▪ I. film, n.
(fɪlm)
Forms: 1 fil-, fylmen, 5 vilm, 5–6 fylme, (6 philome), 6–7 filme, 7– film.
[OE. filmen str. neut., membrane, caul, prepuce, cognate with OFris. filmene skin: the WGer. *filmin(n)i is an extension (with suffix repr. OTeut. -jo-) of *felmen-, -on- (OE. ǽᵹ-felma skin of an egg), f. the same root as fell n.1]
† 1. a. A membrane, animal or vegetable. Obs.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 204 Her sint tacn aheardodre lifre, ᵹe on þam læppan, & healocum & filmenum. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. (MS. A) 241 Rethina þat is þe þinne skyn..Þat is clepid þe vilm of þe ize. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 160/2 Fylme, of a notte, or oþer lyke, folliculus. 1530 Palsgr. 220/1 Fylme that covereth the brayne, taye. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 31 b, Rounde cornes diuided one from an other by filmes y{supt} rynne betwene. 1610 P. Barrough Meth. Physick i. ix. (1639) 13 The filmes and tunicles of the stomack. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. 47 In a Wallnut..one part goes to make a Green, Tough, and Bitter Bark, another part the Shell lin'd with Films. 1743 Lond. & Country Brew. iii. (ed. 2) 193 Twelve Eggs, their Shells being only bruised, but the Films not broken. 1764 Harmer Observ. i. vii. 313 The papyrus, a sort of bulrush..whose stalk was covered with several films, or inner skins, on which they wrote. |
b. Applied to the tongue.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1644 Bp. Hall Serm. 9 June Rem. Wks. (1660) 101 This loose and busie filme, which we carry in our mouths. |
2. a. An extremely thin pellicle or lamina of any material.
| 1653 Quarles Embl. ii. x. (1718) 102 The painted film but of a stronger bubble. 1747 Gould Eng. Ants 54 These wings are composed of exceeding fine and thin Films. a 1799 Black Lect. Chem. (1803) II. 677 An ingot..appears fine, even when cut through with a chizel, because this carries a film along with it from the surface, which covers the rest. 1831 Brewster Optics xvi. 138 Even silver and gold, when beaten into thin films, are transparent. 1853 Herschel Pop. Lect. Sc. vi. §29 (1873) 245 As if the two media were separated by an exceedingly thin film of air. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 318 A tube made of a film of glass. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. vi. 44 The small bubbles of air ruptured the film of water. |
b. Often applied to the emanations from the surface of bodies (‘Simulacra..Quae quasi
membranæ summo de corpore rerum Direptæ volitant’, Lucr. iv. 35), which in the philosophy of Epicurus were supposed to be the objects of perception.
| 1682 Creech tr. Lucretius iv. 38 Images of Things Which like thin films from bodies rise in streams. 1692 Bentley Folly of Ath. (ed. 4) 8 Those fleeting superficial films of bodies. 1785 Reid Int. Powers ii. xx, The films of Epicurus..are the productions of human fancy. |
3. a. esp. A thin pellicle forming a coating or overlying layer.
| 1577 Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) iv. 184 The Hony..is covered with a thinne rine, or filme. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 34 A slimy film floated on the top of the water. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 18 Cover'd with an oily Film of several Colours. 1726–46 Thomson Winter 724 An icy gale..o'er the pool Breathes a blue film. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 292 The sooty films that play upon the bars. 1806 Med. Jrnl. XV. 148 A semi-transparent white film, which proved to be new cuticle. 1812 Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 294 A reddish film which burns like phosphorus is deposited. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. xx. 218 The pearly film of the Nautilus shell. 1863 Lyell Antiq. Man 34 The film of matter which is thrown down annually upon the plain during the season of inundation. |
b. Photography. A thin pellicle or coating of collodion, gelatin, etc. spread on photographic paper or plates, or used by itself instead of a plate. Now
esp. a thin, flexible, transparent material consisting essentially of a plastic base or support (formerly of celluloid, now commonly of cellulose acetate) coated on one side with one or more layers of emulsion and sold as a rolled strip and as separate sheets; also, a single roll of this material, allowing a small number of exposures for use in still photography or a large number for use in cinematography.
