Turning a Museum Into a Venue People Book
Zeitz MOCAA needed prospective clients to feel their event spaces rather than read about them. We filmed an orchestra playing Vivaldi in the atrium, photographed full menus during live service, and built the events team a content library they still use.
Vivaldi in the atrium
Zeitz MOCAA is one of Cape Town's landmark buildings, a contemporary African art museum carved out of old grain silos on the V&A Waterfront, and its event spaces are as much a draw as the art. The problem the Ocular Lounge and events team had was simple: you cannot sell a room like that on a floor plan. They needed prospective clients to feel the space, not read about it, which is a job for video production, and the reason they brought in ThinkStory. Cape Town gave us the setting; our first shoot gave us the proof. In the museum's atrium we filmed a local orchestra playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons, capturing both a full concert recording and stills, with Table Mountain through the glass behind them.
- Event spaces that a photograph alone could not do justice to
- Special-event menus that had to be shown, not described
- A sister brand, A-Create, whose furniture and decor also needed showing in the space
Static photography could not sell the space
A still image flattens a room like this. The atrium's scale, the light, the way an event feels once it fills up, none of it survives a single flat photo. So we treated the brief as motion first: film that moves through the space the way a guest would, and photography that catches the moments a walkthrough cannot pause on. We also shot for A-Create, Zeitz MOCAA Events' sister company that rents high-end furniture and decor, using the venue itself as the backdrop that made the pieces look their best.
Shooting a menu during live service
The hardest part was the food. These were full menus served at real evening events, which meant photographing every course as it came out of the kitchen, in the light of the room, with guests seated and service moving around us. There was no styling table, no second plate to fix, and no pausing dinner for a photographer. We reviewed each menu with the head chef beforehand so we knew what was coming and when, then worked alongside the service staff to catch every dish at its best in the seconds we had. The constraint is the proof: this is how the food actually looked, on the night.
What the events team can now show
The events team came away with a content library rather than a single campaign: film and photography of the spaces, the menus and the events themselves that they can pull from whenever they pitch a new client. Instead of describing the atrium, they can show it. Instead of listing a menu, they can show the plates. A-Create came away with a proper visual catalogue of their pieces, shot in context in one of the best-looking venues in the city.
An ongoing brief
Photographing food during a live event comes down to preparation, not luck: know the menu, agree the timing with the kitchen, and be ready to shoot each dish in the few seconds between the pass and the table. That approach turned one museum's events into a library the team still uses, and the brief has stayed open, because there is always another event worth capturing.
Common questions.
How do you photograph food during a live event?
With preparation, not luck. For Zeitz MOCAA we reviewed each menu with the head chef beforehand, agreed the timing with the kitchen, and photographed every dish in the few seconds between the pass and the guest's table, in the light of the room. No styling and no second plate, so the food looks exactly as it did on the night.
Why use video to market an event venue?
A still photo flattens a large space. Video moves through a room the way a guest would, so a prospective client can feel the scale and atmosphere. For Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town we filmed the atrium during a live concert so the events team could show the space rather than describe it.
What is an event content library?
It is a reusable set of film and photography a venue can draw on for any pitch, rather than commissioning a fresh shoot each time. We built the Zeitz MOCAA events team a library of their spaces, menus and events that they still use.
More Success Stories.
