Movies. Cinema. Films. Call it what you want but this mode of entertainment is very popular the world over. The technical definition of movie would be that it is (now) an audio-visual form of communication. It is a sort of art and makes up the motion pictures industry.
Movies have traveled their own evolutionary path before we see them as they are today. The need for entertainment is certainly not a new one. There are records which go back thousands of years mentioning entertainment forms like drama and music which were prevalent in those ages long ago. It was in the 1600s that the first camera was invented. Through the decades and centuries there was of course a lot of technological advancement.
The earliest avatar of the modern moving pictures was in the late 1800s where the concept of film with people and moving images took hold. All the way through to the late 19th century, movies were only a visual medium despite there being several scientists conducting experiments to incorporate sound to these moving images. And of course the concept of color had still not entered the mix. This silent and Black and White movie era threw up not only some classic films but gave rise to stars like Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin's movies till date are amongst the most popular films in the world.
It was around the 1920s when sound became a component of films. These were distinguished from motion pictures by calling them talking pictures or talkies. The next technological advancement came in the 1960s where color was introduced into the realm of film making. It wouldn't be too long before Black and White films and Silent films would become an obsolete form of mainstream cinema making. BnW's and silent films are made even today but it is more for the novelty factor of theirs in most instances.
The most well known type of movies is feature films. Feature films are usually produced by major motion picture studios. There are also independent movies which are usually financed and produced without the backing of a major studio. Often times if an independent movie shows promise, a major studio might decide to take up its distribution thus opening it up to a much larger viewing audience.
While movies are made all over the world, the most famous is Hollywood. Located in Los Angeles, USA, Hollywood primarily produces English language films. There is also the Mumbai-based Indian Film Industry (Bollywood) which makes the maximum number of films every year in the world.
Hollywood is also home to the best known and prestigious awards for the film industry with the annual presentation of the Academy Awards or the Oscars as they are more commonly known.
Lastly it must be said that according to most people and even across this article, the words film and movie are used interchangeably. Technically however, it must be kept in mind that the word Film is usually used to define this medium from a theoretical, technical and artistic perspective whereas the word Movie refers to the commercial or entertainment aspect of it.
Ryan Fyfe is the owner of http://www.great-movies.info/ - an information resource for all things related to movies including articles, news, movies and more.
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