How Movies Move

What makes movies so intriguing to people? Why do people like them?
If we were to and make a list of all the answers to these questions, the list would probably never end. Tapping into the inner 4-year in every person, one would simply answer that “The pictures move!” Movies move, and this is what inherently intrigues us about them. Movement in films is not restricted to the literal ‘movement’ on the screen- the viewers are ‘moved’ into the world that the film creates and become emotionally ‘moved’ through the illusion of ‘movement’ that the technical weaving of still images creates.
Because movies are technically a sequence of still images, it’s easy to credit photography with being the direct predecessor of cinema. Though in the technical aspect this is largely true, the establishment and development of cinema as a cultural product stemmed more from the theatrical aspects of magic shows. The first movies were literally parts of magic shows, played in makeshift tents on circus grounds, and to the people watching them, these moving images were nothing short of magic. Cinema, much like magic performances, enthralls its audiences and gives them a sense of wonder. As viewers, we get lost in the artificial ‘realism’ within the screen- and this concocted realism leads us to willingly suspend logic and lose ourselves within the realm of the film.
One notable technique used in these early films is ‘rotoscoping.’ Though the term is now more heavily associated with hand-drawn animation techniques, it can refer to the general frame-by-frame manipulation of movies in any genre. Rotoscoping in early films often refers to the hand-coloring of single shots in order to make a ‘color’ film. This technique and the ‘magic’ of the cinema is well shown in the first science fiction movie ever made- Georges Meilies’ A Trip to the Moon (1902). The hand-colored version of the movie was restored completely and played at the 2011 Cannes film festival.

watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4dTVfSJoj04

*One thing to note here is that the soundtrack is NOT part of the original film- it was composed by the French band Air and inserted into the remastered version of the movie. The original (and better known) version of the film is the silent black-and-white film that is played with a spoken narration by Meilies himself.
Another technical aspect of this film is the frame rate, which is 16 frames per second (the standard fps of the time). To modern audiences, this low fps rate is what makes the movie look ‘choppy’- we are used to seeing video played at 24 fps and higher, and the frame rates are getting higher as technology progresses.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, is the full-length clip of Georges Meilies’ Le Voyage Dans le Lune. The science in the movie is surprisingly accurate in some parts and just pure fiction in others. But it is nonetheless an endearing film…
Le Voyage dans la Lune Original