Visiting the Museum of the Moving Image

Visiting the Museum of the Moving Image

I've never been much of a museum person, groaning whenever a friend, or even worse, a class suggests going. The Museum of the Moving Image was the first time I suggested to my friends that we go, despite it being in Queens. MOMI has been the only museum to completely capture my interest, and I believe it's because of my interest in film and the fact it was a little more tangible than an art or history museum. My group saw many exhibits, including prosthetics and masks, costumes, miniature set designs, how to trick your eye into seeing movement, and tabloid magazines of the past showcasing that days moviestar. My favorite by far was prosthetics and masks, and costumes. They had masks of Jim Carey’s green mask, Chewbacca, and King Kong. The tour guide described the process of making the masks, which takes hours to perfect. In the costumes exhibit, there were outfits from the extremely extravagant burlesque, to a t-shirt and jeans. My favorite costumes was Mrs. Doubtfire's pink dress and fat suit. Looking at all of these exhibits, I saw a side of film production that I have never seen nor done before. I thought planning a five minute narrative (with no costume, makeup, set design, lighting, and more!) was hard, I can hardly imagine the hard work and time that goes into a feature film with an intricate set, or a heavily costumed actor, or both. I really enjoyed everything that I learned about film production that I haven't seen before, and I'm excited to work on that level of design. It probably won't be for a while, but I can't wait to produce a short film in which I put just as much thought into creating a costume that stands out and means something, rather than telling them “oh just dress casually, that's fine.”