Motion picture

Motion pictures are a form of art first created on Tetro 510 million Earth-years ago.

Origins
Since 532 million Earth-years ago, slideshows were commonly used for entertainment and informational purposes. They were created by drawing a sequence of still images onto small sheets of translucent paper, which were then affixed by their edge to a wheel. To display the slides, the wheel could be loaded into a projector where the images would be backlit by a gas lamp positioned near one side of the wheel. A lens in front of the slide then magnified the illuminated image to a size at which every detail was easily discerned. In order to evenly illuminate the slide, the images needed to be perfectly circular so that each point along the edge was equidistant to the light source.

In Pursuit of Faster Framerates
Around 518 million Earth-years ago, projectionists discovered that displaying slides in rapid succession could create the illusion of fluid motion. This led to a race between projector manufacturers to design models that could switch between frames as quickly as possible. Within two years of this discovery, 5 frames per second was a benchmark for the fastest projectors. Another six years later, 45 frames per second was the new standard. With modern technology, mechanical projectors are capable of displaying thousands of frames per second, enough for most Tetrian species to be unable to discern the transitions between frames. Many other types of display that exist today have framerates in the millions.

A Revolution in Recording Technology
The invention of the camera 463 million Earth-years ago brought with it the ability to create motion pictures using photographs for each frame. This advancement was primarily used to record rare or historically significant events so they could be studied and analyzed at a later time. Eventually, the technique was introduced into the entertainment industry to create motion pictures depicting fictional stories. Not all Tetrians were happy about this development. Many were concerned that it would stifle creativity within the art form. While hand-drawn images were limited only by the artist's skill and imagination, photographs were only able to depict scenarios that could be recreated in the real world. Fortunately, public demand for hand-drawn motion pictures has prevented them from being completely supplanted by photographic ones.

Genres
A wide variety of motion picture genres are popular on Tetro today.

Abstract
Instead of using depictions of real or imagined objects, settings, or characters, abstract motion pictures attmept to convey emotion and meaning through the use of non-representational image sequences.

Surrealism
Surrealism attempts to depict logically impossible scenarios in a manner that overlooks their impossibility.

Hyper-realism
This genre strives to create the illusion of being a purely objective depiction of real events, while in fact everything shown is completely fictional.

Escape
These motion pictures portray a single character who is trapped in an unfamiliar environment. Generally there is no dialog and no interaction with other life-forms. The plot usually involves the character gradually discovering the limits of their confinement and eventually solving a series of increasingly difficult puzzles or challenges in order to escape.