The Science and Technology of Motion Pictures Quiz

Answer: Persistence of Vision

Persistence of vision is an aspect of human perception. The brain retains an image cast on the retina for a length of time after the actual image is removed. This allows the second image to be projected while the first image is still being 'seen'. The persistence of vision only kicks in when the rate of projection is fast enough.

Answer: Series Photography

Series Photography (1870s) was brought about when Muybridge was commissioned to settle a bet concerning the nature of a horse's gallop. He documented the positions of the horse by setting up a number of cameras on a track, each with shutters that would bee tripped as the horse passed.

This isn't really considered the birth of motion picture, though, because the technology had not yet been incorporated into a single instrument. Magic Lanterns (1600s) were like early slide projectors, where an image would bee projected by way of the lantern onto a wall for audiences to revel at.

The Thaumatrope (early 1800s) was a children's toy consisting of a paper with different images on each side and strings coming out in each direction. Fast twisting of the image via the strings merged the images (i.e. a bird and a cage becomes a bird inside the cage).

The Zoetrope (1834, by George Horner) was a spinning wheel with drawings along the inside rim of the wheel. Slats in the wheel allowed the 'player' to watch as the wheel spun and merged the images into a sort of short animation.

Answer: New York City

New York City was the center of the film industry for quite a while, and the site of the first movie 'theater'. Edison's film studio, which provided hundreds of short films to the vendors who screened them, was situated in New Jersey. Referred to as the 'Black Maria', the studio was a room covered in black tar paper with a retractable ceiling to allow for sunlight.

The entire room could then be rotated to follow the sun, to maximize the usable hours in the day (sunlight was the only light source for film at that time).

Answer: The Cinematographe was earth-bound; the Kinetograph was hand-held and thus mobile.

The difference in design between the Cinematographe and Kinetograph influenced the sort of films each of these pioneers made. Edison's films tended toward stagey fictional work, since everything was being put together in the studio. The Lumiere brothers, however, were free to take their camera anywhere, so their work tended more toward the documentary, recording events as 'actualites'.

Answer: true

Prior to the Latham loop, film strips longer than 50-100 feet (about one minute, depending on projection speed) would tear or break in the projector because of the inertia of the take-up reel. The Latham family invented a technique of placing small loops on either side of the projection lens that redistributed the stress in such a way that longer film strips could be projected. Imagine, without this, we'd never have had to sit through 'Titanic'!