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Filmstrips are wonderful childhood memories. What is a filmstrip

Each of us treasures childhood memories in our hearts. Joyful or sad, bright or full of bitterness, they serve as a bridge that connects us today, adults and respectable, with those little children that we once were. Sometimes, feeling nostalgic for a bygone childhood, we get these memories from the depths of our memory in order to return at least for a second to that carefree time, free from our current problems and worries.

For many of us, such vivid memories can be filmstrips that we watched in childhood. Let's take a look at their history...

The quiet hum of a projector-filmoscope and a bright beam that turns a white sheet on the wall into a magical screen on which color pictures replace each other ... All this remains forever in the child's memory. Do you remember your mood at that moment? Joy and impatience while the elders adjust the lens and load the film with the filmstrip into the projector, your delight at the second when the first frame appears on the wall and the fairy tale begins...

A filmstrip is a series of positive images (slides) united by a common theme into a short film, usually consisting of 20-50 frames. Filmstrip is related to comics, cartoons, book illustration, but also differs from them. The name itself comes from the Greek δια, which in this context means "transition from beginning to end"; and English. film - roll photo (movie) film.

Transparency film is based on the change of static frames (unlike cinema). Its frame is closer to easel painting or graphics, which is why some artists classify filmstrip as fine art.

In the frame of the filmstrip there is movement, expression, as in any work visual arts. At the same time, the issue of transition from frame to frame, their coupling and combination, as well as the problem of matching the text to the image, is acute.

The word "film strip" and the subject it denotes are well known to all adults who have grown out of Soviet children. The number of people who do not know what a filmstrip is is increasing every day. Explaining what a filmstrip is is not so simple. Because a filmstrip is not only a story told with the help of text and an image divided into frames. It is also a kind of technique for presenting a story to the viewer, in which each frame is considered separately.

Filmstrip is also a pastime organized by manual movement of frames, reading captions aloud, and collective viewing of images projected onto a screen in the dark.

In the second half of the 20th century, filmstrips were widely used in the USSR, they were common in everyday life, in particular, numerous filmstrips were created - illustrated fairy tales, historical and literary works. Technical filmstrips were intended to organize the educational process.

Viewing filmstrips is carried out using a filmoscope or slide projector, projecting an image onto a screen, in the simplest case it was a white wall or sheet.

But the Soviet filmstrip, like the cartoon, began with the efforts of enthusiasts. Filmstrips were a new technological advance that allowed images to be viewed with inexpensive equipment.

It is curious to note that the filmstrip appeared much earlier than cinema and even photography. The earliest devices, magic lanterns, whose design principles did not differ significantly from 20th century overhead projectors, date back to the first half of the 16th century.

By the end of the 19th century, filmstrip had already taken a firm place in people's lives. Transparencies were produced both on film and on glass. Mass shows were organized, mainly for educational, less often, for entertainment purposes. In pre-revolutionary Russia, there were filmstrips on natural science, geography, most of the “foggy pictures” were dedicated to the history of the Russian state (“25th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Alexander II”, “St. Cyril and Methodius”), there were also dramatizations of literary works (“Ice House”, "Masquerade"). The display of the paintings was accompanied by reading aloud from the brochure that came with each painting.

One of the first Soviet overhead projectors was a unit called "IZBACH", designed by P. Mershin, an employee of the Glavpolitprosveta. The built-in dynamo and rheostat made it possible to use it where there was no electricity.

The technology of making filmstrips as an illustrative material has replaced the previous technology of using separate glass slides. Transparencies were not very convenient, as they were heavy (they were made on glass photographic plates), and a lot of space was needed for their storage.

“It would be interesting to launch this projector,” says Anna Kotomina, senior lecturer at the Department of History and Theory of Culture at the Russian State University for the Humanities. “There is such a rhythm here - we really miss this in the modern world of insane speeds, eternal information overload - such slow reading.”

Anna Kotomina, historian, teacher of multimedia technologies, studies filmstrips from a scientific point of view. She has assembled a collection of over 300 films dating back to the 1930s. Her children enjoy watching magic films. Anna is sure that the filmstrip, as a huge layer of visual culture, has not died - it has simply faded into the background. Her opinion is shared by many professionals.

