Film History and Core Concepts Explained

Early Cinema History and Film Concepts

Early Motion Capture and Art?

Rupestrian paintings and shadow puppets.

Magic Lantern Inventor and Year?

Athanasius Kircher in 1640.

Science of Motion Decomposition?

Chronophotography.

What is Retinal Persistence?

It is the phenomenon by which the brain retains an image for a few tenths of a second after its disappearance. By joining several pictures successively, one can perceive movement.

1895 Support for Linking Images?

Celluloid film.

Appliance Preceding Motion Pictures?

Magic lantern.

Edison's Patented Vision Device?

Kinetoscope.

Film Inventors and Year?

The brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière in 1895.

Lumière Brothers Films?

• Workers Leaving the Factory
• The Arrival of a Train

Lumière Operator in Spain?

Eugène Promio.

Director of First Western Film?

The Great Train Robbery. Directed by Edwin S. Porter.

Innovations in First Western Film?

The narrative of two parallel actions and the use of the foreground.

Georges Méliès Films?

• A Trip to the Moon
• The Man with a Thousand Heads

DW Griffith's Impact on Film?

Commercial and artistic dimensions.

Griffith and the Flashback?

A shot or scene that takes viewers to a hypothetical narrative past. Sometimes the entire movie is a flashback, as in Cinema Paradiso.

Griffith's Panoramic and Traveling Shots?

The panoramic shot is the movement of rotating the camera on a stand, while the traveling shot is obtained by moving the camera on rails or another system.

Key DW Griffith Films?

• The Birth of a Nation (1915)
• Intolerance (1916)

Key Russian Director and Films?

Sergei Eisenstein.

Films:

• Strike
• Battleship Potemkin
• Mother

Film Pre-production Phase?

It is the phase of script creation.

What is Crossfading?

It is the replacement of one shot with another that is progressively overlapped.

Defining a Film Sequence?

The set of scenes that form a narrative unit, recounting an event from start to finish.

Classifying Film Shots?

Shots are classified as descriptive or narrative (e.g., medium shots) and expressive (e.g., close-ups).

What is a Script and its Contents?

It is the written basis of the film. It must include the narrative, dialogue, description of characters, and scenarios.

Film Synopsis Before Script?

The premise, the conflict (knot), and the resolution (outcome) of the story.

What is a Shot (Plano)?

It is the take that is filmed without interruption.

Script Sequence Header Elements?

The scene title and number, whether the action happens during the day or night, and whether it occurs in an exterior or interior location.

Film Post-production Phase?

It is the phase of assembling the filmed or recorded shots. This work involves the editing team and the film director.

What is Framing (Encuadre)?

It is the physical limit of the image; what you see on the screen.

Field vs. Out of Field?

The field is what is shown within the edges of the image. The out of field is the set of spatial and sound elements that are present in the scene but not shown on the screen.

What is Ellipsis in Film?

It is a jump in time or space that omits intermediate steps without breaking the continuity of the scene.

What is a Shot-Sequence?

It is a scene or sequence filmed and shown without cuts.

Space and Time in Film?

Space refers to the type of shot used. Time refers to the duration of the chosen shot on the screen.