Filmmaking

The shutter controls how long the film is exposed to light. When it's open, light passes through the lens and aperture to the film. A registration pin holds the film still while a frame is exposed, then the shutter closes, the pin pulls back, and a claw enters the sprocket holes to pull the film on to the next frame. This happens 24 times every second.

📖 In short

Cinema is the art of making films. A film is a series of pictures shown very fast, so we see them move on the screen. Cinema has become one of the world's favorite entertainments, with funny stories, adventures and nature films.

🤩 Did you know?

By 1927 talking pictures had appeared.
A film is usually shown at 24 frames a second.
Hundreds of people work behind the camera on a big film.
Every year prizes are given to the best films at international festivals.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 How is a film made?

A film begins with a story by the screenwriter, then the director chooses the actors and locations, the camera operator films the scenes, the editor puts them together in order, and music and sounds are added.

🔍 From silent to sound

The first films were black and white with no sound, and a pianist played in the hall during the show. Then came talking pictures, then color films.

💡 Movie tricks

Filmmakers use lots of tricks: small models that look huge, a green screen behind the actors that can be replaced with any place, and computer graphics that create dinosaurs and monsters.

🎯 Arab cinema

Filmmaking began in Arab countries about a hundred years ago, and Egypt became famous for its many films, so Cairo was called “the Hollywood of the East”.

📸 More pictures

A 35 mm projector, used to show cinema films. The projector above has a sound reader that turns the sound into four stereo channels.

A projector shows the pictures and plays the sounds onto a screen. It has toothed wheels that pull the film along as it runs, and a rotating shutter that stops light reaching the film until each frame is in place. A lamp shines a concentrated beam through the photographed soundtrack, and changes in the light passing through fall on a photoelectric cell on the other side, becoming electric pulses that are greatly amplified and sent to a loudspeaker accompanying the film in the hall.

🧩 Test yourself

1 Who writes the story of a film?

2 What were the first films like?

3 A film is usually shown at ?? frames a second.

4 Which picture shows “Filmmaking”?