“The filmstrip was, to some extent, limitless,” says Olga Gornostaeva, director and teacher at the Faculty of Animation and Multimedia at VGIK. - As such a primary educator and educator of a young viewer. The picture could be stopped, repeated, one could learn to read on the inscriptions. This, unfortunately, is a lost culture. This place has not yet been fully replaced by anyone or anything.”

The great-grandfather of the filmstrip is considered a magic lantern - Laterna magica, which appeared in Europe in the 17th century. Light - first oil, then kerosene and electric - fell on hand-painted glass and created the magic of an animated picture.

Since the end of the 19th century, in addition to entertaining and charming, the filmstrip has also an educational function. With the support first of the Zemstvos, and later of the Soviet agitprop, filmstrips covered literally all aspects of life: they introduced the people to the classics of literature in an accessible form, taught the rules of personal hygiene, and behavior in dangerous situations.

In the late 1920s, the production of filmstrips became massive. In the early 1930s, the Filmstrip Studio appeared. Small projectors and cheap, affordable films made their way to every corner of the country. Millions of people spent cozy family evenings watching - it is difficult to imagine a happy Soviet childhood without a filmstrip. By the way, in addition to fabulous, educational and propaganda, he also had unexpected - strategic tasks.

"Produced great amount filmstrips of classified content, - says the last director of the studio "Diafilm" Sergei Skripkin. - That is, let's say, filmstrips that taught the possession of weapons, some serious methods of conducting searches. During the production of such filmstrips, there was always a Red Army soldier with a weapon at the entrance and at the exit, where no one was allowed in, and the artists worked right there, left their originals right there, took pictures and took them away.

We are talking with the last director of Filmstrip, Sergei Skripkin, in the courtyard of the Lutheran Cathedral of Peter and Paul in Starosadsky Lane, where Soviet time the studio was located. In the last frame of almost every film there was an imprint and the final line - the end of the filmstrip. Skripkin sadly jokes: the phrase turned out to be prophetic. The end of the filmstrip began with the eviction of the Studio from the cathedral building.

“It happened so quickly and unexpectedly,” recalls Sergei Skripkin. - Everything began to collapse instantly, production stopped, these filmstrips already made were sent in bulk somewhere. Here were huge heaps of original filmstrips, including sometimes simply brilliantly drawn, real masterpieces.

During the sudden collapse of the studio, some of the unique equipment was fatally damaged, some simply disappeared. Thanks to the efforts of the staff, more than 20 thousand author's sketches for filmstrips were saved. After all, the artists of their time worked better on the filmstrip - the same ones that made the glory of Soviet animation and children's illustration - Avrutis, Repkin, Migunov, Shevchenko, Savchenko. Now these sketches are stored in the funds of the Museum of Cinema.

“The oldest filmstrips that we have in our collection are The Tale of Tsar Saltan and The Little Humpbacked Horse,” says Pavel Shvedov, an employee of the Cinema Museum.

In 1930, the Filmstrip Studio was founded in Moscow, which first produced black-and-white and then color filmstrips. Filmstrips were considered as a means of agitation, they were used for educational, school, lecture and propaganda work, they did not require sophisticated equipment, and in terms of the effectiveness of the impact they were close to films.

In 1934, the first filmstrips for children were made: "Baggage" and "Fire" (according to S. Marshak), "The Girl-Revushka" (according to A. Barto) and a number of others. Later, filmstrips based on films appeared (“New Gulliver” in 1940, “Battleship Potemkin”, “The Cranes Are Flying”, etc.).

Many well-known writers worked as authors and consultants in the DIAFILM judge: A. Tolstoy, L. Kassil, K. Chukovsky, S. Marshak, S. Mikhalkov, V. Bianchi and others. The following artists participated in the creation of filmstrips: E. Evgan, Kukryniksy, V. Suteev, K. Rotov, V. Radlov, A. Bray and others.

