Thursday, May 1, 2014

Experience at the Museum of Moving Image

Going to the Museum of Moving Image was not only fun and informative, but it didn’t even feel like I was on assignment at ALL! I felt like I was a kid again, and was truly engaged with most if not all of the exhibits. The one which I enjoyed in particular was the Foley artist exhibit. I was aware that some of the sounds we hear in movies or other media aren’t actually made by what is seen, but I had no idea most of what is heard is recreated by Foley artists, using the most unexpected objects/materials. During this exhibit, our tour guide showed us a scene from the movie “Titanic”, when Rose falls onto the deck and a large pillar collapses into the ocean. The guide broke the scene’s audio into different levels, and had us guess what objects were used to recreate the sound of Rose falling onto the deck after tripping, and what was used in order to recreate the sound of the large pillar collapsing into the ocean. We were all surprised to find out a slowed down audio clip of an elephant trumpeting was used for the pillar, and also learned celery is the object used to make the sound of limbs breaking. It’s not exactly the sound these actions we are watching on the screen make, but the sounds our brains associate with the action. Another exhibit that I loved was the Feral Fount exhibit by Gregory Barsamian, which was a huge spinning stroboscopic zoetrope, which was absolutely amazing, beautiful, and confusing when trying to figure out how the heck it works… but basically teaches the importance of intervals to make an illusion of moving image happen. So much fun!

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