Encyclopedia
- "Motion Picture" and "Movie" redirects here. For the Rush album see Moving Pictures .
Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. The origin of the name comes from the fact that
photographic film has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including simply
picture,
photoplay,
picture show,
flick, and most commonly,
movie. Additional terms for the field in general include
the cinema,
the silver screen, and
the movies.
Films are produced by recording actual people and objects with
cameras, or by creating them using
animation techniques and/or
special effects. They comprise a series of individual frames, but when these images are shown rapidly in succession, the illusion of motion is given to the viewer. Flickering between frames is not seen due to an effect known as
persistence of vision — whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Also of relevance is what causes the perception of motion; a psychological effect identified as beta movement.
Film is considered by many to be an important
art form; films entertain, educate, enlighten and inspire audiences. The visual elements of cinema need no translation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Any film can become a worldwide attraction, especially with the addition of dubbing or
subtitles that translate the dialogue. Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them.
History of film
Mechanisms for producing artificially created, two-dimensional images in motion were demonstrated as early as the 1860s, with
devices such as the
zoetrope and the praxinoscope. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices , 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 vision. 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
animation.
With the development of celluloid film for still
photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. Early versions of the technology sometimes required the viewer to look into a special device to see the pictures. By the 1880s, the development of the
motion picture camera allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single
reel, and led quickly to the development of a
motion picture projector 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
editing or other cinematic techniques.
Motion pictures were purely
visual art up to the late 19th century, but these innovative
silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the 20th Century, films began developing a narrative structure. Films began stringing scenes together to tell narratives. 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
pianist or organist or a full
orchestra 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 purposes, with complete film scores being composed for major productions.
The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the breakout of World War I while the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of
Hollywood. However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as
Sergei Eisenstein,
F. W. Murnau and innovator D.W. Griffith continued to advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These
sound films were initially distinguished by calling them "talking pictures", or
talkies.
The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of
color. While the addition of
sound quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color was adopted more gradually. 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-white film, more and more movies were filmed in color after the end of World War II, as the industry in America came to view color an 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.
The 1950s, 1960s and 1970s saw changes in the production and style of film. New Hollywood,
French New Wave 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.
Film theory
Film theory seeks to develop concise, systematic concepts that apply to the study of film/cinema as
art. Classical film theory provides a structural framework to address classical issues of techniques, narrativity, diegesis, cinematic codes, "the image",
genre, subjectivity, and authorship. More recent analysis has given rise to psychoanalytical film theory, structuralist film theory, feminist film theory and others.
Film 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
newspapers and other media.
Film critics working for
newspapers,
magazines, 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 of films, especially those of certain genres. Mass marketed action,
horror, and
comedy films 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 dramas, 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 office performance is a matter of debate. Some claim that movie 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 theory 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.
Motion picture 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 Lumières 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 Play 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
theaters and companies formed specifically to produce and distribute films, while motion picture actors became major celebrities and commanded huge fees for their performances. Already by 1917,
Charlie Chaplin had a contract that called for an annual salary of one million dollars.
In the United States today, much of the film industry is centered around
Hollywood. Other regional centers exist in many parts of the world, and the
Indian film industry annually produces the largest number of films in the world. Whether the ten thousand-plus features a year produced by the
Valley porn 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 studios, 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
Waterworld. Yet many filmmakers strive to create works of lasting social significance. The
Academy Awards are the most prominent film awards in the
United States, providing recognition each year to films, ostensibly based on their artistic merits. Also, film quickly came to be used in education, in lieu of or in addition to lectures and texts.
Stages of filmmaking
The nature of the film determines the size and type of crew required during filmmaking. Many
Hollywood adventure films need
computer generated imagery , created by dozens of
3D modellers,
animators,
rotoscopers and compositors. However, a low-budget, independent film may be made with a skeleton crew, often paid very little. Filmmaking takes place all over the world using different technologies, styles of acting and genre, and is produced in a variety of economic contexts that range from state-sponsored documentary in China to profit-oriented movie making within the American studio system.
A typical Hollywood-style filmmaking Production cycle comprises five main stages:
- Development
- Pre-production
- Production
- Post-production
- Distribution
This production cycle typically 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.
Film crew
A film crew is a group of people hired by a film company for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture.
Crew are distinguished from
cast, the
actors who appear in front of the
camera or provide voices for characters in the film.
Independent filmmaking
Independent filmmaking often takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems. An independent 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.
Creatively, it was becoming increasingly difficult to get studio backing for experimental films. Experimental elements in theme and style are inhibitors for the big studios.
On the business side, the costs of big-budget studio films also leads to conservative choices in cast and crew. The problem is exacerbated by the trend towards co-financing . An unproven director is almost never given the opportunity to get his or her big break with the studios unless he or she has significant industry experience in film or television. They also rarely produce films with unknown actors, particularly in lead roles.
Until the advent of digital 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. The cost of
35 mm film is outpacing inflation: in 2002 alone, film negative costs were up 23%, according to
Variety. Film requires expensive lighting and post-production facilities.
But the advent of consumer
camcorders in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of high-resolution digital video 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 computer. Technologies such as
DVDs,
FireWire connections and non-linear editing system pro-level software like
Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple's
Final Cut Pro, and consumer level software such as Apple's
Final Cut Express and
iMovie make movie-making relatively inexpensive.
Since the introduction of
DV 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.
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 , and then photographing the result with a special
animation camera. 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 . Generating such a film is very labour intensive and tedious, though the development of
computer animation has greatly sped up the process.
File formats like
GIF,
QuickTime, Shockwave 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
TV and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animation has existed at least since the
1950s, with animation being produced by independent studios . Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry.
Limited animation is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by
UPA and popularized by
Hanna-Barbera, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from
movie theaters to
television.
