The Cinema in Flux: The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era

Description

The first of its kind, this book traces the evolution of motion picture technology in its entirety. Beginning with Huygens' magic lantern and ending in the current electronic era, it explains cinema’s scientific foundations and the development of parallel enabling technologies alongside the lives of the innovators. Product development issues, business and marketplace factors, the interaction of aesthetic and technological demands, and the patent system all play key roles in the tale. The topics are covered sequentially, with detailed discussion of the transition from the magic lantern to Edison’s invention of the 35mm camera, the development of the celluloid cinema, and the transition from celluloid to digital. Unique and essential reading from a lifetime innovator in the field of cinema technology, this engaging and well-illustrated book will appeal to anyone interested in the history and science of cinema, from movie buffs to academics and members of the motion picture industry. Foreword Preface Contents About the Author Part I: THE GLASS CINEMA: The Cinema of Real Motion 1: Huygens and the Magic Lantern 2: The Magic Lanternists 3: Lantern Light and Glass Part II: THE GLASS CINEMA: Apparent Motion, Discovered and Applied 4: Plateau Invents the Phenakistoscope 5: A Persistent Myth 6: The Zoëtrope and the Praxinoscope 7: Daguerre’s Photography 8: Fox Talbot’s Photography 9: Protocinematographers: Duboscq to Le Prince 10: Muybridge and Anschütz 11: Chronophotographers: Janssen, Marey, and Demenÿ Part III: THE CELLULOID CINEMA: The 35 mm Medium 12: Edison, Dickson, and the Kineto Project 13: The Kinetograph 14: The Kinetoscope: Projection’s Inspiration 15: Dickson Moves on: Lambda, Mutoscope, and Bitzer 16: Jenkins and Armat: American Projection 17: The Lumières and the Europeans 18: Edison and the Trust 19: Porter the Filmmaker 20: Porter and the Simplex 21: Camera Design Before WWII 22: Camera Design After WWII 23: Ciné Lenses: Part I Introduction Hall and Dolland Chevalier: The First Camera Lens The Petzval Lens Rudolph’s Tessar Taylor’s Triplet Antireflection Coating T Stops 24: Ciné Lenses: Part II A 1916 Opinion Fast Lenses Portrait Techniques Retrofocus Lenses Zooms and Varifocals Anamorphic Lenses Projection Lenses Schade and OTF Twenty-First-Century Technology Part IV: THE CELLULOID CINEMA: Sound 25: Silent Sound 26: Synchronizing the Phonograph 27: Electronics for Talking Shadows 28: The Origins of Sound-on-Film 29: One Man Bands: Lauste and Tykociner 30: Tri-Ergon 31: de Forest and Case 32: Phonofilm 33: William Fox Hears the Future 34: Vitaphone 35: Movietone 36: RCA vs. ERPI 37: William Fox vs. the Industry 38: Optical Sound Evolution 39: Multichannel, Magnetic, and Digital Sound Part V: THE CELLULOID CINEMA: Color 40: Applied Color 41: Color Elucidated 42: Color Photography Before the Movies 43: Urban and the Origins of Kinemacolor 44: The Rise and Fall of Kinemacolor 45: Additive Color After Kinemacolor 46: Subtractive Technologies 47: Kelley’s Color Microcosm 48: TruColor and Cinecolor 49: Two-Color Technicolor 50: Three-Color Technicolor 51: Agfa and Ansco Color 52: Eastman Color Part VI: THE CELLULOID CINEMA: Small Formats 53: Early Small Formats 54: 16 mm 55: Kodachrome 56: Double 8 mm and Super 8 Part VII: THE CELLULOID CINEMA: The Big Wide Screen 57: The Shape of Screens to Come 58: Grandeur et al. 59: Expanded Screen: The Interregnum Ends 60: This Is Cinerama 61: Cinerama After Waller 62: CinemaScope 63: ‘Scope Variations 64: Wide Screen and VistaVision 65: Todd-AO 66: 65/70 mm and Technirama 67: IMAX and PLF Exhibition Part VIII: THE CELLULOID CINEMA: The Stereoscopic Cinema 68: Early 3-D 69: Polarization Image Selection 70: 3-D in the Last Half of the Twentieth Century Part IX: TELEVISION AND THE DIGITAL CINEMA: Television 71: Vision at a Distance 72: Jenkins and Baird 73: Farnsworth 74: Zworykin 75: Broadcasting Begins 76: Color Wars: CBS vs. RCA 77: High Definition Television 78: Film to Video and the VTR Part X: TELEVISION AND THE DIGITAL CINEMA: The Electronic Cinema 79: Early Adopters: Electronic Cinematography and CGI 80: Digital Technology 81: The Hybridization of Post-production 82: Electro-Mechanical to Digital Projection 83: Digital Projection and 3-D Converge Afterword and Acknowledgments Bibliographies Books and Miscellany Articles Web Sites US Patents Index