This was our first morning in NYC, we struggled with the machines trying to get out Metro card, our foreign cards kicking up a stink in the machines. Once we got up onto the tracks it was worth it, what a view.

First stop today was the epic Museum of moving image I didn’t have high hopes for this place. I had been tainted by the Museum of Moving Image in Melbourne back in Australia.

The Tyrell corporation building miniature from the Blade Runner film. A model from the Exorcist sits next to this model.

We took a guided tour of the museum including the -Jim Henson exhibit this was great to see the craftsmanship that goes into these characters, and the modelling was amazing. I was really interested in this exhibit after seeing the Netflix doco Being Elmo which followed the puppeteer behind the wildly popular Sesame Street character. Another treat from my youth was the new exhibit showing some of the puppets from Netfix’s prequel series based on the -Dark Crystal. The exhibition showed us some of the detailed costumes, animatronic puppets, props, sketches, costumes and production design from the show. The real feat was using puppets in a 2019 production to recreate the feel of the older movie from the 90s.

I was really impressed at the collection of toys and merchandise from film like Star Wars, Muppets and tons of other shows. You can see a bizarre C-3P0 tape dispenser above.

The two last parts of the tour were interesting to see such a dense collection of items from screen history, in the exhibit - Behind the Screen. Featured cameras from early tv and film were on display which gave you a real sense of the miniaturisation of the camera technology of today compare to the pioneers over 100 years ago.

The museum also had several interactive stop-motion activities and a really incredible zoetrope rotating strobe light installation. I love a zoetrope, they’re one of my favourite optical illusions. The last interactive session we undertook was The Living Room Candidate - Political ad campaign advertising workshop. We learned about political ads in America and started cutting and stitching audio and video together to build our own ads.

After the tour, we ventured off into the surrounding Brooklyn area to explore the foods and venues before Superbowl thisevening. We stumbled across the famous Brooklyn Brewery and took a spin in their tour.

Retrofitted 90s game consoles turned into DIY arcade machines at the Brookyln Brewery.

Seeing as it was Superbowl Sunday, we caught up with an Aussie friend for some German beers at the Spitzenhaus in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. There we joined 100 million other fans to watch the Superbowl.
I was especially happy to tune in to the ads, the Superbowl of advertising. For each of the 77 slots, a 30-second ad spot comes with a fee of $5.6 million to be aired, not to mention this is on top of the cost to make the ads themselves.
I was really curious to try and find out how the heck Walmart got all the licences to use famous intellectual property for their ‘Visitors’ Walmart ad. The curiosity came from last years famous cars Walmart ad, where there was a whole bunch of ads from other famous car properties from popular culture.
Entertainment wise the amazing half time show is mindboggling in its scale, but even more, so that the whole stage is picked up and placed within 15 minutes for the show then removed again for the second half without a trace. The floor graphic on the halftime show caught my attention but so did the costumes. Why the ladies get to wear sexy clothes and the guys are in pyjamas? I guess that’s the way of the media in America.
I noticed the number of celebrity cameos and crossover ads this year was really high. I can’t imagine what the spending on celebrity appearances must have been for all ads this year. Licensing of Intellectual Properties during the ads is big business too, all those Celebrity appearances, cameos, cartoon characters must have cost a pretty penny.
To check out Superbowl ads, go check out https://superbowl-ads.com/ to watch and review the ads yourself.

I have to say the food for dinner at the Mexican Calexico’s was next level, thanks to our guide for the night for recommending the spot.