Outline of film
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to film:
Film – refers to motion pictures as individual projects and to the field in general. The name came from the fact
that photographic film (also called filmstock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and
displaying motion pictures.
Contents
What type of thing is film?
Essence of film
Cinematic genres
Cinema by region
History of film
General film concepts
Films
Film companies
Awards and festivals
Notable people from the film industry
See also
External links
What type of thing is film?
Film can be described as all of the following:
Art – aesthetic expression for presentation or performance, and the work produced from this
activity.
One of the arts – as an art form, film is an outlet of human expression, that is usually
influenced by culture and which in turn helps to change culture. Film is a physical
manifestation of the internal human creative impulse.
One of the visual arts – visual arts is a class of art forms, including painting, sculpture,
photography, printmaking and others, that focus on the creation of works which are
primarily visual in nature.
One of the performing arts – art forms in which artists use their body, voice, or objects to
convey artistic expression. Performing arts include a variety of disciplines but all take
the form of a performance in front of an audience.
Fine art – in Western European academic traditions, fine art is art developed primarily
for aesthetics, distinguishing it from applied art that also has to serve some practical
function. The word "fine" here does not so much denote the quality of the artwork in
question, but the purity of the discipline according to traditional Western European
canons.
Show business – a means of providing employment for actors, screenwriters, artisans and
technicians, regardless of whether the finished film was produced as a for-profit enterprise or as
a not-for-profit public service.
Other names for film
Movies naked
Motion pictures
Talking pictures
Pictures
Celluloid
Flicks (or flickers)
Photoplays
Picture shows
The cinema
The silver screen (talkie era); the silver sheet (silent era)
Videos
Essence of film
Filmmaking – process of making a film. Filmmaking involves a number of discrete stages
including an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, editing,
and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and
exhibition. Filmmaking is both an art and an industry. That is why they call it "show business".
It's a show and a business. Films were originally recorded onto nitrate film stock which was
highly flammable. [1] After the late 1950's, plastic film was used which was shown through a
movie projector onto a large screen (in other words, an analog recording process). The
adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary
films are now fully digital through the entire process of production, distribution, and exhibition
from start to finish.
Cinematic genres
Film genre
By setting
Biography - portrays a real-life character in his or her real-life story
Crime - places its character within realm of criminal activity
Fantasy - films set in imaginary worlds, often with a swords and sorcery theme
Film noir - portrays its principal characters in a nihilistic and existentialist realm or manner
Historical - taking place in the past
Science fiction - placement of characters in an alternative reality, typically in the future or in
outer space
Sports - sporting events and locations pertaining to a given sport
War - battlefields and locations pertaining to a time of war
Westerns - colonial period to modern era of the western United States
By mood
Action - generally involves a moral interplay between "good" and "bad" played out through
violence or physical force
Adventure - involving danger, risk, and/or chance, often with a high degree of fantasy
Comedy - intended to provoke laughter
Drama - mainly focuses on character development
Erotic - sexuality or eroticism and sex acts, including love scenes
Horror - intended to provoke fear in audience
Mystery - the progression from the unknown to the known by discovering and solving a series
of clues
Romance - dwelling on the elements of romantic love
Thrillers - intended to provoke excitement and/or nervous tension into audience
By format
Biographical - a biopic is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person, with varying
degrees of basis in fact
Documentary - a factual following of an event or person to gain an understanding of a particular
point or issue
Experimental (avant-garde) - created to test audience reaction or to expand the boundaries of
film production/story exposition then generally at play
Musical - a film interspersed with singing by all or some of the characters
Silent - a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue
By production type
Live action - film using actors
Animation - illusion of motion by consecutive display of static images which have been created
by hand or on a computer
Television - a film that is produced for and originally distributed by a television network
By length
Short - may strive to contain many of the elements of a "full-length" feature, in a shorter time-
frame
Serial - similar to shorts, but forms a constant story arc
Feature film - film that is "full-length"
By age
Children's film - films for young children; as opposed to a family film, no special effort is made to
make the film attractive for other audiences
Family - intended to be attractive for people of all ages and suitable for viewing by a young
audience; examples of these are Disney films
Teen film - intended for and aimed towards teens although some teen films, such as the High
School Musical series; may also be a family film; not all of these films are suitable for all teens,
as some are rated R
Adult film - intended to be viewed only by an adult audience, content may include violence,
disturbing themes, obscene language, or explicit sexual behaviour. This includes various forms
of exploitation films. Adult film may also be used as a synonym for pornographic film.
Cinema by region
History of film
History of film
Block booking
Camera obscura
Thomas Edison
Intertitle – prior to the days of sound film, intertitles (cards with text inserted into the scene)
represented dialogue or descriptive/narrative material
Magic lantern
Motion Picture Patents Company
Phantasmagoria
Silent film
Zoetrope – one of several pre-film animation devices which produced the illusion of movement,
most popular in the mid- to late 1800s
General film concepts
Film theory
Academy Awards – an American awards show hosted by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts
and Sciences which recognizes excellence in cinematic achievement, as voted for by the
Academy itself. The statuettes handed out to winners are nicknamed "Oscars".
