Museum Experience
National Museum of the U.S. Army: Call to Arms Exhibit
Wide Awake Films developed powerful new media displays and a set of interactives for the National Museum of the United States Army’s new exhibit, entitled Call to Arms: The Soldier and the Revolutionary War.
Seeking to create a new exhibit that explored the origins of the United States Army during the Revolutionary War, the National Museum of the United States Army (NMUSA) reached out to us seeking to create a set of innovative battle displays, media presentations, and a set of interactive offerings that would allow guests to gain a deeper understanding of key battles and learn more about the remarkable artifacts within this exhibit. Wide Awake Films collaborated closely with the museum’s curators and a select group of world-class partners, including Design & Production Incorporated, Gallagher & Associates, Artistry in Motion, and Propaganda3 on this project.
Project Overview
Call to Arms is a new exhibit at the National Museum of the United States Army that commemorates the U.S. Army’s 250th Birthday and explores the role of the everyday soldier during the Revolutionary War. For the exhibit, Wide Awake Films designed and produced several large-scale media presentations, as well as four different interactive offerings. Working closely with the museum’s curators and exhibit designers, Wide Awake Films created scripts, filming plans, interactive prototypes, and sophisticated 3-D representations that allowed us to refine and improve the presentations and user interfaces before final development. Learn more about each project element below.
The Battle of Bunker Hill
Near the entrance of the exhibit is a presentation on the Battle of Bunker Hill. This presentation includes a large curved screen and a physical 3-D topographical map of the battlefield. Wide Awake Films collaborated with NMUSA to develop a script and film plan, enabling us to create a powerful presentation on this pivotal 1775 Revolutionary War battle. We then worked to shoot various live-action scenes that were incorporated into a dynamic presentation, which included cutting-edge animation, historical imagery, and Wide Awake Film’s extensive stock footage. Our team worked to tightly interconnect the map animations projected down onto the thirteen-foot-wide 3-D map with the video presentation on the wall behind. The combined projections create a powerful and highly visual look at this key battle fought outside Boston, Massachusetts.
Wide Awake created fully animated versions of the presentation to guide our process.
Wide Awake used digital replication to create denser scenes of British soldiers.
Reenactors and stunt men were filmed against a green screen for key action scenes.
Early versions of our map animations allowed us to refine our overall presentation.
The Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown display presents a highly visual look at the famous 1781 siege that led to the defeat of Lord Charles Cornwallis and his British Army in Virginia. Like the Bunker Hill presentation, this offering pairs a video presentation on the curved backwall with a coordinated projection showing an animated map of the battle on a thirteen-foot-wide physical 3-D topographic map. Wide Awake Films worked closely with the NMUSA staff on the creation of a script and visual plan for this production. The video production greatly benefited from Wide Awake Film’s extensive Revolutionary War stock footage and animation skills.
Wide Awake Films crafted schematics that guided our animation work for the 3-D map.
Several scenes incorporated significant animation sequences.
We developed 3-D views that allowed the team to optimize the overall presentation.
We leveraged our extensive Revolutionary War stock footage library for this film.
Paul Morando, Curator for the National Museum of the United States Army
“Wide Awake Films clearly captured the intent of this exhibit by listening to my team and asking key questions. They were interested in what we were trying to create and focused on the Soldier experience during the Revolutionary War. Their commitment to present history in a visually stunning and accessible way made the exhibit stronger.”
“Camp Life” Projection Wall
The “Camp Life” presentation fills the back wall of the Call to Arms exhibit. The “Camp Life” presentation was created with several goals in mind. First, the display needed to be a beautiful backdrop for the exhibit. Secondly, the presentation needed to showcase important themes related to the Soldier experience within the exhibit. Wide Awake Films conducted extensive research on the subject, which informed our filming plan and the selection of key facts and quotes to share on screen. The Wide Awake Films team spent a great deal of time prototyping the complex 26-foot-long curved screen, refining how our 8K resolution content would project upon it. We also filmed an extensive number of scenes with leading reenactors to create authentic scenes to present.
Wide Awake created 3-D models of the space and presentation for client review.
Throughout all of our live action shooting, we paid close attention to the aspect ratio.
Drawings of the space allowed us to visualize how the presentation would be seen.
Wide Awake Films worked with leading reenactors to capture live action sequences.
Powder Horn Interactive
The Call to Arms exhibit includes a wonderful collection of authentic Revolutionary War-era powder horns. In support of these artifacts, Wide Awake Films collaborated with the Museum on the development of an interactive display that allows visitors to explore each of the featured horns in greater detail. The design of this Powder Horn Interactive was primarily focused on providing visitors with an opportunity to see, in great detail, all sides of these three-dimensional objects. The interactive allows one to pinch-zoom on each horn image and then to click on various motifs to learn more about their context and backstory.
Wide Awake Films was able to capture a master horner at work creating a powder horn.
Wide Awake Films created schematic prototypes to help guide our UI development.
A Behind the Scenes look at the filming of the master horner at work.
One can click on various motifs on the horn’s surface to learn more.
Northern & Southern Theater Interactives
The museum gallery plan included interactive stations that would enable visitors to explore the key battles of the American Revolution. Wide Awake Films worked with the museum’s staff to develop two interactives - one for the Northern Theater and another for the Southern. In each of the interactives, you can click on various battles and learn more about the forces engaged, the casualties incurred, and why the battle was significant. Each of the battle detail pages includes a map of the battle, with several of those being animated. We also worked with the museum to develop a set of “Soldier Cards” that would highlight specific participants who were at these battles. Many of those Soldier Cards include artwork from Don Troiani.
Wide Awake developed schematic looks that allowed the team to optimize placement.
View of one of the battle detail pages - this one on the Battle of Long Island.
A look at the Southern Theater map overview. Each battle leads you to a detail page.
Detail page showing one of the “Soldier Cards” that highlights a soldier from the battle.
Weapons Interactive
Within the Call to Arms exhibit is a remarkable set of authentic Revolutionary War firearms. In support of that exhibit, the Museum sought to offer an interactive station where one could learn more about these weapons and associated accouterments. Wide Awake Films created an easy-to-use design that allows visitors to select one of the featured weapons from a rotating carousel of images. On the weapon detail pages, information about the weapon, detailed images of the weapon, and, in some cases, slo-motion video showing a similar weapon being fired is provided. The interactive also has three different videos highlighting the tactics and use of Revolutionary War artillery, muskets, and bayonets during the war. There is also a page that provides the visitor with a glossary of Revolutionary War weapon nomenclature.
Wide Awake Films used high-speed cameras to capture artillery fire.
One of the detailed weapons views. The primary images in “pinch-zoomable.”
Several period long arms and pistols were captured for supporting videos in the interactive.
Our interactive designers created Figma prototypes that allowed us to test the UI.
Call to Arms: The Soldier and the Revolutionary War
Step into history through this powerful new exhibition commemorating the U.S. Army’s 250th Birthday and the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This landmark display features rare Revolutionary War artifacts from the original colonies, England, France, and Canada—brought to life through the stories of the Soldiers who became our nation’s first veterans.
On display from June 2025 through June 2027.
Wide Awake Films and the 250th
Our Nation’s History, Our Company’s Mission
Wide Awake Films is passionate about America’s history. We feel it is our mission to sustain and invigorate interest in the stories of our past through the creation of new media, films, television programs, video, and museum interactives. As we look towards the United States of America’s Semiquincentennial in 2026, Wide Awake is proud to partner with museums and other cultural institutions striving to share all of our nation’s history and inspiring stories with a new generation. Learn more about how Wide Awake Films can partner with you to power our future through the stories of our not-so-distant past.
