1. Museum of the Moving Image Blog Response- Write about your favorite part of the exhibit and 3 things you learned about the process of film-making that you didn’t know before your visit.
8:30 am i arrived at the computer lab and wrapped up a few things before heading to queens with the class on a field trip to the Museum of the Moving Image. it really was unlike any museum i’ve been to in my life. there aren’t too many places where you could play arcade games the entire time. i paid $7.50 for admission but the arcade games were free. i must have played $10 worth of great video games for free. after i was dragged away from the video games we went thru the main museum space on the 2nd and 3rd floors.
there was so much i learned about the production of moving images it’s difficult to only speak to only three examples. i guess i’ll start with the Hair & Make-up section of the 2nd floor. i learned that during the early days of Hollywood actors wore heavy greasepaint make-up until a guy named Max Factor invented a thinner greasepaint that looked better during close-up shots. i remember hearing the name Max Factor on make-up ads every day but never knew he was a real person.
While watching one of the documentary films about the making of the new peter jackson king kong i learned how they combined a stage set with computer animation to show what times square nyc looked like in the early 1900’s. the set designers and costume designers went thru old pictures and newspapers of that time period and matched up everything to establish the period, social milieu, and style of the day.
In the panning and scanning section of the museum i learned about aspect ratios. i remembered speaking about aspect ratios in class so i paid special attention to the display. from the standard 1.33:1, to the euro 1.66:1, to the theatrical 1.85:1, and finally the CinemaScope 2.35:1. all are used to give a scene and sense of grandeur or tightness depending on the directors intent.
In the TV section of the museum one of the rooms had stacked monitors with different views of one baseball game. it showed how one guy directed the camera men like a conductor choosing what the TV viewer would see at home. the director would switch from the home plate view to the 2nd base view if a runner was trying to steal a base. it was a great behind the scenes look at how sports events are recorded and transmitted to the final viewer.
all in all the trip was a success and i’d like to make more trips to out queens in the future.
2. Complete the first cut of your video short which you will present as a group during tomorrow morning’s critique (Thursday). Export your 720 X 480 file as a quicktime movie with sound and present to the class in a quicktime window on the projector. (no credits needed yet.) This presentation will be graded as a work-in-progress. All late work will be marked down 1.0 points for each day it is late.
go to http://a.parsons.edu/~sis/2006/class/andrew/portfolio.html and click on ‘Ride to Parsons 1st Draft’ to view our very rough draft. making progress….little by little.
tys
