MOTION PICTURE

also called Film, or Movie, a series of still photographs on film, projected in rapid succession onto a screen by means of light, that, because of an optical phenomenon known as persistence of vision, gives the illusion of actual, smooth, and continuous movement. Motion pictures are usually filmed with a motion-picture camera, which makes rapid exposures of people or objects in motion, and shown with a motion-picture projector, which is usually capable of reproducing sound in synchronism with the visual images. The motion picture is both a form of mass entertainment and the newest of the fine arts. Motion pictures were unequaled in the 20th century for the speed of their technical and artistic development, the extent of their proliferation, and the degree of their influence and popularity. Motion-picture technology and production. By means of a shutter that opens and closes at high speed, a motion-picture camera photographs a series of still images, but because the time lapse between images is only about one-fiftieth of a second in most cameras, the difference between consecutive images is extremely small. The film is then developed, and positive prints are then made from its negative images. The illusion of motion is provided by a projector, in which the film is moved past a light source at the same speed at which the images were photographed. Persistence of vision causes the separate images, which are viewed on a blank white screen, to be perceived as a continuously moving scene. The sound for a motion picture is recorded on either magnetic tape or magnetic film and is ultimately printed together with the picture negative on a single positive film known as a composite print. The part that provides sound is known as the sound track; it runs the length of the film on one side, parallel to the photographed images. The basic tools needed to make motion pictures are thus the camera and its lenses, film, sound equipment, and a projector and screen. Commercial motion pictures are usually filmed and projected at a rate of 24 frames per second. Most use film that is 35 mm (1.36 inches) wide, though occasionally professional filmmakers shoot in 16-mm film. The use of 8-mm film is restricted to amateurs. The length of a film is measured in feet; a feature-length film lasting 100 minutes is about 9,000 feet (3,000 m) long and is divided for ease of handling into several reels. Motion pictures are created through the combination of four basic elements: story, direction, camera work, and editing. In commercial studios, each of these roles is carried out by different individuals and production crews under the overall supervision of a producer, who oversees the financing of the project. The adaptation of a story or other idea to film is called a screenplay and is done by one or more screenwriters. The script, or screenplay, is usually a blueprint for the entire film production: it details all spoken dialogue or narration, visual images that will be shown on the screen, and all other sounds to be heard by the audience. Structurally, the script is composed of numbered scenes and sequences. A scene is a continuous, unified action occurring at a single time and place. It is usually composed of a series of shots, each of which can be defined as what is photographed during a single running of the camera. Traditionally, the director has almost total control of the actual making of a film. He translates the material in the script into a motion picture through his recruitment and supervision of camera operators, set and costume designers, actors, and film editors. The director controls the composition, lighting, and actors' performances in each shot and scene. During shooting, he works closely with his chief camera operator, who is skilled in the techniques of cinematography (q.v.) and is responsible for positioning the cameras. After shooting has been completed, the director works with the film editor to determine which shots and sequences will be used in the finished picture. The film editor fits the various shots and scenes recorded by the cameras into a final, complete performance. The sound track is also combined with the visual track during the editing process. also called film, or movie, a series of still photographs on film, projected in rapid succession onto a screen by means of light. Because of the optical phenomenon known as persistence of vision, this gives the illusion of actual, smooth, and continuous movement. The motion picture is a remarkably effective medium in conveying drama and especially in the evocation of emotion. The art of motion pictures is exceedingly complex, requiring contributions from nearly all of the other arts as well as countless technical skills. Nonetheless, probably no other art has proliferated as much in the 20th century nor can any other equal it in popularity or influence. The motion picture is the newest of the generally recognized fine arts. During its early development, the motion picture was discounted by many critics for its supposed subservience to commercial interests, for the immediacy of its appeal to the uninstructed, for its seemingly mechanical technique, and for its apparent lack of an identifiable artist as its primary creator. After the middle of the 20th century, however, increasing attention was devoted to it as a form of artistic endeavour that is as legitimate as the theatre, literature, dance, music, or the visual arts. Other articles in which specialized aspects of the subject are treated include sound recording; photography, technology of; and optics. Additional reading There are numerous primers to film study, but the best systematic introductions are David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art, 2nd ed. (1986); and Bruce F. Kawin, How Movies Work (1987). The essential and classical books concerned with the nature of the film include the following: Sergei Eisenstein, The Film Sense (1947), and Film Form (1949), two essays in film theory, translated from Russian and available in various later editions of the author's theoretical essays; Bla Balzs, Theory of the Film: Character and Growth of a New Art (1952, reprinted 1972; originally published in Hungarian, 1948); Rudolf Arnheim, Film as Art (1957, reprinted 1971; originally published in German, 1932); Siegfried Kracauer, Nature of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality (1961, reissued as Theory of Film, 1974); Andr Bazin, What Is Cinema?, 2 vol., trans. from French (196771); Hugo Mnsterberg, The Photoplay: A Psychological Study (1916; reissued as The Film, a Psychological Study: The Silent Photoplay in 1916, 1970); Peter Wollen, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, new ed. (1972); Christian Metz, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema (1974; originally published in French, 1968), and The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema (1982; originally published in French, 1977); and Nel Burch, Theory of Film Practice (1973, reissued 1981; originally published in French, 1969). Of these Bazin and Eisenstein have proved the most fertile and lasting. An overview of classical theories can be found in J. Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: An Introduction (1976), while his Concepts in Film Theory (1984), presents recent theories. Several anthologies of essays stemming from the academic era of film study put the reader in touch with issues such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, ideology, and structuralism as they influence the cinema. See Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 3rd ed. (1985); Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods: An Anthology, 2 vol. (197685); and Philip Rosen (ed.), Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: Film Theory Reader (1986). Individual modern theories have been advanced in David Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film (1985); Stephen Heath, Questions of Cinema (1981); Bruce F. Kawin, Mindscreen: Bergman, Godard, and First-Person Film (1978); and Teresa de Lauretis, Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984). The most thorough study of experimental cinema remains P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 2nd ed. (1979). Dudley Andrew