Movie

Photographic film roll used in the cinema.

A film (from the Latin pellicula, diminutive of pellis, “skin”), also called a filme, is a series of still images that, when consecutively projected onto a screen in rapid succession, create the optical illusion of moving images. The term is normally used as a synonym for a cinematographic work, that is, a story (fictional or documentary), recorded on a support (flexible film or digital container) that is recorded and read through a continuous or intermittent mechanism of succession of images. These motion pictures are also called film or shortened peli.

The shooting process

A film can be created by photographing actual scenes with a motion picture camera, by photographing miniature drawings or models using traditional animation techniques, by means of computer-generated imagery or computer animation, or by a combination of some or all these techniques and other visual effects.

Movies were originally recorded on plastic film through a photochemical process and then shown through a movie projector on a large screen. Contemporary films are now often completely digital throughout the entire production, distribution and exhibition process. Photochemically recorded films traditionally included an analog optical soundtrack (a graphic recording of spoken words, music and other sounds accompanying the images and running through a dedicated portion of the film, which is not projected).

The individual images that make up a movie are called frames. In traditional celluloid film projection, a rotating shutter causes intervals of darkness between each frame, which in turn is positioned for projection. Interruptions are not noticed by the viewer due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after its source disappears. The perception of movement is due to a psychological effect called the phi phenomenon.

The name "film" originates from the fact that photographic film (also called motion picture film) has historically been the medium for recording and displaying moving images.

History

The idea of capturing, creating and reproducing movement by mechanical means is very old, there were antecedents such as the camera obscura, or the thaumatrope, the magic lantern, the photographic rifle. The technique to capture reality by means of light had already been developed by the inventors of the daguerreotype and photography, in the mid-19th century.

Precinematography

Cinema was the product of a slow experimental evolution over the centuries. The objective of thousands of people, inventors, toy manufacturers or merchants, was to entertain the world through images and it was also an impulse, a need for the human species to express itself through images using the techniques and possibilities of each moment. The base of the cinema is in the development of science and technique, this incessant interest in finding new outlets demanded the constant application of technique and research on new discoveries.

One of the first scientific advances that led directly to the development of cinema were the observations of Peter Mark Roget, who in 1824 published an important scientific work entitled Persistence of Vision. Regarding moving objects, it established that the human eye retains images for a fraction of a second after the subject is no longer in front of them. This discovery stimulated several scientists to investigate to demonstrate the principle of image persistence on the retina. Specifically, it was found that if 16 images of motion that take place in one second are flashed successively in one second, persistence of vision joins them together and makes them look like a single moving image. This theory was later replaced by the phi phenomenon and both will form part of the basis of film theory.

The horse in motion can be considered as the ancestor of all films, but the aim of his author was to suspend or stop the movement and not reproduce it, a scientific conception and not of entertainment.

In the meantime, photography was born and as early as 1852, photographs began to replace drawings on devices for viewing animated images. In 1877 the photographer Eadweard Muybridge used a battery of 24 cameras to record the cycle of movements of a horse's gallop. Later, the portable chronophotographer, a kind of photographic rifle, moved a single band that allowed twelve images to be obtained on a rotating plate that completed its revolution in one second.

In 1890 Thomas Edison built a laboratory in New Jersey, which became the world's first movie studio. His assistant William K. L. Dickson is considered by some to be the designer of the first motion picture machine, the kinetoscope, although it was not a proper image-recording machine. It was finally in France in 1895 when the Lumière brothers arrived at the cinematograph, the first device that could be truly described as cinema.

First films

Early motion pictures were simply a static shot showing an event or action without editing or other filmmaking techniques. In the late 19th century, movies began to group multiple scenes together to tell a story. The scenes were later divided into multiple takes photographed from different angles and distances. Other techniques, such as camera movement, developed as effective ways to tell a story with film.

These motion pictures were a purely visual art, since no sound was recorded on the film. However, these silent films were usually projected in large theaters accompanied by live music, which served as mass entertainment. By the early 1920s, most motion pictures came with a list of scores prepared for this purpose, and complete scores were composed for major productions.

The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, while the film industry in the United States boomed with the rise of Hollywood. In April 1927, in New York, the first fully synchronized commercial sound film projection was made, which meant the takeoff of this technology.

Contribution of color

Another important technological development was the introduction of color film, which photographically recorded the natural color of images rather than adding to black-and-white recordings by hand coloring, stencil coloring, or other arbitrary procedures.. The most important innovation was the introduction of Technicolor, first used for cartoons in 1932 and later in live-action films on it.

The material

A piece of film.

Originally, the films were recorded on celluloid tape, a plastic material covered with an emulsion of silver salts that, in the presence of light, undergoes a photochemical reaction. This strip of plastic, also called "film", is what has given its name to the succession of images that create the optical illusion of moving images. However, digital media are currently imposed, although film is maintained as a name for recordings of moving images.

