The National Media Museum, Bradford - Visit

Yesterday was very action-packed for me, and I also visited The National Media Museum, which is situated in Bradford – the UNESCO City of Film. The museum aims to inspire people to learn about, engage with, and create media.

The museum is renowned for the 3.5 million items of ‘historical significance’ which it holds, however this is not what I was interested in. Rather I visited the museum to look at the new media archives, displays and interactive options. The museum ‘looks after’ the National Photography, National Cinematography, National Television, and National Television and National New Media Collections. Moreover, the museum is home of the BBC in Bradford.

The National New Media section was the most useful for me in guiding my research. This is because promotional activity and all marketing must take into consideration that the digital revolution has radically transformed the ways in which media is produced delivered and consumed, in particular understanding audience consumption of advertising is very important. The digital revolution has radically transformed the ways in which media is produced, delivered and consumed.

I also found the National Videogame Archive particularly inspiring, as video gaming plays a significant role in contemporary cultural life, and development of technology is continuously pushing the boundaries of interactive entertainment.

The Animation Gallery was also very useful with regards to character creation, as it is likely that I will be creating characters to aid the promotion of this event. Upon entering the gallery, the first items I encountered were the Smash Martian puppets, illustrating the importance of commercials to the survival of animation studios.

The children’s animation was directly relevant to my investigation of the most successful children’s characters, including Bob the Builder and The Wombles. An interactive display provided me with a basic understanding of how such characters came into creation.

The animation process is explored from idea conception to final film, including storyboards, style sheets and bar breakdowns, providing me with an insight of the depth I will have to go into if I am to develop such a process.

Once again, I photographed all findings at the museum, and these will be annotated in time. What next? Next I must collate my findings and consider my final campaign idea more closely, as the campaign proposal must be submitted next Thursday.