Film
Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field
of film as an art form, and the
motion picture industry. Films are produced by
recording
actual people and objects with
cameras, or
by creating images using
animation
techniques or
special effects.
Films are cultural artifacts created by specific
cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is
considered to be an important
art form, a source
of popular entertainment, and a powerful method for
educating-or
indoctrinating citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion
pictures a universal power of communication; some movies have become popular
worldwide attractions, by using
dubbing or
subtitles
that translate the dialogue.
Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. 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 vision — 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 movement.
The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that
photographic film (also called
film
stock) 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, photoplay, flick, and most commonly, movie.
Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen,
the silver screen, the cinema, and the movies.
History
"Film" refers to the celluloid medium on which motion pictures are
printed. Shown above is a reel of
8 mm
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
(such as
magic lanterns), 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.
A shot from
Georges Méliès
Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902), an early
narrative film.
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
twentieth century, films began developing a narrative structure by 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 purpose,
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 and
F. W. Murnau, along with American innovator
D. W. Griffith and the contributions of
Charles Chaplin,
Buster Keaton and others, 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,[citation
needed] 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 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 system in the 1960s, the succeeding decades
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.
Theory
Film theory seeks to develop concise, systematic concepts that apply to the
study of film as art.
It was started by
Ricciotto Canudo's The Birth of the Sixth Art. Formalist film
theory, led by
Rudolf Arnheim,
Béla
Balázs, and
Siegfried Kracauer, emphasized how film differed from reality, and thus
could be considered a valid fine art.
André
Bazin 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 Lacan's
psychoanalysis and
Ferdinand de Saussure's
semiotics
among other things has given rise to
psychoanalytical film theory,
structuralist film theory,
feminist film theory and others.
Criticism
Abbas Kiarostami and
Bernardo Bertolucci on the poster of "Exhibition of the Persian
Maestro's Art work" held in
Rome.
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 on 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.
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 (primarily centered around "Bollywood")[citation
needed] annually produces the largest number of films in
the world. Whether the ten thousand-plus feature length films a year produced
by the
Valley
pornographic film industry should qualify for this title is the source of
some debate.[citation
needed] 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 (also known as "the Oscars") are the most prominent film
awards in the
United States, 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.
Production
The nature of the film determines the size and type of crew required during
filmmaking. Many
Hollywood
adventure films need
computer generated imagery (CGI), 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. Also, an
open source film may be produced through open, collaborative processes.
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:
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.
Crew
A film crew is a group of people hired by a film company, employed during
the photography phase, 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. 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, sets, and production
special effects.
Independent
Independent filmmaking often takes place outside of Hollywood, or other
major
studio systems. 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. in 2000 were joint ventures, up from 10% in 1987).[citation
needed] A hopeful director is almost never given the
opportunity to get a job on a big-budget study 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
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.[citation
needed] 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,
Sony
Vegas 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.
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
license
which is more permissive enough to allow other parties to create
fan
fiction or derivative works, than a traditional copyright. Like
independent filmmaking, open source filmmaking takes place outside of
Hollywood, or other major
studio systems.
Fan film
A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film,
television program,
comic
book or a similar source, created by
fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan
filmmakers have traditionally been
amateurs,
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.
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
motion), 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 (due to the
persistence of vision). 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 (and sometimes by a single person).
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.[1]
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.
Venues
When it is initially produced, a feature film is often shown to audiences
in a
movie theater or cinema. The first theater designed exclusively for cinema
opened in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1905.[2]
Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities
within a few years.[3]
In the
United States, these theaters came to be known as
nickelodeons, because admission typically cost a nickel (five cents).
Typically, one film is the featured presentation (or
feature film). 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
Twenty").
Historically, all mass marketed feature 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
VHS
or DVD (and the
older formats of
laserdisc,
VCD and
SelectaVision — see also
videodisc),
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. 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 55% of its ticket sales to the
movie
studio, as film rental fees.[citation
needed] 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 (broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view).[citation
needed]
Technology
Film
stock consists of transparent
celluloid,
acetate, or
polyester
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 (and distributed to theaters) as
35 mm
prints.
Originally moving picture film was shot and projected at various speeds
using hand-cranked
cameras and
projectors; though 1000 frames per minute (16⅔ per second) is generally
cited as a standard silent speed, research indicates most films were shot
between 16 and 23 fps and projected from 18 fps on up (often reels included
instructions on how fast each scene should be shown)
[1]. 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 (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
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 (essentially a reverse of the
Technicolor 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 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
(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 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.
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 arts.
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 1970s,
such as the development of color television and large screens, motion picture
cinemas continued. In 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 DVD 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, quicker distribution of films (via satellite or hard
disks), a development which may give local theaters a reprieve from their
predicted demise.
