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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSrzKn54m_w

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.