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Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, motion pictures, photoplays, picture shows, and flicks — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of the entertainment industry. Because photographic film historically has been the primary medium for displaying moving images, academics often refer to this field as the study of film.
Motion pictures are an art form, a popular form of entertainment, and a business. Film is produced by recording "real" people and objects (including played-out fantasy and fakes) with cameras, and/or by animation.
The word film also often refers to photographic film used to make still photographs, or to the flexible strip of plastic covered in a light-sensitive silver halide solution, also called filmstock, on which motion pictures have historically been made.
The images that make up a motion picture are all individual photographs. But when they appear rapidly in succession, the human eye does not detect that they are separate images. This results from persistence of vision, a phenomenon whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Although we do not experience the images as individual photographs, we do notice the differences between them. The brain then perceives these differences as motion.
Today, many motion pictures are still recorded using specially designed cameras that capture the images on rolls of film. After being processed and printed, the film is run through a projector, which shines light through the film so that the images are displayed on a screen. Most movies have accompanying sound. Some films in recent decades have been recorded using analogFor the Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact publication, see Astounding Magazine. For the server log file analyzer, see Analog (program). An analog (American English spelling) or analogue (British English spelling) signal is any continuously variable videoVideo is the technology of processing electronic signals representing moving pictures. A major application of video technology is television, but it is also widely used in engineering, scientific, manufacturing, and security applications. Other uses of vi technology similar to that used in television production. More recently, many films are being recorded with a digital video cameraDigital video is a type of video system that works by using a digital representation of the brightness and colour of each pixel of the image. Black and white digital video is also possible. Introduction Digital Camcorders come in two different data format and later projected using digital projectorA Digital Projector is an electo-optical machine which converts image data from a computer or video source to a bright image which is then imaged on a distant wall or screen using a lens system. The projector serves the following purposes: Visualization os and/or transferred to film. One of the major benefits of shooting digitally is that decisions can be made without waiting for the film stock to be processed.
Main article: History of cinemaDevelopment of film The underlying principle of cinema, that an image of an object remains projected on the retina for a split- second longer than it is actually there, causing the images to blur into the illusion of motion, was introduced to the scientif
The earliest use of moving pictures was an outgrowth of magic lanternThis page is about the archaic movie projector, for the US FBIs keystroke logger see Magic Lantern software The magic lantern or Laterna Magica was the ancestor of the modern slide projector. It was first described in Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae by Athanasis and similar optical devices, which could be used to display a sequence of still images in such a way that the eye would perceive the images as being in motion. Naturally, the images used in these devices had to be carefully prepared and selected to achieve the desired effect. By using pictures that were largely similar, but with slight differences, the presenter could communicate the effect of motion to the viewer. The underlying principle remains the basis for animation as a cinematic genreEven in the early days of film history, the audience appetite for new content was voracious. A film distributor would often have to deliver to an exhibitor over a hundred films a year to keep the theaters fresh. This constant demand for new material led t.
With the development of photographyPhotography is the technique of recording, by chemical, mechanical or digital means, a permanent image on a layer of material sensitive to light exposure. The word comes from the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γρα&phi, and particularly of celluloid film, it became possible to record moving pictures as well. The use of film also made it more feasible to use a projection system to display images for audiences, when other techniques sometimes required the individual to look into the device to see the pictures.
The cinema was initially purely a visual art, and the moving pictures came to be known colloquially as movies. However, when showing motion pictures to audiences, theater owners typically hired musicians to accompany the presentation. The musician, usually a pianist or organist if the theater had an instrument available, was supposed to play music that would fit the mood of the film at any given moment.
Later technological improvements allowed filmmakers to create soundtracks synchronized with the action on the screen. The soundtrack can be recorded separately from shooting the film, but for live-action pictures many parts of the soundtrack are usually recorded simultaneously. Sound films were initially known as "talking pictures", or talkies. From the beginning, however, they included music as well as speech, and specialist composers of film scores soon emerged.