Museum Visit

At the Museum of the Moving Image, our class had the opportunity of getting to see props face to face as well as some interactive demos that helped us get hands on experience with different aspects of media production. Two parts of this museum that really stuck out for me were the examples of prosthetic and makeup pieces used on the set of film productions that I have grown up watching as well as the stop-motion animation section where we created our own flip book. Being an Emerging Media Studies Major, I am taking classes specifically for 2D animation where I have done stop-motion animation as well as created flip books, this particular setup showed me a new way of going through the process. This process has progressed over the years as technology has progressed which makes simple tasks of getting a 30 second clip that normally would take hours to produce and cut that time in half. This alone helps the fluidity of creativity and also allows artists to express themselves in a more productive amount of time. The other part of the exhibit that caught my attention was the makeup and prosthetic pieces. Along with Emerging Media, I also study theater specifically Costume Design and Stage Makeup. I have learned how to create latex prosthetics as well as costume pieces that change the shape of the normal everyday body figure. The prosthetic faces were really fascinating to see because they showed them in the steps needed to create the final product. I was surprised by the technology that they had when the movie “Mrs. Doubtfire” was produced. Technology has even come a long way since then as well as the materials that are available. This changes the way that characters and images are designed and allows the imagination to truly come to life. These technological developments open the door for theater, movies, and photography.