Fun film find in Astoria!

Last thursday I had the pleasure of going to The Museum of Moving Images in Astoria, Queens. The museum, which is still under construction, is a sharp mix of the history and current media and film. They have vintage television sets. The tour guides ( they come automatic with entry and are really really helpful) showed my group that in the 1950's the television creators were playing around with the design of tv's. One had four wheels on the bottom and another was in the shape of a circle. They were not sure yet how to get housewives used to this new appliance, so they were trying to make it user friendly. Another really neat home entertainment system had a television, a radio, and a mirror. I personally wish one of those was still around, but I digress.

Besides the cool historical pieces the museum also had fun activities to try and see what it was really like to be an actor on a green-screen, an illustrator/cartoonist, amongst other things. I took a try at making a flip book, you know those books with a bunch of pages and when you flip them really fast they and the still images make it seem as though the subjects in those pictures are moving. That was fun and is just $7 and in color on a regular visit. I also got in front of a green screen and saw myself on a television screen with a crazy background behind me. All in all the museum was quite a fun trip and i'll be making it again with my film enthusiast friends.