Field Trip

The Museum of the Moving Image was a very enjoyable experience. I especially appreciated how interactive it was. With all the exhibits it offered that really taught us visitors about the different technological aspects of film-making, the museum is really a comprehensive lesson in the world of production. In the artifacts exhibits, I really liked seeing the old-fashioned models of cameras and televisions, because it reminded me how far technology has come. It brings together each of the many years that film has been in existence: though the techniques and technology/machinery we use has developed and evolved over time as we have advanced in our forms of making the moving image, we have still kept true to the ultimate goal of putting together a form of media that can access our visual senses and emotions to the utmost extent. In the Behind the Screen portion of the exhibit, my favorite part was seeing the footage from the early kinetoscope film The Great Train Robbery. I remember learning about this important part of film history, and the first motion pictures ever made, in my Introduction to Film class. But as my education in film studies has continued, now was a chance to revisit that footage and I was again reminded just how far film-making has come. The exhibit turned out to be very inspirational to me, which was honestly not was I was expecting! Later on, too, I enjoyed the voice-over interactive exercise, where we were allowed to experiment with adding our own voice-over to selected dialogue scenes from movies. As I have little experience with post-production, I particularly learned a lot from this part of the exhibit. I think sound-mixing and sound editing in general is something that requires making creative decisions which impact the whole result and effects of a film, and even this very simple interactive exercise was enough to emphasize how important technology is for the sounds of a film. Next time I visit the museum, I hope to explore the other temporary exhibits as well!