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smallest part into which a film can be divided without losing its identity; but even the cutter has to recognise a property impossible in a still picture. This property is the position of the frame in the film.
If a film really consisted of single frames and this propertv was therefore non-existent, there would be no difference between a number of pictures hung on -the wall, in order at the same time, and the projected cinema image. Some kind of order is essential, besides the order in space that makes the still picture. For a film this order must be in time as well as in space. This conception immediatelv involves a series of pictures as the unit, rather than a series of unit still pictures. A single unit cannot be arranged in an order.
To distinguish between a still picture and an ordered group of still pictures may be considered a quibble, but a group is a very different thing from the members of which it is composed. Mankind is not a man. The simplest thing that can be seen in a film is not a series of still pictures, but the relations between a series of still pictures. The audience perceive a man moving, not a series of pictures of a man in different positions.
The last example raises the point ; what is the size, so to speak, of the film units? From a geometrical standpoint every portion of a film, however small it may be, is composed of an infinite number of film units arranged in space and time. The ordinary spectator does not, however, see the movement of an arm as the co-ordinated play of light and shade in an indefinite number of small elements distributed in space and time. He sees it as one event, the action of an arm. The answer to the query as to the size of the unit is known to all directors, — the size depends on the mentality of the spectator. Actually, as we are concerned with properties rather than with measurements, the answer is not of much importance.
As an example of the relational nature of the film unit compared with a picture, consider the relationship between the frames which results in a motionless film image. This relation is identity in space, but not in time. The audience apprehends this relation as lack of motion of definite duration, the duration being caused bv the lack of temporal identity in the frames. Even in this very simple case the motionless film image is by no means the same as the corresponding still picture. Duration is not a variable in the graphic arts, which deal entirely with spatial relationships. Music does include duration, and the possibility of and necessity for combining the methods of these two branches of art in the film, even in the absence of sound, helps to give the film its extraordinary power. The idea of duration shows that the impression given by a series of lantern slides, projected in a prearranged order for definite times, is definitely cinema. Such series are often employed in practice.
The special case of a visual impression remaining unchanged for a definite time obscures a fundamental property of the film unit. That is, film material must have a definite direction in time, its beginning and end