Trip to the Museum of the Moving Image

On October 29, the class of Media in a Digital Age Pt. 2 went on a field trip to the Museum of the Moving Image. A specific aspect of media production that I learned a lot about while I was in the museum was Automated Dialogue Replacement, or ADR. The museum had an exhibit where visitors can replace dialogue from famous movies with their own voices in an ADR booth. While I knew the basic idea of ADR beforehand from lecture, actually experiencing it in a sound booth made the concept much clearer to me. ADR can be necessary for many reasons, including replacing dialogue for noisy settings or if to release film in multiple languages. This sounds like a simple concept, but when it comes to actually being in a sound booth there are multiple difficulties to ADR. One is perfectly syncing the audio with the already recorded video. It is a challenge as a voice actor to make sure your lips and voice are being heard exactly the same as when you were in front of a camera. Another challenge is acting without any scenery or costumes. As an actor, it is much easier to get into character with the appropriate dress and setting. When doing ADR, an actor has to be in a virtually empty sound booth and yet be talented enough to speak believably as their character. Automated Dialogue Replacement is an essential yet often underestimated area of the media production industry. 

The museum did a fantastic job in displaying the incredible changes in moving image technology. The exhibit featured the history of the moving image, from the original optical toys to the current film camera today. Moving images started with optical devices containing images that spin fast and create an illusion of something moving. The museum also showed "magic lanterns," a device that would use light to project images on a wall. Magic lanterns were the first thing people used to view a moving image for entertainment with a group of people. 

The exhibition then showed the progression of the film camera and how it went from a wooden box with one filmstrip that filmed in black and white, to multiple filmstrips combined for color, to the cameras we have today. The changes in moving image technology have greatly affected the way we view and experience movies because they have gone from black and white with bad image quality and small screens, to high quality color that can be viewed on massive screens. 

Overall, the Museum of the Moving Image was a fantastic way to learn about film and media production in an in-depth and experiential manner.