Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
form, and the
motion picture industryThe film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film...
. Films are produced by
recordingRecording is a process of capturing data or translating information to a format stored on a storage medium often referred to as a record.Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another...
images from the world with
camerathumb |right|Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies...
s, or by creating images using
animationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways...
techniques or
visual effectsVisual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot...
.
Films are
cultural artifactA cultural artifact is term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users...
s created by specific
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for
educatingDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
— or
indoctrinatingPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
— citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using
dubbingDubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting schedule. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who...
or subtitles that
translateTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
the dialogue.
Films are made up of a series of individual images called
framesA film frame, or just frame, is one of the many single photographic images in a motion picture. The individual frames are separated by frame lines...
. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as
persistence of visionPersistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina....
, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called
beta movementBeta movement is a perceptual illusion, described by Max Wertheimer in his 1912 Experimental Studies on the Seeing of Motion, whereby two or more still images are combined by the brain into surmised motion...
.
The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that
photographic filmPhotographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...
(also called
film stockFilm stock is photographic film on which motion pictures are shot and reproduced.-1889–1899:Modern motion picture film stock was first created thanks to the introduction of a transparent flexible film base material, celluloid, which was discovered and refined for photographic use thanks to the work...
) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including
picture,
picture show,
moving picture,
photo-play and
flick. A common name for film in the United States is
movie, while in Europe the term
cinema is preferred. Additional terms for the field in general include
the big screen,
the silver screen,
the cinema and
the movies.
History
Preceding film by thousands of years, plays and dances had elements common to film: scripts,
setsSet construction is a process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of the production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
, costumes, production,
directionA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
, actors, audiences, storyboards, and
scoresA film score is an alternative word used for the background music of a film . The term soundtrack is often confused with film score, though a soundtrack may also include songs featured in the film as well as previously released music by other artists, while the score does not...
. Much terminology later used in film theory and criticism applied, such as
mise en sceneMise-en-scène is an expression used in theatre and film to describe the design aspects of a production. It has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term" because the term has many different meanings with little consensus about its definition....
(roughly, the entire visual picture at any one time). Moving visual and aural images were not recorded for replaying as in film.
The
camera obscuraThe camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side...
was pioneered by Alhazen in his
Book of OpticsThe Book of Optics was a seven-volume treatise on optics, physics, mathematics, anatomy and psychology written by the Iraqi Muslim scientist, Ibn al-Haytham , from 1011 to 1021, when he was under house arrest in Cairo, Egypt.The book...
(1021), and later near the year 1600, it was perfected by
Giambattista della PortaGiambattista della Porta , also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, and John Baptist Porta was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation....
. Light is inverted through a small hole or
lensA lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate axial symmetry which transmits and refracts light, converging or diverging the beam. A simple lens is a lens consisting of a single optical element...
from outside, and projected onto a surface or screen, creating a moving image, but it is not preserved in a recording.
In the 1860s, mechanisms for producing two-dimensional drawings in motion were demonstrated with devices such as the
zoetropeA zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words zoe, "life" and trope, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life" or "living wheel"....
,
mutoscopeframe|right|The Mutoscope
an 1899 trade advertisementThe Mutoscope was an early motion picture device, patented by Herman Casler on November 21, 1894. Like Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope it did not project on a screen, and provided viewing to only one person at a time...
and
praxinoscopeThe praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder...
. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices (such as
magic lanternThe magic lantern or Lanterna Magica was the ancestor of the modern slide projector.*1558:Giovanni Battista della Porta describes projection with a lantern in his four volume, Latin publication entitled Magiae naturalis, Naples 1558. The etymology of the sobriquet lanterna magica may harken back...
s) and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called
persistence of visionPersistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina....
. Naturally the images needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film
animationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways...
.
With the development of
celluloidCelluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily...
film for still
photographyPhotography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor...
, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. An 1878 experiment by
Eadweard MuybridgeEadweard J. Muybridge was an English photographer, known primarily for his important pioneering work, with use of multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the celluloid film strip that is still used today."....
in the United States using 24 cameras produced a series of stereoscopic images of a galloping horse, arguably the first "motion picture," though it was not called by this name. This technology required a person to look into a viewing machine to see the pictures which were separate paper prints attached to a drum turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second, depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Commercial versions of these machines were coin operated.
By the 1880s the development of the
motion picture cameraThe movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images, each called a "frame". This is accomplished through an intermittent...
allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single
reelA reel is an object around which lengths of another material are wound for storage. Generally a reel has a cylindrical core and walls on the sides to retain the material wound around the core...
, and led quickly to the development of a
motion picture projectorA movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these "moving picture shows" onto a screen for an entire audience. These reels, so exhibited, came to be known as "motion pictures". Early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no
editingFilm editing is part of the post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selecting and joining together shots, connecting the resulting sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
or other cinematic techniques.
Ignoring Dickson's early sound experiments (1894), commercial motion pictures were purely
visual artThe visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature, such as traditional plastic arts , modern visual arts , and design and crafts...
through the late 19th century, but these innovative
silent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, synchronized dialogue was only made practical in the late 1920s with...
s had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the twentieth century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes together to tell
narrativeA narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events...
s. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were realized as effective ways to portray a story on film. Rather than leave the audience in silence, theater owners would hire a
pianistThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
or
organistThe organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet...
or a full
orchestraAn orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
to play music fitting the mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music for this purpose, with complete
film scoreA film score is an alternative word used for the background music of a film . The term soundtrack is often confused with film score, though a soundtrack may also include songs featured in the film as well as previously released music by other artists, while the score does not...
s being composed for major productions.
The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
when the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood, typified most prominently by the great innovative work of D.W. Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1914) and Intolerance (1916) . However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as
Sergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible...
,
F. W. MurnauFriedrich Wilhelm Murnau, better known as F. W. Murnau , was one of the most influential German film directors of the silent era...
