While walking to the Museum of Moving Image I was thinking about what to look for during the tour. I had visited countless times before, just not in the last couple years. Not much had changed, just a few new installations and additions to old ones. Nevertheless, the artifacts I would have glanced over were given meaning in the context of history taught in class. Simple toys like thaumatropes illustrated the optical effect that would become film. Old cameras placed technological limitations on the medium, restricting on the way they told stories. I never noticed details like these and now I'm starting to see them in all the media I consume. Clunky editing and some bad lighting in the new Spider-man movie kind of took out of the experience, but the quick turn around time on episodes of Big Brother make me appreciate the show more.
This media production class also made me enjoy my favorite films even more. Rewatching Scott Pilgrim was a blast and MOMI happened to have relics from some of my other favorites. They had a miniature prop used in Blade Runner, a film with the perfect cohesion of tone, lighting, music, and set design. The model was of a building used in establishing shots to set the mood of a techno-noir thriller. Staring at that little piece of history, I marveled at the level of craftsmanship it took from the team working on the film. Each disparate part of the crew pulled each thread together to make a film consistent in its themes and the way they are portrayed. Not too many films do that and now I can revel in art with even more enthusiasm. I left the museum feeling curious to learn as much as I could about film and media production.
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