Special Activity: MOMI

The MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE...

...is pretty rad.  Especially in concept, and almost nails it in the execution.  First off, let me just say that i really liked our tour guide.  She was very personable which made for a lively tour; it was obvious she enjoyed her job.  Sadly, and this is just my problem and is by no means a mark against her, but I felt I knew as much or at least more than her.  All of a sudden I began to wonder about working their and becoming a guide myself.

However, and this is one of her positives, is that she constantly engaged us through out the tour with nice factoid and questions that always pulled me back in and made for a fun experience.  First off we went to the sound booth to mess with what is called ADR (or Automated dialogue replacement). I already knew some about the process and why it is used,  (it's used in animated movies, foreign films dubbed over into the home language, and re-doing lines that werent caught right the first time for whatever reason.) but the real fun was trying it out for ourselves.  We did a scene from BABE (which I've never seen) and then COMING TO AMERICA; it was a great way to start the tour off.

Next we moved to sound production, using Titanic as an example.  First we watched a scene with only the main characters voices being heard, then with just the sound effects, next was just background crowd noise (the screaming, etc.), and finally we heard it all put together.  Again, I knew most of it and even brought up some facts of my own for the group but it was still a great back and forth between us and the guide.  The real fascinating part for me wass discussing what "Foley work" was; which is basically people in a sound studio trying to find the best way to make sound effects. For example: when Rose crashes onto the deck face first, the foley artists dropped a sandbag and a chair onto a wooden floor.  I did learn something new, actually: when one of the exaust tubes break apart and fall into the water, they used stock sound of an elephant call for that.  I thought that was so interesting.

The rest of the tour never reached the same height of information, and cool facts (for me), but it was never boring.  The only thing I wish we got to see more of was, of course, the video game exzibit.  They had a Sega Genesis hooked up with Sonic The Hedgehog to play!  How cool is that?  Easily one of my favorite consoles ever.  Easily.

So yeah, wished it were longer, but certainly not a waste of time at all.