Museum of the Moving Image!

 Sound in film has always been a challenge. The dubbing of older movies often seems silly in modern times, but it had to be done, as cameras were not able to pick up sound. The dubbing is almost always slightly “off” if one looks closely.  Now, as we look at more modern films, most of the time the sound quality as well as the matching of the voice to the actor is much improved. Currently, most cameras used to record movies are “sound capable”, however the quality often does not match the quality which the directors and producers are hoping to achieve, especially in high budget or high action features.

            At the Museum of the Moving Image, the tour guide, or shall I say “educator” took us into a sound booth modeled after those used on films, especially the high budget ones. The actors must sit in a room, a soundproof one, listening to their voice from the recording and watching themselves on the screen. As we learned, this is a practice not often talked about by the director and the actors, however it can prove very challenging to do it right. An actor must have the same emotion in his or her voice whether it be happy, sad, frightened, angry etc. even though they are simply sitting in a room, either with the other actors or alone, matching their voice to the movement of their mouths on the screen.

            During the demonstration, we were able to try out the sound booth for ourselves.  The fact that the challenge was to dub over someone else’s voice was even more difficult as each and every person has a different way of pronouncing their words and thus one who is dubbing for someone else has to match the way they form their words as well.

             Sound is vital part of any film, yet it is not something regular moviegoers, who are not in the industry, or are not film buffs ten to think about.

Design I LIKE

Okay, so if you know me you probably know that Beyonce is my favorite favorite singer/artist etc. I think she is fabulous on stage and to see her tour live is to see a show unlike any other. Beyonce aside, I must say that I truly enjoyed this cover of Gotham Magazine for its simple design and it's use of the face as art. 

    This cover proves that less is often more. The font is simple and easy to read and the cover isn't cluttered with different headlines advertising the magazine's featured stories. It is expected that the cover will catch the reader’s eye and thus they will want to read more. The cover does not show off the "model's" body or the clothing she is wearing but rather the focus is simplistic color. Much of the color is exhibited through the makeup on the model's face rather than extra-computerized features. (This is not to say that Photoshop and color correction were not used, of course.)

    The theme of this issue was "International" and Beyonce; the cover model represented "Made In America". This idea is conveyed simply through a basic title in the right corner as well as the patriotic colors used along with the red white and blue, symbolic of the American Flag, stripes across the face.

     To put things "simply" simple clean lines and ideas in order to convey a message is what its all about. Simple clean lines put me at ease, and I strive for such. I myself have a tendency to be scattered and thus I admire when messages can be conveyed and displayed quickly, beautifully and to the point. 

In a JAM!

Ever been in a jam? No not a jar of jam, not a door jam, but a traffic Jam! New York traffic is infamous for its horrific jams during rush hour, periods of construction, or even a movie shoot. Any New Yorker, or unlucky tourist can say that the taxi they took instead of the subway because they were running late cost them 20 dollars and 20 extra minutes because of a traffic jam.
 Hunter College, being in the City of New York also has its own traffic issues. The library computers are notoriously hard to come by, and don't try to catch an elevator in a hurry, especially in the north building. The thing about traffic jams is no matter the frustrating detor the light will always turn green and you will be able to keep moving forward.