At the end of my first class in film, I felt like I just peeked behind the curtain, like I had snuck up on a magician rehearsing a trick. It was an ambivalent moment for me. If I continued on my way to becoming a maker of media, would the magic be lost on me? If I acquired those magicians' tricks of sound and music and light and angles, would all I see be the tricks and techniques every time I stepped into a theater? At the Museum of The Moving Image, I got my answer. Behind the mysterious curtain lies an even more magical place, and then the possibilities of joyful creation are limitless.
Being from Colorado, I feel compelled to tell everyone who has a vague cultural awareness that South Park is a real place, and I do a killer impression of Butters. This is a talent I exercised in the dubbing booth. My best friend and I selected two of our favorite films and recorded our own voices over some of the most famous scenes in cinema. She did "My Fair Lady", and could we could barely contain our glee as she slowly matched her voice to Eliza's tentative "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." I chose The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy lands in the candy-colored dream of Munchkinland. I rehearsed once, then recorded, a rather nerve-wracking process underneath our stifled laughter. What was played back reduced us to howls, as there was Dorothy, familiar in her Technicolor, saying her familiar, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. We must be somewhere over the rainbow!" But it wasn't the voice of Judy, it was Butters. It never occurred to me how long it might take for a filmmaker not only to get the right shot, but the right sound and feel for any one moment on the reel. To be able to dub over it again and again allows both the actor and director greater freedom to explore new options for emotion through a particular scene. I wonder how many times Judy had to dub over that scene to create the right combination of innocence and awe we experienced along with her as an audience. Today of course, better sound technology might allow an actor and director to capture that one perfect combination at once, but then one may further refine it with multiple other options; sound effects and music can create multiple different worlds within one single moment on film.
I have a suggestion for the gift shop at the Museum; allow guests to purchase those recordings.
I was equally fascinated by the makeup exhibits. The life-sized replica of the demonic Regan from "The Exorcist" haunted my dreams Sunday night, and I loved seeing the kindly dough face of Mrs. Doubtfire finished in front of me. Artist is a tame word for the work these people do. I marveled at each gouge on the Winona Ryder's prosthetic legs for Black Swan, every tiny thread of hair for the wigs and glittery sequin attached to Sarah Jessica Parker's showgirl costume for "Honeymoon in Vegas". Why she didn't want to keep that stashed away for special occasions I will never understand.
When I stepped out of the museum at the end of our excursion, it felt like I was stepping into an alien planet. The bright sunlight blinded me and I felt much like Dorothy, stepping into this strange road in Astoria, but also knowing that my home lay behind me, through the glass doors and back in the magic.
