Film making, at its core, is an illusion. The human eye can, on average, process around 10-12 different images per second. So basically, if I were to flash 12 separate images in front of a person, they would be able to realize that it was in fact 12 separate images that they saw. Movies are basically the same thing, just a series of images that are flashed before the eyes of the audience, but the magic of movies is being able to trick the brain. Films, as opposed to my flip book from the previous example, have a film rate of 24 frames per second. This means that in any given second during a movie, your brain is trying to process 24 pictures. Yet, this task is basically impossible for your brain fully process each picture entirely so instead, your brain cognitively fills in the gaps between the pictures and if the differences in the frame images aren’t too drastic, the result is seemingly fluid motion.
Some film makers have taken this science to heart and create short films known as stop motion animations. This is where a film maker will take all 24 frames for any individual second by hand. This is of course very tedious and time consuming work, but the payoff is great. With stop motion animation, you can achieve effects that are not possible with a normal motion picture camera. Having control of every frame allows for the imagination of the film maker to reach its full potential. A simple search of stop motion engineering in Youtube or Google will show you many short films and commercials that have captured this unique style of film making. So if you have some spare time and a digital camera, you too can make an original short film.
