IWM | Churchill Museum

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Elbow was engaged for the production of 15 programmes for a new permanent exhibition at the Cabinet War Rooms focusing on one of the most famous Britons. The various productions cover the entire spectrum of his life. The one AV that we have included on our show reel is a powerful triptych using colour footage of his funeral. The programme is displayed on one landscape orientated 16:9 display with two portrait 4:3 displays on either side of it. In accordance with the ideas of the designers we constructed the film keeping the coffin central throughout the programme with symmetrical surrounding footage on the left and the right screens. As these outer screens were constructed in portrait format, we sought out and located the original film footage, in order to keep the full resolution at the point of telecine.

 

As a body the films explored the following overarching themes and juxtapositions in Churchill’s life: War and Peace / Public and Private lives / National and International / Friends and Enemies / Victory and Defeat / The Formal and the Informal The diverse and almost contradictory nature of the material was ideal for exploring the man behind the icon. The design approach was extremely strong and co-ordinated throughout the exhibition and we focused a great deal on ensuring that our palette and style conformed closely to the other exhibits. It was a hugely enjoyable challenge to remain creative within such a prescriptive environment. As is often the case with our productions we were subsequently approached by the museum to provide copies of the Funeral Triptych for sale in the shop.