Filming, photographing and experiencing the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

Rijksmuseum Gardens

Before we went inside, we first filmed the Rijksmuseum Gardens, including tourists. We prefer to film our itineraries the way you would experience them yourself, so at this location we couldn't do that without tourists. So you also experience the gardens with the ambient sounds we captured at that moment. Like almost all of our routes.

Cycling through the Gallery of Honor

However, the Rijksmuseum itself is really too crowded to film with everyone there and of course there are rules for this. Around 5:00 pm we went through security and were escorted to the Gallery of Honor by security guards and a PR person from the Rijksmuseum. Here we first shot some test shots to see what works best. Of course, it is quite difficult to get good footage of all the paintings without standing still for 10 minutes per painting - that would make the route very long. And of course, this route was shot on foot instead of by bike (that was just a bit too much for the Rijksmuseum).

After testing, the film team began shooting. Normally during filming you would try to make no sounds, but this time we could just talk through the footage. Why? Since the Rijksmuseum was empty during our visit, there were no realistic ambient sounds. Therefore, we decided to record the music played in some of the room and paste it under the route. Do you recognize the music?

For me, this was ideal because it allowed me to feel free to take pictures without worrying about the sound of the camera. Besides, it's also a little more fun this way. After all, the staff at the Rijksmuseum have the most amazing stories. Did you know that they have something going on at the Rijksmuseum almost every night? Either a private dinner organized by a company, or recordings for commercials, promotional videos or in our case; virtual cycling route. Besides that, the security guards experience a lot during their work too, you should ask them sometime.

After we finished filming the Gallery of Honor, Rosa and I went outside to film the front view of the building, because the building itself is almost as special as all the art you can find inside. So you actually start the virtual route where we ended filming. Amazing this cut and paste work of the Film Team!

Virtual tour of the Rijksmuseum

Have you downloaded the route yet? If you have a Bike Labyrinth subscription and the system is online, you can easily download the route. Then you can immediately admire what the Film Team and I enjoyed so much: looking at some of my favorite paintings of Dutch origin without tourists, hearing more about the experiences of the Rijksmuseum staff and enjoying the beautiful classical music in peace. It was a special experience for me, and thanks to this virtual route, you can too.