Mosfilm

A few days ago we had the opportunity to take a tour of Mosfilm, which is like the Hollywood of Russia. It was an incredible experience - we got to see a museum of cars, costumes, and sets used in real movies, go onto the set of a TV show, see the sound studio and the computer graphics department, and even have our own private screening of a new movie! It was a long day, especially with another show that night, but definitely worth it. I really enjoyed the experience. It was really cool to be able to see pretty much every step of the movie- or tv show-making process. We walked through one set for a new movie that was still under construction, and then watched them actually filming a "Dancing with the Stars"-type tv show. The director of the sound studio showed us how they added sound effects in a booth where the floor was made of different textures that made different noises, like the rustling of leaves or steps through Red Square. In the computer graphics department, we saw the digital imaging process, where they were going through a film frame by frame, making minute adjustments. It seemed like an incredibly tedious task, and I couldn't always even tell a difference between the original and her revised screen, but I'm sure it's a very important one for the end result. Finally, we had a private screening of the movie Ward No. 6. It was really cool to see a movie after having witnessed so many different parts of the long process that goes into producing that polished final product. I definitely wasn't viewing the movie the same way I typically would, because we had just seen how much work goes into the making of a film. I'm not sure I will be able to look at a movie again without thinking about the different people and departments made adjustments and helped create the end result.