, and
Fritz LangFriedrich "Fritz" Christian Anton Lang was an Austrian-German-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
,in many ways inspired by the meteoric war-time progress of film through Griffith, along with the contributions of Charles Chaplin,
Buster KeatonJoseph Frank "Buster" Keaton VI was an American comic actor and filmmaker. Best known for his silent films, his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the seventh greatest director of all...
and others, quickly caught up with American film-making and continued to further advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized...
of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These
sound filmA sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before reliable synchronization was made commercially...
s were initially distinguished by calling them "talking pictures", or
talkies.
The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of so-called "natural" color. While the addition of
soundSound is a travelling wave which is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.- Perception of sound...
quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color was adopted more gradually as methods evolved making it more practical and cost effective to produce "natural color" films. The public was relatively indifferent to color photography as opposed to black-and-white, but as color processes improved and became as affordable as
black-and-whiteBlack-and-white is a number of monochrome forms in visual arts. Most forms of visual technology start out in black and white, then slowly evolve into color as technology progresses....
film, more and more movies were filmed in color after the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, as the industry in America came to view color as essential to attracting audiences in its competition with television, which remained a black-and-white medium until the mid-1960s. By the end of the 1960s, color had become the norm for film makers.
Since the decline of the
studio systemThe studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the 1950s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often...
in the 1960s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. Various New Wave movements (including the
French New WaveThe New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema...
,
Indian New WaveThe Indian New Wave, commonly known in India as Art Cinema or Parallel Cinema as an alternative to the mainstream commercial cinema, is a specific movement in Indian cinema, known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the social-political climate of the times...
, Japanese New Wave and
New HollywoodNew Hollywood or post-classical Hollywood, sometimes referred to as the "American New Wave", refers to the time between roughly the mid-1960s to the early 1980s when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America, influencing the types of films produced, their production and...
) and the rise of film school educated independent filmmakers were all part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force in change throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.
Theory
Film theory seeks to develop concise and systematic concepts that apply to the study of film as
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
. It was started by
Ricciotto CanudoRicciotto Canudo was an early Italian film theoretician who lived primarily in France. He saw cinema as "plastic art in motion". He gave cinema the label "the Seventh Art", which is still current in French....
's
The Birth of the Sixth Art. Formalist film theory, led by
Rudolf ArnheimRudolf Arnheim was a German-born author, art and film theorist and perceptual psychologist. He himself said that his major books are Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye , Visual Thinking , and The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts , but it is...
,
Béla BalázsBéla Balázs , born Herbert Bauer, was a Hungarian-Jewish film critic, aesthete, writer and poet....
, and
Siegfried KracauerSiegfried Kracauer was aGerman-Jewish writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist.-Biography:...
, emphasized how film differed from reality, and thus could be considered a valid fine art.
André BazinAndré Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist.- Biography :Bazin was born in Angers, France, in 1918...
reacted against this theory by arguing that film's artistic essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality not in its differences from reality, and this gave rise to realist theory. More recent analysis spurred by
Jacques LacanJacques-Marie-Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis, philosophy, and literary theory. He gave yearly seminars, in Paris, from 1953 to 1981, mostly influencing France's intellectuals in the 1960s and the 1970s, especially the...
's psychoanalysis and
Ferdinand de SaussureFerdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century...
's
semioticsSemiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of sign processes , or signification and communication, signs and symbols, into three branches:...
among other things has given rise to
psychoanalytical film theoryThe concepts of psychoanalysis have been applied to films in various ways. However, the 1970s and 1980s saw the development of theory that took concepts developed by the French psychoanalyst and writer Jacques Lacan and applied them to the experience of watching a film.The film viewer is seen as...
,
structuralist film theoryThe structuralist film theory emphasizes how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions not dissimilar to the way languages are used to construct meaning in communication....
,
feminist film theoryFeminist film theory is theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. Feminists have many approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analysed and their theoretical underpinnings.-History:...
and others. On the other hand, critics from the analytical philosophy tradition, influenced by Wittgenstein, try to clarify misconceptions used in theoretical studies and produce analysis of a film's vocabulary and its link to a
form of lifeForm of life is a non-technical term used by Ludwig Wittgenstein and others in the analytic philosophy and philosophy of language traditions...
.
Language
Film is considered to have its own
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
.
James MonacoJames Monaco is an American film critic, author, and educator.He has written seven books, including The New Wave : Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette , How To Read A Film and American Film Now , and edited four others. He founded Baseline in 1982, an early online database about the...
wrote a classic text on film theory titled "
How to Read a Film". Director
Ingmar BergmanErnst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. His influential body of work often dealt with themes such as bleakness and despair, as well as comedy and hope, in his cinematic exploration of the human condition...
famously said, "
[Andrei] TarkovskyAndrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist and opera director....
for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." Examples of the language are a sequence of back and forth images of one actor's left profile speaking, followed by another actor’s right profile speaking, then a repetition of this, which is a language understood by the audience to indicate a conversation. Another example is zooming in on the forehead of an actor with an expression of silent reflection, then changing to a scene of a younger actor who vaguely resembles the first actor, indicating the first actor is having a memory of their own past.
Montage
Parallels to musical counterpoint have been developed into a theory of montage, extended from the complex superimposition of images in early silent film to even more complex incorporation of musical counterpoint together with visual counterpoint through
mise en sceneMise-en-scène is an expression used in theatre and film to describe the design aspects of a production. It has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term" because the term has many different meanings with little consensus about its definition....
and
editingEditing is the process of selecting and preparing language, images, sound, video, or film through processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media...
, as in a
balletBallet is a formalized type of performance dance, which originated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form...
or
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
; e.g., as illustrated in the gang fight scene of director
Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an Italian-American film director, producer and screenwriter. Away from showbusiness, Coppola is also a vintner, magazine publisher and hotelier. He is a graduate of Hofstra University where he studied theatre. He earned an M.F.A. in film directing from the UCLA Film School...
