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

ISBN-13: 9781071609507 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 795 str.

Lenny Lipton

Recenzje

"The book features a beautiful iconographic apparatus that, together with its author's wide-ranging knowledge of technology and material- oriented approach to the evolution of the medium, make it particularly well suited as a companion to more traditional cinema histories for teachers of film courses and scholars of film technology in general." (Sabrina Negri, Technology and Culture, Vol. 63 (4), October, 2022)

"If you're studying computer science with a view to working in animation or movie production, you absolutely should read it. And if you're not, you will find that the pictures and descriptions of the devices that led to what we see in our cinemas today are absolutely fascinating." (G. K. Jenkins, Computing Reviews, July 4, 2022)

"His point of view is both authoritative and fascinating ... . Lenny Lipton's The Cinema in Flux is richly illustrated, and also contains a bibliography, a list of patents, and an index. It is a most pleasurable read, as the author moves joyfully, eruditely, and eloquently between eras, personalities, and systems. An instant classic, no less." (Laurent Mannoni, Journal of Film Preservation, Issue 105, November, 2021)

Spis treści

Introduction

The Cinema of Real Motion

1. Huygens and the Magic Lantern

2. The Magic Lanternists

3. Lantern Light and Glass

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. Protocinematography

10. Muybridge and Anschütz

11. Chronophotography: Janssen, Marey, Demenÿ

The 35mm Medium

12. Edison, Dickson, and the Kineto Project

13. The Kinetograph

14. The Kinetoscope: Projection’s Inspiration

15. 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

24. Ciné Lenses: Part II

Sound

25. Silent Sound

26. Synchronizing the Phonograph

26. Electronics for Talking Shadows

27. The Origins of Sound-on-Film

28. 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

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. Kelly’s Color Microcosm

48. TruColor and Cinecolor

49. Two-Color Technicolor

50. Three-Color Technicolor

51. Agfa and Ansco Color

52. Eastman Color

Small Formats

53. Early Small Formats

54. 16mm

55. Kodachrome

56. Double 8mm and Super 8

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. 65/70mm

67. IMAX and PLF Exhibition

The Stereoscopic Cinema

68. Early 3-D

69. Polarization Image Selection

70. 3-D in the Last Half of the 20th Century

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

Electronic Cinema

79. Electronic Cinematography and CGI

80. The Origins of Digital Technology

81. Post-production and Industry Accommodation

82. A Brief History of Electronic Projection

83. Digital Projection and 3-D Converge

O autorze

Lenny Lipton founded StereoGraphics Corporation in 1980 and was the Chief Technology Officer of RealD during the introduction of digital stereoscopic theatrical exhibition. He led the team that invented the ZScreen, used in more than 30,000 RealD 3-D theaters, and was the first to demonstrate the flickerless projection technique used on 80,000 3-D cinema screens. He has written four books, including Independent Filmmaking (1972) and Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema (1982). He is a Fellow of both the SMPTE and the SPIE, and a member of the Scientific Council of the Conservatoire des techniques of the Cinémathèque Française. He’s been granted 72 patents in the field of electronic stereoscopic displays and received a Smithsonian award for his invention of CrystalEyes, the original electronic stereoscopic eyewear product, and he received the Lumiere Lifetime Achievement Award from the Advanced Cinema Society. While majoring in physics at Cornell he wrote the lyrics of the song Puff the Magic Dragon. He produced and directed 25 independent films in the collection of the Pacific Film Archive. He lives in Laurel Canyon, California, with his family.

Blurb

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.