Museum of the Moving Image

Although I had heard of the Museum of the Moving Image, I had never gotten around to actually check it out for myself. I was delighted to see some of the concepts we've been studying throughout the semester demonstrated in front of us. 

 Initially, I was fascinated by Gregory Barsamian's Feral Fount, which depicted a zoetrope through the use of strobe lights and 97 sculptures rotating on an armature to create an animation. 

However, being the horror movie buff that I am, it was no surprise I was most impressed with the special effects & artifacts exhibit. I must've seen The Exorcist, Black Swan, and the Nightmare on Elm Street flicks hundreds of times. To see artifacts from the original movies that I grew up obsessing over, kind of had me "geek-out" for a bit (but I put myself in check, for the sake of others). 

Our tour guide, Artemis, told us that in order to execute the scene in which Freddy's iconic green and red stripped sweater is ripped apart by the souls trapped inside of him, it wasn't just any computer generated special effects. In order for the souls to in fact act "ghoulish," they created an oversized sweater with a huge tear in the middle where they placed 4 or 5 actors inside adorned with crazy make up and shot it at a high angle for it to seem size appropriate in comparison to Freddy's body. 

 

from the MoMI exhibit

Another interesting part of the special effects exhibit was learning how they did the famous 360-degree head spin in The Exorcist. Special effects artist, Dick Smith, created a life size dummy of Linda Blair (who played Regan in the film) who was mechanically operated thanks to the talented special effects engineer, Marcel Vercoutere. 

 

featured at the MoMI

the dummy being used in The Exorcist

It's these incredible things that we take for granted that make films worth watching. Although evolving, these special effects artist are often unrecognized when they in fact are a large part of most movies success.