’s film,
Rumble FishRumble Fish is a 1983 film directed, produced and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. It is based on the novel Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton, who also co-wrote the screenplay...
.
Criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. In general, these works can be divided into two categories: academic criticism by film scholars and journalistic film criticism that appears regularly in
newspaperA newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns that express the...
s and other media.
Film critics working for
newspaperA newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns that express the...
s,
magazineMagazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, and broadcast media mainly review new releases. Normally they only see any given film once and have only a day or two to formulate opinions. Despite this, critics have an important impact on films, especially those of certain genres. Mass marketed
actionAction movies are a film genre wherein the story is largely told through physical action as opposed to dialogue. The action typically involves individual efforts on the part of the hero. While action has long been an element of films, the "Action film" as a genre of its own began to develop in the...
,
horrorHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
, and
comedy filmComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. Also, films in this style typically have a happy ending . One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies...
s tend not to be greatly affected by a critic's overall judgment of a film. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can still have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films such as most
dramasA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves,...
, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.
The impact of a reviewer on a given film's
box officeA box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a venue. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall, or at a wicket...
performance is a matter of debate. Some claim that
movie marketingFilm promotion is the practise of promotion specifically in the film industry. As with all business it is an important part of any release because of the inherent high financial risk; film studios will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to maximize revenue early in the release cycle. Marketing...
is now so intense and well financed that reviewers cannot make an impact against it. However, the cataclysmic failure of some heavily-promoted movies which were harshly reviewed, as well as the unexpected success of critically praised independent movies indicates that extreme critical reactions can have considerable influence. Others note that positive film reviews have been shown to spark interest in little-known films. Conversely, there have been several films in which film companies have so little confidence that they refuse to give reviewers an advanced viewing to avoid widespread panning of the film. However, this usually backfires as reviewers are wise to the tactic and warn the public that the film may not be worth seeing and the films often do poorly as a result.
It is argued that journalist film critics should only be known as film reviewers, and true film critics are those who take a more academic approach to films. This line of work is more often known as
film theoryFilm theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...
or film studies. These film critics attempt to come to understand how film and filming techniques work, and what effect they have on people. Rather than having their works published in newspapers or appear on television, their articles are published in scholarly journals, or sometimes in up-market magazines. They also tend to be affiliated with colleges or universities.
Industry
The making and showing of motion pictures became a source of profit almost as soon as the process was invented. Upon seeing how successful their new invention, and its product, was in their native France, the
LumièresThe Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean , were among the earliest filmmakers...
quickly set about touring the Continent to exhibit the first films privately to royalty and publicly to the masses. In each country, they would normally add new, local scenes to their catalogue and, quickly enough, found local entrepreneurs in the various countries of Europe to buy their equipment and photograph, export, import and screen additional product commercially. The
Oberammergau Passion PlayOberammergau Passion Play is a passion play performed since 1634 as a tradition by the inhabitants of the village of Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany.- Oberammergau Passion Play 2010 :...
of 1898 was the first commercial motion picture ever produced. Other pictures soon followed, and motion pictures became a separate industry that overshadowed the vaudeville world. Dedicated
theatersA movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
and companies formed specifically to produce and distribute films, while motion picture actors became major
celebritiesA celebrity is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. The desire to be notable is implied by some to be a part of Western culture and more specifically the...
and commanded huge fees for their performances. Already by 1917,
Charlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer Chaplin, KBE was an English comedic actor and film director. Chaplin became one of the most famous actors as well as a notable filmmaker, composer and musician in the early to mid Classical Hollywood era of American cinema.Chaplin acted in, directed, scripted, produced and...
had a contract that called for an annual salary of one million dollars.
From 1931 to 1956, film was also the only image storage and playback system for television programming until the introduction of videotape recorders.
In the United States today, much of the film industry is centered around Hollywood. Other regional centers exist in many parts of the world, such as
MumbaiMumbai, formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper is the most-populous in the world, with approximately 14 million inhabitants. Along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms the world's 4th largest urban agglomeration, with around...
-centered
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
, the
Indian film industry'sThe cinema of India consists of films produced across India, including the cinematic culture of Mumbai along with the cinematic traditions of provinces such as Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh...
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
cinema which produces the largest number of films in the world. Whether the ten thousand-plus feature length films a year produced by the
ValleyThe San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in Southern California, United States. More than half of the city of Los Angeles' land area lies within the San Fernando Valley...
pornographic film industry should qualify for this title is the source of some debate. Though the expense involved in making movies has led cinema production to concentrate under the auspices of
movie studioA movie studio is, in the established sense of the term, a company that distributes films. Literally, however, the term denotes a controlled environment for the making of a motion picture. This environment may be interior , exterior , or both...
s, recent advances in affordable film making equipment have allowed independent film productions to flourish.
Profit is a key force in the industry, due to the costly and risky nature of filmmaking; many films have large cost overruns, a notorious example being Kevin Costner's
WaterworldWaterworld is a 1995 post-apocalyptic science fiction film. The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds, co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it...
. Yet many filmmakers strive to create works of lasting social significance. The
Academy AwardsThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
(also known as "the Oscars") are the most prominent film awards in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, providing recognition each year to films, ostensibly based on their artistic merits.
There is also a large industry for educational and instructional films made in lieu of or in addition to lectures and texts.
Associated fields
Derivative academic Fields of study may both interact with and develop independently of filmmaking, as in
film theoryFilm theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...
and analysis. Fields of academic study have been created that are derivative or dependent on the existence of film, such as
film criticismFilm criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
, film history, divisions of film
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
in authoritarian governments, or psychological on subliminal effects of a flashing soda can during a screening. These fields may further create derivative fields, such as a movie review section in a newspaper or a television guide. Sub-industries can spin off from film, such as popcorn makers, and toys. Sub- industries of pre-existing industries may deal specifically with film, such as
product placementProduct placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the good or...
in
advertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
.
