新托福TPO2閱讀原文Early Cinema及譯文.docx

新托福TPO2閱讀原文(三):Early CinemaTPO-2-3：Early CinemaThe cinema did not emerge as a form of mass consumption until its technology evolved from the initial peepshow format to the point where images were projected on a screen in a darkened theater. In the peepshow format, a film was viewed through a small opening in a machine that was created for that purpose. Thomas Edisons peepshow device, the Kinetoscope, was introduced to the public in 1894. It was designed for use in Kinetoscope parlors, or arcades, which contained only a few individual machines and permitted only one customer to view a short, 50-foot film at any one time. The first Kinetoscope parlors contained five machines. For the price of 25 cents (or 5 cents per machine), customers moved from machine to machine to watch five different films (or, in the case of famous prizefights, successive rounds of a single fight).These Kinetoscope arcades were modeled on phonograph parlors, which had proven successful for Edison several years earlier. In the phonograph parlors, customers listened to recordings through individual ear tubes, moving from one machine to the next to hear different recorded speeches or pieces of music. The Kinetoscope parlors functioned in a similar way. Edison was more interested in the sale of Kinetoscopes (for roughly $1,000 apiece) to these parlors than in the films that would be run in them (which cost approximately $10 to $15 each). He refused to develop projection technology, reasoning that if he made and sold projectors, then exhibitors would purchase only one machine-a projector-from him instead of several.Exhibitors, however, wanted to maximize their profits, which they could do more readily by projecting a handful of films to hundreds of customers at a time (rather than one at a time) and by charging 25 to 50 cents admission. About a year after the opening of the first Kinetoscope parlor in 1894, showmen such as Louis and Auguste Lumiere, Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins, and Orville and Woodville Latham (with the assistance of Edisons former assistant, William Dickson) perfected projection devices. These early projection devices were used in vaudeville theaters, legitimate theaters, local town halls, makeshift storefront theaters, fairgrounds, and amusement parks to show films to a mass audience.With the advent of projection in 1895-1896, motion pictures became the ultimate form of mass consumption. Previously, large audiences had viewed spectacles at the theater, where vaudeville, popular dramas, musical and minstrel shows, classical plays, lectures, and slide-and-lantern shows had been presented to several hundred spectators at a time. But the movies differed significantly from these other forms of entertainment, which depended on either live performance or (in the case of the slide-and-lantern shows) the active involvement of a master of ceremonies who assembled the final program.Although early exhibitors regularly accompanied movies with live acts, the substance of the