| 1845 Thornthwaite Guide Photogr. 52 The film of isinglass..peels off and will be found to bear a minute copy of the original. 1883 Hardwick's Photogr. Chem. (ed. 9) 175 If..the sensitive film of Iodide be allowed to lie loosely upon the surface of the Collodion, the picture will be very feeble. 1890 Woodbury Encycl. Photogr., Film Negative Process, or film photography, is a term applied to processes in which flexible films are used instead of glass plates. 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 217/1, 1 Roll Film, for 25 exposures. 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 473/2 The Hand Camera is the simplest form of photographic camera... Some are constructed for the use of films only, others for both films and dry plates... A roll of film weighs but a few ounces. 1897 [see cinematograph n. b]. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 687/2 Instead of glass plates, flexible films of celluloid and other materials are available in single sheets like plates, or in rolls enclosed in opaque paper. 1903 A. Watkins Photogr. (ed. 2) 50 The great convenience of daylight changing with rollable films. 1910 Punch 15 June 433/1 Messrs. Pathé, who have conceived the idea of showing the news of the week on films at the cinematograph theatres. 1918 Photo-Miniature Mar. (Gloss.) s.v., Roll film, flat or cut film. 1928 Daily Express 12 Apr. 8/6 A length of film, comprising a number of small photographs, is placed in the transmitter. 1946 W. Clark Photogr. by Infrared ii. 12 Plates and film for general infrared photography require no greater care in storage than do panchromatic materials. 1950 J. Hunt Introd. Med. Photogr. x. 188 Filmstrips either of X-ray or photographic films can be made in a similar manner. 1954 C. Wallace Enjoy your Photogr. viii. 101 Loading by touch is quite simple... The photograper should try it with an old film. 1961 K. Reisz Technique Film Editing (ed. 9) i. 58 Editing of visually telling strips of film. 1966 LaCour & Lathrop Photo Technol. vii. 77/1 Photography as we know it today, would not have achieved its present popularity, were it not for the introduction of roll film. 1969 M. J. Langford Adv. Photogr. xv. 317 The top, blue sensitive layer of a multilayer colour film is also sensitive to near ultra-violet radiation. |
c. A cinematographic representation of a story, drama, episode, event, etc.; a cinema performance;
pl. the cinema, the ‘pictures’, the movies. (See also 7 c.)
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 21 Jan. 3/2 A firm who took cinematograph films of his operations... The films once obtained have been sold and even exhibited at country fairs. 1911 Times 22 Sept. 6/2 The great majority of heroic and patriotic films shown here make United States sailors and roughriders the heroes. 1912 [see cinema c]. 1913 Punch 14 May 388/2 When half-a-dozen persons in the same film write letters they all do it in the same hand-writing. 1923 F. A. Talbot Moving Pictures 72 The films emanating from the European studios. 1927 Times 23 Dec. 11/4 The American film The King of Kings. 1954 I. Murdoch Under Net ii. 33 Anna never tried to get into films. |
d. Film-making considered as an art-form.
| 1920 Q. Rev. July 185 The Film as Caricaturist opens up a new and slightly more encouraging vista—though it is hard to resist the impression that many of the more serious creations of the studio are really intended for caricatures even now. 1929 [see art-form s.v. art n. 18]. 1962 Listener 12 Apr. 645/2 Is film any more fundamentally mechanical than, say, architecture? |
4. A morbid growth upon the eye. Also said of the growing dimness in the eyes of a dying person; sometimes
film of death.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 367 The webs, filmes, and cataracts which trouble the eyesight. 1712 Pope Messiah 39 He from thick films shall purge the visual ray. 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy VI. x, The film forsook his eyes for a moment. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. I. vii. 147 An odd fancy, like a film before the eye. 1877 L. Morris Epic Hades ii. 104 O'er his glaring eyes the films of death Crept. |
| fig. 1626 T. H[awkins] Caussin's Holy Crt. 60 The euill spirit, instantly spreadeth a filme ouer theyr eyes. a 1711 Ken Psyche Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 253 From sensual Films when free'd, she saw strange sights. 1846 Grote Greece i. xvi. (1862) I. 370 They looked at the past with a film of faith over their eyes. |
5. transf. A slight veil or covering of haze, mist, or the like.