Evolution

From its invention to digital cinema, there has always been a search for ways to improve movies, be it aspect ratio, size, or production costs. In this way, according to their appearances chronologically, the formats that have appeared are classified as follows:

• 35 mm film: It was created by George Eastman in 1889 to be used with Thomas Edison's quinetoscope and was quickly standardized for professional use, which is currently maintained. At first, the frame size was 24 mm x 18 mm, with 4 perforations on the frame tape and was intended to be reproduced at 16 fps. With the addition of the sound on the same tape, the frame space was reduced to 22,05 mm x 16,03 mm with a strip of 2.54 mm wide for the sound. With the sound, the film speed increased to 24 fps to improve the quality of this. Currently, along with the 4 perforations per frame, this is the most used system. In 1931, after the appearance of sound cinema, an agreement was reached on the aspect ratio of films. This agreement, which was maintained over 20 years, forced the use of 21 mm x 15.3 mm films. Under these measures films were recorded as King Kong or Casablanca. It was also attempted to introduce other tape formats, such as 56 mm, 63 mm or 70 mm, but the high costs of the changes in the projection rooms prevented the success of the new formats, except that of 70 mm.

Within the 35 mm film, different variations appeared with the intention of getting a more panoramic image:

1. Cinerama: Cinerama (cinema + panorama) consisted of three 35 mm films that were filmed simultaneously with three cameras and exhibited three projectors on a giant screen of 146°. This new format added 2 frames more per second than the standard system and had 6 perforations instead of 4. In addition, it had a very good surround sound system. The high cost, both of production and of projection, made this system not succeed.
2. Cinemascope: The Twentieth Century Fox study, in 1953, created an anamorphic lens system to compress a panoramic image in the 35 mm negative without loss or deformations. At the time of projecting the tape were used against lenses that decompress the image, achieving a projection with larger image width. Contrary to the cinema, the screening rooms were interested in the introduction of this format.
3. ViewVision: Launched by Paramount in 1954. In this format the tape moved horizontally instead of vertically. In this way the space used by the frame was double the common size and therefore there was more quality. However, due to the high costs of change, many projection rooms decided not to change the system they already used.
4. Todd-AO: System created by the American Optical and Michael Todd and used for the first time in the 1930s. It used a negative of 60 mm to 30 fps and 5 lateral perforations. The result was an image of excellent quality and definition, without using lenses for compression or decompression. The projections were made on a 128° curved screen. One problem of this system was that it could not be projected in the rooms that could not project to 70 mm, due to the impossibility of reducing the tape to 35 mm. For this reason it was rolled with the two formats. In 1958 the frames per second were regulated to the standard (24 fps) and the projection on flat screens.
5. Ultra Panavision 70 or MGM Camera 65: The interest of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to search for new film and projection formats made him join with Panavision to create this system, which consisted, from image compression lenses, of vertically compressing the negative of 65 mm in a 25 %. The first projection of this format was Ben-Hurin 1959. Panavision later created an improved version: Super Panavision 70, without anamórphic lenses. Movies like 2001: Space Odyssey or TronThey used this format. The tapes could be projected into rooms equipped for Todd-AO.
6. Technirama: Panavision and Technicolor, created the format in 1957. It had a horizontal negative of 8 perforations, at 24 fps, with a compression of 50%. The copies of this format had a high quality, while they were expanded to 70 mm, and were compatible with the cinemascope format.
7. Techniscope: Also known as the "cinemascope of the poor", was born as a response by some filmmakers to the use of the wide screen that had no economic possibilities to perform it. This format reduced the negative from 35 mm to half, which reduced costs at the same time as the image quality.

