I was very excited to visit The Museum of Moving Image, especially since it’s the only museum in the whole country dedicated to film. The tour began with an exhibit on sound effects and how they're created. Our tour guide had us pick different sound effects that could work into a clip from the Simpsons. The tour guide explained how the sound effects are created from natural sounds that are often distorted to make different sounds. I found this quite interesting and hilarious when the sounds were incorporated into the clip. Another exhibit that I thought was interesting was the recreation of a 1980s living room set. I noticed how odd the living room looked, as the couch was curved around the TV. My tour guide explained that back then watching TV was considered an intimate activity in the household. She explained that work would end at 5 so that people could go home to their families and watch shows like I Love Lucy. I thought this was very interesting considering how different TV viewing is today. My favorite exhibit however was he hand grenade sculpture. I though it was interesting how it displayed the way motion can be perceived when there was no actual motion occurring. The visual aspects were very appealing and caught my eye, especially in the dark room with the strobe lights. Overall I thought the museum was a new and exciting experience. I learned a lot about film and media in through the different ages and the different aspects behind it.
The film scene I have decided to analyze for my
blog is the final scene in the film The
Graduate (1967)dir. Mike Nichols. The scene begins as both characters Benjamin
and Elaine are running towards a bus after Benjamin crashed her wedding in pursuit
to be with her. The camera follows them in a medium shot as they run into the
bus and head towards the back in excitement. The camera stays steadily on them
with a medium close as they cheer and exclaim their enthusiasm. The camera then
cuts to a wide shot of all the passengers on the bus turned around staring
seriously at Elaine and Benjamin. The scene cuts back to Benjamin and Elaine
looking into each other’s eyes happily, only this time the camera is at a
medium close up angle. The camera remains steadily on Elaine and Benjamin for a
total of 40 seconds as their smiles and laughter begin to fade. This particular
sequence was interesting to me because there were no cuts at all. I believe
this shot was made purposely by the director to express the characters inner
emotions by their facial expressions. A song also begins playing during this
quiet uncut sequence called “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. Both
the song and the long take coincide to create a dramatic and serious tone
within the plot of the film. The long take is focused heavily on Elaine and
Benjamin in order to convey a sharp turn of emotion within the characters. The
scene cuts to the back of the bus, as we see Benjamin and Elaine from behind, the
camera slowly follows them. The camera eventually stops following the bus as it
drives off, becoming smaller and smaller in the frame as the scene fades to the
credits.
