The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Photoplay, by Hugo Muensterberg

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Title: The Photoplay
A Psychological Study

Author: Hugo Muensterberg

Release Date: March 16, 2005 [EBook #15383]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE PHOTOPLAY

A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY

BY

HUGO MUeNSTERBERG

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK LONDON
1916

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER PAGE

1. THE OUTER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVING PICTURES 3
2. THE INNER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVING PICTURES 21

PART I. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE PHOTOPLAY

3. DEPTH AND MOVEMENT 44
4. ATTENTION 72
5. MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 92
6. EMOTIONS 112

PART II. THE ESTHETICS OF THE PHOTOPLAY

7. THE PURPOSE OF ART 133
8. THE MEANS OF THE VARIOUS ARTS 155
9. THE MEANS OF THE PHOTOPLAY 170
10. THE DEMANDS OF THE PHOTOPLAY 191
11. THE FUNCTION OF THE PHOTOPLAY 215

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

THE OUTER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVING PICTURES

It is arbitrary to say where the development of the moving pictures
began and it is impossible to foresee where it will lead. What invention
marked the beginning? Was it the first device to introduce movement into
the pictures on a screen? Or did the development begin with the first
photographing of various phases of moving objects? Or did it start with
the first presentation of successive pictures at such a speed that the
impression of movement resulted? Or was the birthday of the new art when
the experimenters for the first time succeeded in projecting such
rapidly passing pictures on a wall? If we think of the moving pictures
as a source of entertainment and esthetic enjoyment, we may see the germ
in that camera obscura which allowed one glass slide