Terminology used
Most people use "film" and "movie" interchangeably . "Film" is more often used when considering artistic, theoretical, or
technicalTechnology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment...
aspects, as studies in a university class. "Movies" more often refers to
entertainmentAn entertainment is any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time.Entertainment is typically passive - as in watching opera or a movie. Activities which involve participating in games or sports are more often considered to be recreation...
or
commercialCommerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. It comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information, or money between two or more entities...
aspects, as where to go for fun on a date. For example, a book titled "How to Read a Film" would be about the aesthetics or theory of film, while "Lets Go to the Movies" would be about the history of entertaining movies. "Motion pictures” or "Moving pictures" are films and movies. A "
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
", "
videotapeVideotape is a means of recording images and sound on to magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
", "
videoVideo is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.-History:...
" or "vid" is a digital reproduction of an analogue film, or a product with all of the elements of an analogue film but made in an electromagnetic storage medium. "Film" refers to the media onto which a visual art is shot, and to this end it may seem improper for a digital originating work to be referred to as a "film" and the action of shooting as "filming," and yet these terms are still used. "Silent films" need not be silent, but are films and movies without an audible dialogue, though they may have a musical soundtrack. "Talkies" refers to early movies or films having
audibleHearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear...
dialogueA dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. It is also a literary form in which two or more parties engage in a discussion.-Literary and philosophical genre:...
or analogue sound, not just a musical accompaniment. "Cinema" either broadly encompasses both films and movies, or is roughly synonymous with “Film”, both capitalized when referring to a category of art. The "
silver screenA silver screen, also known as a silver lenticular screen, is a type of projection screen that was popular in the early years of the motion picture industry, and is coming back into use in projecting 3-D films....
" refers to classic black and white films before color, not to contemporary films without color.
The expression "Sight and Sound", as in the film journal of the same name, means "film". The following icons mean film - a "candle and bell", as in the films
TarkovskyAndrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist and opera director....
, of a segment of
film stockFilm stock is photographic film on which motion pictures are shot and reproduced.-1889–1899:Modern motion picture film stock was first created thanks to the introduction of a transparent flexible film base material, celluloid, which was discovered and refined for photographic use thanks to the work...
, or a two faced
Janus-General:*Janus , the two-faced Roman god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings*Janus , a moon of Saturn*Janus Patera, a shallow volcanic crater on Io, a moon of Jupiter...
image, and an image of a movie camera in profile.
"
WidescreenA widescreen image is a film, computer or television image with a wider and shorter aspect ratio than the standard Academy frame developed during the classical Hollywood cinema era. Silent film was projected at a ratio of four units wide to three units tall, often expressed as 4:3 or 1.33:1...
" and "
CinemascopeCinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used from 1953 to 1967 for shooting widescreen movies created by the president of 20th Century Fox from 1953, and marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection...
" refers to a larger width to height in the
frameA film frame, or just frame, is one of the many single photographic images in a motion picture. The individual frames are separated by frame lines...
, compared to an earlier historic
aspect ratioThe aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
s. A "feature length film", or "
feature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening...
", is of a conventional full length, usually 60 minutes or more, and can commercially stand by itself without other films in a ticketed screening. A "
shortShort film is a technical description originally coined in the Indian Film Industry and used in the North American film industry in the early period of cinema. The description is now used almost interchangeably with short subject...
" is a film that is not as long as a feature length film, usually screened with other shorts, or preceding a feature length film. An "
independentAn independent film, or indie film, is a film that is produced outside of any major film studio. Originally, this term denoted independence from Paramount Pictures, MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., RKO, Universal Pictures, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures, the 8 major studio entities...
" is a film made outside of the conventional film industry.
A "
screeningA film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film. Sometimes the term refers to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle, but it is also used for a routine event open to the public...
" or "
projectionA movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
" is the projection of a film or video on a
screenA projection screen is an installation consisting of a surface and a support structure used for displaying a projected image for the view of an audience. Projection screens may be permanently installed as in a movie theater, painted on the wall , semi-permanent or mobile, as in a conference room or...
at a public or private theater, usually but not always of a film, but of a video or DVD when of sufficient projection quality. A "
double feature----The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.----The double feature, also...
" is a screening of two independent, stand-alone, feature films. A "
viewingIn funeral services, a viewing is the time that the family and friends come to see the deceased after they have been prepared by a funeral home...
" is a watching of a film. A "showing" is a screening or
viewingIn funeral services, a viewing is the time that the family and friends come to see the deceased after they have been prepared by a funeral home...
on an electronic
monitorA video monitor also called a broadcast monitor, broadcast reference monitor or just reference monitor, is a device similar to a television, used to monitor the output of a video-generating device, such as a media playout server, IRD, video camera, VCR, or DVD player. It may or may not have audio...
. "
SalesA sale is the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.A sale is completed by the seller, the owner of the goods...
" refers to tickets sold at a theater, or more currently, rights sold for individual showings. A "
releaseA film release is the stage at which a completed film is legally authorized by its owner for public distribution.The process includes locating a distributor to handle the film. For example, a film may be shown at a film festival or trade show in order to attract distributor attention and, if...
" is the distribution and often simultaneous screening of a film. A "
previewPreviews are a set of public performances of a theatrical presentation that precede its official opening. The purpose of previews is to allow the director and crew to identify problems and opportunities for improvement that weren't found during rehearsals and to make adjustments before critics are...
" is a screening in advance of the main release.
"Hollywood" may be used either as a pejorative adjective, shorthand for asserting an overly commercial rather than artistic intent or outcome, as in "too Hollywood", or as a descriptive adjective to refer to a film originating with people who ordinarily work near
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
.
