The Moving Image & Immersion
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1) Moving images create the illusion of motion by displaying a series of still images in rapid succession, with a minimum of 10-13 frames needed per second for the illusion. 2) Early animation devices like the zoetrope and flip book used the principle of "persistence of vision" to create the illusion of motion from individual still images. 3) The Lumière brothers, Edison, and other pioneers in the late 1880s developed early devices that could produce moving images, helping to establish cinema.
The Moving Image & Immersion
- 1. The Moving Image & Immersion LCC 2730 Constructing the Moving Image Spring 2011 Nettrice R. Gaskins
- 2. What makes an image move? Moving images are actually illusions (of motion). One second of film/video is made up of several still images. Early experiments showed that a minimum of about 10 - 13 separate frames must be projected every second to give the illusion of movement.
- 3. De-mystifying “persistence of vision” Why, when we look at a succession of still images on the film screen or TV set, are we able to see a continuous moving image? The term „persistence of vision‟ can be found in most explanations of apparent movement, but in itself is a very loosely defined term. It essentially refers to after- images, that is, the retention of an image on the retina of the eye for a fraction of a second, claimed to be responsible for the illusion of motion in film.
- 4. Optical Toys The stroboscope or 'wheel of life,' zoetrope, praxinoscope thaumatrope, phenakistoscope, and flip book are early animation devices that used the "persistence of vision" principle to create the illusion of motion.
- 5. Moving Image Pioneers The first cinematographers were the Lumière Brothers, Georges Méliès, Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey and Ottomar Anschütz in the late 1880s; they created devices that were able to produce moving images, as was Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, that premiered in 1891.
- 6. Making the connection Series: a group of separate items related to one another by a collective title or theme applying to the group as a whole; or similar images placed in order or happening one after another. Sequence: a succession of related shots or frames that develop a given subject in a movie.
- 7. Immersion Diminishing critical distance to what is shown and increasing emotional involvement in what is happening in real or artificial space characterize immersion. Virtual worlds and machinima are part of a long history of immersion in film, as we will explore.
- 8. Train Pulling Into The Station The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (US), or Train Pulling into a Station (UK) is an 1895 French short black- and-white silent documentary film by the Lumière brothers. Supposedly, the audience was so overwhelmed by the moving image of a life-sized train coming directly at them that people screamed and ran to the back of the room.
- 9. A Second Reality Andrei Tarkovsky characterized film as "emotional reality," which allows viewers to experience a "second reality"; traditional cinema was intended for direct power over the feelings of the audience. Tarkovsky and others wanted to extend the illusion of film beyond the visual to include other senses...the medium of film advanced beyond 2D screen projection in order to intensify it's suggestive effect on the audience.
- 10. The Lumière vision fulfilled 3D film making involves filming two images simultaneously, with two cameras positioned side by side, generally facing each other and filming at a 90 degree angle via mirrors, in perfect synchronization and with identical technical characteristics. When viewed in such a way that each eye sees its photographed counterpart, the viewer's visual cortex will interpret the pair of images as a single three-dimensional image.
- 11. Coming Full Circle Modern computer technology also allows for the production of pseudo-3D films using CGI and without the need for dual cameras. Machinima is a film making technique whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is created using computer and online technologies.
- 12. It‟s your turn... Within the virtual 3D world, you can create almost anything: from characters (avatars) to the environment in which these virtual selves live. It's a place where people come to escape, find better or more transcendent versions of themselves, learn universal truths, and explore outrageous dreams and fantasies. But while it is a place where people can be anything they want to be, there are boundaries - just like in the real world.
Editor's Notes
- #4: The illusion of perceived motion occurs when two successive stimuli are shown separated by a brief flash. An everyday example of this phenomenon is motion picture films, which string together thousands of static images to cause the appearance of motion. Cinema projectors required blank periods to allow the next frame to be moved into position for projection. Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) in TVs and computer monitors brought another way of displaying a moving image.
- #6: Many of the early silent films shown in Martin Scorsese’s film, Hugo, areGeorges Méliès actual works such as A Trip to the Moon (1902). Méliès became interested in film after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera, he was a magician and toymaker, he experimented with automata, he owned a theatre, and was forced into bankruptcy – these facts and more are in Scorsese's film.
- #7: Key terms to know related to the moving image: series, sequence and immersion.
- #9: The Lumière brothers were trying to achieve a 3D image and eventually re-shot this film with a stereoscopic camera and exhibited it in 1935. The film also illustrates the use of the long shot to establish the setting of the film, followed by a medium shot, and close-up. (As the camera is static for the entire film, the effect of these various "shots" is affected by the movement of the subject alone.) The train arrives from a distant point and bears down on the viewer, finally crossing the lower edge of the screen.
- #10: Sergei Eisenstein used language such as "immerse", "engulf", "capture", and so on...a clear indication that the medium at a more advanced technological level would have the ability to amalgamate image and spectator psychologically. The early 4D visionaries paved the way for 3D filmmaking that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the illusion of depth as seen by the viewer.
- #13: Cinemax purchased a machinima film starring Molotov Alva, a virtual character that filmmaker Douglas Gayeton conceived in Second Life.