the Muse of Film Welcomes You

In this feature, The Muse explores all aspects of film, the medium, and film, the industry. Enjoy!

About Film; about this feature

The Muse Of Film defines film broadly, as a series of moving images. This definition is meant to be broad, but at a minimum includes film as an industry—its productions, operations, history, technologies, etc.—and most important for the arts, it includes motion pictures as a field of art and entertainment.

As a physical medium, film takes its name from the material on which still or moving pictures were initially recorded at the time film was invented. This medium was a thin coating of emulsion on a sheet or strip of transparent material, usually cellulose triacetate or acetate, covered with a photographic emulsion and perforated along one or both edges. Now—in the computer age—what originally was called film is going digital; it's evolving into binary recordings on magnetic tape, plastic, or other kind of storage media.

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movie reviews

A review is an article or report, critique, or evaluation. A review may also be a survey over a whole subject or division of it, especially an article making a critical reconsideration and summary of something written.

Reviewing is the process of going over a subject or work in order to fix it in the memory or summarize the facts. A critique is a judgment, either favorable or unfavorable, or both.

The movie reviews presented here contain all these elements; that is, a particular review may describe a movie, critique a movie, survey a subject related to movies, or any combination thereof. A review may be neutral, favorably disposed, or unfavorably disposed.

• Explore reviews of movies prepared by The Muse Of Film: click here.

Film Criticism

The Muse is pleased to present critical reviews of specific films. In addition, The Muse analyzes specific films and film subjects that arise in connection with the cinematic art generally.

• Explore film criticism: coming.

prizes for film

Film awards play a big part in the film industry, world wide. For more than a century they have helped shape the nature of movies and improve their quality (or degrade their quality, if you are so inclined). They have had a major impact on the artistic and financial structure of the industry and the climate in which films are made.

• Join The Muse Of Film in exploring prizes for films and achievements in film: click here.

Welcome To Technical Aspects Of Film

Film technology is not anywhere as complex, esoteric, or as hard to comprehend as the LHC particle accelerator at SLAC. The technical challenges films present are not nearly as difficult or costly to overcome. But neither are they easy or something to ignore.

In this feature, The Muse Of Film explores some of the challenges that film technology has overcome or has yet to overcome. The Muse is not just interested in examining the techniques and technologies involved in making entertainment flicks. The Muse addresses the technology of film, past, present, and future, in all its fields and in all its aspects, from still photography to high tech moving pictures, from high speed photography to underwater photography, and from exposing and developing film to archiving it.

• Explore Technical Aspects Of Film: click here.

film clips from the muse of film

Because of their excellence and applicability to arts other than film, Electricka and her muses have requested permission from The Muse Of Film to insert some of The Muse's film clips in their own features. Fortunately for us, The Muse Of Film has graciously given them blanket consent to do so.

• View film clips used by Electricka's muses at the feature titled Film Clips From The Muse Of Film: click here.

tops & flops

At Electricka's feature called Tops & Flops In The Arts, see lists of film favorites and other top-10s that have been submitted by visitors to Electricka's web site, including lists of favorite screen writers, actors, movies, directors and many other aspects of the film industry. There, visitors can also submit their own lists of favorites for other visitors to see at Electricka's web site.

• Get ideas for movies to see and things to explore; compare notes with other film lovers. Visit the feature called Tops & Flops In The Arts now: click here.

glossary of film terminology

The Muse Of Film is pleased to offer you a glossary of terms about movie industry films and technology.

• Access the glossary of film terms now: click here.

Birth of the film industry

Devices that can represent moving images have been around for a long time—since late in the second century of the common era, as a matter of fact; but the images they displayed could only be hand-drawn and the duration of presentation was measured in seconds. They possessed many other drawbacks and their representations were crude in the extreme.

Mankind had to wait sixteen more centuries before it became possible to capture, save, and see realistic images of actual things in motion. In its social consequences, this 16-century wait is on a par with the 16 centuries man had to wait to fly.

• Explore the birth of the motion picture industry: click here.

The Advent of motion pictures

Devices that can represent moving images have been around for a long time—since late in the second century of the common era, as a matter of fact; but the images they displayed could only be hand-drawn and the duration of presentation was measured in seconds. They possessed many other drawbacks and their representations were crude in the extreme.

• Explore how and where motion pictures began and where they are today. See a short review of the people who brought movies to us and their place in the history of recording. It's located in the section titled The Advent Of Motion Pictures—The Magic Lantern. You'll find the section on Page 4 of the feature titled History Of Recordings And Recording—Page 4: click here.

The History of recording

Today, movies are a field in which recording technology is preeminent. Film that records images, film that moves, digital recording, 3-D film, 3-D sound, color, animation, computer-generated people, figures, and objects, and a host of other incredible developments that too many of us take for granted. None of these advances would have been possible without contributions from a host of brilliant inventors People like Gutenberg, Niépce, Daguerre, Edison, and the Lumière brothers—they stood on the shoulders of giants who went before them.

Even so basic a development as pictures that move would not exist today without a series of technological advances that began in the 14th century, lasted 1600 years, and is still going on.

• See how motion pictures evolved out of previous inventions and came to be. Explore the history of recording and the major technical advances that led to today's movies. Visit Electricka's feature titled About The History Of Recordings And Recording: click here.

recordings And Recording—An Historic Account

Electricka's feature titled The Account of the history of recordings and recording is a concise account of the the nexus of recordings, recording, and playback. All recording media are examined because all the arts are affected by and affect every medium, including movies.

This history treats many facets of recording and the recording industry, from technology to science to engineering; from scientists and technologists to businessmen; from research and scientific institutions to corporations to commercial outlets; and from to performers and performances to venues and the public. Because they are so tightly interwoven, knowledge of the interactions among these elements is crucial to an understanding how events in the field of recording have unfolded.

What's special about this account?

The Account is contained in The Table Of Recording History, a table that you can manipulate with your computer. Important historic and current events are concisely presented in chronological order, event-by-event, from the inception of recording to modern times.

With the aid of the table's automated facilities, you can use keywords to conveniently search entries for occurrences of text strings that represent and express your interests. Consult it to see how recording began, progressed, and burgeoned into a major industry; see the players; find the breakthroughs.

• Explore and utilize The Table Of Recording History at Electricka's feature titled recordings And Recording—An Historic Account: click here.

the past repeats...or does it?

According to popular opinion, silent motion picture camera technology was developed by a number of investigators in France and the United States circa mid-to-late 19th century and that sound was added in the first half of the 20th century.

Not necessarily so. Surprisingly, scholarly research has established that the feat of integrating sound and moving images in story-telling may have been accomplished long before The Jazz Singer.

How old are the movies, really? Find out. Take the following exploration in two steps:

1. First, explore Richard Attenborough's recount of what may actually be the very first moving picture stories, stories that were told tens of thousands of years ago: click here.
2. Next, compare Attenborough's account of how motion picture story-telling actually may have started with the modern version. Choose one or both of these modern versions to explore how we got where we are today:

• Briefly explore Electricka's story of how moving pictures got started at the feature titled about The Advent Of Motion Pictures: click here.
• Or, explore the The Muse Of Film's longer exploration of how movies got started in the 19th century: click here.

ETAF Recommends

...Coming.

—tip— the muse of film wants your complete attention Visit The Muse of Film Index for a list of all the sections belonging to The Muse of Film: click here.