The Challenge

The famous Tate Modern was looking to celebrate the opening of its new building with a series of 360 videos with the aim of promoting the new space and encouraging the public to visit. A particular focus was put on attracting a younger audience.

VISUALISE worked with the Tate Modern to produce a 360 guided tour of its new displays with Radio 1 DJ, Nick Grimshaw and Tate Modern director Frances Morris. The 2-3 minute video had to be light-hearted but informative and appeal equally to fans of the Tate Modern and those less informed.

The shoot was limited to two hours due to Grimshaw’s availability, therefore a quick but efficient workflow was required in order to achieve the best results.

The Solution

The tour was filmed on a 360 Go-Pro Broadcast rig to help with the speed of the production as it quickly enabled us to set up and shoot. The new Tate Modern building is a beautiful space but one of the greatest challenges we faced was lighting it. Shooting in 360 in such a large space requires some creative lighting techniques to best flatter the space and talent.

Shooting clean plates for each scene enabled all light rigging to removed in post-production. The purpose of this lighting was to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere. This was then further accentuated with a the grading in post by our Director of Photography.

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The script was important as it had to be written in order to facilitate the light-hearted natural discussion between Nick and Frances that was still informative and all wrapped up in a short time frame. Graphics detailing the artists name and work helped augment the dialogue further.

Working with Tate design department the to ensure the brand was well represented in this transitional phase VISUALISE was able to adapt pre existing graphics into 360.

Distributing the finished content onto a platform such as Facebook allowed for a reach to a vastly wider audience than on other platforms and matched the needs of the Tate Modern.

The Results

The video was posted onto Facebook and quickly gained 2.2 million views and was promoted by Facebook 360. We see virtual tours such as this being a great way for gallery’s and museums to promote and reach wider audiences and ultimately attract more visitors to the space.