Film
Film is a creative artform involving the recording and display of visuals in motion over time, generally by photographic means. The word "film" is also commonly used as a shorthand for photographic film, a particular method of image recording which uses a photosensitive coating atop a flexible substrate.
Film as a medium is also popularly known as cinema or movies. Due to its technological requirements, it is a relatively young artform, originating in the late 19th century. From its beginnings as a public curiosity for showing several seconds of black and white silent footage of "actualities", film gradually evolved technically, creatively, and financially over the succeeding decades. Longer narrative films and experimentation with new techniques fed into increasingly imaginative works, a larger viewing public, and an influx in workers eager to be employed on both sides of the camera. All of these factors made films a lucrative market, and thus drove increased investment and the birth of the studio system. Subsequently, the demand for new audience experiences - both for creative and marketing reasons - led to the use of sound, color, widescreen, 3-D, and even smells or sensations with the film; these were each met with varying degrees of success. More recent developments include integration with video formats, such as HD for origination, and DVD for distribution.