The architecture of the building is imaginative and dynamic. A large portion is constructed with large windows and as I walked in, I was thrown into rooms that resembled the halls of a spaceship. The walls were slanted and colorful. But despite the beautiful physical aesthetics of MOMI, what I got out of it the most was sound, and how effective it can be to enliven a scene.
Growing up and reading up on film, my understanding of it was that a movie is a story told in pictures. A screenplay is written with pictures and motion in mind, not sound. And yet, I witnessed a very famous scene being butchered as different aspects of sound were stripped away.
The scene in the Titanic that has all the passengers scrambling for their lives has been seen by millions and people can often recall with great accuracy what happens in the scene. Few will elaborate on the specific sounds. And as sad as that is, that's the beauty and function of sound in a film, I think. Nobody will notice that you blended in an elephant horn in there, but without it, the scene is not as effective and robust. These sounds hidden in the background play in the back our heads, in our subconscious. It puts us in the emotion that the director wants us to be in. In the case of the Titanic, a gun shot was used to force us in a "fight or flight" response.
The other very interesting exhibit was the ADR booth that had us experimenting our voices into a scene from "Coming into America."I knew that actors had to reread or reenact their diologue in post production to get a clearer sound, but I had no idea how it was done. It's extremely difficult and demanding in that it requires the actor to put himself in the same emotion that he was in when he originally filmed the scene. It just adds another layer of appreciation I have for the craft.
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