Brief

Olaleye Media was engaged to produce a documented progress film and timelapse covering the restoration of historic glazed courtyard roofing at a major national museum in South Kensington, working alongside the main contractor throughout the programme.

Challenge

The site is a Grade I listed building that remained fully open to the public throughout the works, with strict delivery windows and no closures permitted. Capturing the scale and detail of the courtyard roof structure required drone operation directly over a live, publicly accessible heritage site, cleared in advance with National Air Traffic Services (NATS) for a defined flight window, and approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

When the internal scaffolding came down earlier than expected, the drone flight had to be completed on a single morning, at short notice, before access to the roof was lost. With a narrow weather window before rain was forecast, clearance was secured that same morning from the Police and Diplomatic Protection service, alongside authorisation to fly within the Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ) from London Battersea Heliport. A fixed timelapse camera ran throughout the programme, capturing a still image every five minutes during working hours, and was repositioned inside the courtyard once the temporary roof covering was installed, maintaining continuous coverage as conditions on site changed. Throughout, the client had live remote access to this footage via an online viewing portal, tracking progress without needing to visit the site in person.

Outcome

The completed footage served as both a heritage record of the restoration and a stakeholder reporting tool, giving the museum and contractor documented evidence of the project's progress and completion for internal and funding-related reporting. Combining fixed timelapse, drone, and dedicated camera footage into a single documented record of the restoration from start to completion, delivered within a tight same-day clearance window when site conditions changed unexpectedly, the result was a fully regulator-approved progress film and timelapse. The result demonstrates not just technical range (fixed installation, CAA/NATS-cleared drone operation and dedicated cinematography), but the ability to secure full regulatory clearance at short notice when a project's timeline shifts.