What was so right with Russia's War and Peace Slow TV - война и мир?

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Oh those Russians. Two things Russia has produced in the past year have really impressed me. Assuming readers are familiar with a certain notable annual song competition, in May 2015 you may recall a first half of the vote announcements of the Eurovision Song Contest as a slog-it-out between Russia and Sweden. 

The second half of the votes saw Sweden surge ahead and take the top spot from Polina Gagarina. I think it was more the cute Swedish guy and endearing animation which helped the song win. Polina’s belting out of a power ballad got my vote last year, and would you not agree that this year’s competition would have had a lot of additional interesting dynamics if Moscow had been hosting Eurovision 2016?

So, Russia’s 2015 Eurovision entry, A Million Voices, came second - but later in the year about 1,300 voices participated in a monumental Russian Slow TV transmission. In December, Russia 1, Russia Kultur and Radio Mayak broadcast a live, real time reading of Tolstoy's War and Peace. It represented the very best of what a Slow TV broadcast can achieve. 

While its subject wasn't the progressive linear journey through a pretty landscape or watching a craft activity pass in front of the camera, it was like NRK's 60 hour continuous sing-through of the 899 Hymns of the Norwegian Hymn Book in 2014. It was the celebration of literature with national resonance which framed a Slow TV broadcast with such punch.

Here are nine things I think are so RIGHT with Russia’s War and Peace Slow TV.

A SENSE OF COMPLETENESS

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It was a complete work, all the way through, no edits. No cutting out less interesting bits. The parts less racey, less dramatic helped give definition and greater meaning to the dramatic parts. The whole thing, a self defined work independent of anyone’s thinking ‘this is too long, we must shorten it’.

SOMETHING WHICH EXISTS INDEPENDENTLY OF TV PRODUCTION

It was a work which existed independently of the production, not devised for it. Whether or not the production had happened, the work is there. This means that there's an audience, there's an interest in what is related by the TV cameras before the TV cameras get involved. Yes, it was assembled into a TV broadcast but was not contrived into being as a 'new' idea for TV. Unlike other reality formats which contrive and fix a subject or activity for a broadcast, the book exists aside and before a production company brings it to the screen.

IT WAS GIVEN AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO DO IT

It was given as long as it was needed on a TV broadcast (as well as the internet and radio). It was not truncated, abridged, edited to make it shorter so it would fit a scheduled regular slot on TV. By disrupting the usual broadcasting schedule it communicates that it is not usual broadcasting.

IT WAS GIVEN A PRIME TIME MAIN CHANNEL FOCUS

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The broadcaster accommodated it prime time on principal channels as well as a specialised channel and online. With its main focus being verbal content - the reading of the book - radio accommodated it too. Yes, online viewing is significant in today’s broadcast landscape but consuming media on a main TV channel on primetime is still the thing which make a large number of people think ‘this is important’.

IT WAS SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO A LOT OF THE AUDIENCE

It was something culturally and historically significant for the country which broadcast it. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is cherished and embraced as something which captures the essence of national pride and identity. People care about it and are deeply interested in the broadcast. It wasn't in itself a novelty but something which matters, presented in a novel manner.

IT WAS PARTICIPATORY

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It was participatory. Russians famous and not famous, Russians around the world and across the country, able bodied, disabled, blind, uniformed, un-uniformed, military, civilian, religious and spiritual, in palaces, on the street, in the space station, in the arctic. In all about 1,300 representing every aspect of Russian diversity and perceived nationhood participated.

IT ALLOWED ENOUGH TIME FOR VIEWERS TO SEARCH THE PICTURE THEMSELVES

It may not have been ‘ambient’ wallpaper like natural scenery, but allowed three minutes or so of each reader, their context, location, sometimes more when several readers were in the location. You become aware of the immediate story of that person while reading their page, and over many readers, a much bigger story. 

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There were opportunities to view what was going on around or behind the reader - the natural landscape, the city landmarks, the human activity, the museum exhibits, the historic environment. So much to take in, even if you don't know what the reader is saying.

IT WAS A TV EVENT

It created a sense of an event, an attention grabbing but significant novelty. Too much and too frequent, the novelty becomes annoying or ignored. A balance of the above factors, it is a meaningful distraction from the typical TV schedule - and like important national events or major sporting events - it is accommodated entirely and even disrupting scheduled broadcasts after it.

IT WAS A CELEBRATION OF MORE THAN A TV PROGRAMME

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It was a celebration - of reading, of a book, of a country, of history, of identity, of places, of diversity.