From the 60s - 70s. In the 20th century, with the advent of more advanced projectors, epidiascopes, filming and film projection devices for narrow film (16 mm and 8 mm), which made it possible to view both old filmstrips and color professional and amateur slides and films, the decline of the “era of filmstrips” began.

Now there are digitized filmstrips that can be recorded on a flash drive or hard drive and played back using a conventional projector. Some filmstrips can even be watched online on thematic sites (we will share links at the end of the publication).

But, perhaps, even new technologies are not able to completely replace the cozy miracle of the “magic lantern”. It cannot be otherwise, because the world of the filmstrip is an extraordinary world. Turning off the light in the room, directing the beam of the projector at a white wall and meeting your favorite characters means forgetting about multi-channel acoustics, plasma panels and home theaters for a while; it's like driving an expensive car to your old apartment and suddenly finding there a teddy bear that was once best friend childhood...

One of the most vivid memories of Soviet childhood is the filmstrips that my mother showed and voiced. It was a long time ago, but the viewing experience remains vivid to this day. Although the name of those pictures I remember with difficulty. "Dwarf Nose", "Little Muk", what else was there?
All of the following material is taken from .

It is already difficult to imagine our current life without TVs, DVD players, computers and other miracles of technology, but they will not be able to oust from your heart this pure childish joy from a colored fairy tale drawn by a ray of light on a white sheet.

Transparency film is based on the change of static frames (unlike cinema). Its frame is closer to easel painting or graphics, which is why some artists classify filmstrip as fine art. In the frame of the filmstrip there is movement, expression, as in any work of fine art. At the same time, the issue of transition from frame to frame, their coupling and combination, as well as the problem of matching the text to the image, is acute.

A filmstrip is also a pastime organized by manually moving frames, reading captions aloud, and collectively viewing images projected onto a screen in the dark. Filmstrips are an integral part of Soviet life and culture.

Viewing filmstrips is carried out using a filmoscope or slide projector, projecting an image onto a screen, in the simplest case it was a white wall or sheet.

Overhead projector FD-2

In the countries of Western Europe and America, along with filmstrips, there were some types of home screen entertainment for children and adults, but only in our country the practice of viewing artistic filmstrips was widespread everywhere. The love of the audience and the support of the state contributed to the popularization of artistic filmstrips. But the Soviet filmstrip, like the cartoon, began with the efforts of enthusiasts. Filmstrips were a new technological advance that allowed images to be viewed with inexpensive equipment such as a "magic lantern" (a device for projecting images).

magic lantern

In 1930, the Filmstrip Studio was founded in Moscow, producing first black-and-white and then color filmstrips. Filmstrips were considered as a means of agitation, they were used for educational, school, lecture and propaganda work, they did not require sophisticated equipment, and in terms of the effectiveness of the impact they were close to films.

Since the end of the 50s. the production of art filmstrips became massive: the studio "Diafilm" began to produce 300-400 titles of filmstrips per year. The release of voiced filmstrips was started, the sound accompaniment for them was recorded on gramophone records; the accompanying text in the form of a booklet was issued for educational films. an important step there was a transition from a flammable film based on nitrocellulose to a safe "acetate" base.

But, perhaps, even new technologies are not able to completely replace the cozy miracle of the “magic lantern”. It cannot be otherwise, because the world of the filmstrip is an extraordinary world. Turn off the light in the room, direct the beam of the projector at a white wall and meet your favorite characters - this means forgetting about multi-channel acoustics, plasma panels and home theaters for a while; it's like driving an expensive car to your old apartment and suddenly finding there a teddy bear who was once a childhood best friend...

For many of us, such vivid memories can be filmstrips that we watched in childhood. Let's take a look at their history...

Film-strip- this is a series of positive images (transparencies), united by a common theme into a short film, usually consisting of 20-50 frames. Filmstrip is related to comics, cartoons, book illustration, but also differs from them. The name itself comes from the Greek δια, which in this context means "transition from beginning to end"; and English. film - roll photo (movie) film.

