The origin of film

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The prehistory of film is almost as long as its history. As a product of modern science and technology, the birth of film has indeed experienced a long experimental process by many scientists, inventors and even imitators in European countries. Their scientific exploration and experiment on sports optical illusion can be traced back to the beginning of19th century. However, people's understanding and application of "light and shadow theory" can start from China more than 2,000 years ago. According to written records, in the 5th century BC, Mozi put forward the theory that "light dies when it reaches the scene (shadow)", which is the earliest and most scientific contribution of human beings to the "optical theory". The "light shadow play" which was produced in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and widely spread after the Tang and Song Dynasties is the earliest and simplest application and practice of the "light theory". /kloc-In the 3rd century, the "lantern shadow play" spread to the Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia and other places, which led to vivid and touching visual games such as "slide show" and "walking with lights". Movies originated from these visual entertainment games. As for the scientific, technical and physical principles on which the invention of movies is based, there are mainly the following three aspects.

(2) the encyclopedia Britannica, film history, the first sentence.

First, visual retention.

In ancient times, people once found that a burning charcoal turned into a fire belt with a wave of his hand. However, this visual phenomenon was associated with the invention of movies in the19th century. 1829, Joseph Prato, a famous Belgian physicist, stared at the strong sunlight for a long time in order to further investigate the tolerance limit of human eyes to light and the time for objects to stay, resulting in blindness. But he found that the shadow of the sun was deeply imprinted in his eyes. He finally found out? Quot visual retention principle. That is, when the object in front of people is removed, the image reflected by the object on the retina will not disappear immediately, but will remain for a short time. Experiments show that the retention time of images is generally 0. 1-0.4 seconds. At the same time, the principle of "Faraday wheel" and the visual study of the rotation of the picture "magic disk" have also been adopted in physics textbooks and physics laboratories in Europe. They showed human beings that the physiological function of human vision can combine a series of independent pictures into a continuous mobile video. 19 In 1930s, visual toys such as stunt wheels, walking wheels, rotating wheels, movable mirrors and stroboscope appeared one after another. Its basic principle is similar, that is, draw a series of images on a rotatable and movable video disc. When the video disc rotates, those unremarkable images move and come alive. Since then, the Austrian combined the slide show with the movable video disc, so that the still picture was projected on the screen, and the movable slide show was made, forming the early animation. However, in the 1960s, film theorists and educators raised new questions about "visual preservation". They found that all the action phenomena on the screen were actually jumping and incoherent, but the audience realized that it was a unified and complete action sequence. This proves that what really works is not "visual retention" but "psychological identity".

Second, photography.

Photography also originated in Europe in the19th century. 1839, Daguerre, a Frenchman, fixed the image permanently by chemical method according to the pinhole imaging principle in painting after the Renaissance, and "Daguerre Photography" came into being. However, people can't be satisfied with static, exquisite and single photos in front of the mechanical principle and the consciousness of optical illusion of movable video discs, but fantasize that one day they can be connected with each other and faithfully copy the physical reality of image action and natural space. 1872, photographer Edward umbridge first applied "photography" to continuous shooting. In five years, he used many cameras to shoot a running horse continuously, which was successful in 1878. The talented photographer arranged 24 cameras in a row. When the horse ran by, the shutter of the camera opened, and the instantaneous posture of horseshoe and flying was photographed in turn. For this, Edward Umbridge won? Quot Method and device for shooting moving objects ". 1882, French men developed a "photographic gun" that can shoot continuously by using the intermittent principle of revolvers. Later, he invented the "film continuous camera". Finally, a camera began to use a group of cameras instead of curtains to shoot moving objects. In Europe, scientists and inventors from many countries also developed different types of cameras during this period. Among them is Thomas of the United States. Edison and his mechanic Dixon invented the traction method of punching holes on both sides of the film in order to make the film move at the same interval in the camera, which solved the technical problem of mechanical transmission? Quot "Photography" of "Mobile Photography" is finished.

Third, projection

1888, Frenchman emile reynaud invented the "optical film machine", and people began to see moving films for a few minutes on the curtain, such as "Poor Pierrot" and "Next to the locker room". But the images projected on the curtain are all painted by Renault himself, which is only an early animation screening, which is far from the real movie. 1894, Edison's "film mirror" came out. It is a rectangular cabinet box with a film inside, which can continuously show 50 feet of film and a 2.5 mm lens outside. The feature of this kind of "movie mirror" is that it can only be seen by one person. Edison believes that only when every curious customer watches movies on the movie machine alone can he make more money. Therefore, he refused to show the film. This is obviously a mistake. A year later? Quot 1895 is a year of amazing progress in projection technology. In September of the same year, Thomas Ahmad showed pictures of activities at the Cotton Expo in Atlanta, Georgia. L 65438+ October, the largest. Sk Ladanov shows a film in the Winter Garden in Berlin. "(1)" projection "has become the competitive goal of people in this period. However, among all the projection technologies, only the "Movable Film Machine" invented by Lumiere Brothers has been successful. First, it is a machine that can shoot and show Cellu films; Second, the cost and weight of the machine are much lower than that of inventors such as Edison; Thirdly, in terms of speed, Edison's Movie Mirror is a frame of L/48 seconds, while Lumiere's Movie Machine is a frame of L/ 16 seconds, which is closer to the normal speed of 1/24 seconds. On the last two days of 1895, 18, on February 28th, the Lumiere brothers sold their tickets for the first time in the big coffee shop at No.4 14, Paris, and released his movies with his "movie machine". This day not only marks the completion of "projection", but also marks the real birth of the film.

(1) Howard Lawson's film creation process, page 5.

It is no accident that the film was born at the end of 19, which is closely related to the development of modern scientific concepts. When "relativity and quantum mechanics form the basis of modern physics, people have a great understanding of time, space and province?" In the era of "handsome man and deer", the scientists and inventors of the prehistory of movies persistently pursued and created the image media language-"the optical illusion of movement" which conforms to this new scientific concept. Science acts on art, which embodies the new concept of modern human thinking in images. From the very beginning, this concept determines that film art is essentially 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, the film finally realized the aesthetic pursuit of the mummy "plot" team by human art and the real pursuit of realistic illusion by modern art.