Blog Assignment 4

My initial visit to the MOMI with the class was definitely a new experience for me. Our tour guide was very knowledgable in the world of cinematography and film. A specific aspect of the tour that caught my attention was the sound effect editing. The tour guide showed us the iconic film The Titanic and removed all sounds and background noises to showcase how sound editing is implemented into films through different forms of Foley and Dolly effects. She single handedly added more and more sound effects to show how much editing is required for specific scenes. This is something new that I was not aware of before, where there are a handful of elements that makeup the scenes. Examples such as voice overs for clarity and the foley sound of an elephant for the tower that was dropping onto the ship is something clever that I never knew before. The advancements in technology has definitely improved in terms of picture, sound, cgi, special effects, etc. It all started from low frame rate production with no sound, black and white, and chunky images into something stellar using special techniques that include props and objects. Something like using a DIY drawn cardboard box to envision an outer space station in Blade Runner was unique and it did not necessarily use much of CGI. The original cameras used were massive and required multiple people to change the shots and positions. Interestingly, most of the other equipment has relatively stayed the same except of course making it more convenient and smaller for the crew to use. Overall, my trip to the museum has opened my eyes in what goes on behind the scenes of great films. I now have an idea of how the production crew utilize their environments and different objects to mimic specific attributes that cannot be tangible.