Expressions for Genres of film are sometimes used interchangeably for "film" in a specific context, such as a "
pornPORN may refer to:* An abbreviation for pornography* Men of Porn. a San Francisco band consisting of founder Tim Moss, Dale Crover and Billy Anderson* Pornography of The Cure...
" for a film with explicit sexual content, or "
cheeseCheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. It is produced by coagulation of the milk protein casein. Typically, the milk is acidified and addition of the enzyme rennet causes coagulation. The solids are separated and pressed into...
" for films that are light, entertaining and not
highbrowUsed colloquially as a noun or adjective, highbrow is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The word draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, and was originally simply a physical descriptor...
.
Any film may also have a "
SequelA sequel is a work in literature, film, or other media that chronologically portrays events following those of a previous work.In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear...
", which chronologically portrays events following those in the film. Film sequels may even be released first, e.g. Star Wars Episode IV.
Preview
A preview performance refers to a showing of a movie to a select audience, usually for the purposes of corporate promotions, before the public film premiere itself. Previews are sometimes used to judge audience reaction, which if unexpectedly negative, may result in recutting or even refilming certain sections (
Audience responseAudience response is a type of interaction associated with the use of audience response systems, to create interactivity between a presenter and his/her audience. Systems for co-located audiences combine wireless hardware with presentation software, and systems for remote audiences may use the...
).
Trailer
Trailers or previews are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film programme. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film (or the A movie in a double feature program) begins.
Film, or other art form?
Film may be combined with
performance artPerformance art is art in which the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. It can happen anywhere, at any time, or for any length of time. Performance art can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the...
and still be considered or referred to as a “film”. For example, when there is a live musical accompaniment to a silent film. Another example is audience participation films, as at a
midnight moviesThe term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides...
screening of
The Rocky Horror Picture ShowThe Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 British musical comedy film that parodies science fiction and horror films. Still in limited release 34 years after its premiere, it has the longest-running theatrical release in film history. It gained notoriety as a midnight movie in 1977 when audiences...
, where the audience dresses up in costume from the film and loudly does a
karaokeis a form of entertainment in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol or changing color and/or...
-like reenactment along with the film. Performance art where film is incorporated as a component is usually not called film, but a film, which could stand-alone but is accompanied by a performance may still be referred to as a film.
The act of making a film can, in and of itself, be considered a work of art, on a different level from the film itself, as in the films of
Werner HerzogWerner Herzog is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director....
.
Similarly, the playing of a film can be considered to fall within the realm of political protest art, as in the subtleties within the films of
TarkovskyAndrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist and opera director....
. A "road movie" can refer to a film put together from footage from a long road trip or vacation.
Education and Propaganda
Film is used for education and propaganda. When the purpose is primarily educational, a film is called an "educational film". Examples are recordings of lectures and experiments, or more marginally, a film based on a classic novel.
Film may be
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
, in whole or in part, such as the films made by
Leni RiefenstahlHelene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party...
in Nazi Germany, US war film trailers during World War II, or artistic films made under Stalin by
EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible...
. They may also be works of political protest, as in the films of Wajda, or more subtly, the films of
Andrei TarkovskyAndrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist and opera director....
.
The same film may be considered educational by some, and propaganda by others, such as some of the films of
Michael MooreMichael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. He is the director and producer of Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story four of the top six highest-grossing documentaries of all time...
.
Production
At its core, the means to produce a film depend on the content the filmmaker wishes to show, and the apparatus for displaying it: the
zoetropeA zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words zoe, "life" and trope, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life" or "living wheel"....
merely requires a series of images on a strip of paper. Film production can therefore take as little as one person with a camera (or without it, such as
Stan BrakhageJames Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
's 1963 film
Mothlight), or thousands of actors, extras and crewmembers for a live-action, feature-length epic.
The necessary steps for almost any film can be boiled down to conception, planning, execution, revision, and distribution. The more involved the production, the more significant each of the steps becomes. In a typical production cycle of a Hollywood-style film, these main stages are defined as:
- Development
- Pre-production
Pre-production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- Information :In the film industry, pre-production usually only commences once a project has been developed and is greenlit...
- Production
- Post-production
Post-production is part of the filmmaking process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, videos, audio recordings, photography and digital art...
- Distribution
A film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary company or occasionally an individual, which acts as the final agent between a film production company or some intermediary agent, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producer's film on the exhibitor's screen...
This production cycle usually takes three years. The first year is taken up with
development. The second year comprises
preproduction and
production. The third year,
post-production and
distribution.
The bigger the production, the more resources it takes, and the more important
financingFilm budgeting refers to managing the budget for a film during its production phase. During script development, a rough budget is produced by filmmakers in order to convince film producers and film studios to give them a greenlight for production. During pre-production, a much more detailed film...
becomes; most feature films are not only artistic works, but for-profit business entities.
Crew
A film crew is a group of people hired by a film company, employed during the "production" or "photography" phase, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture.
Crew are distinguished from
cast, the
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s who appear in front of the
camerathumb |right|Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies...
or provide voices for characters in the film. The
crew interacts with but is also distinct from the
production staff, consisting of producers, managers, company representatives, their assistants, and those whose primary responsibility falls in pre-production or post-production phases, such as writers and editors. Communication between
production and
crew generally passes through the director and his/her staff of assistants. Medium-to-large crews are generally divided into departments with well defined hierarchies and standards for interaction and cooperation between the departments. Other than acting, the crew handles everything in the photography phase: props and costumes, shooting, sound, electrics (i.e., lights), sets, and production special effects. Caterers (known in the film industry as "craft services") are usually not considered part of the crew.
Technology
Film stockFilm stock is photographic film on which motion pictures are shot and reproduced.-1889–1899:Modern motion picture film stock was first created thanks to the introduction of a transparent flexible film base material, celluloid, which was discovered and refined for photographic use thanks to the work...
consists of transparent
celluloidCelluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily...
