March 2004
Lights, Camera,^Film, Action
The proposed after-school enhancement project is part of a larger effort to celebrate innovations in photography by Ansco, Agfa-Ansco, GAF, Anitec, a Broome County company (1902-99). Under the overall framework of the 5E Teaching Cycle model (Engage – Explore – Explain – Elaborate – Evaluate), the education team will construct engaging computer-based activities related to Ansco/GAF "Firsts" in innovation film technology, including flexible roll film, panchromatic black and white film, high speed film emulsions, subtractive color synthesis, ultraviolet filters, etc. Teaching unit topics includes: visual perception; physics of color; chemistry of organic polymers, emulsions, and color formers; and related quantitative tools, including the principles of image processing and transmitted imagery. After testing in local schools, a CD-ROM will be prepared for national distribution.
Themes
A fundamental theme of how recording medium affects the Seeing is Believing relationship would be useful to explore. Photographic history provides opportunities to explore perception versus the color sensitivity of film. Early film could only detect blues; later films added green sensitivity, and with the addition of red in the late 1920s, pan-chromatic films were capable of capturing the full spectrum. Students can consider questions, such as What’s it like to live in a world without green? Without red? by importing their images into image processing software, with filters configured to correspond to historic film types – blue only (1880s), blues and greens (early 20th c.), all colors (1930s). Ansco film, particularly its high speed color film, played an interesting role in the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as early NASA programs, helping to demonstrate the value of earth-looking imagery in understanding the geology and weather on Earth. Relations between detail detection and recognition can be explored through examining images of various grain size and pixel density, from 19th c. to the most recent Mars Rover imagery. Software filters of varying resolution will support this activity.
The physics and chemistry of coating technology offer curriculum links to understanding microstructure of matter and its effect on physical properties of compounds, polymer formation, chemical reaction rates, and catalysts. Perhaps the most significant advance in photography was the invention in 1887 of flexible roll film, by Hannibal Goodwin, a minister in Newark, NJ, that supplanted glass and metal plates as substrates for light-sensitive emulsions.
In the early 1900s, Ansco built a factory in Binghamton to manufacture cellulose nitrate film, made flexible by a double solvent evaporative process, having purchased Goodwin's invention. In 1914, a patent dispute with Eastman Kodak was settled in Ansco's favor in one of the largest monetary settlements of the era, a $5 million cash payment. Digital simulations and lab experiments might explore the properties of gels, surfactants, film thickness, scratch resistance of organic materials. The physics of color can be explored through comparison of subtractive color synthesis versus additive color synthesis and digital image manipulation that illustrate the physics of transmitted imagery, e.g., television and cell phones.
Quantitative units will explore the detection limits of motion at different rates and analyzing stop action photography, such as found in Freeze Frame (www.americanhistory.si.edu). A video game akin to Space Invaders might be developed, where player’s tools for capturing action are related to film speed. As players gain experience, they are able to predict “blur threshold” of action. The historical context is the increasing film speeds over time. Prior to the introduction of "fast film", sports photographs were mostly posed, after action images. The 1936 World Series was one of the first opportunities for photographers to capture action on the field.
A corollary unit could be developed to explore the perception of athleticism from action photos. Students would be asked to sort a set of historic images of baseball players in order of prowess. Then, these hypotheses would be tested against performance statistics from Cooperstown Hall of Fame data base, e.g., speed –number of stolen bases and bunts, or power – hitting average, number of home runs.
Film durability offers an opportunity to combine preservation principles, chemistry, and budget constraints in decision making scenario for managing exploding film. Early flexible film base, cellulose nitrate, ages to form flammable chemicals in the TNT family. The rate of this chemical conversion depends on exposure, especially temperature and relative humidity. Most film manufactured after 1950 is cellulose acetate Safety Film, the introduction of which prevented further fires in projection booths and film storage areas. A simulation game structured along the lines of Dungeons & Dragons might be developed where the goal is to transfer a classic film from nitrate film to safety film. In a game where mistakes in handling the original reels results in explosions, the player selects one of several classic films from the vault, each with a defined exposure history. Players would be able to control variables of light, temperature, and relative humidity to avoid explosion, as well as transportation mode, distance to laboratory, vendors' price, backlog, and other decisions made by real world film curators.