UNIT ONE PERFORMANCE TASK

How do film makers manipulate these quantities to

simulate motion?
The world of entertainment thrives on our passion for thrill and adventure. Many movies provide
experiences that make you feel as though you are part of the action. For more than fifty years, movie
producers have used cameras that move to give you, the viewer, the sense that you are moving around the
set of the movie and interacting with the actors. Movie producers use a variety of reference clues to create
images that fool your senses into believing that you are experiencing different kinds of motion. In the
early years of movie making, film crews could drive motorized carts carrying huge cameras around a
stage. To create the sense that the actors were in a moving car, the crew would place a large screen behind
a stationary car and project a moving street scene on the screen so the viewer would see it through the car
windows. Today, the movie crew might ride on a moving dolly that is pulling the car down an active
street. In this case, the crew and the viewer would be at rest relative to the car in which the actors are
riding. The buildings and street would be moving relative to the stationary actors.

Displacement - Although you might think you know when an object is moving or has moved, you
can be fooled! Pay close attention to the scientific definition of displacement. The displacement of an
object is a vector that points from an initial position (from which an object moves), to a second position,
in a particular frame of reference. The vector's magnitude is equal to the straight-line distance between the
two positions. Notice that in the definition, displacement depends only on the initial and final positions of
the object or person. It is like taking snapshots of a person at various points during the day and not
knowing or caring about anything that happened in between. Understanding the meaning of displacement,
we can now evaluate how film-makers manipulate this quantity to simulate motion. Films have the ability
to show an abject in motion. By manipulating the quantity of displacement, a film-maker can make a
person or object appear to have magical quantities. For example, in the famous Harry Potter movie
franchise, all witches and wizards have the ability to “apparate”. This allows them to leave one position
and instantly arrive at another, without any travelling in between (pop out of one location, and instantly
pop into another). Without manipulating the quantity of displacement, showing apparition would be
impossible as normal actors do not have the ability to instantly transport themselves over space and time.
The film-makers take a series of steps to make the apparition sequence seem real. They film the actor in
one location, then turn off the camera, then allow the actor to move to the second location and then
continue filming. Thus, the film-makers are effectively manipulating the quantity of displacement by
“showing” the magical abilities of a witch or wizard.

Time Intervals - The second fundamental measurement that is used to describe motion is time. In
physics, clock time is very inconvenient, even if you use the 24 hour clock. In physics, the time at which
an event begins is usually designated as time zero. You might symbolize this as “Ti = 0 s”. Other instants
in time are measured in reference to Ti and designated as Tf. The subscript "f" indicates the time at which
a certain incident occurred during the event. The elapsed time between two instants of time is called a
time interval. Understanding the meaning of time-interval, we can now evaluate how film-makers
manipulate this quantity to simulate motion. Films have the ability to show an abject in motion. By
manipulating the quantity of time-interval, a film-maker can make a person or object appear to have
skipped some years. They can show that a person has evolved as they have aged. They can show the span
of 50 years in 50 seconds. As is evident, an actor does not have the ability to live 50 years in 50 seconds
so the film-makers manipulate this quantity in their films. They show the leap of years through this
process; they film an actor in one time frame, then turn off the camera, fix the makeup and costume to
make the actor look more/less aged, turn on the camera and film the actor in a different frame. Thus, the
film-makers are effectively manipulating the quantity of time-interval by “showing” the transition of one
time period to another.
 Velocity - Velocity not only describes how fast an object moves from one position to another, but
also indicates the direction in which the object is moving. Physicists define velocity as the rate of change
of position. As you have discovered, when you determine the displacement (change of position) of an
object (or person), you do not consider anything that has occurred between the initial and final positions.
Consequently, you do not know whether the velocity has been changing during that time. Therefore,
when you calculate velocity by dividing displacement by time, you are, in reality, finding the average
velocity and ignoring any changes that might have occurred during the time interval. Velocity is the
quotient of displacement and the time interval. Understanding the meaning of velocity, we can now
evaluate how film-makers manipulate this quantity to simulate motion. Films have the ability to show an
abject in motion. By manipulating the quantity of velocity, film-makers can show a person or object
having magical abilities. For example they can show a person running at super speed, or a car driving in
slow motion through a wall. But in reality an actor cannot run at 50km/h (in a certain direction) and a car
cannot drive through a wall at 3km/h (in a certain direction). To arrive at these situations, film-makers
manipulate the quantity of velocity. They show the changes in velocity through this process; the film-
makers shoot the actors/cars in normal speed and then use computer technology to speed up or slow down
the film roll. Thus, the film-makers are effectively manipulating the quantity of velocity by “showing” a
car/person with unnatural velocities.

Have you ever been in a vehicle that was stopped but

seemed like it was moving?
There have been numerous occasions where whilst sitting in a stationary vehicle, I have felt as though
I was moving. My immediate reaction was to slam on the breaks. After doing so, I realized that, in fact,
my vehicle was not in motion. I became aware that instead of my vehicle slowly moving backwards, the
automobile beside me was slowly creeping forward. My mind had been tricked. It all depends on the
frame of reference from which you view a situation. I was deceived because my frame of reference was
the automobile beside me. Subconsciously, I assumed that the car beside me had remained stopped and
that my car was moving backward. Indeed, I was moving, but not in the way my instincts were telling me.
I was moving back, relative to the car beside me, because the other car was moving forward relative to the
ground. Relative motion can be deceiving.
What situations and effects can you create by
lengthening or decreasing the time interval?
As exemplified in the scenarios above, by lengthening or decreasing the time interval a film-
maker can make it seem as though velocity of an object or person is increasing or decreasing. As shown
in the examples above, by increasing the time-interval, a film-maker can show a truck breaking through a
concrete wall in slow motion. On the contrary, by decreasing the time-interval a film-maker can show a
superhero running in super-speed around the world (ie, superman or krrish).