My Trip to the Museum of the Moving Image

So this is my first blog created for my class trip to the Museum of Moving Image and I must say it was a pretty cool experience. The tour guide was about 25 or so, this made it a lot easier for me to connect with her because sometimes they can give you those tour guides that should be at an Art galleria or something. Anyway, this guide was totally cool. She showed us these old photos of great actors and actresses and she broke down each demonstration like if she created them herself. She was very open to questions and allowed us to look at what we wanted but still kept it tight knit. There were a few demos which allowed you to participate and I took full advantage. There was a recorder and a screen and what I had to do was simply 'stay in motion' for five seconds. What would happen as a result was the camera would cut down each motion in a five second recording into thirty frames or so, and simplify each of my motions. This was a great experience because not only was it free, but I had a chance to collect the shots at the end and a chance to create my own flip book. Another demonstration that my whole group sat in for was when our tour guide took us to the audio section of the museum. I was thrilled to learn that film is made up of 50% audio and that without sound, movies would be very different. Even during the silent area, there was always some kind of music or sound to set up an emotion. Anyway, we were all watching two screens, one had Pro tools on it, the other had a freeze frame of one of the scenes from Titanic. The tour guide played the scene for my group and began to explain the certain sounds from the dialogue , to the splashing of the water, to the simple thuds of people falling on the deck. These sounds were emphasised from simple uses of natural items. For example the "thud" comes from a potato sack being pushed off a chair. The ship breaking down is the sound of a lion's roar in reverse. Finally the sounds of a gun with a silencer came from the extension lines whipping off the ship and splashing into the water. Sound is very necessary to keep a film at its peak form. We even learned about the importance of thematic music. Understanding that when Jack and his girl reunite from time to time, the overplayed Celine Dion song actually had a purpose, the melody would softly play in the background. The Museum of the Moving Image has so much fun and factual stuff that allows you to participate and learn at the same time. I would advise it to anyone who wants to step away from the ordinary "look but don't touch" museums and wants to learn details of film, photography, and video games.