Actor
American Film Institute
B movie
Film directing
Film editing
Film studio
Movie projector
Cinematography
Set construction
Sound stage
Film formats
List of film formats
Films
List of films by title: #, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J-K, L, M, N-O, P, Q-R, S, T, U-V-W, & X-Y-Z
List of years in film
Films by genre
List of action films
List of adventure films
List of animated feature-length films
List of biographical films
List of cinematic genres
List of comedy films
List of comedy-drama films
List of crime films
List of drama films
List of disaster films
List of fantasy films
List of films featuring extraterrestrials
List of films noir
List of gangster movies
List of historical drama films
List of horror films
List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films
List of mystery films
List of punk movies
List of racism-related movies
Lists of science fiction films
List of sports films
List of thriller films
List of war films
List of Western films
Films by origin
List of films by region and country of origin
Films by setting location
Lists of films based on location
Films by cost
List of most expensive films
List of most expensive non-English-language films
Films by success
List of films considered the best
List of highest-grossing films
List of films considered the worst
List of Academy Award-winning films
Lists of box office number-one films
Films by movement
Absolute film (1920s)
Budapest school (1972 - 1984)
Cinéma du look (1980s)
Cinema Novo (1960 - early 1970s)
Czechoslovak New Wave (1960s)
Dogme 95 (1995 - 2005)
Free Cinema (1956 - 1959)
French New Wave (1958 - late 1960s)
German Expressionism (1913 -1920s)
Grupo Cine Liberación (1969 - 1971)
Hong Kong New Wave (1979 - early 1990s)
Italian neorealism (1944 - 1952)
Japanese New Wave (1956 - 1976)
Kammerspielfilm (1920s)
L.A. Rebellion (1967 - 1989)
Mumblecore (2002 - )
New French Extremity (1999 - 2003)
New Hollywood (Summer 1967 through Spring 1983)
New Nigerian Cinema (2006 - )
New Queer Cinema (1990s)
No Wave (1976 - 1985)
Parallel Cinema (1952 - 1976)
Poetic Realism (1930s - 1940s)
Polish Film School (1955 - 1963)
Pure Film Movement (1910s - 1920s)
Remodernist film (2004 - )
Surrealist Cinema (1920s)
Third Cinema (1969 - 1978)
Yugoslav Black Wave (1963 - 1972)
Film companies
List of film production companies
List of film production companies by country
List of film distributors by country
Film studios
Major film studios
Majors (Big Five)
Walt Disney Studios – American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company, founded in
1923
Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (a subsidiary of Sony Pictures
Entertainment) – American film studio owned by Sony, founded in 1924
Paramount Pictures (a subsidiary of ViacomCBS) – American film studio owned by
ViacomCBS, founded in 1912
Universal Studios (a subsidiary of NBCUniversal) – American film studio owned by Comcast,
founded in 1912
Warner Bros. (a subsidiary of WarnerMedia) – American film studio owned by WarnerMedia,
founded in 1923
Others
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lantern Entertainment
MGM
Awards and festivals
List of film awards
List of film festivals
List of Academy Awards ceremonies
AFI 100 Years... series
List of Golden Globe Awards ceremonies
Notable people from the film industry
Show business families
Soundtrack composers
Film theorists
Rudolf Arnheim
André Bazin
Sergei Eisenstein
Siegfried Kracauer
Lev Kuleshov
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Famous film producers
Notable film producers
George Lucas
David O. Selznick
Jerry Bruckheimer
Famous directors
Notable film and television directors
Woody Allen
Kathryn Bigelow
James Cameron
Yash Chopra
Joel and Ethan Coen
Francis Ford Coppola
Michael Curtiz
David Fincher
Victor Fleming
Werner Herzog
Alfred Hitchcock
Peter Jackson
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Stanley Kubrick
Fritz Lang
Sergio Leone
Sidney Lumet
David Lynch
Christopher Nolan
Martin Scorsese
Steven Spielberg
Quentin Tarantino
Billy Wilder
Sam Wood
William Wyler
Satyajit Ray
Famous actors
Notable actors
Humphrey Bogart
Marlon Brando
James Cagney
Russell Crowe
Denzel Washington
Tom Cruise
Bette Davis
Leonardo DiCaprio
Alec Guinness
Tom Hanks
Audrey Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Amitabh Bachchan
Anthony Hopkins
Christopher Lee
Jack Lemmon
Daniel Day-Lewis
Walter Matthau
Al Pacino
Edward G. Robinson
See also
Film industry
Filmmaking
Independent film
List of film festivals
List of motion picture production equipment
External links
Movies (https://curlie.org/Arts/Movies/) at Curlie
Allmovie (http://www.allmovie.com) - information on films: actors, directors, biographies,
reviews, cast and production credits, box office sales, and other movie data
Film Site (http://www.filmsite.org) - reviews of classic films
Rottentomatoes.com (http://www.rottentomatoes.com) - movie reviews, previews, forums,
photos, cast info
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) (https://imdb.com/) - information on current and historical
films and cast listings
1. Accomando, Beth. "What's The Issue With Nitrate Film Stock? It's Combustible" (https://www.n
pr.org/2017/04/10/523237767/whats-the-issue-with-nitrate-film-stock-its-combustible). NPR.
Retrieved 12 April 2021.
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