Foundation of Modern Cinema?

When you go to the movie theater to see the most recent, overly anticipated movie I highly doubt you ever seriously take the time to think about how the film was made and even less likely, how the idea of film began. Neke’s “Film Before Film” took us beyond the fancy lighting, perfect makeup and hair, background music and special effects in today’s film by allowing us to step back and understand the original fascination behind moving objects. He takes a lengthy 80 minutes to go through each different contraption and toy explaining how it works. The simplicity of these instruments may catch us off guard in this day because everywhere we turn technology is advancing, so to sit down and watch in awe at a simple disc with a bird on one side and a cage on the other spin to combine the two into the same image is almost humbling. Another simple yet enthralling trick was when the narrator instructed us to stare at a specific point on an image for a few seconds then suddenly the screen went white. The image became inverted on the screen and (at least personally) stayed imprinted on our minds for quite some time. These contraptions allow viewers to view movement in a way that is different from just our eyesight and attribute to the frame work of modern cinema immensely.