Thanks to the Museum of the Moving Image, I can now add ‘animator’ and ‘voice actor’ to my resumé.

It all began when I finally trekked there this weekend after months of meaning to go. And I was chuffed to see it’s a great interactive museum that also gives plenty of ‘ooh, I haven’t thought about that in years!’ moments.

First of all, look at how pretty it is.

Inside, walls are covered with photographs, including black-and-white images of screen icons, and rooms are filled with concise collections of movie memorabilia, including make-up tricks, special effects and costumes.

<< from The Godfather

Another section houses retro video games that you can play. I particularly loved how one little boy was playing games I tackled when I was his age about two decades ago – and he seemed just as enamored by them.

There are also some examples of the movies themselves – so Ryan and I settled down for full showings of The Great Train Robbery (the groundbreaking 10-minute silent movie from 1903) and a chapter of the 1944 serial Captain America. It made us want to grab some snacks, snuggle on the sofa and watch even more.

Captain America showed in here >>

As well as teaching visitors about the technology of film-making, there are also opportunities for you to try it out yourself – hence my voice over work (I luckily picked Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady) and of course my pretty darn impressive animation. Drum roll please etc.

Afterwards, we got back to playing with more of the props. Ryan, who’s a video editor, would’ve worked on one of these back in the day:

Basically, I can’t say enough good stuff amount this museum. It was fun, educational, beautifully laid out and not swarming with weekend tourists.

Initially I thought it was a shame it was so far away in Queens – before I realized it’s placed beside Kaufman Astoria Studios, an historic movie studio that’s now a National Historic Landmark. (Most recently, Orange Is The New Black was filmed there.)

Plus, the museum was right by the gorgeous LIC Flea Market – so we weren’t complaining…

Maybe I should add ‘master taster’ to that resumé too?

For more information about the Museum of the Moving Image, you can check out their website here.