• Super 35 mm: Also known as Techniscope. It was created in 1983 by John Alcott under the name Superscope 235. The format did not use anamorphic lenses and removed the space reserved on the sound track. It became very popular during the 1990s thanks to the adaption of the format by houses for rent of cameras and laboratories. It was very accepted as a production format, both film and television, video clips and advertising.
• 16 mm film: Thanks to Kodak, since 1923 the expression "domestic films" had already been introduced, so that the company introduced this more economical format as an alternative to the 35 mm film. With the arrival of television, its use increased thanks to ease of transport and low costs, among other advantages. It was the BBC that took the format to a professional use, while working with Kodak to perform television reports, giving solutions to portable productions and providing great image quality.
• Super 16 mm: It was a variation of the previous one. He used a strip of perforations on the side of the film, thus giving an extra space in the frame, with a ratio of 1.67. Super 16 cameras had the shutter to the film and mirror modified by a wider frame. Since the soundtrack of the film was occupied, these could be extended to the 35 mm format for projection through optical printing. A variation of the Super 16 format was DIY 16, from a standard 16 mm camera.
• 8 mm film: Launched by Eastman in 1932, from the 16 mm film. It had the objective of being even more accessible and economical, using the 16 mm tape itself, but only half. This way it was filmed on the one hand, the tape was turned, and it was recorded on the other. The tapes came in rolls of 7.5 m, so the end result usable was 15 m. The frame size was 4.37 mm x 3.28 mm.
• Super 8 mm: In order to increase the size of the frame and image quality compared to the previous one, it was launched by Eastman in 1965. The main change he presented was the change in the size of the perforation and, therefore, the increase in the space for the frame almost a 50%. On the other hand, it was also easier to load the tape to the camera. From this format, the 40 ASA film, balanced for interior light, was standardized. The perforations were located only on one side and corresponded one by frame. The format initially worked at 18 fps, up to 24 fps.
• Super 8: Also released by Kodak, they were 16 mm wide coils with the lateral perforations of the size of Super 8. They could come in cartridge, intended for domestic and family use, or coil, for semi-professional recordings.
• Single 8: Made by Fuji Photo Film in 1965, it was films that instead of using a 16 mm wide coil, used it 8 mm. Born as a counterpart of Double 8. The main difference with the Super 8 was the way to film the film: while in the Super 8 it worked from two coils located next to the other, in the Single 8 it was placed one on top of the other. This fact allowed the Single 8 format to load the film more easily, apart from the possibility of rewinding and greater clarity in the images.
• 9.5 mm film: It was devised by Pathé in 1922 to project films in a domestic way, although at a time cameras were already made to use them to shoot. It was the main competition of the 8 mm format. As a difference, the perforations were located in the center, between frame and frame, allowing a considerably higher size of the frame. The width of 9.5 was given from the division of the traditional 35 mm film into three strips.

Film theory

“Film theory” seeks to develop concise and systematic concepts that apply to the study of film as an art. The concept of film as an art form began in 1911 with The Birth of the Sixth Art by Ricciotto Canudo. The formalist theory, spearheaded by Rudolf Arnheim, Béla Balázs and Siegfried Kracauer, emphasized how the film differed from reality and, therefore, could be considered valid within the fine arts. André Bazin reacted against this theory arguing that the artistic essence of cinema lies in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality, not in its differences from reality, and this gave rise to a realistic theory. The most recent analysis spurred the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan and the semiotics of Ferdinand de Saussure, which among other things has given rise to psychoanalytic film theory, structuralist film theory, feminist film theory, and others. On the other hand, critics of the analytic philosophy tradition, influenced by Wittgenstein, attempt to clear up the misconceptions used in theoretical studies and perform an analysis of a film's vocabulary and its link to a way of life. An example of analytical theory applied to cinema is the Bechdel test, used to assess machismo in cinema.

Language

Cinema is considered to have its own language. James Monaco wrote a classic text on film theory entitled How to Read a Film, which deals with this topic. An example of this language is a back and forth sequence of images of the left profile of a speaking actor, followed by the right profile of another speaking actor, and a repetition of this, which is understood by the audience as a conversation.. This describes another film theory, the 180-degree rule, as a visual storytelling device with the ability to place a viewer in a context of being psychologically present through the use of visual composition and editing. The "Hollywood style" includes this narrative theory, due to the overwhelming practice of the rule by Hollywood-based film studios during the classic film era. Another example of film language is having a shot that zooms in on the face of an actor with an expression of silent reflection, which cuts to a shot of a younger actor who looks vaguely like the first actor, indicating that the first person he is remembering his past; an edition of compositions that causes a temporal transition.

Assembly

Cutting is the technique by which separate pieces of film are selected, edited, and then put together to form the final film. One scene might show a man going into battle, with flashbacks to his youth and his home life, and with additional special effects placed on film after filming is complete. As all these scenes were filmed separately, and perhaps with different actors, the final version requires editing. Directors developed a theory of montage, beginning with Sergei Eisenstein and the complex juxtaposition of images in his film Battleship Potemkin. The incorporation of musical and visual counterpoint, scene development through mise-en-scène and editing, and visual effects have led to more complex techniques comparable to those used in opera and ballet.

Industry

Founded in 1912, the Babelsberg Studio, near Berlin, was the first large-scale film studio in the world and the Hollywood precursor. It still produces global box office successes every year.

The making and projection of moving images became a source of profit almost as soon as the process was invented. Seeing the success of their new invention and product in their native France, the Lumière brothers quickly began touring the continent, showing early films privately to royalty and publicly to the masses. In each country, they would typically add new local scenes to their catalog and quickly enough find local entrepreneurs in the various countries of Europe to purchase their equipment and photograph, export, import, and curate additional products commercially. Other images soon followed, and motion pictures became a separate industry that eclipsed the world of vaudeville. Movie theaters and dedicated companies were formed specifically to produce and distribute movies, while movie actors became huge celebrities and earned huge fees for their performances. By 1917, Charlie Chaplin had a contract that called for an annual salary of one million dollars. Until 1956, film was also the only image storage and playback system for television programming until the introduction of videotape recorders.