SCREEN-L Archives

March 1996, Week 4

SCREEN-L@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Options: Use Proportional Font
Show HTML Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
"Duncan, Iain" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 21 Mar 1996 13:31:08 EST
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (54 lines)
In response to this question posted by Meryem Constance Ersoz:
 
>So I'm kicking the question back to the film list. Can anyone answer
this
for me? Why do wheels, when filmed, sometimes look as if they are
spinning in a direction which appears to be the opposite of the direction
which logic tells us they actually must be spinning? Does persistence of
vision have anything to do with it?<
 
 
I suppose that the effect of wheels spinning backwards is created more by
the
mechanics of motion picture photography than by persistence of vision.
 
Maybe the best way to answer the question is to use a simplified example.
Imagine you had a disc with a single line drawn on it from the centre to
a point
on the circumference.  You then set the disc spinning at a constant rate
of one
revolution per minute.
 
Now suppose you were filming this disc spinning using a camera that made
one exposure each second.  As the line would be in the same position each
time an exposure was made, it would appear to be stationary rather than
spinning
on the resulting film.
 
To achieve the 'backward' effect, you would simply need to speed the
camera up
slightly to, for example, 0.95 seconds between exposures or,
alternatively, slow the
disc down.  Now the disc would be completing slightly less than one
revolution
between exposures and (hope you can imagine this!) would therefore appear
on
film to be moving in the opposite direction to which it is actually
spinning.
 
To apply this in practice, you simply have to speed the whole thing up -
24 frames
a second and a wheel that rotates perhaps only 23 times a second.
 
Hope that gives a solution to at least part of the problem.  It would be
easier to
draw diagrams but, unfortunately, that's not too easy to do on email!
 
 
Iain Duncan
[log in to unmask]
 
----
To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L
in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2