Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 2 Inventions and Origins 75

Film roll – Photographic fi lm is a transparent, supple, thin strip of material,

such as celluloid or polyester, which is coated with a light-sensitive emulsion.

Th e emulsion reacts to light, and when the fi lm is developed it creates a

negative image that can then be reproduced as a paper photograph, motion

picture, or other type of viewable copy. With a piece of undeveloped fi lm,

the dull side is the emulsion, the shiny side is the base.

Flat-bed editing machine – Editing table featuring fl at plates for horizontal

running of picture, multiple sound reels, a viewer, and improved ease and

quality of use over the Moviola.

Heliography – Photographic process invented by Niépce in the 1820s in

which he coated a bitumen and lavender oil solution on a stone, metal, or

glass plate, placed the varnished plate in a camera obscura, exposed it to

light for many hours, and dipped the exposed plate in a lavender oil bath to

leave an image.

Insert shot – A shot of a detail of a scene (such as an object or a small detail

of a character or a gesture) which is later inserted into the sequence during

editing.

Kinetograph – Motion picture camera developed by W. K. L. Dickson in 1891

from Th omas Edison’s conceptualizations to produce fi lms for the Kinetoscope

viewing apparatus.

Kinetoscope – Motion picture viewing apparatus developed by the Edison

laboratories in which a single spectator watched a movie through a small

viewer. Th e movie ran in a single continuous band that passed between a

long series of spools and was illuminated through an eyepiece.

Kuleshov eff ect – Th e meaning and signifi cance created by two shots in

juxtaposition that is not apparent in the shots when they are viewed

separately.

Lens – A piece or series of pieces of transparent material, usually glass, that

receive and refract light to form an image at a set distance behind the lens.

Th e lens is affi xed to or mounted on the camera and generally allows for

control of focus and exposure.

Magic lantern – Image projection device that normally functioned through

the use of a light source such as a candle, a lens, and transparent slides. Used

from the seventeenth century, development of the magic lantern continued

through the nineteenth century, during which lanternists would create

dissolves between images and simulate movement on the screen by passing

superimposed slides across each other.

Matte – A covering of part of the frame to block light for emphasis or

introduction of another image.

Moviola – Editing machine usually equipped to handle a single reel of fi lm

and sound track. It featured a small viewer, synchronization of picture and

audio, portability, and it was noted for its versatility.

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