MOMI

We went to visit the MOMI, Museum of Moving Images, last week on Wednesday. Beyond seeing the vague ads in the subway, I had no expectations on what the museum would feature.

The tour and the museum itself was much more interactive with the context of its exhibits than I’ve experienced in other museum visits. It held more formal aspects of film and media such as the history of film cameras, costume design drawings, the zoetrope, and set design models but also modern aspects like the Star Wars collection section or the Why are cats so popular? corner. It was fascinating in how the start of the tour went from a wide open space to a narrower area. We went from a replica of 2001 Space Odyssey to the skinny passages of Tut’s Fever Movie Palace.

The demonstration that left the biggest impression on me was the Audio Dialogue Replacement booth. I never consciously considered using audio not only to replace what wasn’t recorded well but to achieve a comedic feeling with it. We did a brief three line sequence from “Some like It Hot”. It was hilarious when we had a male voice speaking Marilyn Monroe’s lines. The way she delivers them is funny but having a mix of male and female voices, some of them deadpan, was amusing and created a parody like tone. After writing and watching so many emotionally impactful films, I forgot how to convey happier feelings so this was a great experience.