The Art of Filmmaking The illusion of motion.

You are entering a theater with some friends. You pay for your ticket, scan the posters announcing upcoming releases, buy popcorn and soda at the concession stand, and meander toward the auditorium screening the film you’ve selected.

Once inside, you settle into your seat and prepare to be amused, moved, provoked, or just entertained. The lights dim, leaving only the Exit signs glowing. As sound fills the theater from all sides, the screen becomes a bright rectangle filled with a moving picture.

Already something fairly mysterious is happening. You have the impression of seeing a moving image, but this is an illusion.

The smoothly moving picture you see consists of thousands of slightly different still images called frames projected in rapid succession. Each frame flashing by is accompanied by bursts of blackness.

Although you aren’t aware of it, the screen is completely dark for nearly half the time you’re watching! Our eyes ignore the gaps and see continuous light.

Just as important, our minds somehow create a continuous action out of a string of still pictures.

At present, researchers believe that two psychological processes are involved in cinematic motion: critical flicker fusion and apparent motion.

Critical Flicker Fusion Example: If you flash a light faster and faster, at a certain point (around 50 flashes per second) you will not see a pulsating light but a continuous beam. Film is shot and projected at 24 still frames per second. The projector shutter breaks the light beam once as a new image is slid into place and once while it is held in place. Thus each frame is actually projected on the screen twice. This raises the threshold of what is called critical flicker fusion.

(a) film reel, (b) lens, © aperture, (d) take-up reel, (e) light beamed through film, (f) shutter

Early Silent Films Early silent films were shot at a lower rate (often 16 or 20 images per second), and projectors broke the beam only once per image.

The picture had a pronounced flicker - hence an early slang term for movies, “flickers,” which survives today when people call a film a “flick.”

Apparent Motion Apparent motion is the second factor in creating cinema’s illusion. Any stimulus resembling movement tricks the cells in our eyes into sending the message that motion is present.

Neon advertising signs create the illusion of movement simply by static lights flashing on and off at a particular rate.

Inventions The scientific quirks of apparent motion and critical flicker fusion has been used by inventors since the beginning of photography.

The Mutoscope The mutoscope, a nineteenth-century entertainment, displayed images by flipping a row of cards in front of a peephole. These are still in existence mostly at entertainment parks.

The Zoetrope The zoetrope, an earlier device, printed its images on a strip of paper that rotated in a drum.

We have all at some time created our own flick movie by drawing images in a flip book.

Film Gauges Super 8Used by amateurs and experimental films. The drawback - it is hard to preserve quality when printed to 35mm film. Super 1616mm’s poor quality lead to this film. Higher quality when printed to 35mm. 35mmThe standard theatrical film. Most projectors available run 35mm film. 70mmThis film is used for historical spectacles and epic action films.

Imax Image or 70mm Runs horizontally along the strip allowing each image to be 10x larger that 35mm and 3x 70mm. Can be projected on very large screens.

Please turn to page 6 in your Film Art textbook.

Its time to see a flick!

Please open Film, Form, and Culture from the programs window on your computer. You must insert the CD at the back of the Film, Form, and Culture textbook. It will take a moment to load.