I visited the Royal Society to capture a Google Arts & Culture project exploring Benjamin Franklin’s scientific discoveries through NotebookLM.
The video brought together archive material, historical context and modern technology, showing how Benjamin Franklin’s original papers, letters and ideas could be explored in a new and accessible way. My role was to capture the visuals that helped connect the history of the Royal Society’s collections with the contemporary use of AI as a research and learning tool.
The project required a careful balance between heritage, technology and storytelling. Rather than treating the archive material as static objects, the aim was to film them in a way that felt detailed, engaging and visually rich, while still respecting the importance and sensitivity of the historic documents.
My approach was to capture a mixture of close-up details, natural working moments, location atmosphere and clean visual sequences that could support the wider narrative of the film. The filming style needed to feel polished and considered, but not overly staged, allowing the audience to feel close to the material and the people working with it.
The final video helped introduce the project in a clear and engaging way, showing how the Royal Society’s historic archive could be opened up to new audiences through Google Arts & Culture and NotebookLM.
By combining archive-focused visuals, documentary-style filming and thoughtful pacing, the film created a bridge between Benjamin Franklin’s scientific legacy and the tools now being used to explore that history today.
