The Longest Marriage

Cinema, we all know is a medium of expression, story telling, entertainment, and at the same time an art. Today let’s see it in a different light, which we all know but seldom acknowledge, and in the process unravel a few of its attributes:

It all began with the invention of “Kinetoscope” by Thomas Edison in 1888 (mind it I am not talking about the bulb!!). Kinetoscope was a device which could record motion* on a photosensitive film. But it was too bulky to be carried to a location. Hence the performers (dancers, musicians or magicians) had to come in front of it to get shot on film. Quite contrary to what happens today, when the cameras have become so lightweight and small that they can be accommodated in a ladies purse. Another drawback of the Kinetoscope was that it couldn’t project the very film it had shot. So, a different device had to be used for that purpose and hence addition cost. Edison gave up on his invention too soon, not knowing what he had invented.

With the invention of “Cinematographe”, in 1895, a device which was much lighter and could record as well as project films, the field reached a point from where it would never look back. Lumiere Brothers (Auguste & Louis) used this device to record and project their films throughout Europe. This mesmerized the audience and revolutionarized the process of filmmaking. One of their films, in 1896, “Arrival of a Train” made the audience run out of the hall in panic! The impact of this medium was immediately evident!!

India soon caught up with the revolution. Indian’s first short film, The flower of Persia, was made by Hiralal Sen in 1898. And this virus spread, like flu, giving rise to great film makers throughout the world. In Germany – Robert Wiene, Fritz Lang & Leni Riefenstahl; in Russia – Segie Eisenstien (considered to be the Father of film grammar) & Dziga Vertov; in France – Francois Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard; in Italy – Vittori De Sica, Robert Rossellini, Federico Fellini; in India – Satyajit Ray, Mirnal Sen, Shyam Benegal and many many more.

Inspite of their geographical and cultural differences, two things have remained common to all – creative** vision & use of motion camera. Mind it, the camera is a poor cousin of our eye, it doesn’t capture what we see. Rather, it has to be adjusted according to what we want it to see. This is done by adjusting the focus, aperture, shutter speed, using films of varied speeds for different occasions and other endless number of adjustments. Just as the brain adjusts the signal our eyes send it and make things look natural under varied conditions, we are the brain of the camera!

A splendid filmmaker (who in modern day we a “Director”), is one who visualizes the whole film before even a single shot has been taken. A crew will then come together, consisting of cameraman, cinematographer, art director, and so on up to the spot-boy. There can be a lot of permutations and combinations as to how this team will come together. Fortunately, I will not get into that J

Each team member will, at one point or the other, use different tools to achieve the goal of film making. In other words, making a film without the use technology is not possible today (neither was it before. Though today, the number of gadgets or techniques has increased). A cameraman will operate the camera. The cinematographer will tell the cameraman which composition to capture. He will also decide the lighting and the film stock to be used for the same. The art director will erect sets in accordance with the director’s vision and the actors will act their task out. After the film has been shot, film rolls will be sent to lab for processing and converting into positive prints. These will then be edited by putting various shots together to form a narrative structure. A sound track, consisting of voice, music & special effects, will be added to form the final product. The process of sound design and recording will require numerous gadgets like the audio mixing console, microphones, headphones, computer software etc. Even, the screening of film will require gadgets like the projector and speakers. Quite visibly at each stage, art and technology go hand in hand.

With the advancements in technology, today we can even do away with real actors and make animated characters. But still the element of imagination / visualization doesn’t go away. An animator will need to understand the script and follow a particular direction. The environment of the characters has to be decided and designed. Each and every expression, of each and every character, has to be fleshed out. In addition to this, voiceover artists have to lend their voice to bring these characters alive. Sound design will finally be done and added to make a complete film.

What I want to stress upon here is the fact that technology is an integral part of film making process, as is imagination / creativity** / visualization. Hence, cinema can be regarded as one of the finest examples of a long-standing marriage - A marriage of art with technology.

*Record Motion – Let’s understand it this way, a motion camera click photographs at the rate 24 photographs per second (fps). This process continues for the length of the film which has been loaded into the camera. After this the film negative is converted into positive print in a lab. This positive film is projected at 24 fps to give effect of motion on screen, due to the persistence of vision.

** Creativity – Let us not consider creativity as the tool of only a film maker, a painter, or a photographer. In the holistic sense of the term, to be creative is to be able to create something novel, something different. A software engineer is no less creative, as is a doctor performing an operation or a goldsmith making jewelry. Everyone of the above stated is an artist in their own right and hence creative. Creativity is generally viewed as the tool of a artist, which is correct, but often the definition of artist is not understood.