,
acetateAn acetate, or ethanoate, is either a salt or ester of ethanoic acid.In chemistry, the abbreviation Ac refers to the acetyl group. The anion and the functional group may be written as −OAc and AcO−, or OAc respectively...
, or
polyesterPolyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
baseA film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock...
coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive chemicals. Cellulose nitrate was the first type of film base used to record motion pictures, but due to its flammability was eventually replaced by safer materials. Stock widths and the
film formatA film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film, for either stills or movies. It can also apply to projected film, either slides or movies. The primary characteristic of a film format is its size and shape.In the case of...
for images on the reel have had a rich history, though most large commercial films are still shot on (and distributed to theaters) as
35 mm35 mm film is the basic film gauge most commonly used for both still photography and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, using film stock supplied by George Eastman. The photographic film is cut into strips...
prints.
Originally moving picture film was shot and projected at various speeds using hand-cranked
camerasThe movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images, each called a "frame". This is accomplished through an intermittent...
and
projectorsA movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
; though 1000 frames per minute (16⅔ frame/s) is generally cited as a standard silent speed, research indicates most films were shot between 16 frame/s and 23 frame/s and projected from 18 frame/s on up (often reels included instructions on how fast each scene should be shown). When
sound filmA sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before reliable synchronization was made commercially...
was introduced in the late 1920s, a constant speed was required for the sound head. 24 frames per second was chosen because it was the slowest (and thus cheapest) speed which allowed for sufficient sound quality. Improvements since the late 19th century include the mechanization of cameras — allowing them to record at a consistent speed, quiet camera design — allowing sound recorded on-set to be usable without requiring large "blimps" to encase the camera, the invention of more sophisticated
filmstocksFilm stock is photographic film on which motion pictures are shot and reproduced.-1889–1899:Modern motion picture film stock was first created thanks to the introduction of a transparent flexible film base material, celluloid, which was discovered and refined for photographic use thanks to the work...
and
lensesA lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate axial symmetry which transmits and refracts light, converging or diverging the beam. A simple lens is a lens consisting of a single optical element...
, allowing
directorsA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
to film in increasingly dim conditions, and the development of synchronized sound, allowing sound to be recorded at exactly the same speed as its corresponding action. The soundtrack can be recorded separately from shooting the film, but for live-action pictures many parts of the soundtrack are usually recorded simultaneously.
As a medium, film is not limited to motion pictures, since the technology developed as the basis for
photographyPhotography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor...
. It can be used to present a progressive sequence of still images in the form of a slideshow. Film has also been incorporated into
multimediaMultimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material...
presentations, and often has importance as primary historical documentation. However, historic films have problems in terms of preservation and storage, and the motion picture industry is exploring many alternatives. Most movies on cellulose nitrate base have been copied onto modern safety films. Some studios save color films through the use of
separation mastersSeparation masters are a method of long-term preservation for most modern color motion picture film. Since monopack color film - used in such processes as ECN, ECP and their successive revisions - contains photographically active color couplers which remain in the film after development, the...
— three B&W negatives each exposed through red, green, or blue filters (essentially a reverse of the
TechnicolorTechnicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
process). Digital methods have also been used to restore films, although their continued obsolescence cycle makes them (as of 2006) a poor choice for long-term preservation.
Film preservationThe film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain. In the widest sense, preservation nowadays assures that a movie will continue...
of decaying film stock is a matter of concern to both film historians and archivists, and to companies interested in preserving their existing products in order to make them available to future generations (and thereby increase revenue). Preservation is generally a higher-concern for nitrate and single-strip color films, due to their high decay rates; black and white films on safety bases and color films preserved on Technicolor imbibition prints tend to keep up much better, assuming proper handling and storage.
Some films in recent decades have been recorded using analog
videoVideo is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.-History:...
technology similar to that used in television production. Modern
digital video camerasDigital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
and digital projectors are gaining ground as well. These approaches are extremely beneficial to moviemakers, especially because footage can be evaluated and edited without waiting for the film stock to be processed. Yet the migration is gradual, and as of 2005 most major motion pictures are still recorded on film.
Independent
Independent filmmaking often takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major
studio systemThe studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the 1950s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often...
s. An independent film (or indie film) is a film initially produced without financing or distribution from a
major movie studio. Creative, business, and technological reasons have all contributed to the growth of the indie film scene in the late 20th and early 21st century.
On the business side, the costs of big-budget studio films also leads to conservative choices in cast and crew. There is a trend in Hollywood towards co-financing (over two-thirds of the films put out by
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
in 2000 were joint ventures, up from 10% in 1987). A hopeful director is almost never given the opportunity to get a job on a big-budget studio film unless he or she has significant industry experience in film or television. Also, the studios rarely produce films with unknown actors, particularly in lead roles.
Before the advent of digitalDigital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common...
alternatives, the cost of professional film equipment and stock was also a hurdle to being able to produce, direct, or star in a traditional studio film.
But the advent of consumer camcorderA camcorder is an electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into one unit.In order to differentiate it from other devices that are capable of recording video, like cell phones and compact digital cameras, a camcorder is generally identified as a portable device primarily...
s in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of high-resolution digital videoDigital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
in the early 1990s, have lowered the technology barrier to movie production significantly. Both production and post-production costs have been significantly lowered; today, the hardware and software for post-production can be installed in a commodity-based personal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator...
. Technologies such as DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
s, FireWireThe IEEE 1394 interface is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer, frequently used by personal computers, as well as in digital audio, digital video, automotive, and aeronautics applications. The interface is also known by the brand...
connections and non-linear editing systemA non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing system which can perform random access on the source material.-Non-linear editing:...
pro-level software like Adobe Premiere ProAdobe Premiere Pro is a real-time, timeline based video editing software application. It is part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe Systems, though it can also be purchased separately. Even when purchased separately,...
