "The Birth of a Nation" (1915). His early shorts —such as Biograph's "The Musketeers of Pig Alley" (1912), show that Griffith's attention to camera placement and lighting heightened mood and tension. In making "Intolerance" Griffith opened up new possibilities for the medium, creating a form that seems to owe more to music than to traditional narrative.