#ROMANOVS100: RT UNVEILS THE “ROMANOVS’ LULLABY”
MOSCOW, JULY 17, 2018— As the #Romanovs100 multimedia project draws to a close, global TV news network RT presents a VR animation of the “Romanovs’ Lullaby”, an exclusive composition by well-known Russian musician and performer Peter Nalitch. On the night of the 16th of July - the centenary of the royal family’s execution – a tribute to the family was held on all of the project’s social media platforms using animated photographs of the Romanovs.
Nalitch wrote 15 melodies specially for the project to accompany various photo and video materials. The “Romanovs’ Lullaby” is dedicated to the lives of the grand duchesses and the young Prince Alexei. Nalitch composed the music, while a #Romanovs100 team member wrote the lyrics.
“’Lullaby of the Romanovs’ is a very light composition. The parents sing to their children - Alyosha, Anastasia, Olga, Tatiana, Maria - an unpretentious lullaby about the moon, the sea, the stars.
“As a visual series, we decided to combine photos with animation in the virtual reality format. The result was a dream-fantasy, imagined by the prince. With this clip we wanted to end the project on a bright note — leaving audiences with the idea of goodness, hope, and love,” said the creative producer of #Romanovs100, Kirill Karnovich-Valua.
Throughout the project, RT filmed three other video clips in the style of the early 20th century, using archival photographs as a reference to reconstruct real moments from the family’s life. One such clip brought to life the Romanov family tradition of building a 10-meter snow tower. Filmed within the interiors of the historic Livadia Palace, all details from the original photographs were scrupulously duplicated, from the costumes to the props.
As part of the #Romanovs100 project, RT held a social media colorization contest of archival photos. The winners were chosen by renowned Brazilian artist and professional colorist Marina Amaral. Amaral also finished the work of Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra’s youngest daughter Anastasia, who had begun colorizing a few family photographs 100 years ago.
Towards the end of the project, RT also released a series of four posters, created with the help of ambrotype - an early photographic technique: “The Emperor”, “The Empress”, “Sisters”, and “The Tsarevich”. Each poster aimed to create an image of a royal family member using his or her personal items.
In April 2018, the same team behind #1917LIVE launched #Romanovs100 to bring the story of Russia’s last royal family to life through thousands of Romanov family photographs, which were recently unearthed from within the national archives. The large-scale, cross-platform multimedia project takes place across four platforms – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – in order to retell the last decades of imperial Russia over the 100 days leading up to the centenary of the family’s execution on July 17.
RT’s #1917LIVE project is one of the biggest-ever historical re-enactments on Twitter. Dozens of Twitter accounts were set up as key historical characters of the period, from the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II and revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin to common workers and soldiers, tweeting events from 100 years ago in real-time.
Historians from the US and UK took part in the project, as well as the world-renowned Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. The project received 20 Russian and international awards, including the 2018 Webby People’s Voice Award. At the Shorty Social Good Awards, the project won the ‘Best in Education’ award and took gold for ‘Best Overall Twitter Presence.’