lit. and
fig.| 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 31 The interminable vineyards of the Loire, already covered with the film of early twilight. 1837 Syd. Smith Let. to Singleton Wks. 1859 II. 265/1 A slight film thrown over convenient injustice. 1847 H. Miller First Impr. xiv. (1857) 244 An incipient frost, in the form of a thin film of blue vapour. 1883 Times 10 Aug. 2/3 The brown..walls show through a film of peach and almond blossoms. |
6. A fine thread or filament, as of gossamer, silk, etc.
lit. and
fig.| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. iv. 63 Her Whip of Crickets bone, the Lash of Philome. 1781 Cowper Anti-Thelyphthora 73 When..floating films envelope every thorn. a 1822 Shelley Unf. Drama 230 Floating on the line Which, like a film in purest space, divided The heaven beneath the water from the heaven Above the clouds. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. viii. (1879) 161 They were..in undulations like films of silk blown by the wind. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps iv. §10. 102 A riband..spoils all that is near its wretched film of an existence. 1859 I. Taylor Logic in Theol. 203 We must not trust ourselves to any such films of correspondence. |
7. a. Comb., as
film-like,
film-winged adjs.; also
† film-broke, ruptured;
† film-bursting, hernia;
film-colour Psychol., an expanse of colour that has a filmy appearance, neither being transparent nor seen as being on the surface of an object or at a definite distance (
opp. surface-colour);
film-cooling (see
quot.);
film-fern, a fern with filmy fronds,
esp. one of the genus
Hymenophyllum;
film-free a., free from film, not obscured, clear.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 281 Men þat weren *filme broke. |
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lvi. 83 The leaues pound and layde too healeth *filme [printed filine] burstings [Fr. hergnes]. |
| 1922 Psychol. Bull. XIX. 574 ‘Uncertainty’..may quite well be a property of visual phenomena, as Katz..maintained for the ‘distance’ of his so-called ‘*film’-colors (Flächenfarben). 1951 R. H. Thouless Gen. & Soc. Psychol. (ed. 3) xii. 190 Katz would call the colour..seen in the spectroscope a film colour. 1962 M. D. Vernon Psychol. of Perception v. 83 It will appear as ‘film’ colour and not as surface colour. The colour cannot be definitely localized as belonging to the surfaces of objects, but seems to be soft and hazy and to lie over them like a film. 1964 Amer. Philos. Q. I. 7/1 The term ‘film-color’ will do as an example. To get the reader to understand this technical term of visual phenomenology, we instruct him to look at some fairly distant object through a paper tube. |
| 1950 Sci. News XV. 82 *Film cooling [in a space rocket]... Small holes are drilled through the wall of the combustion chamber so that fuel can leak through from the jacket... It boils and forms a protective film of comparatively cool vapour between these gases and the metal wall. |
| 1865 Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 352 Out of the crevices many species of *Film-ferns..project their tufts of pellucid fronds. |
| 1880 Browning Dram. Idylls, Pan & Luna 19 From each web of mist Utterly *film-free—entered on her race The naked Moon. |
| 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. i. 9 Dreams..are *film-like images which fly off from the surfaces of real objects. |
| 1875 Lanier Poems, Symphony 139 All shynesses of *film-winged things. |
b. In sense 3 b, as
film-base,
film camera,
film-carrier,
film-holder,
film magazine,
film-maker,
film-punch,
film roll,
film side,
film speed,
film-wind,
film-winding;
film badge,
ring, a device containing photographic film which registers the amount of the wearer's exposure to radiation;
film cement (see
quots.);
film pack, an assemblage of cut films fitted in a case or holder;
film recording (see
quot. 1941);
film stock, unexposed film;
film strip, a length of film bearing a sequence of still frames, used
esp. as a teaching aid.
