Light On The Big Screen!

Welcome to Youth Filmmaking Workshop blog. This is a place to learn the different parts in making a movie. In todays world making a film is no longer synonymous with using “film” like in the old days. The “Digital Revolution” has made filmmaking much easier for everyone with the advent of high resolution digital video, computerized editing sytems and the internet to distribute short films. The “Digital Revolution” has simplified the process of filmmaking from the time the camera is used to catch images to the time when the audience gets to see the film for the first time.

One of the most common questions among beginning directors and actors is “What is the difference between a film and a movie?”. Here is a very light history and explanation.

Though Thomas Edison invented motion picture film and later added sound. He only projected the images inside a small box. The Skladanowsky brothers of Germany were first to project moving images for an audience on a big screen and the Lumiere family of France developed it into a main attraction for audiences with practical technology that lasted well into the modern day. The Lumire’s coined the term “Cinema” after the Greek word “Kinema” which means movement.

Since putting pictures into motion to tell a story is what we aim to do, “Cinema” is a word we can use regardless of the technologies used in the making a film. “Film” is a short word in use by 1905 to connotate “moving pictures” which were (and still are) printed on celluloid film.  We can also use the word “Movie” which came into use around 1908 as American slang for “moving pictures”.  All in all, it depends on how accurate you want to be with your words when discussing the matters of the cinema/film/or the movies.  “Cinema” for purists, “Film” for motion pictures on celluloid film, and “Movies” for all the above and anything that might have been left out.

Here you can find the commentary of your workshop leaders on the various topics covered in class.

All the best,

James Rubino