, Sony VegasSony Vegas is a non-linear editing system originally published by Sonic Foundry, now owned and run by Sony Creative Software. It is designed to be used on Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. In April 2007, Sony along with AMD jointly demonstrated a 64-bit version of Vegas running on 64-bit Vista...
and Apple's Final Cut ProFinal Cut Pro is a professional non-linear editing software application developed by Apple Inc. The current version of the application is only available for Mac OS X version 10.5.6 or later, and is a module of the Final Cut Studio product. The software logs and captures video onto a hard drive ,...
, and consumer level software such as Apple's Final Cut ExpressFinal Cut Express is a non-linear video editing application created by Apple Inc. It is the consumer version of Final Cut Pro and is designed for advanced editing of digital video as well as high-definition video, which is used by many amateur and professional videographers.-History:Final Cut...
and iMovieiMovie is a proprietary video editing software application which allows Mac users to edit their own home movies. It was originally released by Apple in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled consumer Apple model – iMac DV...
, and Microsoft's Windows Movie MakerWindows Movie Maker is a video creating/editing software included in Microsoft Windows. It contains features such as effects, transitions, titles/credits, audio track, timeline narration, and Auto Movie. New effects and transitions can be made and existing ones can be modified using XML code....
make movie-making relatively inexpensive.
Since the introduction of DVDigital Video is a digital video format created by Sony, JVC, Panasonic and other video camera producers, and launched in 1995. Its smaller tape form factor MiniDV has since become a standard for home and semi-professional video production; it is sometimes used for professional purposes as well,...
technology, the means of production have become more democratized. Filmmakers can conceivably shoot and edit a movie, create and edit the sound and music, and mix the final cut on a home computer. However, while the means of production may be democratized, financing, distribution, and marketing remain difficult to accomplish outside the traditional system. Most independent filmmakers rely on film festivals to get their films noticed and sold for distribution. The arrival of internet-based video outlets such as YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
and VeohVeoh is a San Diego, California-based company which runs an Internet Television service allowing users to find and watch major studio content, independent productions and user-generated material....
has further changed the film making landscape in ways that are still to be determined.
Open content film
An open content film is much like an independent film, but it is produced through open collaborations; its source material is available under a licenseThe verb license or grant license means to give permission. The noun license refers to that permission as well as to the document memorializing that permission. License may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement between those parties...
which is permissive enough to allow other parties to create fan fictionFan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
or derivative works, than a traditional copyright. Like independent filmmaking, open source filmmaking takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systemThe studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the 1950s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often...
s.
Fan film
A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television programA television program , television programme , or television show is a segment of content broadcast on television...
, comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurAn amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without formal training or pay. An amateur receives little or irregular income from their activities, and differs from a professional who makes a living from the pursuit and typically has some formal...
s, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to rarer full-length motion pictures.
Distribution
When it is initially produced, a feature film is often shown to audiences in a movie theaterA movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
or cinema. The identity of the first theater designed specifically for cinema is a matter of debate; candidates include Tally's Electric Theatre, established 1902 in Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh's Nickelodeon, established 1905. Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities within a few years. In the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, these theaters came to be known as nickelodeonsThe Nickelodeon was an early 20th century form of small, neighborhood movie theaters. Nickelodeons in competitive markets had a piano or organ, playing whatever music the pianist or organist knew that seemed appropriate to a scene The Nickelodeon (AE: nickel = 5¢-coin, Greek: Odeion = roofed over...
, because admission typically cost a nickel (five cents).
Typically, one film is the featured presentation (or feature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening...
). Before the 1970s, there were "double features"; typically, a high quality "A picture" rented by an independent theater for a lump sum, and a "B picture" of lower quality rented for a percentage of the gross receipts. Today, the bulk of the material shown before the feature film consists of previews for upcoming movies and paid advertisements (also known as trailers or "The TwentyThe Twenty is the mixture of advertisements, commercials for television shows, movie trailers, and theater chain branding that has become commonplace in American movie theaters. The term itself is derived from the fact that the block often takes up twenty minutes of runtime which has to be...
").
Historically, all mass marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters. Recording technology has also enabled consumers to rent or buy copies of films on VHS or DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
(and the older formats of laserdiscThe Laserdisc is an obsolete home video disc format, and was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially marketed as Discovision in 1978, the technology was licensed and sold as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Laservision, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA...
, VCDVideo CD is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc...
and SelectaVisionThe Capacitance Electronic Disc was a video playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV using a special analog needle and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records....
— see also videodiscVideodisc is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access circular disc that contains both audio and video signals recorded in an analog form. Typically, it is a reference to any such media that predates the mainstream popularity of the DVD format...
), and InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
downloads may be available and have started to become revenue sources for the film companies. Some films are now made specifically for these other venues, being released as made-for-TV moviesA television movie is a feature film that is produced for and originally distributed by a...
or direct-to-videoA film that is released direct-to-video is one which has been released to the public on home video formats before or without being released in movie theaters or broadcast on television...
movies. The production values on these films are often considered to be of inferior quality compared to theatrical releases in similar genres, and indeed, some films that are rejected by their own studios upon completion are distributed through these markets.
The movie theater pays an average of about 50-55% of its ticket sales to the movie studioA movie studio is, in the established sense of the term, a company that distributes films. Literally, however, the term denotes a controlled environment for the making of a motion picture. This environment may be interior , exterior , or both...
, as film rental fees. The actual percentage starts with a number higher than that, and decreases as the duration of a film's showing continues, as an incentive to theaters to keep movies in the theater longer. However, today's barrage of highly marketed movies ensures that most movies are shown in first-run theaters for less than 8 weeks. There are a few movies every year that defy this rule, often limited-release movies that start in only a few theaters and actually grow their theater count through good word-of-mouth and reviews. According to a 2000 study by ABN AMROABN AMRO is a Dutch bank, currently owned by RFS Holdings B.V., a consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, the Government of the Netherlands, and Banco Santander...
