The Museum of the Moving Image - Visit

The Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, Queens, is a space dedicated to the history of filmaking. The museum holds many exhibits that show a variety of filmaking items, ranging from early cameras to props used in different well-known films, such as Star Wars and The Exorcist. While everything in the museum was very interesting, a couple of the things that mostly called my attention were the early kinetoscopes, zoetropes and thaumatropes. Although I knew of these devices before, and understood how they worked based on optical illusion, it was very interesting to see them and have a chance to peek at an original kinetoscope. Also, seeing up close the effects of a strobe lights in moving devices and sculptures called my attention to the concept of "moment of rest" which our eyes need in order to make the images appear as if moving in a certain sequence, even though they have a different orientation or do not move at all. Another very interesting part of the visit was desconstructing the sound effects in a movie scene, in this case one of the final sequences in The Titanic. During the visit, our guide showed one by one the effects included in a scene when the famous ship is sinking, and after, played the scene without the entire combination of sountrack and effects, instead showing them one by one. Watching the scene with the isolated sounds made me realize how much effort is put into sound, and how the combination of several different effects can create tension and convey emotion. It was also very interesting to find out that effects such as elephant sounds and gunshot sounds were used in a scene where neither is actually present. Overall the visit to the museum was great, and it was definitely very nice to be able to see up close so many filmmaking devices and props.