A short film for the Leiden museums in which Rembrandt's own painted self-portraits deliver a plea: Leiden needs its museums. Idea by Wim Weijland of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden; I turned it into a film made with AI, from selecting the portraits to the final edit.
Rembrandt makes the case for Leiden's museums
Wim Weijland of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden wrote a speech, Leiden heeft goud in handen, arguing that the city's museums deserve a seat at the table whenever Leiden's story is told. His idea was to let Rembrandt deliver it. The brief was precise: only painted self-portraits, no drawings, in chronological order from the young painter to the old master. Each portrait had to flow into the next while the speaking mouth stayed central. The voice should be a middle-aged man, friendly but decisive. No music.
I was responsible for the execution. I selected the self-portraits and researched the title, collection and year of each one; these appear as a caption in the corner of every shot. I made the portraits speak with AI video, using Runway, and generated the voice with ElevenLabs. Wim picked "Berend" from several candidate voices. I then edited everything into two versions: a long cut of 4:48 with 20 portraits and a short cut of 2:48 with 16. Based on Wim's feedback, I tightened the short version, smoothed the opening, fixed the lip sync and rewrote the ending to his text.
The film opens on a black title card, "Dit is een boodschap van de Leidse Musea". It ends with a quiet punchline: none of these self-portraits can be seen in Leiden, the city where Rembrandt was born. The credits read: text, voice-over and image by AI; idea by Wim Weijland; execution by Laurens Trimpe / Redefine.