Transparency film is based on the change of static frames (unlike cinema). Its frame is closer to easel painting or graphics, which is why some artists classify filmstrip as fine art.

In the frame of the filmstrip there is movement, expression, as in any work of fine art. At the same time, the issue of transition from frame to frame, their coupling and combination, as well as the problem of matching the text to the image, is acute.

A filmstrip is also a pastime organized by manually moving frames, reading captions aloud, and collectively viewing images projected onto a screen in the dark.

Viewing filmstrips is carried out using a filmoscope or slide projector, projecting an image onto a screen, in the simplest case it was a white wall or sheet.

Overhead projector FD-2

But the Soviet filmstrip, like the cartoon, began with the efforts of enthusiasts. Filmstrips were a new technological advance that allowed images to be viewed with inexpensive equipment.

magic lantern

“It would be interesting to launch this projector,” says Anna Kotomina, senior lecturer at the Department of History and Theory of Culture at the Russian State Humanitarian University. “There is such a rhythm here - we really miss this in the modern world of insane speeds, eternal information overload - such slow reading.”

“The filmstrip was to some extent limitless,” notes Olga Gornostaeva, director, teacher at the animation and multimedia department at VGIK. - As such a primary educator and educator of a young viewer. The picture could be stopped, repeated, one could learn to read on the inscriptions. This, unfortunately, is a lost culture. This place has not yet been fully replaced by anyone or anything.”

The great-grandfather of the filmstrip is the magic lantern - Laterna magica, which appeared in Europe in the 17th century. Light - first oil, then kerosene and electric - fell on hand-painted glass and created the magic of an animated picture.

In the late 1920s, the production of filmstrips became massive. In the early 1930s, the Filmstrip Studio appeared. Small projectors and cheap, affordable films made their way to every corner of the country. Millions of people spent cozy family evenings watching - it's hard to imagine a happy Soviet childhood without a filmstrip. By the way, in addition to fabulous, educational and propaganda, he also had unexpected - strategic tasks.

“A huge number of filmstrips of classified content were produced,” says the last director of the Filmstrip studio, Sergei Skripkin. - That is, say, filmstrips that taught the possession of weapons, some serious methods of conducting searches. During the production of such filmstrips, there was always a Red Army soldier with a weapon at the entrance and at the exit, where no one was allowed in, and the artists worked right there, left their originals right there, took pictures and took them away.

We are talking with the last director of Filmstrip, Sergei Skripkin, in the courtyard of the Lutheran Cathedral of Peter and Paul in Starosadsky Lane, where the Studio was located in Soviet times. In the last frame of almost every film there was an output and the final line - the end of the filmstrip. Skripkin sadly jokes: the phrase turned out to be prophetic. The end of the filmstrip began with the eviction of the Studio from the cathedral building.

“The oldest filmstrips that we have in our collection are “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” and “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” says Pavel Shvedov, an employee of the Cinema Museum.

In 1930, a studio was founded in Moscow "Film-strip", which produced first black-and-white, and then color filmstrips. Filmstrips were considered as a means of agitation, they were used for educational, school, lecture and propaganda work, they did not require sophisticated equipment, and in terms of the effectiveness of the impact they were close to films.

Now there are digitized filmstrips, which can be written to a flash drive or hard drive and played back using a conventional projector. Some filmstrips can even watch online on thematic sites (we will share links at the end of the publication).

One of the main entertainments of every Soviet child was watching filmstrips - slides combined into good fairy tale or cautionary tale. As a rule, filmstrips were accompanied by a small text on the film, and some were even voiced: a gramophone record was included with them, which was played simultaneously with the transfer of frames. The lights in the room were turned off, a white sheet was hung on the wall, the film was loaded into a special holder, and under the low buzz of a slide projector, the children were fascinated by the development of the drawn story, scrolling the handle to move the film. With the development of technology, filmstrips have become unpopular and have become obsolete. Their production was discontinued, but many families still have a collection of films in tin and plastic jars. You can launch slides in many ways - both in the old fashioned way, through a projector, and with the help of modern equipment.

the site figured out how and where to watch old filmstrips.