movies themselves is mass-produced, prerecorded material that can easily be reproduced by theaters with little or no active participation by the exhibitor. Even though early exhibitors shaped their film programs by mixing films and other entertainments together in whichever way they thought would be most attractive to audiences or by accompanying them with lectures, their creative control remained limited. What audiences came to see was the technological marvel of the movies; the lifelike reproduction of the commonplace motion of trains, of waves striking the shore, and of people walking in the street; and the magic made possible by trick photography and the manipulation of the camera.With the advent of projection, the viewers relationship with the image was no longer private, as it had been with earlier peepshow devices such as the Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope, which was a similar machine that reproduced motion by means of successive images on individual photographic cards instead of on strips of celluloid. It suddenly became publican experience that the viewer shared with dozens, scores, and even hundreds of others. At the same time, the image that the spectator looked at expanded from the minuscule peepshow dimensions of 1 or 2 inches (in height) to the life-size proportions of 6 or 9 feet.譯文：TPO-2-3：早期影院電影院的播放技術(shù)從最初的西洋鏡形式演變?yōu)閷⒂跋裢队暗接陌档挠霸浩聊?，這一轉(zhuǎn)變使得電影院大眾化消費(fèi)成為可能。在通過(guò)西洋鏡播放電影的年代里，人們只能通過(guò)播放儀器的一個(gè)專門(mén)設(shè)置的小窗口來(lái)看電影。到了1894年，托馬斯愛(ài)迪生發(fā)明的活動(dòng)電影放映機(jī)公布于眾，這種放映機(jī)僅適用于活動(dòng)電影放映室或電影娛樂(lè)城。它里面僅包含少量的獨(dú)立播放器，每次僅允許一個(gè)顧客觀看一部50張膠卷的小短片。第一個(gè)電影放映廳的放映機(jī)中有五臺(tái)播放器。價(jià)格是25美分/次，(每臺(tái)播放器觀看價(jià)格是5美分)。觀眾們從一個(gè)播放器換到下一個(gè)播放器依次觀看不同的影片(就像有名的職業(yè)拳擊賽，每場(chǎng)都要連續(xù)進(jìn)行好幾輪比賽)。這些電影播放廳是仿照留聲機(jī)播放廳設(shè)計(jì)的，這也證明了愛(ài)迪生前幾年的設(shè)計(jì)非常成功。在留聲機(jī)播放廳中，顧客們通過(guò)獨(dú)立的耳管聽(tīng)取已經(jīng)錄制好的聲音，從一臺(tái)機(jī)器換到另一臺(tái)聽(tīng)取不同演講或音樂(lè)的錄音。電影放映室的功能與之類似。相比之下，愛(ài)迪生對(duì)這些電影放映機(jī)(每臺(tái)一千美元)的銷售更感興趣，而不是那些需要放映的電影(每部10-15美元)。他不愿研究投影技術(shù)，因?yàn)樗J(rèn)為如果研發(fā)并且銷售投影機(jī)，電影放映者就只會(huì)買(mǎi)一臺(tái)投影機(jī)而不是幾臺(tái)。然而，電影放映者們期望將自己的收益最大化，他們希望能更簡(jiǎn)易地將少量電影同時(shí)放映給幾百個(gè)顧客(而不是每次為一個(gè)顧客播放一次電影)，每次收入場(chǎng)費(fèi)25到50美分。在1894年電影放映機(jī)公布的一年之后，劇場(chǎng)經(jīng)理人如Louis和Auguste Lumiere，Thomas Armat和Charles Francis Jenkins，Orville和Woodville Latham以及愛(ài)迪生先前的助手William Dickson將投影設(shè)備變得更加完善。這些早期的投影機(jī)在眾多場(chǎng)合為大眾觀眾播放電影，如：雜技劇團(tuán)、正當(dāng)?shù)挠霸?、?dāng)?shù)劓?zhèn)上的禮堂、臨時(shí)的影院店面、露天游樂(lè)場(chǎng)和游樂(lè)園等。隨著1895-1896年間投影機(jī)的到來(lái)，電影成為了大眾消費(fèi)的最終形式。在此之前，一群觀眾坐在劇場(chǎng)里觀看表演，在那里幾百個(gè)觀眾可以同時(shí)觀看輕歌舞劇、流行戲劇、音樂(lè)劇、歌唱表演、古典演奏、演講和膠片演示等。電影與這些娛樂(lè)形式明顯的不同點(diǎn)是，電影無(wú)需依賴現(xiàn)場(chǎng)表演，也不需要串聯(lián)全場(chǎng)節(jié)目的主持人的積極參與(例如膠片演示)。盡管早期的電影放映者通常在電影放映時(shí)伴有現(xiàn)場(chǎng)表演，但是電影本身的內(nèi)容是影院事先大量錄制下來(lái)的，這些材料能在沒(méi)有表演者或者表演者較少參與的情況在電影院中輕松地再現(xiàn)。即便這樣，早期的電影放映者還是將電影和其它娛樂(lè)節(jié)目或者演講結(jié)合在一起，他們認(rèn)為用這樣的方法能最大限度的吸引觀眾，他們管理的創(chuàng)造力還是非常有限的。觀眾們?cè)谶@里可以看到的電影技術(shù)里的奇跡;生活瑣事的重現(xiàn)，如火車的運(yùn)動(dòng)，海浪拍擊