Meet the Life Online Project Leader

Interested in finding out more about our brand new gallery, Life Online? Then meet Joe Brook, Life Online Project Leader to hear more about the inspiration behind the new space, and see a sneak preview.

Have you spotted us on television yet?

Summer is here, hoards of children will soon be let loose from the nation's classrooms, and we would love for you all to visit us and Discover the Full Story.

That's the name of our Summer campaign, and if you live in Manchester, the Humber, or Yorkshire in you may have already seen our brightly coloured posters featuring some of the classic characters from television, gaming and film, so look out for them.

We'll also be beaming into your living rooms with our new television advert.

It will air for the very first time today (between ITV News and Emmerdale), and run until mid-August on ITV Yorkshire during prime time.

You can also see us on the big screen, because selected Vue and Odeon cinemas across Yorkshire will be showing our advert throughout August.

Visit our website to Discover the Full Story and find out what's on at the Museum over the Summer Holidays - keep checking back because there's more to come.

Photographs from the TV Advert Shoot

Filming David Spero for the David Spero: Churches Exhibition

The next exhibition to be displayed in Gallery Two is David Spero: Churches, which will be open from 15th April to 4th September 2011.

In his Churches project, David Spero documented buildings which are being used as churches, but were originally intended for another purpose. These buildings feature none of the traditional architecture associated with places of worship, and can often be found in unexpected places.

David visited our large object store in Insight: Collections and Research Centre to be filmed for a video which will be on display in the gallery. He was interviewed by Philippa Wright, Curator of Photographs and the Churches exhibition.

In the interview David spoke about his inspiration for the project, citing the work of author Philip K Dick, the process of creating the series, his photographic methods and selection process.

When complete, the video will be uploaded to our Vimeo channel - www.vimeo.com/nationalmediamuseum

See more photographs of David on our Flickr channel

Filming a BIFF Trailer with the Stars

Blogger: Ben Eagle, BIFF Producer

It occurred to me, rather belatedly, that Bradford International Film Festival has never had a trailer.

Having discussed the extremely limited budget and what we wanted to achieve, we settled on the idea of asking previous BIFF guests to remember a moment in their personal cinema history.

I approached several high-profile guests from previous Festivals and was delighted to have positive responses from Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter. It seemed rather handy that, as they are married, they could film their 'editions' on the same day. We wanted to film the guests in familiar and comfortable surroundings, and where better than their own front room?

Along with Emma Shaw, the Museum's Media Developer and expert camerawoman, I set off to the Staunton/Carter household early one December morning. Jim had called me on the way to inform us that the council had decided to prune the trees outside their house – today of all days, when what we really needed was silence! Imelda and Jim greeted us with the warmness and kindness which they both exude in abundance. We enjoyed a very welcome cuppa with Hobnobs while Emma and our sound man, Jason, set up the lighting and camera in the front room.

Imelda sat stroking their lovely dog whose name I now forget, and asked how long her "speech" should last. We were aiming for each trailer to be approximately 40 seconds long, so Jim was ready, just off-camera, with his wristwatch – ensuring the 40 seconds was adhered to. She quickly spoke it through and we went for our first take. As was to be expected, Imelda did it perfectly and after a few differing close-up shots we had it in the can. During the various takes, Imelda frequently glanced at Jim to ensure she wasn't going over the allotted time, to which he frequently told her that the takes were "two hours long, love".

As we quickly rearranged the furniture, and some of the ornaments – including the photograph behind Jim, which features their daughter in a TV programme – Jim took the position and began to talk about his experience of "Lords acting" in Harrogate. Imelda frequently repaid the favour of reminding Jim his takes were way too long – and after a few takes, I hope you'll agree, his enthusiasm and passion for film really comes across.

Our next subject was the ever-popular John Hurt. John received the BIFF2010 Lifetime Achievement Award and both John and Anwen, his wife, have become friends of the Festival. A similar trip ensued with Emma and Sven – the Museum's Gallery Developer, and soundman on this occasion. John and Anwen live in Norfolk, which is a lovely journey and we arrived at their desirable country abode in time for lunch. Without doubt, the friendliest and most welcoming showbiz couple I know, John and Anwen had prepared a lovely lunch and so after the five hour journey, we sat around their kitchen table and discussed all-things-film. It was a treat.

Afterwards, we made our way into John's purpose-built artist's studio, in which hangs oil paintings featuring his sons, self portraits, and various sketches. He was working on an amazing self portrait which I loved - a really great use of colour and clearly the work of an experienced artist. I urged John to have them displayed in an exhibition - they were certainly of a high enough standard.

As we set-up the camera and sound equipment, John quickly talked through his plans for the trailer, comprising three separate cinema experiences: his first trip to the cinema to see Robinson Crusoe; a truly mesmerising viewing of Alec Guinness as Fagin in David Lean's Oliver Twist and finally Jules et Jim – the one we chose to feature in the finished trailer, and the one John felt most captures his passion for film. We left after a great day with a true gent and a genuinely lovely, bonefide movie star.

It has, thus far, been a privilege to work with the guests mentioned above, and I sincerely thank them for their time and generosity. We still have more to come, hopefully, so watch this space!

Visit the Bradford International Film Festival website

The making of an exhibition: part four

Back to the upcoming Drawings That Move: The Art Of Joanna Quinn for a new instalment in our Making Of An Exhibition series.

This video, shot by our camera-wielding Media Developer Emma Shaw, lets you in on our condition checking process. It basically involves poring over the various drawings, sketches and animation cels we'll be exhibiting, and recording any imperfections -- but I'll stop there and let Exhibition Organiser Martyn Lenton explain things much more expertly in the video itself. You also get a sneak glimpse at some of the Joanna Quinn-related gems we'll have on display in October.

The making of an exhibition: part three

We're switching exhibitions for this part of our series on how events at the Museum blossom from concept to reality.

Our Gallery One exhibition starting 16 October is Neeta Madahar: Bradford Fellowship in Photography 2008-09, bringing you beautiful photography and dreamlike video from this extremely creative British artist. You can find out more from the video above -- our Curator of Photography Greg Hobson is in front of the camera this time, explaining some of the thinking behind the exhibition.

You also get to watch Neeta browsing photographs in our Print Store, and go behind-the-scenes on a shoot for her Madame Yevonde-inspired portrait series, 'Flora'.

More Making Of to come: yesterday I was down in Insight to see the condition check process for the prints, drawings and animation cels that make up the Joanna Quinn exhibition -- photos and hopefully video of that coming soon.

Matthew Lewis talks Harry Potter 7, IMAX, and weird fans

Yesterday, we were proud to welcome Leeds-based actor Matthew Lewis to the Museum -- for two reasons.

One: so Matthew -- who plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films -- could watch Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince on our colossal IMAX screen, and cower in the shadow of his 5 metre-tall screen counterpart.

Two: so a gaggle of starstruck children (and at least three besotted and blushing teenage girls) had their chance to sit and chat with one of the heroes of the wizarding world -- and, incidentally, one of the nicest young men you could ever hope to meet.

Matthew took a seat in our Cubby Broccoli cinema for an exclusive interview with us about all things Harry Potter -- including the hugely-anticipated final two films in the series, due for release in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Click the play button above to watch it.

And if you haven't seen Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince yet, our IMAX page has all the information you need.