Imperial Bank commercial. All 18 videos. HD quality, 50 fps.
The story behind the commercials.
For the bank's advertising campaign, they invited the then-unknown director Timur Bekmambetov, who would later become famous for his "Day Watch" films, "Night Watch" and "The Irony of Fate," the sequel to "Yolki."
"By that time, I had made my first film, "Peshawar Waltz,"" Timur recalls, "and I realized that no one needed cinema. The film toured festivals, won awards, but people didn't see it: cinemas were occupied by furniture stores and auto parts stores. Instead, they started showing commercials on television, which were shot without any rules: do whatever you want. Well, of course, we were earning some extra money in advertising. Then one day, the talented copywriter Volodya Perepyolkin proposed scripts for three commercials with the slogan "Punctuality is the politeness of kings." Then Bekmambetov met Sergei Rodionov, president of Imperial Bank. And he realized that it wasn't just advertising the bank that was important to him; he wanted to be a patron of the art form known as advertising.
I asked him, "Why don't you make films?" "How will people see them later?"
The first commercials, with the slogans "Precise to the Millimeter," "Precise to the Second," and "Precise to the Kopeck," were shot in a fairly simple style—beautiful, costumed, but with a minimum of words. In the first, Napoleon (the actor bears a striking resemblance) adjusts his cocked hat before snuffing out a projectile's fuse; in the second, Caesar tears his toga but makes it to the Senate; in the third, Louis XIV (Viktor Verzhbitsky) refuses to pay extra for lunch. The fourth, "Precise to the King," seemed to sum up the first three.
The commercials were clearer: they could be shown on television. Then Timur Nuruakhitovich expanded the concept: "World History" was born. And then came the years of a wonderful life. We searched for stories: for example, historian Kirill Zubkov, a consultant, introduced us to doctors of science from the Historical and Archival Institute. They told us many stories."
According to Timur Bekmambetov, he was not limited by the budget. "Imperial's president, Sergei Rodionov, being a smart man, chose the right policy: entrusting the budget to the director," Bekmambetov admits. "And this turned out to be the most rational approach. I was forced to limit myself: after all, if you're treated like a human being, you sincerely want not to abuse that trust. The budgets weren't small, but they weren't unprecedented."
Over the years, the budget fluctuated, as did the dollar exchange rate. While the first videos cost $7,000, the latest ones cost $200,000-$250,000. Costume designer Natalia Dzyubenko did everything possible to save on costumes while still achieving the task at hand.
"Since we were saving money and everything had to be done quickly, we were resourceful," Natalia admits. "We even resorted to 'crimes.' For example, we borrowed several dresses from Mosfilm and made one out of them. After filming, we altered them again and handed them back exactly as we found them. I'm often asked: which video or costume was the most difficult to work on? I can't say. When it's interesting, the challenges are actually attractive and don't feel like they're there at all. We went to Prague to shoot a video about Conrad III: remember the one where the women carry the wounded knights? The producers told us to take fewer costumes; we'll find more on site. But just in case, we still grabbed some random rags and other things. Yes, we found good costumes in Prague, but everything was so polished; the idea was that the characters were supposed to be "half-ruined": it was war, after all. The knights' armor we rented there was smeared with dirt, aged. And the princess's costume was sewn overnight in a hotel from burlap we'd brought with us.
I remember filming the Napoleon movie. They found some old French generals' costumes at the studio. They were in such terrible condition! So we sewed something similar ourselves, and then, on set, we tried to hide the flaws with folds, feathers, and a fluttering cloak. They even dusted it with snow. They tried their best to make it look like the French army. Interestingly, about fifteen years later, I was working on a historical film, and there were consultants there who specialized in military costumes for the French army. I asked them something, and they said, "What are you asking? Look at the Imperial Bank video about Napoleon; you can immediately see it's the French army! And I'm pleased that people remember and hold up our work as an example."
Director Timur Bekmambetov admits that there are several stories that have yet to be filmed. For example: "Once upon a time, nine suns rose in China, and a great misfortune befell. And no one knew when it was night, when it was day, when to sow, when to reap, when it was winter, when it was summer. Great chaos ensued, and the people were in poverty. Then the emperor took a bow and shot down the eight suns. Since then, Chin...