Persona Films and sister company Twitch Post spent almost three years developing all media design and film production aspects for the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center and Museum, which opened its doors in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on November 25. The museum’s grand opening celebration was attended by President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and several high-profile Russian political, business and cultural leaders.
For this historic project, the Persona Twitch teams traveled the globe to shoot 133 exclusive interviews with political and cultural leaders, many of whom rarely speak in public, licensed footage from over 100 archival sources, and produced 163 media and interactive programs.
“We interviewed people who played an important part in Boris Yeltsin’s life: from his family members and his assistants to ministers, heads of the army and the KGB, as well as international leaders who worked with Boris Yeltsin in the ‘90s​–Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev,” related Yan Vizinberg, co-founder and principal partner of NY-based Persona Films and Twitch Post, and CEO of parent company Lorem Ipsum Corp. “Scheduling people of this caliber is difficult, their plans change at the last second. Shooting in numerous countries is also a big challenge as we had to make sure that the production quality remained consistent across hundreds of interviews. Sometimes we had three crews shooting in three different countries at the same time.
“We did a lot of research into the history of the ‘90s,” continued Vizinberg. “The Yeltsin Center helped us attract the leading historians who specialize in the various topics of Russian history of that period. We also worked closely with the interviewees themselves to verify and cross-check all the information. In addition, most of the people who were involved in the project lived through these turbulent times themselves, so this project was about their ​own lives as well. This made it very personal and meaningful for us​.”
Vizinberg also noted,​”We recorded Naina Yeltsin, Boris Yeltsin’s wife, for five straight days. The production was done at 5K resolution so we generated over 50​ ​terabytes of footage that needed to transcribed and curated​.”
Chris Cooper, head of postproduction at Twitch Post, added, “One of the most interesting aspects of doing post-production for a museum of this scale is that the typical broadcast standards and restrictions do not apply to the pieces we create. The installations reflect a much greater variety of formats, both in terms of resolution, geometry, and sound. For example, one of the programs we created is projected onto the inside of a dome. This of course, presents challenges related to correcting distortions associated with projecting images on a curved surface. And this is only one example. There were dozens of pieces that posed refreshing challenges for our team.
“Museums are also unique in that we have to be mindful of how our media will interact with the surrounding artifacts and architecture of the space to create a unified experience for visitors. As a result, no media can be considered complete until it has been experienced in the space where it will eventually live and adjustments are made on-site. This is especially important as it relates to sound. Not only does each piece need to be mixed for its particular location, an overall mix of the entire museum must be made to make sure that all of the installations work in concert.”
Abigail Honor, co-founder and principal partner of Persona Films and Twitch Post​ and CEO of parent company Lorem Ipsum Corp., assessed, “The biggest challenge was the sheer number of media pieces and the depth of the content within the interactive programs. We produced a thorough look at topics ranging from culture in the 1990s to Russia’s international relations, and the content had to be factual and entertaining at the same time.”