I hardly understood a word of it. I knew "Mir" before (thanks, space travel). I understood "Niet, Natasha" (which seemed to be said a lot). Without knowing much about Russia, except what a diet of Western Media and an occasional foray on to Russia Today when your own domestic broadcaster becomes overly repetitive, I got a wider idea of Russia. Its diversity.

I saw palaces, museums, landscapes, cities (other than Moscow), even learnt a few characters of the Cyrillic alphabet. I got an interest in learning more about Tolstoy's tremendous tome (how convenient that a BBC drama of War and Peace of it registered on the TV schedule horizon shortly afterwards).

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Most of all, I felt this was a broadcast that nails the benchmark of a masterful Slow TV broadcast as well the best of the Norwegian NRK Slow TV broadcasts to date - something audiences and broadcasters can learn from as more countries begin dabbling with Slow TV. It's not something to dabble with. It's something to take a big, calculated, well produced run, jump and plunge. Slow TV represents a genus of TV format which can be odd and quirky, a nice visual trip. It can be an attention grabbing benevolent broadcasting behemoth. It can be that novelty wallpaper TV but it can be a national celebration which many feel compelled to watch.

LINKS FOR WAR AND PEACE

"War and Peace - We Read the Novel" was broadcast live online HERE with archived segments available, with some segments falling on Russia 1 (Россия 1) and Russia K (Россия К - dedicated culture channel also featuring material about War and Peace) and Radio Mayak (Радиомаяк). Look for the hashtag "#войнаимир" on social media.

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

Slow TV in Russia - 'Война и мир' - "War and Peace"

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Russia is hosting a marathon Slow TV event, which begun yesterday and concludes on 11th December. This is not hours of a fire burning, neither a train journey nor a solitary immersive exercise into some visually and aesthetically impressive picture. It is an immense collective participatory read through of Tolstoy's 'Война и мир' - "War and Peace".

This is actually really exciting. Yes, I don't know Russian, I can't read Cyrillic (thank goodness for 'right click - translate to English' in Chrome). This is exciting, as it grabs one of the important strands of Slow TV which some broadcasters either don't yet get or aren't brave enough to dabble in - that of the long, live participation in something of national heritage, identity or culture. A patriotic coming together to celebrate some sense of shared community.

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The project will feature 1,300 readers over 60 hours from locations all over Russia and the world - each having about three minutes each to read about a page; its website illuminates the potential of such a Slow TV broadcast - which is what catapults it from being an interesting and quirky item in another TV schedule into a televisual event of national and international discussion: 

"This is a novel that covers the life of all social groups in Russia, showing the nation at a critical moment in history. Therefore, readings and plans to attract both professionals: actors, directors, TV and radio, as well as non-professional readers: politicians, athletes, scientists, statesmen, people of different professions, ages, known and unknown, from all corners of our country and around the world. In this way, we show that a large literature unites us all".

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For those already familiar with previous Slow TV transmissions, the marathon sing through of the Norwegian Hymn Book in 2014 springs to mind - 899 hymns, sung over 60 hours with about 200 choirs and 3,000 participants around Norway and one choir in the USA. This Russian project also throws open the potential of some of the discussion which followed in Norway after Salmeboka: Minutt for Minutt. 

With the hymn book's obvious Christian link, some suggested what about reading The Bible live? Then what about other writings of other religions? Or even celebrated national authors? Russia doing this stunning literary project should really put the hint to UK broadcasters of participatory, live Slow TV. And you do know 2016 is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death... (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more).

'War and Peace - We Read the Novel' may help explain the interest this blog gets from Russia. It remains the 4th largest audience for the blog, with April this year seeing Russia top the unique page views by far. In choosing something as uniting as Tolstoy's tome it will be insightful to see what the viewing figures are and how the exercise makes people feel about the sense of their nation and their belonging to it. 

Norway's Slow TV often brings a feel of perceived national identity, and with a postponed American Slow TV production, hopefully in 2016, maybe the USA can create and share the collective experience and identity that Slow TV can bring.

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"War and Peace - We Read the Novel" is being broadcast live online HERE with archived segments available, with some segments falling on Russia 1 (Россия 1) and Russia K (Россия К - dedicated culture channel also featuring material about War and Peace) and Radio Mayak (Радиомаяк). Look for the hashtag "#войнаимир" on social media.

In the UK, BBC4 will be airing a two hour Slow TV recording on 24th December - lots more here.

In September, Russia Today published an interview with Thomas Hellum, Norwegian producer and one of the innovators of Slow TV:

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog