History of Cinema: Beyond Screens.

Cinema is the most widely acclaimed means of entertainment in the world today. It is a combination of various equipments, techniques and art which constitutes cinema. But the most important things needed to experience cinema are camera, film reel and a projector. "Wheel of life' or 'zoopraxiscope' was the first machine to show animated pictures. It was patented in 1867 by William Lincoln. In a zoopraxiscope, moving photographs were watched through a slit. 

Zoopraxiscope

"The cinema is an invention without a future." - Louis Lumière. The Lumiere brothers-Auguste and Louise - are credited for inventing the first motion picture camera in the year, 1895. But even prior to Lumiere brothers, many others had made similar inventions. Lumiere brothers  invented a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and a projector called the Cinematographe. Here, three functions were covered in one invention. 

Lumiere Brothers

Cinematographe

The first footage shot by Lumiere brothers was that of workers leaving the Lumiere factory.

Cinematographe or Cinematography brought a revolutionary change in the world of cinema and made motion pictures popular. Though, prior in 1891, the Edison Company came up with a kinetoscope which allowed to watch cinema one person at a time, Edison's vitascope (1896) was the first commercially successful projector in USA. 

Kinetoscope

A camera shoots an activity on a film roll, also known as a film negative. This film negative is then edited. An editor removes away unnecessary scenes by cutting away that portion of the film role. Then the edited film roll is processed in a lab with required effects. The final film footage is then mounted on a projector. A projector is a device which projects the film running on the film roll on a blank white screen with the help of light. There are two pulleys on a projector. The film reel is mounted on the first projector and is run through the first to the second projector with the help of a motor. 

Advertising of Edson's  Vitascope

The film reel passes between a magnifying lens and a light bulb. The lens increases the size of the image on the blank white screen.

Cinematography is an art form unique to motion pictures. Although the exposing of images on light-sensitive elements dates back to the early 19th century, motion pictures demanded a new form of photography and new aesthetic techniques. In the infancy of motion pictures, the cinematographer was usually also the director and the person physically handling the camera. As the art form and technology evolved, a separation between the director and the camera operator emerged. With the advent of artificial lighting and faster (more light sensitive) film stocks, in addition to technological advancements in optics and new techniques such as colour film and widescreen, the technical aspects of cinematography necessitated a specialist in that area. 

It was a key during the silent movie era no sound apart from background music, no dialogue the films depended on lighting, acting and set. 

In 1919, in Hollywood, the new motion picture capital of the world, one of the first (and still existing) trade societies was formed: the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), which stood to recognise the cinematographer's contribution to the art and science of motion picture making. 

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 the beta movement. 

 

A Film Projector

CINEMA 4D is a 3D modelling, animation and rendering application developed by MAXON Computer GmbH of Friedrichsdorf, Germany. It is capable of procedural and polygonal/subd modelling, animating, lighting, texturing, rendering and common features found in 3d modelling applications.  

"IF A MILLION PEOPLE SEE MY MOVIE, I HOPE THEY SEE A MILLION DIFFERENT MOVIES."            ---QUENTIN TARANTINO--- 

Dir. QUENTIN TARANTINO.