Skipintro Brings Music to the Forefront for The Rijksmuseum

The new campaign film to celebrate the recently relaunched Rijksmuseum puts original Dutch music firmly centre-stage, tapping into the Dutch national museum as a destination to experience culture and art of all forms. The film features seven high profile Dutch musicians, depicted playing live for passersby in the museum’s main public walkway, playing an originally-composed track created by The Ambassadors.

The 30-second TVC, accompanied by a 60- and 90-second online version, aims to put the Rijksmuseum on the international radar, as never before. Production agency Holy Fools was tasked to bring new life to the historic, and recently renovated, arts destination. Director Mattias Schut brought creative production outfit The Ambassadors on board at the start of the process to compose an impactful piece of music, employing ‘reversed engineering’ – whereby production focuses on, and takes its lead from, the music track, rather than the other way around.

RIJKSMUSEUM - MAGIE 90 from The Ambassadors on Vimeo.

In close collaboration with the director, the Amsterdam-based company was responsible for creating the original sound track, music research and casting the musicians who would feature in the film.

Sebastiaan Roestenburg, Founder and Sound Designer / Composer, The Ambassadors, commented: “In many cases, music and sound design take place at the last stage in the production process. This ambitious project was an unusual one for us in that we were brought on board at the start of the process. From the very beginning, the film evolved around the audio and it is a fundamental element in the film. I composed the track together with violinist Sietse van Gorkom and in close collaboration with Mattias Schut. From there, the production started, so one could say that audio is the real driving force in the film.

“From a musical point of view, being involved from the start of the creative process enables you to lift the production in a way that would be impossible to create in such fine detail without having a close relationship with the director. It was vital to start by researching the required feel of the music, so that we could create something that would truly work as the starting point of the whole production.”