This summer, the British Museum’s (BM) headline exhibition, Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, became a blockbuster in more ways than one when the museum created a feature-length film to accompany its real-life displays.
Following a live-streamed launch in June, the 80-minute documentary has been shown at over 1,000 cinemas worldwide. Pompeii Live is part of a growing trend and other projects include:
It’s now relatively cheap to produce high-definition, cinema-quality films and museums and galleries are only just beginning to explore the possibilities that this opens up.
At the same time, cinemas face stiff competition from the online market and many are experimenting with showing alternative content in an effort to give their audiences an experience that can’t be replicated at home.
Leonardo Live
The trend kicked off in 2011 with the National Gallery’s Leonardo Live show, which featured live filming from the launch night of its Leonardo da Vinci exhibition cut with pre-recorded segments. It was the brainchild of film-maker Phil Grabsky, whose company, Seventh Art Productions, has since carved out a niche in this area.
Leonardo Live received mixed reviews – the New York Times likened the frenetic cutting between presenters to “a high-art version of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” (subsequent films have scaled back on the live elements), while others said it lacked critical insight.
Audiences
But it set an important precedent and audiences were enthusiastic about having a chance to see an exhibition they would otherwise have missed, with cinemas in the UK reporting that they had a seat occupancy of 98%.
Grabsky is clear that his productions are not intended to replace the real-life experience, but the films do find creative ways to enhance the tour for cinema audiences.
The Vermeer documentary features musicians from the Academy of Ancient Music playing instruments and songs from the artist’s lifetime, lending the paintings a new dimension. The documentaries also offer an insight into curators’ decisions and the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to create an exhibition.
Seventh Art Productions has made numerous arts documentaries for television, and apart from the live elements, the films tend to follow a similar format: close-ups of the paintings accompanied by expert analysis and details of the artist’s life.
But there are differences – with fewer time constraints, the camera can linger on the artworks for up to 30 seconds in silence, the kind of pause that would be unheard of on the small screen.
While such productions are a step forward, it’s clear that they’re not for every museum and gallery. Cinemas need bums on seats, so, for the time being, screenings are likely to be limited to well-known subject matter and high-profile institutions.
“We’d made 120 art films for television and they were always popular but cinema is simply much better. It’s not meant to replace the exhibition, of course – quite the opposite: we want to encourage people to go the galleries.
"But what about the audiences in the other 30 countries in which we now screen? I get emails every day from people in Chile, South Africa, New Zealand and other places who are extremely happy to be given a chance to see an exhibition they’d never see.
"There are challenges; funding is tough and there are lots of slices off the box office pie before we get fed. Above all, you have to make a great film, a film with value for a decade or longer.”
Following a live-streamed launch in June, the 80-minute documentary has been shown at over 1,000 cinemas worldwide. Pompeii Live is part of a growing trend and other projects include:
- The National Gallery with its summer show, Vermeer and Music
- The Royal Academy of Arts and its Manet exhibition
- A film made with Oslo’s Munch Museum for a show to mark the artist’s 150th birthday.
- The British Museum plans to follow up Pompeii Live with a documentary of its blockbuster Vikings exhibition in 2014.
It’s now relatively cheap to produce high-definition, cinema-quality films and museums and galleries are only just beginning to explore the possibilities that this opens up.
At the same time, cinemas face stiff competition from the online market and many are experimenting with showing alternative content in an effort to give their audiences an experience that can’t be replicated at home.
Leonardo Live
The trend kicked off in 2011 with the National Gallery’s Leonardo Live show, which featured live filming from the launch night of its Leonardo da Vinci exhibition cut with pre-recorded segments. It was the brainchild of film-maker Phil Grabsky, whose company, Seventh Art Productions, has since carved out a niche in this area.
Leonardo Live received mixed reviews – the New York Times likened the frenetic cutting between presenters to “a high-art version of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” (subsequent films have scaled back on the live elements), while others said it lacked critical insight.
Audiences
But it set an important precedent and audiences were enthusiastic about having a chance to see an exhibition they would otherwise have missed, with cinemas in the UK reporting that they had a seat occupancy of 98%.
Grabsky is clear that his productions are not intended to replace the real-life experience, but the films do find creative ways to enhance the tour for cinema audiences.
The Vermeer documentary features musicians from the Academy of Ancient Music playing instruments and songs from the artist’s lifetime, lending the paintings a new dimension. The documentaries also offer an insight into curators’ decisions and the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to create an exhibition.
Seventh Art Productions has made numerous arts documentaries for television, and apart from the live elements, the films tend to follow a similar format: close-ups of the paintings accompanied by expert analysis and details of the artist’s life.
But there are differences – with fewer time constraints, the camera can linger on the artworks for up to 30 seconds in silence, the kind of pause that would be unheard of on the small screen.
While such productions are a step forward, it’s clear that they’re not for every museum and gallery. Cinemas need bums on seats, so, for the time being, screenings are likely to be limited to well-known subject matter and high-profile institutions.
Phil Grabsky, film-maker, Seventh Art Productions
“We’d made 120 art films for television and they were always popular but cinema is simply much better. It’s not meant to replace the exhibition, of course – quite the opposite: we want to encourage people to go the galleries.
"But what about the audiences in the other 30 countries in which we now screen? I get emails every day from people in Chile, South Africa, New Zealand and other places who are extremely happy to be given a chance to see an exhibition they’d never see.
"There are challenges; funding is tough and there are lots of slices off the box office pie before we get fed. Above all, you have to make a great film, a film with value for a decade or longer.”
Further information
- Seventh Art Productions’ site dedicated to screening exhibitions in cinemas
- Pompeii Live from the British Museum
