Portal:Film

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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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Khan Noonien Singh, commonly shortened to Khan, is a villain in the fictional Star Trek universe. According to backstory given in the character's first appearance, the Star Trek original series episode "Space Seed", Khan is a genetically engineered superhuman tyrant who once controlled more than a quarter of the Earth during the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s. After being revived in 2267 by the crew of the Enterprise, Khan attempts to capture the starship, but is thwarted by James T. Kirk and exiled on Ceti Alpha V to create a new civilization with his people. The character returns in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, set fifteen years after "Space Seed", in which Khan escapes his imprisonment and sets out to seek revenge upon Kirk. The character was portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán in both the television episode and in the film. Initially conceived as a brutal man of Nordic ancestry, Khan first appears as an Indian, who is both admired and reviled by the Enterprise crew. Harve Bennett, executive producer for Star Trek II, chose Khan as the villain. To reflect the time spent marooned on an inhospitable world, Khan was given a costume which looked as though it was scavenged from different items and showed off Montalbán's physique. The character has been positively received by critics and fans; Khan was voted as one of the top ten greatest film villains of all time by the Online Film Critics Society.

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Credit: Carol M. Highsmith

Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theatre located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922.

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Did you know...

...that 1971's Out of the Darkness was the first Thai science fiction film?
...that The Silent World, an Academy Award winning documentary film by Jacques Cousteau, was the first film to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color?
...that Jacqueline Audry was the first commercially successful woman film director of post-war France?

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Wikinews film portal

October 22: Canadian actress Barbara Kent dies at age 103
October 16: Iran continues to lash out at film industry
May 12: Actress Mia Amber Davis dies aged 36
March 11: Former adult film actress forced to leave teaching job again

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Anthony Michael Hall at Creation Grand Slam XII

Michael Anthony Thomas Charles Hall (born April 14, 1968), known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, producer and director who achieved stardom in several successful teen-oriented films of the 1980s. Hall began his career in commercials and on stage as a child, and made his screen debut in 1980. His films with director-screenwriter John Hughes, beginning with the popular 1984 coming-of-age comedy Sixteen Candles, shaped his early career. Hall's next movies with Hughes were the teen classics The Breakfast Club and Weird Science, both in 1985. His performances as lovable geeks in these three films connected his name and face with the stereotype for an entire generation. Hall diversified his roles to avoid becoming typecast as his "geek" persona, joining the cast of Saturday Night Live (1985–1986) and starring in films such as Out Of Bounds (1986), Johnny Be Good (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Six Degrees of Separation (1993). After a series of minor roles in the 1990s, his performance as Microsoft’s Bill Gates in the Emmy-nominated 1999 film Pirates of Silicon Valley put him back in the spotlight. He is now starring in the popular USA Network series The Dead Zone, which has aired since 2002.

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Christopher Walken is an Academy Award-winning American actor of stage and screen. Walken is a prolific actor who has spent more than 50 years on stage and screen. He has appeared in over 100 movie and television roles, including A View to a Kill, At Close Range, The Deer Hunter, King of New York, Batman Returns and Pulp Fiction, as well as music videos by recording artists such as Madonna. Walken's early career began primarily in theatre and television, where he often played small roles with limited appearances. During these early stages of his career, Walken was credited as "Ken Walken" and later as "Ronnie Walken," until finally settling on "Christopher Walken." Walken began acting in films by 1969, and after a series of increasingly larger roles, won an Academy Award in 1978 as Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Deer Hunter. Since then, Walken has become a highly sought-after actor, typically performing in numerous films every year. Walken has been a primary character in two film franchises: as Gabriel the fallen angel in The Prophecy series, and as Jacob Witting in the made-for-television films based on Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall novels. Other notable roles include Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone, Captain Koons in Pulp Fiction, and Frank Abagnale Sr. in Catch Me if You Can. He is also co-producer of his film New Rose Hotel and also sing songs in some of his film including Puss in Boots and Hairspray, he also tries to work a jig (dance) into his movies. Christopher Walken also stars in some TV-Series and theater plays. Walken produced, wrote and directed a short film named Popcorn Shrimp, he also starred in another short film named Engine Trouble in 2002. His upcoming projects are Five Dollars a Day and The Lonely Maiden. He has been rumored for the upcoming films The Dirt and Kevin Approaches. His another film, Citizen Brando is in in-production. Some of his films are unreleased like Jungle Juice (2001).

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Pure cinema is complementary pieces of film put together, like notes of music make a melody. There are two primary uses of cutting or montage in film: montage to create ideas--and montage to create violence and emotions.

— Alfred Hitchcock

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