Museum of the Moving Image

Museum of the Moving Image

This wonderful museum of the history of technology and media takes visitors into the magic world of art, film, television, and all moving pictures. The building where the Museum of the Moving Image is currently located, the Kaufman Astoria Studios, has a very interesting history. It was known as Astoria Studio and Paramount Studio and the first two Marx Brothers films were shot here before Paramount Pictures moved all studio operations to California in 1932.  The museum is very educational and offers wide variety of activities to explore and keep people of all ages content: art projects, educational programs, multimedia exhibitions, video games, movie equipment, designs and costumes and movie screenings in the movie theater. It is a place where you can easily spend an entire day without even noticing it.

The Behind the Screen exhibition that gives a great lesson on the history of the moving image, producing movies, television shows, and digital programs I found the most interesting and educational. It was exciting to see how the quality of motion pictures has improved and how different music, sound, lighting, camera and computer effects were discovered and further developed to boost the emotion and message of the film and communicate it to the audience. This exhibition introduces viewers to audio-visual materials, tools for film editing and post-production. It also educates visitors on how sound and light effects are put together into the movie creating a more real, true-to-life scenes. If you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes on the background when movies are made you will definitely learn after visiting this exhibition.  Since yearly childhood I have been interested in lighting effects and techniques. I practically grew up in a theater. My grandparents worked in Metropolitan Opera - as a makeup artist and a light man. The museum provides a great retrospective on a history of lighting for cinema and television and a big variety of advanced lighting equipment and machines available nowadays. The lighting demonstration is one of the most impressive.

I also enjoyed a lot the new temporary installation by Caroline Martel, INDUSTRY/CINEMA, about the short documentary films that were shown in schools, at corporate events, and at commercial theaters before features. This installation is a mixture of industrial images and images from famous films made between 1903 and 1991 by Thomas Edison, Charles Chaplin, François Truffaut, and Stanley Kubrick.

The Museum of the Moving Image designed to show how movies are made and marketed where you can try your talent at hands-on exhibits is definitely a must to visit New York’s hidden gem.

Introduction to Animation - Week 14, May 10th

Interregnum

This Nick Fox-Gieg’s animation about a real hero, René Carmille,  is simply great. It is very educational and takes viewers back to tragic and partly forgotten pages in the history of our civilization. This animation proves again that any context, and not only fairy tails, can be presented as an animated film and be very strong and impressive. The primitive style and shapes of drawings, flash-forwards/backs and narrative structure emphasize characters fears and emotions and create tension and suspense.

Introduction to Animation - Week 13, May 3rd

The Chapman Brothers Fucken Hell

The Fucken Hell installation by Chapman brothers is shockingly impressive.  This combination of Nazi death camp, Holocaust, Apocalypse embodies the endless human beastliness. Even Christ, the savior at the end is just a bloody, mutilated corpse on a stick like all the other characters and that is how Chapman brothers confirm that the eternal suffering continues. This installation is so powerful, detailed and storytelling and make viewers think that human destruction and causing extreme cruelties to each other will never end. As for the video, the slow camera movement and zooming in combination with extremely dramatic and emotional music, Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, bring this installation to life and create an impression of a reality show.

Introduction to Animation - Week 12, April 26th

Jack and the Beanstalk

This 1955 animation by Lotte Reiniger is very impressive and full of beauty and charm. “Jack and the Beanstalk” is as captivating as ever even thought various animation techniques and technologies have been invented and perfected over the years to best capture and keep viewers' attention. Dark silhouettes placed on a bright background is a very elegant, harmonious and pleasing to the eye technique. Even thought the character figures are dark, a viewer can clearly see and absorb all tiny details and edges. This film is well-made and delightful and as up to date as it was in 1955. Lotte Reiniger is definitely one of the brightest and most interesting figures in the World of Animation.

Introduction to Animation - Week 11, April 19th

Work of Artist Evan Tapper

Evan Tapper's website is very captivating, intelligent and interesting because of its thematically organized array of work. His art is very personal and reflects the artists’ life experiences and fantasies.

I was particularly impressed by “Tumor”, 3 min. animation that is visually and thematically very dramatic. “It's OK Michael” was the other one I liked because of its very simplistic visual presentation (clear, concise visual images) in combination with the dramatic plot. I also like the multimedia installations and particularly Man Made multimedia installation, 1999.

