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A Short History Of The Cinema Author Unknown

In 1995, 1he movies' will be 100 years old December 28th, 1895 was the first date en which an audience
parted w1th money to watch smoothly-moving photographic Images being projected onto a screen The show,
which took place In Pans. lasted twenty m1nutes and cost one franc per person

The ellect of thiS new mvention proved to be enormous By 191 o film had spawned a huge industry, and
created rts first 'stars· In the twenties and th1rt1es hundreds of millions of people all over the world went to the
ctnema each week Most of the films produced aimed simply to entertam Others contained mformation,
propaganda or social proteS1.

However after the Second World War, the film Industry faced a major threat from tetevlston, which was now
bemg llllnsrmtted m many countnes Dunng the battle for audiences, film-makers Introduced betler sound
bigger screens and g1mm1cks such as 3-0 Today, Amencan btocllbuslers like the Star Wars films can still pack
out the cinemas However, overall atlendance rematns tow tn the 1980's people in Bntain go to the cmema
on average once a year; in Europe between two and three hmes. In North Amelica SIX limes a year It seems
that if film Is to survive beyond its 1 OOth birthday. it will not be m the kind of cinemas we are used to today

The Rise of Video · Video is a more reoenttnvenlion than film. but it is Still much older than most people think
In fact, the first v1deo disk went on sale m a london store in 1938. Although v1deo was origmally developed for
use 1n TV the recent mvenllon of a vtdeo projection system means that aud1enoes can watch a video produc-
hon on a large screen Film 1s now betng challenged on •ts home ground

Seeing is Oece•v•ng · When we watch a film in the cinema, or a television programme at home, we expect to
see movement on the screen. In fact, the movement all takes place ins1de the vtewer's mind. This is due to
what is called 'persistence of vision' What this means is that our eyes keep an Impression of any Image we
see for about one-thirtieth of a second after the image has been removed. So. If we are shown a senes of still
•mages in very rapid success•on, each •mage blends into tile follOWing one in what appears to be a smooth,
contmuous process.

Flicker-book Pictures • A n1Cker-book illustrates thiS prmetple very well To make one. take a small blank
notebook. On I he same spot on each page draw a simple stick figure. Slightly change the poslhon of on ann,
or a leg, or both, between one page and the next. When you have finished the drawings-the more the better·
nick over the pages 1n rapid succession and the stick figure Will appear to be waving or kicking, or whatever you
have drawn

Both film and vtdeo depend upon pei'Slstence of VISIOn in order to create the HluSion of movement. When a film
IS be1ng shot, the camera records the actiOn by taking 24 dtfferent photographs per second later these
photographs (normally known as frames) are passed through a projector al the same speed, 24 frames per
second (fps). In this way, the action is recreated on the screen

A video tmage on TV is made up m the same way VIdeo works at a different rate from film, and this rate is not
standard throughout the world. In Europe the image is formed, brollen up and re-formed 50 limes a second In
North Amenca the rate 1s 60 times a second However, lhts does not mean that video shows more than tWice
as many frames as f1im. because each frame 1S shown twice Therefore the number or different frames
screened per second Is 25 1n Europe, and 30 in North Amenca

Spots and Ghosts • The ma1n difference between film end video is that film is produced chemically while
video is produced electronically. Film generally results 1n a ctearar, better.quehty image. while video is faster
and cheaper

How Film Works · Dunng filming the film is passed through the camera where ills exposed to light After this.
it has to be sent to a laboratory to be processed. IllS this that makes film slower than v1deo. which does not
need to be processed First the film has to be developed. by being soaked in chemicals. This produces a
negative, which shows an image of the subject, not in its origmal colours but tn •Is opposite colours. Thus, blue
becomes yellow. green becomes magenta, and red becomes cyan (greenish-blue) Th1s negative could be
proJected but it would create a ghostly, other-wor1dly effect Normally a positive pnnt is made for projection, so
that the colours seen on the screen ara the same as those of the onginal subject