| 1945 H. D. Smyth Gen. Acct. Devel. Atomic Energy Mil. Purposes viii. 90 The Health Division later introduced ‘film badges’, small pieces of film worn in the identification badge. 1955 Gloss. Terms Radiol. (B.S.I.) 67 Film badge, a photographic film used as a radiation monitor. It is often partially shielded to differentiate between types and quantities of ionizing radiation. Film ring, a film badge worn as a ring to measure the dose of radiation, usually beta radiation, received by the fingers. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 260/2 Counting of breaks and dicentrics is a surer index of damage than film⁓badge monitoring. |
| 1923 F. A. Talbot Moving Pictures 62 It was necessary to discover..a new film-base. Cellulose could not be avoided as the basic constituent. |
| 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 473/2 The film cameras are most convenient for the traveller. 1920 Edin. Rev. July 73 Charlie Chaplin must practise his own funniments before the film camera. |
| 1890 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 312 We have to use ‘film carriers’ which up to date have been complicated, unsafe. 1897 C. M. Hepworth Animated Photogr. xi. 87 The ‘solution’ or ‘film cement’ with which the joints of film are effected is either a solution of celluloid and, possibly, one or two other substances, in a solvent such as acetone or amyl, acetate, or else the latter chemical used alone. 1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 95/1 Film cement, a solution that will partially dissolve film base and so enable two pieces of film to be joined together in a splice. |
| 1918 Film-holder [see film pack, below]. 1967 E. Chambers Photolitho-Offset viii. 106 Vacuum filmholders permit the use of contact screens. |
| 1931 B. Brown Talking Pictures x. 247 The film magazines..were found to accentuate vibration and noise from the camera mechanism. |
| 1859 National Mag. VI. 332/1 Solution rapidly takes place, and the photographic film-maker is constituted. 1903 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 19 June 490/2 The Film Pack consists of a light tight sheath made of black press board, with an opening in one side corresponding in size to the exposure, into which are folded thirteen strips of black, chemically pure paper..; each of twelve of these..has fastened to the inner side of a sheet of film. 1918 Photo-Miniature Mar. (Gloss.) 20 Film pack, a cardboard or metal holder containing, usually, 12 cut films so placed in it that, by pulling in succession projecting paper tabs, the films are brought into position... The device is..a magazine film-holder. 1961 A. L. M. Sowerby Dict. Photogr. (ed. 19) 308 Film packs are no longer made in Great Britain, but imported packs are from time to time available. |
| 1923 F. A. Talbot Moving Pictures 88 The film-punch for indicating exposure changes upon the edge of the film in a camera. 1931 B. Brown Talking Pictures x. 216 Thus film recording..‘starts right’, and..has no real limitation whatsoever, since it is easy to increase film speed, and thus raise the maximum frequency. 1941 B.B.C. Gloss. Broadc. Terms 12 Film Recording: (1) Process of registering sound by electro⁓mechanical means for reproduction by photo-electric means, the recording medium being transparent ribbon coated with an opaque substance. (2) (Also Film.) Ribbon on which sound has been so recorded. (3) (By extension.) Programme material so recorded. |
| 1890 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 22 When a film roll is used, one is tempted to make a great many utterly useless pictures. |
| 1889 Ibid. II. 361 The film side of the plate. 1915 B. E. Jones Cinematograph Bk. iv. 32 Round the inner movable dial [of the exposure meter] are scales relating to film speed and stop. |
| 1911 C. N. Bennett et al. Handbk. Kinematography i. App. 108 Long strips of photographically-coated celluloid, known as ‘film stock’. 1920 Stage Year Bk. 51 Film stock in particular became scarce, for there was no plant for manufacturing this in Britain at the time. 1930 P. Rotha Film till Now 341 On the film strip, a frame is three-quarters of an inch high by one inch wide. 1962 Engineering 16 Nov. 649 Three new filmstrips, intended for training student electronic engineers. 1962 Unesco Bull. Libr. XVI. 10 The 35 mm. filmstrip, which carries a sequence of pictures to be projected. The size of the frames on the strip is usually 18 × 24 mm. Filmstrips are mainly used for teaching purposes. |
| 1958 M. L. Hall Newnes Compl. Amat. Photogr. 55 All 35 mm. cameras have film-wind mechanisms. Ibid 61 In one camera all the necessary actions—film wind, exposure counter, shutter tensioning..are combined. |
| 1936 Discovery Aug. 238/2 Automatic Film-Winding. |
c. In sense 3 c, as
film actress,
film clip,
film company,
film composer,
film crew,
film critic,
film cue,
film-editing,
film editor,
film fan,
film festival,
film hero,
film magazine,
film-maker,
film-making ppl. adj. and
vbl. n.,
film music,
film producer,
film production,
film rights,
film script,
film set,
film society,
film-struck adj.,
film studio,
film super,
film trade,
film unit;
film-goer, a frequenter of the cinema; hence
film-going ppl. a.;
film star, a star actor or actress for the cinema.
