#Romanovs100 is an online documentary project driven by visual data and built on the analysis of thousands of photos taken by Russia’s last Royal family in the early 20th century.

To bring history to life in the world of social media, we partnered with the Russian State Archive to digitize over 4,000 actual analogue images once stored in Romanov's private family albums.

Innovating online edutainment, the project aims to make learning history an engaging "UX journey" merging documentary storytelling with interactive digital formats like 3D images, 360 VR video, AR experiences, digital colorization contest and more.

The Romanovs were photography pioneers — in the early 20th century they owned the world's first portable cameras capturing almost every meaningful event in their lives.

On July 17, 1918, Nicholas Romanov, last Tsar of the Russian Empire, his wife and five children were executed by the Bolsheviks. To pay tribute to the family, we merged a large set of visual data with transmedia storytelling to piece out the big picture of a "lost Russia". Thousands of the Romanov’s images were converted into platform-specific social media narratives on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram with accounts on each network showcasing unique format and content.

We chose three original photos to reconstruct the lives of the Romanov family using a century-old filming technique. The “silent” online video reconstruction features original music and portrays the Emperor as a family man, focusing on his feelings for his wife and his children.

The Romanov archive is perhaps the first private photo chronicle in history to boast such detail and scope. With our online video reconstruction we wanted to pay a "live" tribute to the last ruling family, giving these photographs - once kept in family albums - a second, digital life in social networks.

The #Romanovs100 team managed to reconstruct the atmosphere of the pre-revolutionary era and shared the intimacy of Romanov family life with our audience. Analogue cameras and exact copies of early 20th century artefacts facilitated a time-travel experience, bringing the original photos to life.

#Romanovs100 aims to show that learning history can be compelling and interactive. It addresses younger audiences through innovative digital approaches to educational storytelling.

Each scene is a detailed reconstruction of a real photograph from the Romanovs’ archive.

Our team meticulously chose the exact props for each shoot, making sure we were spot on with clothes, headwear and other details. At the end of each scene one can find the original photo.

Each scene features an original tune composed and recorded with orchestra by renowned Russian musician Peter Nalitch.

#Romanovs100 culminated in AR photo album which enhances this experience of learning history. The purpose of AR is to extend the storytelling through limitations implied by print & social media, and to allow readers become active co-creators of the unfolding story. Online video reconstructions, originally published on social media, are “inserted” into the project’s print edition and roll inside actual photos.

The first scene is from 1916, when the family built a gigantic snow tower in their winter residence. To bring the original photo to life we built a copy of a 10-meter snow tower.

The second image shows the Romanovs enjoying an outdoor meal in Crimea in 1914. The final scene recreates a 1912 charity event to support a TB sanatoria filmed on location in the historic settings Livadia Palace.

We used retro 8mm & 16mm cameras and Kodak black-and-white film. Our crew ran a number of filming tests in winter and summer to master the technique. After filming, the challenge was to develop the footage as not many studios work with 8mm & 16mm film. So we partnered with Russia’s legendary Mosfilm studio: each frame of the film was scanned as RAW; DaVinci and AVID were used in the final editing process.

#Romanovs100 is widely acclaimed by educators, historians and researchers. The project was selected to be part of the official educational program at America's biggest creative festival - SXSW 2019 in Austin, Texas, where we premiered the AR book. The response from educators and students was overwhelming: books were delivered to public libraries, universities of Texas, Phoenix, New York, Cornell and many other educational secondary institutions.

In general, #Romanovs100 had a remarkable impact across social media. The project generated over 25 million impressions & gathered around 55,000 fans & followers. Social media posts generated over 1 million engagements. Video reconstructions & documentary shorts gained over 1 million video views with over 500,000 minutes of time watch.

The project received global media coverage, featuring in The History Extra magazine, BBC News Hour, Tatler, Sky News, Daily Mail.