Movies

When we go and watch a movie in the cinema, we see real people moving and talking on a big screen in front of us. But how are movies filmed and shown to us? In actual fact, movies do not really `move’ like we think they do. It is our eyes that play tricks on us and make movies look like they are moving.
Cameramen film a movie with a camera which takes pictures at a very fast speed. The camera can take 24 pictures in one second! If it is taking pictures of somebody walking, the pictures will show the different movements of the person in that one second. The difference between each picture is very small because the camera takes the pictures so quickly.
When the pictures are ready in long strips, we are able to watch them using a film projector. As we watch, 24 pictures flash before our eyes every second. The pictures go by so fast that we cannot see each one by itself. What we see is just one picture that seems to move. Our eyes play a trick on our minds by blending the pictures with each other.
The same method applies to cartoons. In a cartoon, instead of taking pictures of real people, the camera takes pictures of drawings orderly. Cartoonists make many drawings just to show a simple action. Each drawing is again only slightly different from the others. When everything is complete and the cartoon is shown, it also looks as if the characters are really moving.