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Every day museum employees are asked hundreds of questions by you, the visitor, as you explore the museum. How does that work? Why is this exhibit built the way it is? Who builds the exhibits and how long does it take? Are those real paleontologists in the Dinosphere Lab?
Well, this blog is here to answer those questions, and take you where few visitors have gone before. It will give you a unique look behind the scenes of our world-class museum, and show you how and why we do what we do. You’ll hear from exhibit designers, curators, scientists, educators, and more. We want you to get to know the people who make us the biggest and best, and who work so hard to make sure you have a great visit every time you walk through our doors!
We’re kicking this blog off with a bang…or should I say a WOW. This is the first in a biweekly series called “This Week’s WOW!” This week, you’ll meet Josh Estes and Mookie Harris who will show you how we make the thunderstorm in Dinosphere. (Haven’t you always wondered?!) Also, check out the special bonus “making of the video” with Josh and Mookie!
Josh: Hey Mookie, they asked us to write a blog post to go along with the video that we made about Dinosphere’s Thunderstorm.
Mookie: What do they want to know?
Josh: You know; how we made it, stuff like that.
Mookie: Oh, like you see on DVD’s when the cast and directors talk over the movie to get their take on the movie making process.
Josh: Precisely. But in written form.
Mookie: We should mention that none of what we said was scripted out. We just improv’d back and forth and came up with ideas on the spot.
Josh: Yeah, that’s good. We should also tell them that we actually work in Dinosphere and aren’t a couple of good looking actors hired to portray Dinosphere staff.
Mookie: We really got to be ourselves and be creative. They just let us go, man.
Josh: Yeah, we were pushing the limit of silly and they just said “Go with it”. My favorite of yours was when you said we should stand on those stools to get that shot of the lights. That was all you—you were just vamping and I was trying to keep up.
Mookie: You came up with those flash cuts for the “Wow” moments. I liked that a lot.
Josh: We did about 10 different takes just on that Water Fountain Wow thing. I didn’t realize that when you are acting, you don’t actually have to drink. I’m dumb. I drank about a gallon of water one sip at a time.
Mookie: Those behind the dome shots were tight (in a slang way). We used my tiny flashlight that you can barely see in my right hand. I didn’t think you could hear our shuffling feet, but you could and it worked.
Josh: You know what we haven’t mentioned yet, that I think was probably the hardest line to get through… Your sciencey talk about why we have a thunderstorm.
Mookie: Yes, I was surprised. It took me 5 takes to say our prewritten ending line “Thanks for joining us, see you next time”… but every time I did that long science part, I feel like I nailed it.
Josh: You did. At first, I was a little upset that they sped that part up because it was so good; but after watching it over, it was a good decision and now it’s one of my favorite parts.
Mookie: And for you science nerds out there, what I really said is “You see a paleoclimatologist is a scientist who studies microfossils from a loooooooong time ago – I mean like millions of years ago – that tell us that these Mesozoic beasts roamed around an environment similar to that of modern day Florida.”
Josh: Do you have anything else you want to say about the film shoot?
Mookie: It was a lot of fun to make!
Josh: Are we done?
Mookie: I think so.
Josh: Bye.
