Response to "The Invention of Cinema and the Early Years"

I was struck throughout the reading by the influence both of science on film, and of film on science.  It's so strange to me to think that, before the late 19th century, no biologist knew exactly what the gait of a galloping horse looked like.  The biomechanics of anything too fast for the human eye could only be guessed at. The scientific origins of film mirror that of many forms of entertainment.  Social media was made possible by computer scientists whose only goal was inter-system communication. In the span of just 20 years, that spawned the internet and a massive information revolution. 

The ability to record motion and preserve one set of moving images to be viewed repeatedly was as revolutionary to acting as the phonograph and audio recording was to music.  We laugh now at early screen acting, but we must remember that prior to the advent of film, there was no objective way to compare performances or self evaluate. 

It also fascinates me that people still react very much the same way to seeing themselves on video today as they did during the early 20th century.  There is a fascination with seeing an outsider's view of ones self that, despite the ubiquity of smartphone cameras, has not disappeared. 

Overall, the similarities struck me more than the differences.  It's fascinating how similar people are over centuries.