Film - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

# Film

### From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about motion pictures. For other uses of "film", see photographic film or film (disambiguation).

Films (movies, motion pictures) are a form of communication which use moving pictures and sound to tell stories or help people to learn about new ideas. People in every part of the world watch films that tell stories as a form of entertainment (way to have fun). Most films are made so that they can be presented on big screens at cinemas or movie theatre.

There are many types of films. Drama movies tell fictional (made-up) stories about people. Action movies show fictional stories about chases and fights. Western movies tell fictional stories about cowboys living in the western United States in the 1800s. War movies tell fictional stories about wars or battles. Animated movies use cartoon images made with pens or by using computers to tell fictional stories.

Even though all of these types of films tell fictional stories, sometimes the made-up story is based on true historical events. For example, a war film might tell a made-up story about soldiers that fought in an actual battle, such as the World War II battle of D-Day in France. Documentaries are movies that are about real people and real events.

After films are shown on cinema screens for a period of time (ranging from a few weeks to part of a year), films are shown on pay television or cable television, and sold or rented on DVD disks or videocassette tapes, so that people can watch the films at home. Later, films are shown on television stations.

## [edit] How movies work

A movie camera or video camera takes pictures very quickly, usually at 24 pictures every second. When a movie projector, a computer, or a television shows the pictures at that speed, it looks like the images on the screen are moving. Along with the moving pictures on a screen, movies also play sounds. The sounds in a movie usually include the sounds of people talking (which is called dialogue), music (which is called the "soundtrack"), and the sounds of activities that are happening in the movie (such as doors opening or guns being fired).

## [edit] How movies are made

A screenwriter writes a script, which is the story of the movie with the words that the actors will say. Then a producer, hires people to work on the film and gets all of the money that will be needed to pay for the actors and the equipment. Producers usually get the money by borrowing it from a bank or by getting investors to lend money to the movie production. Some producers work for a movie studio; other producers are independent (they do not work for a movie studio).

Actors and directors read scripts to find out what to say and what to do. The actors memorize the words from the script that they will say in the movie, and learn the actions that the script tells them to do. Then the director tells the actors what to do and a cameraman takes motion pictures of them with a motion picture camera.

An editor puts the moving pictures together, and selects which scenes will be most interesting for the audience. Audio engineers and sound engineers record music and singing and join it with the moving pictures. When the movie is done, many copies of the movie are made by film labs and put onto film reels. Then the film reels are sent to cinemas. An electric machine called a projector shines a very bright light through the film, and people sitting in a dark room see it on a big screen.

## [edit] Genres

A genre is a word for a type of movie or a style of movie. The major genres of movies include dramas, comedies, thrillers, science fiction movies, action movies, and horror movies. Some movies mix together two or more genres.

Dramas are serious, and often about people falling love or people who have to make a big decision in their life. Comedies are funny movies about people being silly or doing strange things that make the audience laugh. Thrillers are usually movies about a mystery, strange event, or crime that needs to be solved. Film noir movies are 1940s-era detective movies about crime and violence.

Science fiction movies are often set in the future or in outer space. Science fiction movies often use their future or alien settings to ask questions about the meaning of life or how we should think about life. Science fiction movies often use special effects to create images of alien worlds, outer space, alien creatures, and spaceships.

Action movies are fast-paced movies that are often about people fighting or battling, either with their fists or with guns. Some action movies are about wars. Other action movies are about police who are trying to arrest violent criminal gang members. Action movies often have special effects, such as explosions or people doing dangerous "stunts," such as crashing cars.

Some movies have styles from more than one genre. In the 1990s and 2000s, a number of science fiction-action movies were made. These movies are set in the future, or in outer space, and they have action, violence, and fighting. Another type of movie that has more than one genre is the Romantic Comedy. Romantic comedies have a love story mixed with funny, comedy parts. There is a romantic love story about two people who would make a perfect couple, because they are so well-suited for each other. As well, though, there are always funny things or silly events that happen that make it hard for the couple to be together.

## [edit] The business of making movies

Making movies is a big business. There are many large companies that provide all of the services needed to make movies, such as movie studios (which make movies), special effects companies (which make the special effects for movies), music studios (which record the music for movie soundtracks), movie distribution companies (which send movies around the world or around a country), and movie theaters (also called cinemas), where movies are played on a big screen.

There are many different kinds of movies. Movies with famous film stars and large budgets (lots of money), that are made so that millions of people will like the movie are sometimes called blockbuster movies. Blockbuster movies often have very large budgets which are used to pay large salaries for the film stars, pay for expensive special effects, and pay for a lot of promotion (advertisements). This kind of movie will have a lot of promotion through television advertising, billboards and internet sites. Blockbusters often use simple plots (stories) and characters (people in the stories) that have been used before in other movies. In blockbuster movies, there is usually a happy ending, in which all of the problems in the plot (story) are figured out or fixed. Some blockbuster movies are very popular, and so more movies are made using the same story and characters. For example, the James Bond films all tell stories about the British spy called James Bond; the Star Wars science fiction films all tell stories about spaceships and outer space wars.

There is also another type of movies called independent films or art films. Independent films or art films are usually made by smaller film companies that do not have much money. Independent films or art films usually have different stories than blockbuster movies. Independent films or art films usually tell more creative or unusual (strange) stories than blockbuster movies. Independent films or art films often show controversial (makes some people angry) or sad stories, and the movies may have sad endings. Independent films or art films are sometimes hard to understand. For these reason, they rarely make a lot of money. Independent films and art films are generally promoted through word-of-mouth; that is by people who see the movie who tell their friends to see it.

## [edit] Famous actors

- Humphrey Bogart
- Marlon Brando
- Jim Carrey
- Charlie Chaplin
- Robert De Niro
- Johnny Depp
- Cary Grant
- Alec Guinness
- Tom Hanks
- Dustin Hoffman
- Buster Keaton
- Paul Newman
- Jack Nicholson
- Al Pacino
- Sidney Poitier
- Sylvester Stallone
- James Stewart
- John Wayne

## [edit] Famous actresses

- Kathy Bates
- Doris Day
- Judi Dench
- Dakota Fanning
- Jodie Foster
- Audrey Hepburn
- Katharine Hepburn
- Angelina Jolie
- Nicole Kidman
- Vivien Leigh
- Marilyn Monroe
- Julia Roberts
- Meryl Streep
- Reese Witherspoon
- Renée Zellweger

## [edit] Famous directors

- Robert Altman
- Frank Capra
- Francis Ford Coppola
- John Ford
- Terry Gilliam
- Howard Hawks
- Werner Herzog
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Stanley Kubrick
- Akira Kurosawa
- Ang Lee
- Spike Lee
- Sergio Leone
- Martin Scorsese
- Ridley Scott
- Steven Spielberg
- Andrei Tarkovsky
- François Truffaut
- Orson Welles
- Billy Wilder
- Zhang Yimou

## [edit] Related topic

- Big 10 (America's ten largest movie studios)

## [edit] External links

- The Internet Movie Database
- Movie trailers – Watch movie trailers from Apple.com (You need QuickTime software on your computer).
- Rotten Tomatoes – Movie reviews.
- Yahoo! Movies
- Classic Movies (1939 - 1969)

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Category: Movies

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