Perspective Considerations in Taking and Projecting Motion Pictures

The motion picture has provided us with a method by which a scene or a number of scenes may be re-enacted many times and simultaneously in many places. When proper attention is paid to the photographic technique, the screen result is a satisfactory representation of the brightness values of the corresponding picture areas. Assuming that the brightness or tone values of the subject have been reproduced correctly, the result may still be unnatural in appearance because of faulty perspective. The distortion produced by sitting too far from the axis of projection in the theater is of course very well known. In the present paper, a form of perspective distortion will be considered which would exist even if it were possible to view the picture from a point on the axis of projection. It will be shown that, under given conditions, there is only one point along the axis of projection for which the perspective is correct. This point should obviously be chosen in approximately the center of the theater in order that the average amount of distortion over the whole auditorium may be a minimum.

Print ISSN

0096-6460

Published

1928-04

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J08107