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 McLaren,
Len Lye and
Stan Brakhage, is painted and drawn directly onto pieces of film, and then run through a projector.
Film venues
When it is initially produced, a film is normally shown to audiences in a
movie theater or cinema. The first theater designed exclusively for cinema opened in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1905. Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities within a few years. In the
United States, these theaters came to be known as nickelodeons, because admission typically cost a nickel .
Typically, one film is the featured presentation . 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 .
Originally, all films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of
television 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
video tape or
DVD , and
Internet 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 movies or direct-to-video movies. These are often considered to be of inferior quality compared to theatrical releases. And indeed, some films that are rejected by their own studios upon completion are dumped into these markets.
The movie theater pays an average of about 55% of its ticket sales to the movie studio, 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 AMRO, about 26% of Hollywood movie studios' worldwide income came from box office ticket sales; 46% came from
VHS and
DVD sales to consumers; and 28% came from television .
Development of film technology
Film stock consists of transparent celluloid,
polyester, or acetate base 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 format for images on the reel have had a rich history, though most large commercial films are still shot on as
35 mm prints.
Originally moving picture film was shot and projected at various speeds using hand-cranked
cameras and
projectors; though 16 frames per second is generally cited as a standard silent speed, research indicates most films were shot between 16-23 fps and projected from 18 fps on up . When sound film 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 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 filmstocks and lenses, allowing
directors 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
photography. It can be used to present a progressive sequence of still images in the form of a slideshow. Film has also been incorporated into
multimedia 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 masters — three B&W negatives each exposed through red, green, or blue filters . Digital methods have also been used to restore films, although their continued obsolescence cycle makes them a poor choice for long-term preservation.
Film preservation 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 . 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
video technology similar to that used in television production. Modern digital video cameras 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.
Endurance of films
Films have been around for more than a century; however this is not long when one considers it in relation to other arts like painting and sculpture. There was a perceived "threat" by television during the early 1950's, especially when the FCC expanded television during its 1952 TV license expansion. Trade magazines were publishing articles on the "death' of local theatres. Nonetheless, many at present believe that film will be a long enduring art form because motion pictures appeal to diverse human emotions.
Apart from societal norms and cultural changes, there are still close resemblances between theatrical plays throughout the ages and films of today. Romantic motion pictures about a girl loving a guy but not being able to be together for some reason, movies about a hero who fights against all odds a more powerful fiendish enemy, comedies about everyday life, etc. all involve plots with common threads that existed in books, plays and other venues.
See also
Wikibooks
Basic types of film
International Film
- World cinema
- Foreign film
- Cinema of Europe
- Asian cinema
- African cinema
- North American cinema
- South American cinema
- Australasian cinema
Lists
- Films considered the worst ever
- Films that have been considered the greatest ever
- List of character-based movie franchises
- List of cinematic genres
- List of computer-animated films
- List of disaster films
- List of fantasy films
- List of film festivals
- List of film formats
- List of film noir
- List of film-related topics
- List of film techniques
- List of films about possessed or sentient inanimate objects
- List of films set in Puerto Rico
- List of films with single syllable titles
- List of highest-grossing films
- List of horror films
- List of longest films by running time
- List of movie series
- List of science fiction films
- List of songs based on a movie or book
- Lists of movie source material
Other
- Digital film
- Filmmaking
- Film criticism
- Film journals and magazines
- Film festival
- Film manifesto
- Film theory
- History of film
- The Internet Movie Database
- Movie star
- Sound stage
References
- Paul Read. A Short History of Cinema Film Post-Production , in English; in: Joachim Polzer . Zur Geschichte des Filmkopierwerks. . Weltwunder der Kinematographie. Beiträge zu einer Kulturgeschichte der Filmtechnik. Volume 8.2006. April 2006. 336 pages. -- ISBN 3-934535-26-7
- Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey . The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-874242-8
- Hagener, Malte, and Töteberg, Michael. Film: An International Bibliography. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2002. ISBN 3-476-01523-8
- Vogel, Amos. Film As a Subversive Art. Weidenfeld & Nichols, 1974.
- The Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford University Press, 1999; Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, ed.
- Glorious Technicolor: The Movies' Magic Rainbow, Fred E. Basten. AS Barnes & Company, 1980
- Reel Women. Pioneers of the Cinema. 1896 to the Present by Ally Acker, London: B.T.Batsford 1991
- Reel Racism. Confronting Hollywood's Construction of Afro-American Culture, Vincent F. Rocchio, Westview Press 2000
- New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction, Geoff King . Columbia University Press, 2002.
- Notes on Film Noir Paul Schrader. Film Comment. '84?
- Celluloid Mavericks: A History of American Independent Film by Greg Merritt; Thunder's Mouth Press 2001
- Africa shoots back. Alternative perspectives in sub-saharan francophone african film by Melissa Thackway, Indiana University Press 2003
- Glorious Technicolor; directed by Peter Jones. Based on the book ; written by Basten & Jones. Documentary, .
- Francesco Casetti, Theories of Cinema, 1945-1990, Paperback Edition, University of Texas Press 1999
- The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford University Press 1998
- Walters Faber, Helen Walters, Algrant , Animation Unlimited: Innovative Short Films Since 1940, HarperCollins Publishers 2004
- Trish Ledoux, Doug Ranney, Fred Patten , Complete Anime Guide: Japanese Animation Film Directory and Resource Guide, Tiger Mountain Press 1997
- Steven Spielberg in The making of Jurassic Park
External links
- - Information on films: actors, directors, biographies, reviews, cast and production credits, box office sales, and other movie data.
- - Reviews of classic films
- - Information on current and historical films and cast listings.
- Open Directory Project:
- - Film reviews
