NaFilm Interactive Museum How Films Are Made

NaFilM is a film museum where visitors discover how films are made through interactive exhibitions and how these films influence our perception of the world around use. Design your own animated film, learn about film editing techniques and how to add sound and special effects. You will be introduced not only to the history of Czech and international cinema, but also to the world of film production. NaFilM, abbreviation of the National Film Museum, is run by a group of film students from Charles University.

NaFILM Museum

Discover how films work and learn everything about the origins of the film. Make your own film with the magic lantern or a hand-held 35 mm film projector. iscover what visual experiments led to the invention of moving images. Watch unique Czech films in a cinema room and record your own soundtrack in the recording studio.

What to See and Do

The exhibition starts with an explanation of the earliest forms of projection. Fast spinning disks show you how optical illusions work. The discoverer of this was the Czech Jan Evangelista Purkyně (1787-1869) who was a student at Charles University.

Next is Zoetrope, the forerunner of film projection. This is a cylinder with vertical slits on the sides. The inside of the cylinder shows a series of consecutive images. When the cylinder rotates and you look through the slits, it seems as if the figures are in motion and merge into each other.

The avant-garde part of the museum focuses on the interwar period of Czechoslovak cinema and the influence of French surrealism with the screening of short films.

You can also try out a virtual reality simulator. Put on goggles and a headset and go on a virtual world tour. Great fun if you have never tried this technique before.

The highlight of the museum is the animation part: from the invention of the cinematographer in 1895 to the Walt Disney classics of the 20th century: the museum teaches you the principles of animation.

Design your own animated cartoon by making a series of different poses of two figures, a man and a woman who are in a gym. Save each new pose. When you replay your cartoon the man and woman appear to be moving. Email your cartoon to yourself and keep your work of art forever.

The next activity is adding a soundtrack to a video by banging wooden spools on a hard surface to imitate gunshots, drumming your fingers to make believe that a person is running away or using your voice to make the characters speak. When done, replay the video now with the added sound effects.

Museum Café and Shop

The lobby of the museum is simply furnished with tables and chairs where you can sit and have a drink. The shop sells Czech film-oriented pins, tote bags and other gadgets.

Address: NaFilm, Mozarteum, Jungmannova 30, November Mesto, Prague. Entrance is in the Franciscan Garden at Jungmannova Square.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 13.00-19.00

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photos: Marianne Crone