New York, December, 1915.
A-B-C OF MOTION PICTURES
I
HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF MOTION PICTURES
Like practically all other modern mechanical wonders, the motion picture was not the invention of any one man. Rather, the picture as we know it to-day is the cumulative result of the toil and experiments of a score of workers, whose efforts cover over half a century. As far back as 1795 scientists were striving to produce the phenomena of pictures that moved. Succeeding generations all saw experimenters working toward the same object, each contributing his mite of improvement, until, with Thomas A. Edison’s invention of the kinetoscope, in 1893, the day of modern motion pictures dawned.
Though all these seekers for knowledge worked constantly with “pictures of objects in motion” as their goal, it is not possible that any saw in the motion picture the possibility of development to its present important place. Dreamers as they necessarily were, there were no imaginations even among picture-men of the last decade that would dare such wide stretches of fancy. No other artistic or industrial development of history will bear comparison with the motion picture’s leap from humble beginnings to exalted favor.
Let us go back to the lowly antecedents of the present-day giant. In the year 1830, we find a description of the zoetrope, or “Wheel of Life,” which was introduced in the United States in 1845. Though pretending to be nothing more than a toy, the zoetrope embodied the optical principle that is at the basis of all motion-picture work. It consisted of a revolving cylinder, in appearance much like a common hat-box, with the top removed to permit the light to enter. Vertical slots were made equal spaces apart around the upper half of the cylinder, and ten or more drawings showing a particular object in different positions were placed around the lower half of the interior. The cylinder revolved on a vertical spindle, and the spectator, peering through the slots, received the impression of seeing the object on the interior in motion. Simple drawings were used, a favorite being the figure of a dancer.
The similarity between the zoetrope, despite the fact that it did not make use of photography, and the modern motion picture, lies in the scientific principle responsible for the illusion of moving figures. In viewing a particular object there is the briefest delay in conveying the impression from the eye to the brain, so that the latter has the conception of seeing the object after it has actually passed from the field of vision. If, during this fractional part of a second, another picture of the object, in a slightly different position, is presented to the eye, the brain’s sensation will be that of having seen the object move. Were a series of such pictures moved before the eye in rapid succession, the impression registered would seem more like a streak than an object in motion, so that there must be some way of cutting off the vision until the second picture has been moved into the exact position held by the first, and so on. The spaces between the slots in the zoetrope served this purpose, and so rapid was the revolution of the cylinder that the spectator was not aware of having had his vision interrupted, and only received the impression that on a direct line with the eye there was an object which seemed to be moving.
To understand the application of this principle to modern motion pictures let us take a strip of film a foot in length as an example. There are sixteen separate pictures on this piece of film. The screen of the motion-picture theater serves as the fixed point at which the spectator is gazing. One second is required to show this foot of film on the screen, and the spectator is of the opinion that pictures have been shown throughout that entire second. In reality, the shutter of the projection-machine threw each separate picture on the screen for about one thirty-second of a second, and there was an interval of about the same duration while the next picture was being moved into place.