In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a film frame or video frame is one of the many still (or nearly so) images which compose the complete moving picture. The term is derived from the fact that, from the beginning of modern filmmaking toward the end of the 19th century, and in many places still up to the present, the single images have been recorded on a strip of photographic film that quickly increased in length, historically; each image on such a strip looks rather like a framed picture when examined individually.
The term may also be used more generally as a noun or verb to refer to the edges of the image as seen in a camera viewfinder or projected on a screen. Thus, the camera operator can be said to keep a car in frame by panning with it as it speeds past.
When the moving picture is displayed, each frame is flashed on a screen for a short time (nowadays, usually 1/24, 1/25 or 1/30 of a second) and then immediately replaced by the next one. Persistence of vision blends the frames together, producing the illusion of a moving image.
The frame is also sometimes used as a unit of time, so that a momentary event might be said to last six frames, the actual duration of which depends on the frame rate of the system, which varies according to the video or film standard in use. In North America and Japan, 30 frames per second (fps) is the broadcast standard, with 24 frames/s now common in production for high-definition video. In much of the rest of the world, 25 frames/s is standard.
In systems historically based on NTSC standards, for reasons originally related to the Chrominance subcarrier in analog NTSC TV systems, the exact frame rate is often the nominal frame rate divided by 1.001—so, for example, a nominal 30 fps sequence is actually shot at 30/1.001 = 29.97002997... fps. This leads to many synchronization problems which are unknown outside the NTSC world, and also brings about hacks such as drop-frame timecode.
In film projection, 24 fps is the norm, except in some special venue systems, such as IMAX, Showscan and Iwerks 70, where 30, 48 or even 60 frame/s have been used. Silent films and 8 mm amateur movies used 16 or 18 frame/s.
one foot of 35 mm film, leading to film frames sometimes being counted in terms of "feet and frames". A system called KeyKode is sometimes used to identify specific physical film frames in a production.
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Read more about Film Frame: Video Frames, Showing Film Frames in Animation and Movies
Famous quotes containing the words film and/or frame:
“The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is raised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.”
—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)
“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.”
—Dag Hammarskjöld (19051961)