Download or read book The Making of Russian Ark written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This documentary reveals how the unique feature-length Russian Ark was created in a single take: Alexander Sokurov's extraordinary masterpiece is a unique journey through time and Russian history. Filmed entirely in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, this groundbreaking film recreates 300 years of history in a single, unedited, feature length take. Sokurov's camera glides through 33 rooms of the Hermitage, covering three centuries of Russian history and European art. Everything unspools in one single, unbroken travelling shot, moving sinuously around the museum, roaming down corridors, nosing into chambers, peering up and down stairwells - encountering scenes from Russian history from the 17th to the early pre-Revolutionary 20th centuries: from Peter the Great to Nicholas. It is acted out by battalions of players and musicians in full costume. And all of it seamless; not a single cut or edit. Cinematographer Tilman Büttner had to carry a specially modified Steadicam capable of recording up to 100 minutes of high-definition video on to a hard disk. Russian Ark is a fluid dream-epic with no special effects. What you see is what you get. If there had been a single mistake, if someone had fallen over or if a door was jammed - or if the camera had blundered across a mirror or reflective surface - then Sokurov and his army of actors would have had to go right back to first positions. .