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The motion picture today is the greatest medium of expression the world has ever known. [It is] capable of giving life and form to all ideas, practical and emotional ...Its only limitation [is] human ingenuity. John Seitz, ASC, 1930
When a series of still images of a moving object are viewed at a certain speed the illusion of motion is created.
In the case of the running horse above the series of eleven still photos shown below are presented sequentially at 0.1 second intervals to create the appearance of continuous motion.
Later, we would give impressive names to the two factors that created this illusion of motion the illusion that lies at the base of both motion pictures and television.
The phi phenomenon that explains why, when your view a series of slightly different still photos or images in rapid succession, an illusion of movement is created in the transition between the images. Persistence of vision, which explains why the intervals between the successive images merge into a single image as our eyes hold one image long enough for the next one to take its place. In actual fact, there is nothing moving in motion pictures. It's all an illusion based on these two phenomena.
Motion picture projectors present images at 24-frames per-second, with each of those frames flashed on the screen twice. This high speed makes the transition between images virtually invisible. So, as a result of a $25,000 bet, the foundation for motion pictures and television was inadvertently established. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Although the foundation may have been laid, watching a series of drawings or still photos flip by is very different than sitting back and watching a movie. To see how the process got started we need to back up to 1822. In that year, Joseph Nicphore Nicepce in France was first able to produce a crude photographic image. But, it was Lous Daguerre in 1839, who came up with a process that could actually be considered photography. His photos were referred to as daguerreotypes. (Note: If you invent something, you can name it after yourself and be famous throughout history!)
Even so, there were obvious problems with this process in addition to everyone having to learn how to spell daguerreotype. The only way to capture real-life images was to make metal plates light-sensitive by painting them with a liquid solution while you were in a darkroom. Then you would need to run out and exposing them one at a time in a camera before they dried. And then you had to had run back into the darkroom and develop them. Not a simple or fun process. A gentleman by the name of Hannibal Goodwin greatly simplified the process in 1889, when he developed a transparent, pliable film base called celluloid. The next step was to create long strips of film where a series of still pictures could be captured in rapid succession. Cameras and projectors were developed that could do this at a rate of 16 frames per-second. (The rate was later moved up to 18, and eventually to 24 per-second.) A few years later the concept was adopted by George Eastman of Eastman Kodak fame. He added some of his own innovations and eventually standardized the film for cameras and projectors.
This, of course, turned out to be a major marketing miscalculation just one of the many that would become a part of film, radio and TV history. (And we might include the world of computers if we remember the IBM executive in the early days of computers who said that a half a dozen computers would be all the world could ever use!) Meanwhile, around the world, scores of inventors had introduced their own "movie machines." In fact, so many motion picture devices appeared at about the same time that no one person can truly be credited with the invention. People in England, France, Germany, and the United States all came up with motion picture devices at about the same time. According to popular history, it was the Lumire brothers in France who first did what Edison initially didn't want to do devise a projector that could show motion pictures on a screen for an audience. They called their invention cinematographe. In 1895, they started producing a series of short films as in really short 30 to 60 seconds. They started showing them in a Paris cafe and charging a one-franc admission. These films covered such blockbuster issues as a man falling off a horse and a child trying to catch a fish in a fishbowl. (It didn't take much to excite an audience in those days.) Meanwhile, back in the United States, Edison eventually saw the light and devised his own projector but, not until some other Americans forced his hand by introducing their own projector, the vitascope. Edison then came up with the concept of a battery operated motion picture camera. Interestingly, he didn't seem to have much confidence in the long-range possibilities of either the camera or his kinetoscope. When he applied for patents, he didn't pay the extra $150 required to secure an international copyright. That little oversight would cost him millions in profits in the coming years. (On the other hand, they also said TV would just be a passing fad!) After George Eastman bought the rights to make celluloid (film), he standardized the film gage (size) so that it could be readily used in different types of production equipment. The film was 35mm wide and had sprocket holes on each side. (Note illustration on the left). Gear teeth fit into these
holes, making it possible to pull the film through cameras and projectors at a steady rate. The images on the film were each 1 X 3/4-inch (2.5 x 2 cm) in size. Later, a sound track would be added on one side of the film next to the sprocket holes. The celluloid film was wound on reels, as shown on the right. Since the reels only held about 12 minutes of film, they regularly had to be changed during filming. During viewing, if the production was longer than what could fit on one reel, the projector had to be stopped and the audience given an intermission while one reel was taken down and another loaded. Later, two projectors would be used so that the film reels could be alternated between projectors, making an instant switchover possible. As we noted, the first film gauge (size) to be standardized was 35mm. Today, some 120 years later, this is still the standard film gage for motion picture work. Later, the 16mm and 8mm (and super-16 and super-8) film gauges would be added. Once a basic film gauge was adopted, cameras and projectors could be manufactured without fear of major incompatibilities in the marketplace. At this point the foundation for motion pictures was in place.
As the films got more popular and longer, the vaudeville acts disappeared from the nickelodeons and the motion picture theater was born if you can call a small room with wooden benches a motion picture theater. Since nickelodeons only charged a five-cent admission fee, they had to depend on audience turnover to generate profits. This meant that movies had to be changed regularly sometimes even daily to keep people coming back. Obviously, early studios had to turn out large numbers of films to meet the demand. The studios of the early 1900s were appropriately called "film factories." At that time they were primarily located in New York and New Jersey. As we will see, this would soon change.
suspense could be introduced into films by alternating shots of "the bad guys" doing their illegal thing and "the good guys" trying to bring them to justice. In this regard not much has changed in the last century. Actually, Porter had stolen some of his ideas from European films primarily from a Frenchman named Georges Mlis, a man credited with virtually inventing special effects with his film, Trip to the Moon. (Part One) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI9OaZHxk64&feature=related (Part Two) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjjTAuh2ACY&feature=related The film editor's job in those days was simple; just take out the blank film leader at the beginning and ends of reels and splice the whole thing together. Strangely, during the early days of film, some producers resisted the use of close-ups, arguing that they had paid for the whole actor, so they wanted to see the whole actor at all times. (With their eyes focused squarely on money, maybe they should have reasoned that if close-ups were used, they should only have to pay about 1/4th the full actor's wages!)
freedom that was being given to the press, literature, and the theater. In deciding against the Mutual Film Corporation, they used the argument that films were amusements and not artistic works, a decision that would seem to instantly elevate the theater and the press to art forms! As a result of the Supreme Court decision film censorship boards sprung up in most states to make sure that films shown in their area adhered to their particular view of morality. Almost 50 years later, the Supreme Court reversed itself, finally allowing films the same First Amendment protection as the other mass media. Even so, for several decades after this decision many state censorship boards hung on to their power over film content. Many would later redefine their purpose as being "advisory." We'll discuss the MPAA motion picture rating systemPG, PG-13, R, etc.later.
At this point there still wasn't sound or color. Dialogue initially appeared as fullframe text on the screen after actors spoke their lines. Later, the dialogue was superimposed over the picture, as shown here. There was one major advantage of this "silent" approach: it was easy to change the dialogue into any language, which meant that the films could readily be exported to other countries. As we will see, this issue represented a major stumbling block when sound was introduced.