, about 26% of Hollywood movie studios' worldwide income came from box office ticket sales; 46% came from VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
and DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
sales to consumers; and 28% came from television (broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view).
Animation
Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motionStop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
), and then photographing the result with a special animation cameraAn animation camera, a type of rostrum camera, is a movie camera specially adapted for frame-by-frame shooting animation or stop motion. It consists of a camera body with lens and film magazines, a stand that allows the camera to be raised and lowered, and a table, often with both top and...
. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed at a speed of 16 or more frames per second, there is an illusion of continuous movement (due to the persistence of visionPersistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina....
). Generating such a film is very labor intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animationComputer animation is the art of creating moving images with the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. Increasingly it is created by means of 3D computer graphics, though 2D computer graphics are still widely used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time...
has greatly sped up the process.
File formatA file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
s like GIF, QuickTime, ShockwaveAdobe Shockwave was Macromedia's first multimedia player. It allows Adobe Director applications to be published on the Internet and viewed in a web browser on any computer which has the Shockwave plug-in installed....
and Flash allow animation to be viewed on a computer or over the Internet.
Because animation is very time-consuming and often very expensive to produce, the majority of animation for TVTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animationIndependent animation is a term used to describe animated short cartoons and feature films produced outside the professional Hollywood animation industry.- Early independent animation :The history of animation is as old as the film industry itself...
has existed at least since the 1950s, with animation being produced by independent studios (and sometimes by a single person). Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry.
Limited animationLimited animation is a process of making animated cartoons that do not follow a "realistic" approach. One of its major trademarks is the stylized design in all forms and shapes, which in the early days was referred to as modern design...
is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by UPAUnited Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films. In the late 1940s, UPA produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, most notably the Mr. Magoo series. In...
and popularized by Hanna-BarberaHanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. , was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from movie theaterA movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s to televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
.
Although most animation studios are now using digital technologies in their productions, there is a specific style of animation that depends on film. Cameraless animation, made famous by moviemakers like Norman McLarenNorman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada .-Early life:...
, Len LyeLen Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye , was a New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture...
and Stan BrakhageJames Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
, is painted and drawn directly onto pieces of film, and then run through a projector.
Future state
While motion picture films have been around for more than a century, film is still a relative newcomer in the pantheon of fine artFine art describes any art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than utility. This type of art is often expressed in the production of art objects using visual and performing art forms, including painting, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, architecture, photography and...
s. In the 1950s, when television became widely available, industry analysts predicted the demise of local movie theaters. Despite competition from television's increasing technological sophistication over the 1960s and 1970ssuch as the development of color television and large screens, motion picture cinemas continued. In fact with the rise of television's predominance, film began to become more respected as an artistic medium by contrast due the low general opinion of the quality of average television contentIn the 1980s, when the widespread availability of inexpensive videocassette recorders enabled people to select films for home viewing, industry analysts again wrongly predicted the death of the local cinemas.
In the 1990s and 2000s the development of digital DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
players, home theater amplification systems with surround sound and subwoofers, and large LCD or plasma screens enabled people to select and view films at home with greatly improved audio and visual reproduction. These new technologies provided audio and visual that in the past only local cinemas had been able to provide: a large, clear widescreen presentation of a film with a full-range, high-quality multi-speaker sound system. Once again industry analysts predicted the demise of the local cinema. Local cinemas will be changing in the 2000s and moving towards digital screens, a new approach which will allow for easier and quicker distribution of films (via satellite or hard disks), a development which may give local theaters a reprieve from their predicted demise.
The cinema now faces a new challenge from home video by the likes of a new High DefinitionHigh-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1280×720 pixels or 1920×1080 pixels...
format, Blu-ray, which can provide full HDHigh-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1280×720 pixels or 1920×1080 pixels...
1080p1080p is the shorthand name for a category of HDTV video modes. The number 1080 represents 1,080 lines of vertical resolution , while the letter p stands for progressive scan . 1080p can be referred to as full HD or full high definition although 1080i is also "Full HD"...
video playback at near cinema qualityVideo formats are gradually catching up with the resolutions and quality that film offers, 1080p in Blu-ray offers a pixel resolution of 1920×1080 a leap from the DVD offering of 720×480 and the paltry 330×480 offered by the first home video standard VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
The maximum resolutions that film currently offers are 2485×2970 or 1420×3390, UHD, a future digital video format, will offer a massive resolution of 7680×4320, surpassing all current film resolutions. The only viable competitor to these new innovations is IMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and projection standard created by Canada's IMAX Corporation. The traditional version of IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
which can play film content at an extreme 10000×7000 resolution.
Despite the rise of all new technologies, the development of the home video market and a surge of online copyright infringement, 2007 was a record year in film that showed the highest ever box-office grosses. Many expected film to suffer as a result of the effects listed above but it has flourished, strengthening film studio expectations for the future.
See also
Lists
Related topics
- Cinematic techniques
- Cinematography :Cinematographic techniques such as the choice of shot, and camera movement, can greatly influence the structure and meaning of a film.- Size of shot :The use of different shot sizes can influence the meaning which an audience will interpret....
- Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...
- Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or the archive of, for instance, the Library of Congress where all American films are deposited for copyright reasons...
- Web film
A web film is a film made with the medium of the Internet and its distribution constraints in mind. This term aims to differentiate content made for the Internet from content made for other media, such as cinema or television, that has been converted into a World Wide Web-compatible format...
External links
- Allmovie - Information on films: actors, directors, biographies, reviews, cast and production credits, box office sales, and other movie data.
- Film Site - Reviews of classic films
- Rottentomatoes.com - Movie reviews, previews, forums, photos, cast info, and more.
- The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) - Information on current and historical films and cast listings.