Sk-etchbook

We visited Bradford Media museum this week, I have been before but this was quite some time ago and there has been many changes since. Overall there is a reasonable selection of exhibits and memorabilia spread across all rooms with a good balance between written information, visual examples and interactive pieces. Unfortunately there is a number of pieces showing wear & tear or in need of repair, this is to be expected due to the amount of use they receive however it would still be an improvement if they were all maintained. I found the animation room to be the most interesting, there are good displays of stop motion figures (wallace & gromit), puppets (zippy) and sets. The animation section also included some Victorian flip book animations and has an informative screening showing the history of animation and the development of different styles & techniques.
The television room is interesting it has a strong visual & interactive content including tv sets & studios where you can have a go behind & in front of the camera, production & editing suits, blue screens where you can be superimposed on different backgrounds and tv sets from all stages in history.
The magic room is entertaining and possibly the best room for a younger audience. There is a fun house quality to this display incorporating magic mirrors and optical illusion effects.
The photography room if found to be a little stale, possibly because I did this last but also because some of the displays seemed to to too modern looking more like the window display at Jessops than a museum exhibition.
I would say the highlight of the trip was watching the 3D film on the Imax Screen. I saw a screening of Dinosaurs Alive, the HD quality was really amazing not only in because of the degree of detail in which the filmed content could be viewed (cracks on bones, grains of sand sec.) but also because of th amount of detail that could be shown on the cgi content (scales, skin & feathers etc.). The cgi content was incredibly well done both the photorealism and the movement were almost indistinguishable from the live action filming, showing how much the technologies had developed over the past few years. The 3D quality was also very good and believable, the last time I saw a 3D film was Freddy's Dead which was using the red & green 3D glasses, the technique has changed since and the glasses are now one gray colour. The 3D quality is believable and it does feel like you could almost touch the dinosaurs in front of you when they come towards you, after the film we discussed weather the effect was the same for viewers sitting in different areas of the cinema or not? The only criticism of the 3D effect is that it can sometimes make you feel like you are cross eyed or slightly disorientated.
Overall the museum is an enjoyable and informative experience, it isn't an all day affair, the whole museum can be adequately viewed in a couple of hours but there is also a fair amount of additional optional content which could extend the amount of time spent viewing the exhibits (favorite TV shows booths, IMAX films and written content).