Blog Post #4: The MoMI

Today's trip to the Museum of the Moving Image was super awesome for a number of reasons.  I loved that many of the topics of discussion in class were demonstrated in the exhibits; it was really cool to see these aspects of film and media in action.  The very first exhibit my group saw was this amazing sculpture that rotated under a flashing fluorescent light.  It essentially worked like a zoetrope, because the flashing light allowed for a moment of rest in which our eyes saw the movements as seamless.  The moving sculpture appeared to be a water droplet coming out of a faucet, turning into a bomb, melting through a hand to become an envelope that is then discarded into a dishpan.  And our tour guide provided a fun fact: the artist was haunted by his leaking faucet that had been envisioned as bombs in his dreams.  It was by far my favorite piece of the day.  We then went on to see some other amazing things.  Set models and character designs for The Wiz, a set model for The Muppets Take Manhattan, and the very first arcade game "Computer Space," to name a few.  Among class-related topics, we did a couple of fun interactive activities as well.  There was a station that allowed for us to create our own stop-motion animations with frames we could make by using little cartoon cutouts and a built in camera.  The set of different frames we took could then be played back at 10 fps to make a short stop-motion animation.  Another activity was in a sound booth where a few members of the group would create a voice over using Automatic Dialogue Replacement.  We would watch as it allowed for one round of rehearsal and another of recording, and then we heard the full clip played back with the voiceover.  It was funny to hear our regular voices replacing the scripted sounds of my childhood, since we voiced over scenes from The School of Rock and The Wizard of Oz.  We also spent time watching a scene from Vertigo.  Initially we watched the scene without music, and then went down a list of different tracks to discuss the ways in which the music changed the tone and message of the scene.  Another part of the exhibit were old models of film cameras on one side of the room and television cameras on the other.  We noted the difference between the two, and the fact that film cameras work a lot differently that television; the TV cameras were much bulkier, which made sense because they had to connect to wire towers that would then spread the images throughout the city.  Film worked a lot more simply in the fact that all the footage was being produced within the machine.  It was interesting how one of the first film cameras had all its parts inside a box.  Our tour guide explained that as designs advanced, they realized it was much easier to display its functions to easily exchange film reels and to identify potential problems.  As the advancements in technology allowed for film and television to work more smoothly, so were the images that came out of them.  2001: A Space Odyssey's original script was encased in the exhibit and is a perfect example of the ways in which film had advanced by the late 60's.  The first time I watched it I couldn't believe it was from 1968. It provided a realism that blew my mind then, so it must have been even more incredible for those who had seen most moving images through a fuzzy black and white lens.  Moving images were no longer the ability to see something that wasn't there, but a portal to appear as if they actually were.   (Our tour guide also mentioned that the design of the museum itself was inspired by the crisp sleekness of the film, which was cool.)  We summed up the tour by going inside a mimicked 1920's movie theatre that was heavily decorated with a combination of a Hollywood and Egyptian aesthetic.  As we sat inside it for a few minutes watching an old black and white film on the screen, the extinction of this kind of a theatre became clear.  Its extravagance was really distracting; I found myself looking around at the huge "mummified" statues and the cloth on the chairs.  It felt especially out of place since the movie wasn't remotely Egyptian in theme.  We discussed afterward that this was why theatres stopped using these kind of themed designs, since it was a distraction and would often clash with the films being shown. All in all I learned a lot of fun facts and it was a really cool experience!

Blog Post #3: Relationships Between Shots

Whiplash tells the story of Andrew Neiman, an aspiring young musician who is determined to become one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.  But before he can make it to the top, he must overcome the sadistic teaching tactics of Terence Fletcher, a renowned figure in the industry. In 2015 the film won an Oscar for "Best Editing," among other categories. The following scene completely proves why; the camera work perfectly captures the relationships between the characters and the student-teacher dynamic that Fletcher creates in the classroom.  Some of the very first shots are closeups of the drums and fingers playing the saxophone, which automatically allows for us to see the intensity of the music and the preciseness of playing.  The tracking shot zooms in on Fletcher, approaching him from below and slowly rising to eye level.  This completely accentuates his dominance over the class.  The camera then moves towards the students at a lower angle and across the classroom.  It loops around and zooms in on Andrew until Fletcher suddenly stops the music. With a quick cut to Andrew's reaction, the tension in the room is fully confirmed. As Fletcher begins to address the class, we see a shot of one student's reaction from above, further emphasizing his power.  As he picks out the student he is about to humiliate, a similar shot occurs. This time, the shot of "Elmer Fudd" is almost from below.  We are fully witnessing his shame.  Fletcher continues to be shot powerfully; he even says "Look up here.  Look at me."  As he screams at his traumatized student the angle is then shot from the side, and as he walks away there is a rack focus onto Andrew watching from a distance.  Although he wasn't the victim this time, he's fully aware of Fletcher's unpredictability and brutality.

Audio Portrait