The Birth of Cinema
A cinema, or commonly referred to as the big screen, movie house, screens the moving images, usually in the projection of a film, on a large wall surface, called a screen. The picture houses can be large indoor structures designed to show movies. Some use lighting to enhance the effects of the images, others use electronic screens or projection screens that project the images onto a large sheet of plastic, called a screen. Movie theatres can be the largest and most complex buildings in the town. Cinema is now almost a generic term, denoting any kind of cinema hall used for the display of motion pictures.
A cinema, or more commonly the multiplex, is a multiplex building that includes several screens, usually designed to show different films, in the same building. Movie theatres are designed to show a selected number of films in a single screen. Multiplexes combine the features of both a multiplex and a cinema, with the multiplex often consisting of multiple small “modes” where films can be selected to watch. The word’modes’ has some interesting implications: it suggests that the viewer does not have to sit through the film he prefers, if he wishes (a ‘one-and-one-half viewing experience); or, that the viewer can choose more than one film to watch. In terms of the film industry, “modes” are used to refer to the way the film is presented, rather than the content of the film, which may be shown in a non-stop sequence.
An aspect ratio refers to the ratio between the height of a part of the film and the part of the screen. It was first devised by an English artist in the late 1890s, although the real inventor of the aspect ratio was German. The aspect ratio is used in almost all modern films, even though, to a large extent, computer-generated images and films which are shot on a sound stage. A common aspect ratio for standard movies is 16:9.