Sunday, January 4, 2009

The Intrepid Museum

Today, I went to the Intrepid Museum, which is a museum aboard an aircraft carrier on the west side of Manhattan. It had some pretty cool stuff (nothing pre-1950, though) and some really awesome lighting and projection equipment as well. However, I doubt anyone has tweaked the lighting since the place opened, as there were multiple spots on walls illuminated for no apparent reason, and gobos haphazardly thrown about on jets and on the floor. A lot of lights must have blown their lamps out a while back, as well. In some spots track lighting (my arch-nemesis) was used to light signs and such...which is okay, I guess, except that there were tons of source fours not in use at all.
I'm a nerd, and everywhere I go, I notice the lighting and critique it, even when I myself could do no better. Have you ever been to the Palisades Mall in Jersey? There are instruments all up in that shit doing absolutely nothing! Also, and this reaaaaally bugs me- every time I go to a movie theatre lately, there's always one errant beam of light on the screen, usually from a badly focused houselight. I don't notice it once the movie is going, but sweet jesus, it irks me.

There was a projector shooting down on a map of the Intrepid. This projector was maybe three feet above the surface, and had at least a 4 foot by 5 foot throw. That's an insane lens. Also, there were touch-screen monitors which were hooked into whatever the projector was running off of, and they did some really cool stuff with that.

Dear Intrepid Museum....please let me come in and play with all your cool toys and fix your lighting.

Thanks.

1 comment:

Melissa T said...

I will attest to the Palisades having a buttload of Source 4s and not using them.

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About Me

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New York, New York, United States
Tired. Caffeinated. Quietly evil.

I'm a theatre technician, living and working in NYC. Also an aspiring costumer, makeup artist, playwright and dilettante.
I like to rant about things, I swear like a person who swears a lot, and I work too much. Other than that, my time is spent at home with the puppy or in Chelsea bars with friends and co-workers.