Thanks to The Perfect Boredom, I got to visit the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures! This is my very first time visiting the museum, although I’ve looked it up in the past and have been wanting to check it out. Tickets are $25 for adults, but parking in the LACMA Pritzker Parking Garage is another $21! One of the exhibitions that stood out to me when I was deciding which day to go to the museum was the Animation & Me: Drop-in and Draw Exhibition. The description said that guests are provided with paper, pencils and clipboards to sketch their favorite animated characters, and that was interesting enough for me!
Animation & Me: Drop-in and Draw with Pete Docter
After scanning our tickets to get into the museum, we headed straight to the L3 for the Animation & Me: Drop-in and Draw exhibition. Pete Docter, the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and a writer and director for movies like Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., WALL-E, and Up, was there to share about his career journey and answer questions! It was very cool to hear about his experiences and his responses to some very interesting questions. Here’s what I learned:
- When you have scenes drawn on separate pieces of paper to create your storyboard, it makes it a lot easier to move things around in your story. It sounds like such an obvious way to create a storyboard, but sometimes that’s what can easily slip your mind!
- How do you know when your work is done? It’s done when you hit the deadline. You can always find a way to improve something, so it’s important to set a deadline or else you’ll never be done!
- You’re never going to come up with the perfect ending the audience wants.
- Don’t do something that you don’t enjoy in order to get to a position that you want.
The paper and pencil was for visitors to sketch whatever they wanted as they walked around the exhibition. I do wish there was something like Animation Academy – that would’ve been extra fun! The exhibition had hand-drawn sketches, shadow puppets, and digital images on display, and it was fascinating to see how these sketches transformed into a familiar movie!
Inventing Worlds and Characters: Animation, Effects, and Encounters
As we walked out of the Animation & Me Exhibition, we saw the Inventing Worlds and Characters: Animation, Effects, and Encounters Exhibition. It was cool to see sets and models from WALL-E and Pinocchio! The Effects area was quite unexpected. The characters (or creatures) that were on display were a bit scary, but what interested me the most was how much work was put into how Bruce Banner transforms into Hulk. There was a video that showed how they analyzed the change in volume as well as how Bruce’s clothes tear apart as he transforms. The amount of detail that goes into the quick transformation is crazy! I was very impressed.
In the Encounters area, I got to see costumes and props from movies like Spider-Man, Star Wars, and Avengers: Endgame! I was not expecting to see this, so this was a nice surprise. I also did not realize how small some of these costumes and props are – it definitely looked bigger on the TV screen! The Infinity Stones on the gauntlet from Avengers: Endgame looked like candy up close.
The Pixar 3D Toy Story Zoetrope
Next, we visited The Pixar 3D Toy Story Zoetrope Exhibition. This was in a relatively small room, with a big zoetrope showing characters like Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and the aliens. These characters are displayed in a series of poses. As the base spins, everything blurs together and you can’t quite see what is happening. However, when a strobe light is used, it creates the illusion of movement because of the split second when the image disappears, and you are able to see the characters move around.
Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema
A few steps away was the Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema Exhibition. This exhibition showed how color plays a role in movies, and had projectors and cameras on display. One of the monitors showed a video scope, which is a tool that analyzes and provides data on the color properties of an image. The technician is then able to make adjustments to the images to create the mood of the film.
In another area, costumes and props of various colors are displayed, including a costume worn by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby, the “Burn Book” from Mean Girls, the glass slipper from Cinderella, and a study model of Carl’s house from Up. There was also a lumigraph where you can place your hands on the screen and watch the colors on the screen change as you move your hand.
Academy Awards History and Oscars Exhibition
In the Academy Awards History Exhibition, videos of past Oscars speeches were playing, and outfits that were worn were also on display. The Oscars Exhibition had the awards of key winners, including Ke Huy Quan’s Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once. We started wondering if they ask the winners to bring their award back so it could be on display…
Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho Exhibition
My favorite exhibition was the Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho Exhibition. The first thing I saw were the family photos from the movie Parasite, which I have surprisingly watched more than once. There was another area dedicated to Parasite which showed the storyboards drawn by the director, as well as the clapperboard and prop suseok used in the movie. I was so impressed with the storyboards. I had no idea so much detail is put into creating a movie and that it requires so much drawing! The storyboards provided information to the team on the intended camera movements, placement, and frame size. In the middle of the area was a video showing the storyboard and movie side by side. It was so cool to see how the movie is so similar to how the storyboard was drawn!
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was pretty interesting, and I am glad I finally got to check it out! I learned that I know so little about animation and movies. Would I visit again? It would really depend on the exhibitions that are on or if there’s some special programming.