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Initially, moving pictures meant only the movement that is perceived when a string of celluloid recorded images are projected at a rate of about 16 or more frames per second (see persistence of vision). Today, motion pictures (or "*movies*") are an art form, as well as one of the most popular forms of entertainment.

A feature film is usually defined as being more than 60 minutes in length.

Opportunities to see a feature film include:

• going to a movie theater or cinema
• watching it on television
• renting or buying a video tape or DVD
• downloading one from internet and watching it on the computer display

History of Cinema

The presentation of moving pictures as a series of photographic images recorded and reproduced in rapid succession, the eye's persistence of vision giving the impression of continuous movement. Film in continuous strips provided the material for Edison's pioneer Kinetoscope camera of 1891, but projecting the image on a screen for a large audience originated with the Lumière brothers in 1895, establishing the film production and cinema industries.

Pictures were exposed in the camera at a rate of 16 per second, the film being held stationary for each exposure and then advanced one frame at a time while a shutter obscured the lens. After developing this film as a negative, a positive print was made for projection, again with an intermittent mechanism and shutter.

In the late 1920s synchronized sound was added to the picture presentation, at first from separate disc records but after 1927 from a sound track on the film itself, the frame rate being increased to 24 pictures per second. Colour cinematography developed in the 1930s but did not become general for another 20 years, when various forms of wide-screen presentation in the cinema were extensively adopted.

Originally moving picture film was shot at various speeds using hand-cranked cameras; then the speed for mechanized cameras and projectors was standardized at 16 frames per second, which was faster than much existing hand-cranked footage. A new standard speed, 24 frames per second, came with the introduction of sound. Improvements since the late 1800s include the mechanization of cameras, allowing them to record at a consistent speed, the invention of more sophisticated filmstocks and lenses, allowing directors to film in increasingly dim conditions, and the development of synch_sound, allowing sound to be recorded at exactly the same speed as its corresponding video. Since the advent of many other media technologies, film may include a broad range of media--both linear and non-linear, dramatic and informational, motion and still (though progressive).

External links

• The IMDb (Internet Movie Database) for information on specific motion pictures.
• Rotten Tomatoes for an overview of reviews of a film

More on Film