THE
CINEMA IN FLUX

The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era

by Lenny Lipton

The first of its kind, this book traces the evolution of motion picture technology in its entirety. Beginning with Huygen’s magic lantern and ending in the current electronic era, it explains cinema’s scientific foundations and the development of parallel enabling technologies alongside the lives of the innovators. Product development issues, business and marketplace factors, the interaction of aesthetic and technological demands, and the patent system all play key roles in the tale.

The topics are covered sequentially, with detailed discussion of the transition from the magic lantern to Edison’s invention of the 35mm camera, the development of the celluloid cinema, and the transition from celluloid to digital. Unique and essential reading from a lifetime innovator in the field of cinema technology, this engaging and well-illustrated book will appeal to anyone interested in the history and science of cinema, from movie buffs to academics and members of the motion picture industry.

Welcome!

Learn about The Cinema in Flux and Its Author

About
The Book

The Table of Contents reflects the depth and breadth of the book. The subtitle says it all: ” The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era.”

About
Lenny Lipton

American inventor, author, and songwriter, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940.

About
The Inventors

Scroll through a sample collage of 70 of the inventors discussed in the book.

“THE CINEMA IN FLUX reveals to us the history of how motion picture technology changed and progressed through its various eras; such knowledge can inform filmmakers of the heritage behind the camera and the screen—possibly shining a light on the question of ‘what’s next?’”

— Douglas Trumbull

The Cinema in Flux

The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era

From the Author’s Preface

From the
Author’s Preface

The Cinema in Flux is a book that follows a vision of cinema’s technological evolution in alignment with that of a number of modern cinema scholars. But not so long ago, for others who have written about it, cinema begins with inventions of Eastman’s film, Edison’s camera, and the Lumières’ Cinématographe, notions that have contributed to the popular view of the subject. This impression is conveyed by dutifully noting that the magic lantern is a preamble to the big event, relegated to the archeological nether regions of “pre-cinema,” which include prehistoric cave paintings, along with nods to Chinese, Indian, and Javanese shadow puppet shows. The idea that the era of the magic lantern is not pre-cinema but cinema itself, and not some archaic backwater, is based on the most fundamental definition of cinema technology, which in my view is the projection of motion.

“This extraordinary work by Lenny Lipton is valuable not only because of the quality of its analysis, its breadth, its vision, and its erudition, but also because of its clarity and literary style…”

— Laurent Mannoni
Curator, Cinémathèque Française, Paris

Testimonials

Here's what some of the top critics and academics
are saying about The Cinema in Flux.

Here's what some of the top critics and academics are saying about The Cinema in Flux.

“The technological development of the illusion of motion that creates ‘moving pictures’ is at the core of this important book. Lenny Lipton brings tremendous clarity to this idea: ‘moving’ being both apparent motion as well as an emotionally moving projected picture and sound, experienced together with others in a darkened theater…”

Douglas Trumbull Producer, Director, Visual Effects Mavric

“What makes Lenny Lipton’s book admirable and exciting, one of a kind, is that the author—one of the great designers of modern 3D—during his long career has been a technician, director, inventor, and entrepreneur. Thanks to his training and long experience, he has the knowledge of science and the film industry to allow him to approach the long history of cinema, punctuating it with patents, both those that were successful and industrial disasters, magnificent failures and major and minor developments. No film historian, until now, had such a valuable background.”

Laurent Mannoni Curator, Cinémathèque Française, Paris

“The first of its kind, this book traces the evolution of motion picture technology in its entirety. Beginning with Huygen’s magic lantern and ending in the current electronic era, it explains cinema’s scientific foundations and the development of parallel enabling technologies alongside the lives of the innovators. Product development issues, business and marketplace factors, the interaction of aesthetic and technological demands, and the patent system all play key roles in the tale.”

Springer Driving academic publishing since 1842

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October 18, 2025

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About the Author,
Lenny Lipton

About the Author of
The Cinema in Flux

Lenny Lipton, an American inventor, author, and songwriter, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940. He was the lead inventor of the technology that enabled the film industry to project feature films in 3-D. He founded StereoGraphics Corporation in 1980 and in 1981 demonstrated the flickerless stereoscopic projection technique that is the basis for 80,000 theatrical cinema installations. He is the primary inventor of the ZScreen electro-optical modulator, introduced in 1988 and used for molecular modeling and aerial mapping visualization. In 1996 he was honored by the Smithsonian Institution for the invention of CrystalEyes, introduced by StereoGraphics in 1989, the first electronic eyewear for stereoscopic visualization such as molecular modeling, aerial mapping, and medical imaging. NASA used it to remotely drive the Mars Rovers and Lockheed to design the upgrade for the Hubble Space Telescope. He has been granted more than 70 United States Patents in the field of electronic stereoscopic displays.

“The most complete and accurate account of the technology behind movies, from the camera obscure to the modern digital era.”

— Springer

“[The Cinema in Flux asks:] Will cinema survive by transforming itself into an even more high-powered juggernaut of immersive and experiential technical perfection or will it retain its ability to be dramatically moving and an emotional experience based on writing, directing, photography, acting, editing, all in the service of illuminating the human experience while still preserving showmanship? The question before us is: will cinema lose its soul?”

