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Eyewitness has always been a great source of general knowledge on a subject. This books subject being film is no exception to Eyewitness’ history of their books. The book covers film from its history to merchandizing. It has a lot of great pictures as well as a lot good little nuggets of information. I got a lot of information out of to present to a class recently and I pulled some more information to present alter to a class. It may not be a comprehensive book on film, but a great source for basic knowledge on the topic. I think it should be in every classroom that teaches video or film so students can look at it for an idea of movie magic and history. ( )

Even though this book is twenty years outdated it is still filled with the history and origins of film. Starting over a millennium ago in China and advancing through the mutoscope, 35 mm film, technicolor, and touching on digital, Film describes the process by which movies come to life.
Kids can definitely pick up a lot out of this book but they would need to read it multiple times to really grasp the concepts behind it. Although I believe middle school kids could read and enjoy it I feel that older students will get more out of the book. Some of the processes of film and the physics of light might simply be too much for the younger students but they could still enjoy the pages on animation, costume design, and puppetry without having to understand all the mechanics behind it. ( )