Introduction to Animation - Week 10, April 5th

Arrow

Director Jon Busby used Flash to create this short animation for Kathryn Calder's song “Arrow.” A compelling mixture of an aesthetic of old mixed with modern animation methods gives this film a simplistic look to a dramatic event. It reminds the viewer of old UPA cartoons and TV commercials from the 1950′s. The only drawback was the plot which reminded me of countless interpretations of “Noah's Ark” legend.

 

Road Regrets

Coincidently, I liked another animated short from Blatant Studios site - “Road Regrets” - much better. This music video by the same director - Jon Busby - for Dan Mangan’s hit single uses both 3D and 2D Flash animation techniques to illustrate the story of an old Ford Model T and its adventures traversing various extreme terrains. Truly abstract, this animation takes your imagination and runs with it beyond the conventional, predictable and banal tale. Visual complements the music and lyrics in creation of mystical, bizarre and surreal ambiance. The plot flows through borderless, phantasmagorical surroundings and keeps you on your toes in anticipation of tragic but triumphant finale. Unfortunately, the abrupt conclusion spoils a bit the overall impression of the film. Regardless, this is a great example of innovative animation which combines the visual and sound effects to create inspiring and intellectual work of art.

Introduction to Animation - Week 08, March 22nd

Mark Fiore

Flash-animated editorial and political animations by Mark Fiore are very well implemented. Although I do not agree with some of his political views, his animation techniques are outstanding and help to deliver his political ideas to viewers in a humorous and entertaining way.

Introduction to Animation - Week 07, March 15th

I Met the Walrus

Directed by Josh Raskin and produced by Jerry Levitan, this film stars Levitan and John Lennon. Combining pen illustration by James Braithwaite and computer illustration by Alex Kurina, authors have created unforgettable animated canvas filled with Lennon’s ideas, beliefs and views on life and humanity! I think the direct and brilliantly simple visual method used to create this film is a perfect delivery tool of author’s idea.

Introduction to Animation - Week 06, March 8th

Creep animation from Low Morale

This amazing film, full of dark humor and harsh satire is part of a great collection of innovative and provocative animations! I would like to explore other works by the artist and gain farther understanding of used techniques as well as the idea behind the whole concept.

Introduction to Animation - Week 05, March 1st

Jan Svankmajer - tma/svetlo/tma (Darkness/Light/Darkness)

This is an astonishingly creative, surreal and humorous film! The technique of “clay animation” is perfect for this visual philosophical anecdote. Although I did not particularly like the ending - made the author’s message somewhat incomplete – the idea and implementation of this film left me mesmerized!

Introduction to Animation - Week 04, February 23rd

Stan Vanderbeek - Science Friction (1959)

This wonderful film by Stan Vanderbeek is a good example of “collage film” or “cut out film”. This work combines a dark sense of satirical humor with the author’s belief in the utopian potential of visual interaction. After seeing this film you undoubtedly understand where the creators of British comedy series “Monty Python's Flying Circus” got their ideas for titles and intermission cartoons.

Introduction to Animation - Week 03, February 16th

Max Fleischer - Out Of The Inkwell - Modeling (1921)

This is a very impressive and innovative combination of cartoon animation and live action! A wonderful early entry in Max Fleischer's "Out Of The Inkwell" series featuring Ko Ko the Clown is every bit as extraordinary today as it was when this film was first released in 1921!  Max Fleischer’s invention, the Rotoscope, which was a device consisting of a film projector and easel used as an aid for achieving realistic movement for animated cartoons, is expertly used by the author to convey his witty visual tale.

Introduction to Animation - Week 02, February 9th

Norman McLaren - Dots (1940)

Norman McLaren has developed the innovative animated film techniques that eliminated the camera and required the artist to draw directly on the film. He also created 'animated sound,' a form of 'visible' or synthetic sound made by hand-drawings directly on the sound-track of the film. This film possesses almost hypnotic qualities as you watch in amazement how color dots dance on the screen with perfect synchronization of images and sound. The author explained his interesting method in the short film Pen Point Percussion.

Introduction to Animation - Week 01, February 2nd

Emile Cohl - Fantasmagorie, 1908

Fantasmagorie, an animated film by Émile Cohl is believed to be the first animated cartoon. Cohl placed each hand drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing with variations on top of it until he had some 700 drawings. Considering this animation was created in 1908 it is well structured and thought-out, has a complete, if primitive, plot and amazingly well executed morphing of one image into another!