This week at the Academy Of Natural Sciences 9/23

Rob Hassler

If you remember from last week, the upcoming Mega-Bad Movie Night will be featuring the 1954 sci-fi hit Them! In preparation for the film, we had decided to take a look at a simple powerpoint presentation that gave an overview of what a MBMN entails, and what will be happening in the upcoming months, etc. It was my task, to take this powerpoint and spice it up a bit. In order to do so, last week I had begun to use the program Prezi for the first time in my professional experience. Putting together half of the presentation, this gave Jill the ability to look over the flow of the presentation, and the information I had included. After receiving her feedback, I was able to this week complete the full presentation. What's awesome about Prezi, is that you are doing everything directly connected to the internet, and have the ability to go in and change things at your discretion. Therefore, the template I created for MBMN, can then be updated and changed in a simple and easy process depending on what movies we are screening, and what information we would like to include.

Perhaps one of the best aspects of the MBMN program, is physically having to watch the movies to see if they are appropriate, have enough scientific information to be worth screening, and if it is in fact "bad" enough to fit the criteria. This being said, Jill has done her best to have screenings for Academy staff of any potential and promising movies that may be chosen for a MBMN. This week's film screening, was of Jurassic Park III. 

It is pretty awesome that part of a job can consist of watching movies, but the screening of Jurassic Park III is not meant purely for enjoyment, at least on the part of Jill and I. As we screen the films, it is important to look for anything that may be used as commentary, or could benefit the members of the Academy that will be on stage during the actual event. As much as the movie and event is about making people laugh, Jill has always wanted an emphasis on the scientific aspect of the films. Therefore, Jill spends most of the time watching the screenings writing down notes, and trying to find evidence in the films that could be used to prove what is fact and what is fiction, all while incorporating comedy of course.

One final aspect of preparing for a MBMN, is looking up all types of goofs or instances in the movie that people might have proven wrong. For Them! and now Jurassic Park III, this has become a task of mine. For example, "When Grant asks Billy how he would classify the Spinosaurus, Billy says, "It's a super-predator," and immediately suggests Suchomimus. Grant says, "Think bigger," and Billy suggests Baryonyx. In reality, Baryonyx was only about 2/3 the size of Suchomimus, which in turn was only about 2/3 the size of Spinosaurus - not nearly big enough to be a super predator. Regardless of that fact, Billy still got his dinosaur sizes badly out of order."

My first time back at the Academy of Natural Sciences post the Philly Geek Awards focused not on researching an endless amount of creative individuals and how they deserve recognition, but having a new role amongst the entire education department. Over the summer, I was specifically focused on both the Awards and adult programs at the Academy. Now, I have taken on a department wide role of helping with things such as video editing, presentation design, public relations, and some continued research.

For my first week on the job as an education dept. intern rather than just adult programs intern, I gained an understanding of the scope of tasks I would be working on throughout the fall. There were three main tasks that were at the forefront of my list, those being the creation of a Prezi for Mega-Bad Movie Night, looking at the organization Philebrity and scheduling a potential meeting in relation to Mega-Bad Movie Night, and finally, working with Jill to help plan out the appearance of Drexel's "Ant" expert Sean O'Donnell at the next Mega-Bad Movie night which features Them! 

In order to have an overview of "Mega-Bad Movie Night" that could be shown quickly and easily, Jill created a simple powerpoint that would be presented to those who were unfamiliar with the popular program. Having never worked with Prezi before, but knowing the capabilities of the program, I thought it would be a great opportunity to essentially create a more interactive marketing piece Mega-Bad. Basically, Prezi is similar to a powerpoint, except it can create visually interesting movements and effects within the presentation, not to mention one has the ability to simply drop a finished powerpoint presentation into Prezi and work from there. I began to work on a Prezi specifically for Them! and the rest of the program, and will continue to develop presentations throughout the department upon request.

My second task, was working with Jill to research and schedule an appointment with the Philly gossip website Philebrity. Pretty much always in the "know" about what's going on in the city, Philebrity has the potential to be an interesting partner, or affiliation in some way with Mega-Bad Movie Night. Next week, Jill and I will be having a meeting with someone from the website to learn about their ideas regarding working with Mega-Bad, and any potential opportunities that might seem relevant.

Finally, for October's upcoming movie Them! which is a 1954 sci-fi flick about mutant ants, we were able to have Sean O'Donnell sign on to bring army ants to the event and have people watch via live stream what they are doing in action. Considering Sean has been on the Discovery Channel and knows all things about ants, this was an awesome opportunity to add a really cool element to Mega-Bad. On Friday, Sean came over to the Academy to look at the potential camera set-up for how visitors would view the ants as they moved around their setting. I have included a picture below!