Movie

A movie is a series of still frames projected in rapid succession to creation the illusion of motion.  Other terms for a movie are: film, motion picture, picture, and flick.

History of Motion Pictures

Early motion picture mechanisms, including the zoetrope and the praxinoscope, were invented in the 1860s.  Like the magic lanterns, which were known in the 17th century, these newer devices displayed a series of still images in a rapid series so that the pictures appeared to move.  This effect of apparent motion is possible through a phenomenon known as persistence of vision.

The advance of still photography, which captured images on celluloid film, promoted the use of celluloid in motion pictures as well.  Motion picture cameras were developed in the 1880s, and movies by this time were projected in coin-operated machines.

The earliest surviving movie is Roundhay Garden Scene, shot by French inventor Louis Le Prince on October 14, 1888. It shows four people walking in a garden.

Silent films dominated the movie industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  With the development of movie theaters, music was added by an accompanist on piano, organ, or even a full orchestra.  This musicals was often improvised by a pianist, but by the 1920s most movies came with sheet music.

Soundtracks, developed in the 1920s, placed recorded music directly on the film strip.  Movies with recorded sound were originally called known as talkies.

Color films were an innovation of the late 1930s.  In the following decades, black-and-white movies became less common, and by the 1960s most popular movies were shot in color.

The modern era, beginning in the 1990s, has seen a shift from analog to digital movies.

Hollywood

Movies were first developed in Europe.  In the United States, the movie industry began in the East and moved West.  In 1906 the Biograph Company filmed a short movie, A Daring Hold-Up in Southern California, in Los Angeles.  Film director D.W. Griffith, who worked for Biograph, came to California in 1910, along with a troupe of actors that included Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, and Lionel Barrymore.  By 1915, most movies were made in and around Los Angeles.

During the "Golden Age" of Hollywood — the 1920s through the 1940s — the studio system dominated filmmaking.  Under the studio system, movie studios produced films on their own lots, using creative talent under long-term contracts, then the studios distributed these films through their own distribution companies to theaters that they also owned.  In 1948, the Unites States Supreme Court effectively dismantled the studio system by ruling against Paramount in a landmark anti-trust case, United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.

Though Hollywood is still considered the center of movie making in the United States, its dominance of the film industry has been increasingly threatened by new technologies, globalization, and piracy.

Movie Production

The stages of movie production are:  development, pre-production, production, and post-production.

Development

Film development begins with originating or acquiring an idea for a movie.  Concepts are sometimes purchased or optioned from pre-existing material, such as books, articles, comic books, stage plays, true stories, or previous films.  Less often, an original idea is conceived.

Typically, the idea is then fleshed out in a synopsis, step outline, or treatment. Often many versions are generated before the idea advances to the script stage.  Most ideas never make it past this step.

A movie script is then written based on the idea, synopsis, outline, or treatment.  If a production company owns the material, a screenwriter is hired or otherwise convinced to create a script.  If a writer controls the material, he may choose to write the material on speculation (without payment in advance) or attempt to sell ("pitch") the material to a production company.  The writer could might sell the material outright or try to attach himself as a paid writer on the project.

Although the film script is a blueprint for the eventual movie, it is first used as a marketing tool to get the film financed.  Often a script will be "packaged" with other elements, such as a high-profile director or actor.

Although the development stage formally ends with a "green light" for production, the script itself is subject to changes until the film is released (and sometimes after that).

Pre-production

This is the design and planning stage.  Here, the production company is involved in storyboarding, budgeting, and hiring the crew.

Storyboarding is a form of previsualization.  Often a director will work with a specialized artist to render images that will communicate the director's vision to other members of the crew.

Budgeting a movie is as much an art as a science.  This is because the budget is based on the script that exists before shooting starts, and film production has an inherent degree of unpredictability built in.  If the script changes, if the weather turns bad, if an actor drops out, or if any number of other unforeseen events occur, the production budget will be effected.

While movies can be made for six figures, using a small crew and limited locations, the cost of the average studio picture is nearly $100 million and requires hundreds of people working months and sometimes years to complete the project.

Production

During this stage, images and sound are captured an stored for later assembly.  The actors and the film crew turn the script into a series of shots which will later be built into scenes.

Film schedules are usually designed to save money by combining locations, which means that scenes are frequently shot out of order.  If a location, such as a house, is used three times in a movie, those three scenes would be filmed together, regardless of where they occur within the story.

Post-production

Once the film is shot, the post-production team works to build this raw material into a finished film.  Typically, some scenes are edited while other scenes are being shot.  The editors assemble a rough cut of the film, which is screened for the director and producer.  The rough cut is revised into a fine cut, and the picture is "locked."

At this point, the sound track is added. This includes dialog, music, sound effects, and background sounds.

When the director and producer are satisfied with the film, it is usually screened for a test audience.  Sometimes this results in new edits, new scenes, or new distribution plans.

Distribution and Exhibition

When the movie is complete, it must be duplicated and distributed to theaters, or possibly to a home market via DVD or VCD.

If the movie has been completed without a distributor, as is the case with most independent films, then the film is screened to attract the interest of a distribution company.  This often occurs at film festivals and film markets.

Movie Links

Internet Movie Database — information on specific movies
Rotten Tomatoes — movie reviews
Roundhay Garden — earliest surviving movie

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