How to Digitize Old Films

Now almost every person has a device to watch video in high quality, however, many continue to keep a box of filmstrips at home - a reminder of a happy childhood. It would seem that the thing is unnecessary, but it is still a pity to throw it away. To preserve old films while freeing up shelf space, filmstrips can be digitized. This service is available in almost every photo studio and is not at all critical for the family budget. Digitizing one whole film will cost about 150-200 rubles, but digitizing individual frames will be a little more expensive - about 20 rubles per slide. It is enough to bring your favorite filmstrips to the studio, and in a couple of hours their contents will already be on a disk or flash drive. Digitized filmstrips can be viewed on a computer, DVD player, and mobile devices.

You can watch the film only with the help of a slide projector. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

You can convert films to digital format on your own, at home. To do this, you need only one device - a special scanner with a slide adapter, which in a matter of minutes will send images to your computer. In addition, using this equipment, you can also digitize old family negatives on film. If you do not have such a scanner at home, you can digitize a filmstrip in another way - using a camera. This is a more painstaking and lengthy method: each frame must be fixed, evenly illuminated and shot with a camera, and then transferred to a computer.

Filmstrips were watched on white sheets hung on the wall. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

Where to buy filmstrips

They stopped producing filmstrips and projectors for them since the mid-90s, but all this can be easily found and purchased in online stores: many put them up for sale. The cost of a Soviet slide projector fluctuates around 2 thousand rubles, and one film can be purchased for an amount of 120 to 400 rubles, depending on its content. Modern Chinese projectors, the so-called Fireflies, also go on sale in stores, but they cannot be compared with the old equipment. Such equipment is made of plastic and runs on batteries, and in terms of power it is significantly inferior to the Soviet Sputniks and Zarnitsy. Chinese projectors are suitable only for short-term use, besides, their cost is too high and amounts to 7 thousand rubles.

The film is inserted into a special holder. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

IN in social networks there are groups where you can exchange existing filmstrips for other films. In such communities, one can also find quite rare specimens - slides of the 40s or filmstrips created on the basis of movie frames. True, the owners of such rarities are ready to part with their treasure only for a similar price - equally rare filmstrips or projectors.

Free filmstrips in the city

You can watch filmstrips without even having films or a projector. Every year in St. Petersburg and other large cities festivals of copyright filmstrips are held, in which contemporary artists and screenwriters present their works. True, such slides are intended only for adults and will appeal exclusively to arthouse connoisseurs.

Filmstrip frames are changed manually by turning the knob on the projector. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

For lovers of Soviet classics, some city libraries periodically show old filmstrips. On a regular basis, such events are held at the Museum of Soviet Slot Machines in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

“Once a month we have free thematic screenings of old filmstrips for everyone,” says Museum Researcher Marina Kutepova. - New Year's show has collected the whole hall! We want to tell the modern generation about filmstrips. Children are very surprised to learn about the predecessors of cartoons, in which pictures have to be moved manually and at the same time read the text. For them, this is a real miracle! Adults also come to the shows, who are happy to indulge in nostalgia. There are about 300 films in our collection, and the most popular filmstrips based on Russian fairy tales and stories - "Sadko", "The Adventures of Dunno", "Three from Prostokvashino".

Almost every family has a collection of favorite filmstrips. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

In addition to showings, the museum organizes children's workshops on creating filmstrips. The guys are divided into teams of directors, artists, screenwriters and cameramen and create their own works on transparent films, which can then be viewed through a slide projector. According to the museum staff, the children are delighted with this, because the romance of watching filmstrips on a white sheet attached to the wall cannot be replaced by any modern gadgets.

Any filmstrip is easy to digitize even at home. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

What is a filmstrip in our time, not everyone knows, which is not at all surprising during the rapid development information technologies. The younger generation begins to join the world in which they live, immediately from watching programs and films on TV. Today it is easier to buy a DVD or download a movie from the Internet than to read a book.

Filmstrip is a positive photographic film, the frames of which are thematically related to each other and represent a consistent illustration.

