History of Cinema - E-book - ePub

Cinema can be defined as the art of performed act, intendedto entertain an audience. Most people think of cinema as beingof a very recent origin. In its true entirety, cinema is however, an ancient entity that has existed with us since 3 millennia atleast. It could have existed prior to beginnings of our organisedsocieties and settlements at least during the time when humanswere still populating planet earth, but its modern inception canbe thought of as originating during the late 1800s.
Cinema has always been one of the most important mediumsof communicating a theme through visuals and acts. It servesas the approach of convincing people on a certain topic; andthat is why we have movies and motion pictures on a widevariety of genres and topics. Cinema has primarily been amedium of education and entertainment, both served with awell intended purpose. Cinema is also an often confused and overlooked subject.
Mostpeople relate cinema only to visuals and the art of motionpicture development. This is however, not fully correct sincecinema itself comprises of several 'forms' of acts like plays, skits, presentations or simply showcasing a motion entity. Incurrent times, thousands of cinematic are released every day, inevery language and form available and imaginable. Cinematicthus do not just relate to developing a motion picture, althoughthat forms a major part of it.
To understand the true meaning behind cinema, one needs togo back as early as the 5th century BC when the Greekswere one of the first civilised folk to introduce and developcinema and distinguish it as a separate form of art. Later on, the Romans, upon the foundations already laid down by theGreeks, developed this field further and made it a mainstreamart comprising of plays and presentations that will go on toencompass almost whole of Europe during the middle ageswhen iconic personalities like Shakespeare wrote and executedsome of the finest plays and presentations.
Our modern daycinema is a legacy of thousands of years of accumulation ofdevelopment in theatrical arts.