— Douglas Trumbull

“Split into digestible sections and accompanied by plenty of illustrations.”

— Springer

Editing Portraits for The Cinema in Flux

Editing Portraits for
The Cinema in Flux

How the Many Portraits in the Book Were Created

T he Cinema in Flux is a book that has more than 570 illustrations, more than 70 of which are pictures of people who contributed to the history of motion picture technology. In some cases I was not able to find a good quality image of the person, which was the case for Earl Sponable, head of Fox’s research and development efforts for nearly half a century. I found only a few images of Sponable, all of poor quality, the best of which was his obituary portrait.

Continue Reading about how the portraits were created...

I think that the reader shouldn’t have to look through a barrier of blemishes, halftone dots, and other artifacts, to appreciate a photo, but a “restoration,” which might consist of removing spots and scratches and improving the tonality of the image, may not work if it is based on a low resolution source. In such a case overpainting using Photoshop techniques were used for the portrait of Sponable.

The Edison image presented a different challenge. Most of the images I use in Flux came to me as digital files, such as those from the collection of the Cinémathèque Française or the internet, but in the case of Edison, the one I liked the best was from Paul Spehr’s book The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson (New Barnet, UK: John Libbey Publishing Ltd., 2008).

There are many images of Edison, many of which were photographed in his later years, but I wanted a picture of him in his prime portraying his inventive, thoughtful, and playful nature. The image I scanned from Spehr’s book was good, but I thought I’d interpret it to make it more vital, so I used techniques of filtering and painting in Photoshop that some people call paintography, but I think it’s not an inadequate term; I call the process I used infiltration.

For the Edison photo a great deal of trial and error took place over a period of three years. I finally used a Photoshop technique to simulate a sketch that I then colored, blurred, and combined with the monochrome scan of Edison. I then painted over the blended images, which gave the result you see here.

I like it because it appears to be hand colored, but somewhat haphazardly, with unplanned effects that I find to be pleasing. Something comes across that I haven’t seen in other photos of the man; here Edison looks wistful.

“[A]bove all, [The Cinema in Flux] has an originality that strongly distinguishes it from its predecessors.”

— Laurent Mannoni
Curator, Cinémathèque Française, Paris

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+ 1 212 460 1500

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“Shows how competing technological, cultural, economic, and legal factors shaped the cinema and TV industries.”

— Springer

Let's Discuss the Book

Amazon Customer Rating

★★★★★ 5/5

Please write a review or post your thought on The Cinema in Flux below.

Mr.

October 18, 2025

If you want to get more visitors to your website, but do not want to pay a lot of money for each click to Google and also do not want to wait until SEO works, then we have a solution for you.
Just fill Online Quote form on our website or send us your keywords and we’ll send you estimated traffic our technology can provide.
Do online demo on our website and see how it will appear on search engines.

Rick Stephens

Mr.

September 12, 2025

I am not offering SEO or Pay Per Click Advertising services. This is something entirely different. Simply send us your desired keywords, and I’ll send you minimum traffic amount that you can get on each of them with our unique technology without any Pay Per Click charges. Let me demonstrate to you how it works and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Gary Miller

Mr.

June 1, 2025

Do you want to get thousands of clicks to your website without SEO and even Pay Per Click?
All you need to do is just send list of your keywords and you’ll get minimum monthly clicks guarantee without paying for each click and waiting for SEO results.
No more waiting for SEO and no more paying huge cost per click, just fixed fee per keyword.

Gary Charles

Mr.

April 17, 2025

Let me demonstrate to you how you can get guaranteed thousands of clicks to your website without SEO and without Pay Per Click.
You will start getting keyword targeted traffic in less than 48 hours.
Just send us your keywords and we’ll tell you how much monthly clicks we can guarantee without paying for each click and waiting for SEO results.
You will get exclusive ownership of keywords you choose for flat fee (no Pay Per Click)…

Gary Charles

Mr.

February 24, 2025

I am not offering you SEO, nor PPC.
This is something completely different.
Just send us keywords of your interest or fill online quote form on our website and your website banner instantly appears number one on Google and Bing search results without Pay Per Click charges.
Let me show you how it works and you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Gary Charles

The Cinema in Flux collage

The Evolution of Motion Picture Technology from the Magic Lantern to the Digital Era

by Lenny Lipton

Learn about The Cinema in Flux and Its Author

Here's what some of the top critics and academics are saying about The Cinema in Flux.

Here's what some of the top critics and academics are saying about The Cinema in Flux.

Let's Discuss the Book

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Write your own review.

About the Author, Lenny Lipton

The Inventors

The Inventions

How the Many Portraits in the Book Were Created

Release Dates and Lecture Availability

Phone

Address

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Mr.

Mr.

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Send the Author a Direct Message

Need to contact the publisher? For inquiries about book signings and lectures + 1 800 777 4643

Product Info

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About

Here's what some of the top critics and academics
are saying about The Cinema in Flux.

About the Author,
Lenny Lipton

Need to contact the publisher?
For inquiries about book signings and lectures + 1 800 777 4643