What is the meaning of the movie?

The prehistory of film is almost as long as its history.”② As a product of modern science and technology, the birth of film has indeed gone through a long process of many scientists, inventors, and even imitators in European countries. The experimental process. Their scientific exploration and experiments on the optical illusion of motion can be traced back to the early 19th century, but human understanding and application of "light and shadow theory" can be traced back to China more than 2,000 years ago. Speaking of. According to written records in the 5th century BC, Mozi's theory of "the death of light and scene (shadow)" was mankind's earliest and most scientific contribution to "optical theory". The "Lamp Shadow Play" that originated during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and was widely circulated after the Tang and Song Dynasties was the earliest and simplest application and practice of "optical theory". In the 13th century, "lantern shadow play" spread to the Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia and other places, which gave rise to later "slideshows", "revolving lanterns" and other vivid and moving visual games. Movies originated from these visual entertainment games. As for the science, technology and physics principles on which the invention of the film is based, there are mainly the following three aspects.

② "Encyclopedia Britannica·Film History Section", the first sentence of the opening chapter.

1. Visual retention

"The phenomenon of turning a piece of burning charcoal into a ribbon of fire when it is waved has been discovered by ancient people. Passed”①. However, it is only in the 19th century that this visual phenomenon is linked to the invention of film. In 1829, the famous Belgian physicist Joseph Plato once stared into the strong sunlight for a long time in order to further examine the limit of human eyesight's light tolerance and the retention time of objects. As a result, he became blind. But he found that the shadow of the sun was deeply imprinted on his eyes. He finally discovered the principle of "visual retention". That is: when the object in front of people's eyes is removed, the image of the object reflected on the retina will not disappear immediately, but will continue to stay for a short period of time. Experiments have shown that the retention time of objects is generally 0.1-0.4 seconds. At the same time, in European physics textbooks and physics laboratories, the principle of "Faraday's wheel" and the visual study of the rotation of the "phantom disk" in pictures also began to be used. They show humans that the physiological function of human vision can combine a series of independent pictures into a continuous movement of vision. In the 1830s, visual toys such as trick boards, horse racing boards, wheel wheels, movable mirrors and strobe observers appeared one after another. The basic principle is similar, that is, a series of images are drawn on a movable optical disc that can rotate, and when the optical disc rotates, those dull, lifeless images will move and come alive. After that, the Austrians combined the slide show with the movable video disk, projected the static pictures on the screen, and produced the movable slide show, forming early animation. However, by the 1960s, film theorists and educators raised new doubts about the problem of "visual retention". They found that all movement phenomena on the screen were actually jumpy and incoherent, but the audience was aware that It is a unified, complete sequence of actions. This proves that what really works is not "visual retention", but "psychological identification".

2. Photography

Photography also emerged in Europe in the 19th century. In 1839, the Frenchman Daguerre based on the principle of small hole imaging in paintings after the Renaissance, and used chemical methods to permanently fix the image, and the "Daguerreotype" was born. However, in the face of the awareness of the mechanical principle of the movable optic disc and the optical illusion, people can no longer be satisfied with static, exquisite, single photos, but fantasize about one day being able to connect them to each other and faithfully copy the movements of the image. and the material reality of natural space. In 1872, the first person to apply the "photography method" to continuous shooting was photographer Edward Muebridge. Over the course of five years, he experimented with using multiple cameras to continuously photograph a running horse, and succeeded in 1878. This talented photographer lined up 24 cameras in a row. When the horse ran by, the shutter of the camera was opened, and the horse's hooves and the momentary posture of the horse were photographed in sequence. To this end, Edward Mumbridge obtained a patent for "Methods and Devices for Photographing Moving Objects." In 1882, the Frenchman Marais used the intermittent principle of a revolver to develop a "photographic gun" that could take continuous shots. After that, he invented the "film continuous camera". Finally, a video camera began to replace Mumbridge's method of photographing moving objects with a group of cameras. In Europe, during this period, scientists and inventors in many countries also developed different types of cameras. Among them, Thomas of the United States. In order to make the film move at the same intervals in the camera, Edison and his machinist Dixon invented the traction method of drilling holes on both sides of the film, which solved the technical problem of mechanical transmission. The "photography" of "event photography" was completed.

3. Projection

In 1888, the Frenchman Emile Reynaud invented the "optical cinematograph", and people began to be able to see movies on the screen for several minutes Sports movies, such as: "Poor Biello", "Beside the Locker Room" and so on. However, the images projected on the screen were all drawn one by one by Reno himself. They were just early animation projections and were far from a real movie. In 1894, the Edison Laboratory's "movie scope" came out. It was a rectangular upright box with a film inside that could continuously project 50 feet of film, and a 2.5 mm lens on the outside. The characteristic of this "movie mirror" is that it can only be viewed by one person. Edison believed that only if every curious customer watched a movie through a movie player alone could he possibly make more money. Therefore, he refused to project the film. This is obviously a mistake. A year later, "1895 was a year of astonishing advances in projection technology. In September of that year, Thomas Amat projected moving pictures at the Cotton Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. In November, Max. Sklarda Novsky screening of the film at the Winter Garden in Berlin, Germany." "Projection" became a competing goal among people during this period. However, among all projection technologies, only the "Kinetine" invented by the Lumiere brothers was successful. First, it is a machine that can both shoot and project soft films; second, the cost and weight of the machine are far lower than those of Edison and other inventors; third, In terms of speed, Edison’s “movie scope” has a frame length of 1/48 seconds, while the Lumiere brothers’ “Kinetine Machine” has a frame length of 1/16 seconds, which is closer to 1/24 seconds. The normal speed of the frame. On the last two days of 1895, on December 28, the Lumière brothers used his "Kinetine" to sell tickets for the first time in the Grand Café No. 14, rue Capucine in Paris. This day not only marks the completion of "projection technology", but also marks the true birth of cinema.

① Howard Lawson's "The Creative Process of Film", page 5.

It is no accident that film was born at the end of the 19th century. It is closely related to the development of new concepts in modern science. When "the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics formed the basis of modern physics and gave rise to people's new concepts of the interaction of time, space, matter, and motion", the persistent pursuit of scientists and inventors in the prehistoric period of the film created the The media language of images corresponds to this new scientific concept, "the optical illusion of movement." The effect of science on art reflects modern mankind's new concept of image thinking. From the very beginning, this concept has determined that the art of film is fundamentally different from traditional art forms in terms of media attributes and language methods.

At the same time, as far as the history of art development is concerned, film has finally realized the aesthetic pursuit of human art for the "plot" of the mummy through its scientific nature, and realized the pursuit of modern art for the authenticity of realistic illusions