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Films - or, more formally, motion pictures - have been a staple in the entertainment industry since the the early twentieth century. The term 'film' is derived from the historically traditional manner of recording them; namely photographic film. Other terms with the same meaning include movie, flick and picture show.

Film is generally considered one of the major art forms - in that it is something that informs, inspires, enlightens and entertains - and has taken a place as a very important part of modern culture.

Contents 1 History of Film 1.1 Precursors to Film 1.2 The Silent Era 1.3 The Sound Era and Beyond 2 Where to see films 3 Film in Relation to Students

History of Film

Precursors to Film

The time-line of films can actually be traced all the way back to the late nineteenth century, stemming from simple devices which created optical illusions of movement simply by moving slightly different images at such a speed that they appeared to be one single, moving image. The best examples of these are the zoetrope, a device that allowed someone to view a simple, repeating image. This is, interestingly, the foundation for the the film-making technique known as animation.

With the advent of celluloid film, it soon was realised that the technique used in the zoetrope could be applied to images captured with photographic film. However, early implementations of this idea required the viewer to have to look through a special set of lenses in order to properly be able to view the film.

The Silent Era

By the 1880's, the motion picture camera had been developed - allowing film-makers to capture actors' movement in individual frames on a single reel of celluloid film. Along with this came the advent of the motion picture projector, which was used to project the developed film onto a large screen, allowing for more than one person at a time to be able to view the desired effect.

However, film still had much development to go through. The first motion picture - a short known as Roundhay Garden Scene - was a simple static shot, with the director's son and mother-in-law simply moving about, talking - without sound at this point - and laughing; and was generally considered as 'art' in the classical sense, as opposed to in today's more broad sense.

Close to the advent of the twentieth century, motion pictures began to take on narratives that linked different scenes, filmed in different places. Along with this, it was realised that instead of having the camera stationary all the time, one could move the camera around to add to the story. Also, due to their lack of sound, motion pictures were almost invariably shipped with a set of sheet music that a pianist or organist - or even a full ensemble orchestra - could play in time with the film to create an atmosphere. By the 1920's; this was almost a requirement for all films!

The Sound Era and Beyond

In the 1920's, however, the technology to allow directors to add sound straight into the reel of film itself was developed, and for the first time 'talking pictures' (or 'talkies') were introduced, with full speech, accompanying music and sound effects that further enhanced the experience of cinema.

Further developments included the advent of technicolour - which allowed audiences to view films in full colour and almost real-world quality - and eventually this became standard for all movies, before even television standardised colour! From there, the only real developments in technology have been for quality - of both sound and the pictures themselves - and also in technique. With the dawn of the Age of Information, this also lead to more developments, including the ability to add special effects to movies - with Industrial Light and Magic leading the charge in that particular field as early as the 1970's - to being able to record films without the need for celluloid film.

Where to see films

When films are released for the same time, they are almost invariably released to a cinema - or theatre. There are a few exceptions, of course, with Direct-to-Video and Direct-to-DVD becoming increasingly common as more people become able to make their own movies. However, if a film has a large enough budget, then invariably it will be put in to cinemas first.

Once a film has stopped making money in the cinemas, they are frequently released on to DVD, Blu-Ray and VHS. It is interesting to note that there is no standard length of time between the film leaving the cinemas and arriving on home video; some movies can take as long as two years to achieve this. However, on average this process takes approximately 3-4 months.

Film in Relation to Students

For students, film can be many things. It can simply be a way to relax after a hard week, but it can also be a subject that many universities and schools offer for you to study!

Film studies involves many things, from simply observing movies and attempting to analyse various aspects of it - style of cinematography, structure of narrative etc. - to actually making your own short films; all of which can be highly enjoyable to study. It is also important to note that film studies is distinct from film criticism; although both have some similar aspects. Film studies puts emphasis on evaluating the film's structure, whereas film criticism puts it's emphasis on evaluating the quality of the film.

See Film Studies for more details on film studies at university.