A significant number of filmstrips, mostly in color, were produced for children of preschool, primary and secondary school age. These are tapes for plots folk tales, based on works of fiction, films.

In addition to artistic filmstrips, they were produced, which were used as visual aids for schools, universities and other educational institutions. In the early 1990s, home video recorders almost completely replaced filmstrips from everyday use.

Filmstrips were produced by the "Filmstrip" studios founded in 1930, "Ukrkinokhronika", film studios in Tbilisi and Leningrad. The earliest filmstrip on our website dates back to the year.

Filmstrips were produced on positive film 35 mm wide. The number of frames in such a film was greater than on ordinary photographic films. As a rule, each filmstrip consisted of 38-56 frames. There are filmstrips, the number of frames in which exceeds 100 pieces, these are usually two serial filmstrips on one film.

Creating a filmstrip is not an easy task, requiring the careful participation of people from various professions. The author, screenwriter, artist, editor, art editor, manager, cameraman work on the creation of a filmstrip. The screenwriter will write a script that will take into account the specifics of the genre, and will break down the text into frames. The artist, under the direction of the art editor, will draw an image of each frame, and they will make sure that the drawing looks good not only on film, but also in projection. Filmstrips are also of particular value because they were painted by professional artists. Then they drew without computer processing, putting their soul into every stroke of their drawing. It is the work of the artist, his unique style and manner of drawing that enlivens the plot of the story, fills it with beautiful, recognizable and beloved images.
Some craftsmen manage themselves, at home, to make homemade filmstrips by printing them on a sheet of transparent film.

Digitization of filmstrips is also a rather complex and painstaking process. There are two main ways to convert film filmstrips to digital form: and. In the first case, any suitable scanner is used, both professional devices with automatic film feeders and inexpensive home scanners with slide adapters can come up here. For the second option, you do not need a scanner. Enough to have digital camera and skillful hands.

Filmstrips are most often viewed using or , the image in which is enlarged and projected onto a special screen. Usually, to view filmstrips, a white sheet, wall or door is used.

The film is loaded into a special holder, inserted into a slide projector and scrolled using a special handle.

Voiced filmstrips were also produced, which, in addition to photographic film, contained a gramophone record or magnetic tape with a recording of sound accompaniment (announcer's text and music). When viewing voiced filmstrips, a gramophone record or magnetic tape was played simultaneously, and the frame transfer had to be carried out after the sound signal.

Filmstrips have been very popular in our country for more than half a century. Since the 1950s, the "Filmstrip" studio has been releasing more than three hundred new filmstrips annually.

In addition to the entertaining function, filmstrips are much stronger than television or computer games, they contribute to the independent creativity of the child, especially at an early age.

The dynamics of a modern cartoon or computer game sometimes does not leave the child time to comprehend what is happening on the screen. Leaves the role of a passive observer or "clicker" of the computer buttons to pass the next level.

But watching a filmstrip with one of the parents increases personal communication. There is a wonderful and pleasant reason to spend more time together. Discuss what you see the next day. Filmstrips stimulate the child to quickly learn to read on their own - mom or dad can be busy, but you really want to watch the fairy tale again!

When a child begins to learn to read, filmstrips will help to quickly get to know and fall in love with the world of literature. Fascinating illustrations of the filmstrip help to better understand and comprehend both the text and the plot. In addition, filmstrip stimulates and expands independent figurative and verbal creativity.

And even though so many years have passed, we suggest you try to relive those indescribable sensations again. You will be surprised how easily these forgotten childish feelings can seize you, return you, it would seem, to the irretrievably bygone past.

P.S. Dear friends! All filmstrips posted on the site were independently scanned by the authors of this project. A lot of time and effort has been spent. After all, digitizing films is not such a simple process. It takes at least an hour to convert one film with filmstrips to digital. Plus further processing. Therefore, please do not copy entire tapes or individual frames to your websites and blogs. To place filmstrips on your resources, use a special HTML code.
Hope for your understanding.

Filmstrips are wonderful childhood memories. What is a filmstrip

How to Digitize Old Films

Where to buy filmstrips

Free filmstrips in the city

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