Beginnings: Black and White, Color Answers

Celluloid film was invented shortly after the idea of moving pictures was established. Celluloid film was cut from blocks and created with light sensitive chemicals. It was produced in rolls of 12 to 24 blocks. The Kodak company developed celluloid film.

This shot is an example of a movie still, or screenshot. Movie stills are done by a photographer while the movie is being filmed with cameras. The stills are used for advertising in posters, websites, newspapers, and magazines.

There first silent film was called, Birth of a Nation. It was produced by D.W. Griffith, and chronicled the Civil War. Sound was added to film in 1927.

A panning shot is a camera shot that is taken by rotating the camera on a fixed point left or right, so as to keep an object in the same picture frame. A fade out is something added to a shot. It is a reduction in visibility of an image to signal a conclusion or transition.

A moving picture is a series of pictures that shows motion by depicting multiple views of the same action in a single frame. A moving picture can be created using multiple exposures or through some type of processing in the dark room.

Citizen Kane was produced and directed by Orson Welles. The movie was a portrayal of William Randolph Hearst. Welles, tried something different, he had the main character die at the beginning, and the rest of the film is a flashback – or interrupting the chronological sequence. He also used low-angle shots to emphasize the power of the media giant.

Cinematography became possible when cameras could expose many images rapidly in sequence and when film changed from rigid plates to flexible roll film (celluloid) that could move through a camera. Mechanisms like a shutter and intermittent movement advanced so each frame could be exposed, then advanced, creating smooth motion when projected. Improvements in film sensitivity also allowed shorter exposures and more practical shooting. Cinematography is the art and technique of photographing motion pictures—camera placement/movement, lighting, lens choice, and composition.

The images were photographed by Eadweard Muybridge. He pioneered motion study by using multiple cameras and sequential photographs to analyze movement, helping prove how animals (and people) actually move. The series is “The Horse in Motion,” which showed that at one point in a gallop all four of a horse’s hooves leave the ground. Its significance is that it helped lead directly to the invention of motion pictures by demonstrating how still images in sequence can depict motion.

A documentary is a category of film expression which is intended to depict reality. The first documentary was created by Robert Flaherty. He helped explore the Pacific Northwest. He decided to make a documentary about the Inuit people, although it wasn't exactly a documentary because a lot of the shots he set up. A documentary isn’t suppose to be manipulated.