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.