| 1921 Punch 12 Jan. 21/1 Two leading film actresses have made runaway marriages. 1958 Film clip [see clip n.2 2 c]. 1962 Sunday Times 26 Aug. 25/5 The sort of film clips which only political popagandists would dream of using. |
| 1918 H. Croy How Motion Pictures are Made ii. 35 Charles Pathé, of Paris,..later came to head the world's premier film company. 1948 Penguin Music Mag. Feb. 67 Vaughan Williams is, as a film composer, best at moments such as these. |
| 1976 Facts on File 14 Aug. 592/2 Sudan barred the entry into the country of a British Broadcasting Co. film crew. 1982 T. Barr Acting for Camera iv. xxvi. 188 The film crew, whether it be for a TV episode or a feature film, is large. |
| 1931 Punch 8 Apr. 384/1 The film-critic of The Daily Telegraph. |
| 1918 H. Croy How Motion Pictures are Made vi. 134 The director..gives him what might be called his film cues. 1922 Moving Picture Stories 23 June 25/1 Film editors and splicers are working as they haven't done in many months. 1953 T. Dickinson in K. Reisz Technique Film Editing 7 The pivotal contribution of the film editor has never been analysed objectively. Film editing has only been dealt with in the personal theories of Eisenstein, Pudovkin and others. |
| 1918 R. Wagner Film Folk i. 12 But that was before the film fans became oversophisticated. 1951 N. Mitford Blessing ii. i. 162 She discouraged Hughie from following her to Venice, saying vaguely that she would be taken up with the film festival. |
| 1919 Fortn. Rev. CVI. 455 Some owners of cinema theatres are doing their best to attract a better intellectual class of film-goer. 1927 Sunday Express 26 June 4 Every film-goer likes to feel that he is up-to-date in cinema affairs. 1929 Evening News 18 Nov. 12/4 They should realise that the film-going public have brains. |
| 1925 W. Deeping Sorrell & Son xv. §1, He hated crowds, he—the crowd's film-hero. 1939 C. Day Lewis Child of Misfortune iii. ii. 271 Alice, looking up from her film magazine. |
| 1919 Fortn. Rev. CVI. 456 Many film-makers..have set their faces against this appeal. 1960 Guardian 27 Oct. 8/2 Certain products of Hollywood—about which French film-makers were traditionally contemptuous. |
| 1938 Observer 26 June 12/6 A first-class film-making nation. 1944 J. S. Huxley Living in Rev. iii. 37 Wartime film-making, especially perhaps in Canada, is making the movie a comprehensive and faithful mirror for the wartime life and purpose of peoples. |
| 1927 Melody Maker Sept. 938/2 The art of cue film-music compilers in the fitting of films with appropriate music. |
| 1914 R. Grau Theatre of Science iv. 85 He will prove a greater asset to the film producer a year from now. 1920 Q. Rev. July 182 The only kind of ending the film-producers can think of for this or any other type of drama. 1927 P. D. Hugon Morrow's Word Finder 205 Terms used in film production. 1935 H. G. Wells Things to Come 13 The incorporation of original music in film production is still..an unsolved problem. |
| 1913 Writer's Mag. Dec. 263/1 Contracts with..today's most famous authors for the film rights to their..stories. 1933 A. Brunel Filmcraft 194 Selling the film rights at an immensely exaggerated figure. 1970 L. Meynell Curious Crime of Miss Julia Blossom xv. 180 Serial rights. American rights, and I saw a para in last night's Standard saying somebody was after the film rights too. |
| 1948 Dylan Thomas Let. 17 Nov. (1966) 323 My fee for my next unspecified filmscript. 1952 Eliot & Hoellering Film of Murder in Cathedral 7 That is in itself a justification for publishing this film script. |
| 1933 C. Winchester World Film Encycl. 475/2 The first film sets were called ‘flats’. |
| 1931 Week-end Review 14 Feb. 212/2 The Film Society. 1968 Guardian 27 Dec. 4/8 Film societies..have increased in membership. |
| 1914 R. Grau Theatre of Science iii. 50 The greatest film stars in the world. 1923 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 180/1 A number of very beautiful women have earned untold riches as ‘film-stars’. 1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Apr. 313/5 The film-star treatment of the Royal Family. |
| 1923 Weekly Disp. 28 Jan. 1 She had become absolutely ‘film-struck’. |
| 1913 Writer's Bulletin July 11 The great photoplays of the future will be those that are created within the confines of the film studio. 1935 Discovery Oct. 309/1 In film studios the necessity for absolute silence demands an air-tight enclosure. |
| 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey ii. ii, The lurid professions—film super, or mannequin. |
| 1914 Even. News 8 Oct. 2/1 It is ‘up to’ the American film trade to see that the evidence of the camera gets a fair reception. 1951 ‘M. Innes’ Operation Pax iii. vii. 113 Film units..descend upon the place. |
Hence
ˈfilmcraft, the technique of making films;
ˈfilmdom [
-dom], the realm of cinematographic production, producers, and stars, the cinema world;
ˈfilmland, (
a)
= filmdom; (
b) Hollywood, or a specific locality associated with the film industry.
