Badass? I think so.

Museum of Moving Image

       My experience at The Museum of Moving Image was indeed quite a good one. I was very excited to go there to learn about film and video, but to my surprise, the exhibits that I found most interesting were actually the ones about sound. In all of the videos I've directed (all 4 of them), I was always concerned with how to make the film flow together visually; which angle to take this shot from, how can we portray the characters emotions using their surroundings, that kind of stuff. All of my audio tracks came straight from the crappy mics attached to the school camera's we had to use (It's ok, Prof. Lucas. I'm talking about my high school.), and I never really bothered to change that. Once I saw the Automatic Dialogue Replacement booth, it hit me just how much more film is than just the visual elements.
      My parents were both actors in Ukraine, where they're from. I remember the first time I told my parents I wanted to make movies, they told me about this time they were working on a student film. They told me the hardest part of the whole thing was trying to re-record the dialogue and have it sync perfectly with your mouth. When I first heard that, I didn't really think much of it. I don't think I really understood how hard it was, until I tried it myself. Yea, it's not that easy. The ADR showed me how much work you have to put into recreating dialogue. The words aren't the only thing you have to get right. You have to get the emotion, the emphasis, and all of those things just right. It's easy to tell when a characters body language doesn't match the way the dialogue is spoken.
     My experience in the ADR definitely made me appreciate the hard work voice actors have to put into their performance. It also made me look back and appreciate the work my parents did as actors. Mind you, I'm sure students in Soviet Union-era Ukraine didn't exactly have access to top notch film studio equipment, which most likely made it even harder to do it well.
     My visit to The Museum of Moving Image opened my eyes to aspects of the film industry that I never even thought about. It changed the way I think about making movies, and I'm pretty sure it'll have an effect on the way I make movies in the future.

We, the Hoodlums of the United States.

It's hard to show who you are within,

when people believe you age like a tree.

As if the number of rings underneath your skin,

represents your level of maturity.

You ignore our ideas and you laugh at our class,

but we are your future so we'll see who laughs last.

Now more than ever it's hard to know where you'll be,

in two weeks or five years in this age of stupidity.

All we want is to have a voice, have a say, have a way to be heard,

in this fucked up place, where WE are the nerds.

What kind of world does this have to be,

where “too smart for your own good” holds credibility?

Day by day turns into week by week,

sooner than later, life looks pretty bleak.

Hoping and wishing that something will happen,

so you won't have to settle for the same old crap.

Always falling in line, never speaking your mind,

always taking the same spot in the everyday grind.

How can there be change, how can this be progress,

when getting your daily dose of media pollution is our supposed revolution?

I used to stand tall, proud and ready to brag,

but now I sit here and slouch as I wave my white flag.

As much as I hate to say, as much as I hate to admit,

the only way to deal with this is to just say “Fuck it.”

Poking smot, drinking drugs, and all those good things,

what other choice do we have to spread our wings?

Nobody cares and nobody listens, but we hoodlums have opinions too.

And when we burn this place to the ground, the one that's paying is you.