ads for evolution of home movies
Toronto. Over a century ago, it was discovered that a rapid sequence of still images would seem to show motion. This phenomenon was based on human “persistence of vision” which neatly fills in the brief gap between images.
This concept required a long strip of film and special machinery to record and project the “movie”. Special movie theatres sprung up to house an audience in a darkened auditorium to view the latest “movie”. An entire industry flourished to create and distribute “movies”. As technology improved, movies evolved from jerky black and white silent films to smooth black and white, to sound and to colour films. Pre war, home movies were the purview of those with deep pockets. Post war, there was a strong push for low resolution amateur colour silent and occasionally sound films for consumption at home. Meantime, commercial films experimented with 3D, Cinerama, Cinemascope, I-Max, etc. to enhance the audiences experience.
In the days of dim black and white TV and squinty resolution, commercial films blossomed. Today, this tiny resolution has evolved to 4 time the data (HD) and 16 times (4K), soon to be the even higher resolution of 8K televisions. Movies can now be viewed at home with friends at a decent resolution. We are no longer prisoners to blaring half hours of advertisements, sticky floors, and rigid schedules. Movie theatres are rapidly be coming redundant.
Technically, television sets have evolved from massive, power hungry CRT and vacuum tube beasts to slim solid state colour machines that can be wall hung and controlled by a hand held battery operated device. Films can be piped in via fibre technology to offer many more options. Films can be streamed or recorded locally for later viewing (and skipping the inevitable inane commercials) freeing everyone from the tyranny of schedules.
Amateur movies became passé with the advent of digital cameras and smartphones. Modern models even sport 4K resolution and are seen recording events and photo ops for TV! My thanks to George Dunbar for suggesting this topic. The post title is from the 1971 movie of the same name.