| 1928 Observer 15 Apr. 5/4 Filmcraft is little understood. 1963 Guardian 9 Feb. 5/5 Its sixty minutes contain no remarkable feat of filmcraft. |
| 1914 Writer's Bulletin Feb. 35/1 Even in filmdom..there are a dozen who hold the art of the silent drama in reverence. 1927 Sunday Express 12 June 18/3 One of filmdom's finest mansions is Pickfair. 1930 Daily Express 9 Sept. 8/3 A strange trail of thought in filmdom. |
| 1914 R. Grau Theatre of Science p. vii, There are not a few celebrities in film-land averse from publicity. 1928 Punch 21 Nov. 578/3 How Filmland Regards a Royal Commission. ‘English Royal Group...’—Los Angeles Paper. |
▪ II. film, v. (
fɪlm)
[f. prec. n.] 1. trans. To cover with or as with a film. Also,
to film over,
† film up.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. iv. 147 It will but skin and filme the Vlcerous place. a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 251 Grosse infidelity that hath filmed up thine eyes. 1700 C. Davenant Disc. Grants Introd. 7 They do but film over a sore which breaks out afterwards with greater rancour. 1794 Coleridge Relig. Musings Wks. (1829) I. 90 And curse your spells, that film the eye of Faith. 1876 Farrar Marlb. Serm. xxix. 290 Would you linger by the stagnant pool because its surface is filmed with the iridescence of decay? |
2. intr. for refl. To become covered with a film (as the eyes); to grow dim or obscure as though covered with a film; hence (
poet. rare) of distant objects, to become hazy, fade away. Also,
to film over.
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Dead Pan, Straight her eyeballs filmed with horror. 1850 Neale Med. Hymns (1867) 53 Eyes are filming o'er in death. 1877 Lanier Poems, Florida Ghost 5 Past far-off palms that filmed to nought. |
3. trans. To photograph for use in a cinema or cinematographic device; to exhibit as a cinematographic production; to put on ‘the films’ or ‘the screen’.
Quot. 1899 refers to a ‘mutoscope’.
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 21 Sept. 4/1 Professors of medicine are ‘filming’ their patients' muscles. 1912 F. A. Talbot Moving Pictures xv. 174 He succeeded in persuading Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to let him film the Shakespearean production of Henry VIII. 1915 A. S. Neill Dominie's Log viii, I have seen Hamlet filmed. 1915 W. Irwin Men, Women & War 15 We filmed a Belgian troop of cavalry going into action. 1920 Q. Rev. July 183 Hallo, here's a big success, let's film it! 1920 Glasgow Herald 11 Sept. 7 Churchmen are invited to write thrilling Biblical scenarios to be filmed for exhibition at afternoon services. 1934 W. Saroyan Daring Young Man (1935) 26, I am not expecting Paramount Pictures to film this work. 1971 Daily Tel. 20 Oct. 12/8 Cameras were allowed for the first time to film their lordships inside their red-carpeted sanctum. |
4. intr. To be (well or ill) suited for film-acting or for reproduction on film.
| 1920 Punch 31 Mar. 246/3 This incident should ‘film’ well. 1927 E. Hemingway Fiesta i. vi. 60 He's leaving me. He's decided I don't film well. 1928 Observer 26 Feb. 20/2 [He] ‘films’ very well indeed. 1934 W. Saroyan Daring Young Man (1935) 204, I always knew I had the sort of face that would film well and look good on the screen. |
Hence
ˈfilming ppl. a. and vbl. n.| 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 292, I drew a plan of the filming instrument. 1912 F. A. Talbot Moving Pictures xi. 120 The procession drew within the field of the camera and the filming commenced. 1918 H. Croy How Motion Pictures are Made 110 The filming of this is put last to give the carpenters time to complete it. 1933 Discovery Dec. 359/2 The hunting, filming and capture of wild beasts. |
Add:
[3.] b. To take part in the making of (a film) as an actor.
| 1980 Daily Tel. 23 Aug. 11/6 The bear..was filming a commercial in the Western Isles when he swam off. |
[4.] b. To take pictures with a film camera,
esp. for production in the cinema or on television; of an actor: to participate in the making of a film. Also
intr. for
pass. (of a novel, script, etc.), to be filmed.
| 1957 G. Pearson Flashback iii. 40 In a mood of high adventure we started filming in the new studio. 1967 J. Wain Smaller Sky 174 The chief cameraman began filming with one camera. 1976 Daily Tel. 30 Nov. 17/8 The comedy actor Terry-Thomas, 65, is ‘severely ill’ with pneumonia... He had been filming in Switzerland. 1986 Flicks Summer 1/1 ‘Heartbreak Ridge’ filming this summer for release at Christmas. |