Fly On The Wall: a pop-up studio system for classical music, now extended to major institutional films and a growing archive of performance.
Fly On The Wall was conceived and developed by Stewart French as a production system for filming classical music performance. The project created a portable “pop-up studio” designed to capture performance in a single continuous take, using minimal equipment and carefully placed microphones and cameras. The approach drew on earlier research into automated microphone placement developed during the recording venture Draft, allowing artists to be recorded quickly and naturally in unusual spaces. What began as a technical experiment developed into a distinctive catalogue of intimate performance films.
Over the following decade the system was used to deliver more than 300 films documenting artists in performance, rehearsal and preparation. In 2025 this body of work was curated as The Collection (2015–25), an online exhibition bringing together key moments from the first ten years of Fly On The Wall.
Over time the system expanded beyond short performances. Fly On The Wall developed the approach into a platform for larger artistic projects, working with major artists and cultural institutions to create long-form films and documentary works. These projects included the Live at the V&A series with the Victoria and Albert Museum and extended documentary collaborations with artists such as pianist Boris Giltburg for the Naxos Beethoven32 series. The same underlying production method allowed the studio to scale from small recording sessions to complex multi-year productions involving large teams, major institutions and international distribution.
Fly On The Wall is now entering a new phase. Work is underway to establish the Fly On The Wall Trust, a charitable organisation intended to expand the public benefit of this work. The Trust will support large-scale public projects and the creation of an archive of filmed musical performance, extending the original idea of the pop-up studio into a broader cultural resource.
Fly On The Wall exists to create real artistic moments and to preserve them honestly. Each project is conceived as both an event and a record — an attempt to capture what it truly felt like for musicians and audiences to be present when the music happened.