Portal:Film

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The Film Portal

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Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.

Film is an important art form; films entertain, educate, enlighten, and inspire audiences. The visual elements of cinema need no translation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and in turn, affect them.

Traditional films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to a combination of physiological and psychological effects. One is known as persistence of vision — whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers also perceive motion due to psychological effects called beta movement and the phi phenomenon.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, photo-play, flick, and most commonly, movie. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the cinema, and the movies.

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Featured article

Courtney Cox stars in the film
November is a psychological thriller film first screened at film festivals in 2004. It stars Courteney Cox as Sophie, a photographer whose life begins to unravel following a traumatic incident on November 7 that involved her boyfriend, played by James LeGros. In the words of Cox, her character "goes through three phases. First there's denial. Then she feels guilty and sad about the situation. Then she has to learn to accept it." The film co-stars Michael Ealy as a co-worker of Sophie's, Nora Dunn as her psychiatrist, and Anne Archer as her mother. Nick Offerman plays a police officer investigating the incident, while Matthew Carey has a role as a robber of a convenience store. Directed by Greg Harrison, it was released to theatres in the United States by Sony Pictures Classics on July 22, 2005, and while its award-winning digital video photography was praised, many reviews criticised the film's story for being too ambiguous and derivative of other pictures. Critics have compared it to the work of film-makers such as David Lynch and M. Night Shyamalan.

Selected picture

Credit: Screenshot from public domain film, Nosferatu (1922)

The shadow of the vampire climbing stairs in a famous scene from the 1922 film Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau. The movie is an example of German Expressionism. Its original German title is Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens ("Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror"). The film, shot in 1921 and released in 1922, was in essence an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel.

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Featured biography

Sydney Cecil Newman, OC (April 1, 1917October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, best remembered for the pioneering work he undertook in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. Initially a film editor with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), Newman later moved into television with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he began his long association with drama. Moving to Britain in 1958, he worked first with the Associated British Corporation (ABC) before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career he was responsible for initiating two hugely popular fantasy series, The Avengers and Doctor Who, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play. Towards the end of his active career he returned to Canada, where he was for a time Government Film Commissioner and Chairman of the NFB, among other roles. The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Newman as "the most significant agent in the development of British television drama."

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Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, one of her two 1939 films for which she received an Academy Juvenile Award
Judy Garland received numerous awards and honors in the course of a career that spanned over 40 years. Garland won or was nominated for awards for her work in motion pictures, television, music recording and on stage. She was twice nominated for an Academy Award and was awarded a special Academy Juvenile Award in 1940. Garland won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a second, and she received a special Tony Award for her record-breaking concert run at New York's Palace Theatre. Garland won two Grammy Awards for her concert album Judy at Carnegie Hall. Garland has also received a number of posthumous awards and honors. She was the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. She has twice been honored on United States postage stamps and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The American Film Institute has repeatedly recognized her talent, placing Garland eighth on its list of the top 100 female stars of all time and placing five of her recordings in its list of the 100 best songs from films, including "Over the Rainbow" at number one.

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Selected quote

Robert Redford
Whereas money is a means to an end for a filmmaker, to the corporate mind money is the start. Right now, I think independent film is very confused, because there's excess pressure in the marketplace for entertainment to pay off. Entertainment has pervaded every system of information in our culture, and along with it comes the promise of money. So it's hard for artists not to keep half an eye on what works commercially as they go about realizing their visions. As a young filmmaker, you've got to deliver, and you've got to deliver fast these days; that wasn't the case twenty years ago.
Robert Redford, 1997

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Featured lists: BAFTA Award for Best FilmGolden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion PictureGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - DramaGolden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreList of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best Foreign Language FilmList of Harry Potter films cast membersList of films that received the Golden Film

Featured topics: Star Wars episodes

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Main topics

Film

Terms - Animation • Beta movement • Camera • Cult film • Digital cinema • Documentary film • Dubbing • Experimental film • Fan film • Film crew • Film criticism • Film festival • Film frame • Film genre • Film journals and magazines • Film industry • Film manifesto • Film stock • Film theory • Filmmaking • History of film • Independent film • Lost film • Movie star • Narrative film • Open content film • Persistence of vision • Photographic film • Propaganda • Recording medium • Special effect • Subtitles • Sound stage • Web film • World cinema

Lists - List of basic film topics • List of film topics • List of films • List of film festivals • List of film formats • List of film series • List of film techniques • List of highest-grossing films • List of longest films by running time • List of songs based on a film or book • List of US box office bombs • Lists of film source material • List of open content films

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