Motion Pictures

 

Motion Pictures and Film

    The way that movies are made today is an intricate process combining dozens of people gigantic budgets. They use CGI, green screens, and other movie magic tricks. It was not always this way though, before, films didn't even have color or sound. They were simply "motion pictures." Take this in the literal sense, somebody would take multiple photos in rapid succession to make it look like the image was moving. The first of these motion pictures was made on October 19th, 1878, when Scientific American published a series of pictures depicting a horse in full gallop, along with instructions to view them through a zoetrope. 

    The photos were taken by Eadweard Muybridge, to settle a bet between California businessmen Leland Stanford and his colleagues. Stanford believed that at some point in a horses stride, all four hooves were off the ground. he enlisted Muybridge to take photographs of the positions of a horse's hooves in rapid succession. The 12 pictures showed that Stanford had won the bet. Muybridge's finding fascinated many, and with Stanford's support he created a sequential photo projector- the zoogyroscope, in 1879, With this device Muybridge projected his photos to enthralled audiences.

Meanwhile, in Paris, noted physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey was doing similar work. his studies of animals in motion drove him to experiment with photography, and he fashioned a camera that could take 12 pictures per second of a moving object. This technique, called chronophotography, along with Muybridge's work, were the founding concepts for motion picture, movie cameras, and projectors. 

    Even though movies today are much more advanced, they keep the same concept. It's just that the newer cameras capture hundreds of images a second instead of ten. 

Despite the drastic change in technology, the impact of films have not changed. They influenced communication to an extent unbenounced to humans. They are a way for people to express their creative sides, share important news or information, or even spread knowledge to influence a population.  

    Sadly, there have been examples of people using films for evil. People soon recognized the power of film, and how it could influence a certain agenda, because of how many people watched the,. Surprisingly (not), the Nazis are one of the largest examples of this. They were aware of the impact motion pictures could have to further their political agendas. The totalitarian state of the Nazis looked at cinema as a medium for controlling the opinion of the masses. Directors such as Leni Riefenstahl created movies that celebrated the Nazi vision of a racially united Germany, including the wicked propaganda masterpiece of 1935, Triumph of the Will. 

    Cinema has become a powerful vehicle for culture, education, leisure, and propaganda. In a 1963 report for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization looking at Indian Cinema and Culture, the author (Baldoon Dhingra) quotes a speech by Prime Minister Nehru who states "... the influence in India of films is greater than newspapers and books combines." Even at this early stage in cinema, the Indian film-market catered for over 25 million people a week- considered to be just a sliver of the population.

    Taking a more scientific route, I found that contemporary research has also revealed more profound aspects to film’s impact on society. In a 2005 paper by S C Noah Uhrig (University of Essex, UK) entitled, “Cinema is Good for You: The Effects of Cinema Attendance on Self-Reported Anxiety or Depression and ‘Happiness'” the author describes how, “The narrative and representational aspects of film make it a wholly unique form of art. Moreover, the collective experience of film as art renders it a wholly distinct leisure activity. The unique properties of attending the cinema can have decisively positive effects on mental health. Cinema attendance can have independent and robust effects on mental wellbeing because visual stimulation can queue a range of emotions and the collective experience of these emotions through the cinema provides a safe environment in which to experience roles and emotions we might not otherwise be free to experience. The collective nature of the narrative and visual stimulation makes the experience enjoyable and controlled, thereby offering benefits beyond mere visual stimulation. Moreover, the cinema is unique in that it is a highly accessible social art form, the participation in which generally cuts across economic lines. At the same time, attending the cinema allows for the exercise of personal preferences and the human need for distinction. In a nutshell, cinema attendance can be both a personally expressive experience, good fun, and therapeutic at the same time." In a rather groundbreaking study, Konlaan, Bygren and Johansson found that frequent cinema attendees have particularly low mortality risks –those who never attended the cinema had mortality rates nearly 4 times higher than those who visit the cinema at least occasionally (Konlaan, Bygren, and Johansson 2000). Their finding holds even when other forms of social engagement are controlled, suggesting that social engagement specifically in an artistic milieu is important for human survival.

  Film is a reflection of society, both present and past. I think the film and it’s innovations sometimes has to catch up to society, but sometimes it leads society too. Movies are stories, movies are people who come out with ideas about something they want to say, something they want to tell someone. Movies are a form of communication and that communication, those stories, come from societies- not just where society is presently and what it’s doing now- but where society has been. It’s been that way for as long as movies have been around!