Alexander worked as a foreign photography correspondent for the Illustrated London News and L'Illustration and was an official photographer for the Duma and Nicholas II.

"[7] His announcement encouraged Pathé to create their first Russian documentary, Донские казаки в Москве[8] (Cossacks of the Don in Moscow), which was extremely successful.

[9]: 31–32  [3]: 21 Drankov read rumors that a foreign company planned to film a theatrical production of Boris Godunov in Moscow.

Although no such plans existed, he decided to preempt the rumored film by creating his own and found another theater which was performing the same play.

The production was troubled; the theater was open-air, forcing Drankov to move and reassemble the set as the light changed, and he clashed with the actors over his proposed cuts to the script, which would omit roughly 80% of the play.

Its production had begun over the summer when Vasily Goncharov hired Drankov to capture footage for an experimental play about the Cossack leader.

[10] Drankov promoted his version of Stenka Razin as Russia's first feature film, ignoring his incomplete Boris Godunov.

In response, Drankov made a competing seven-reel film, receiving Nicholas II's approval and access to authentic historical costumes from a museum.

[9]: 83  In 1916, when his film Washed in Blood was banned for glorifying revolutionaries, he re-released it under the title A Drama from the Life of Grigori Rasputin.

[3]: 119  Later that year, as film supplies ran low, Drankov took a break from filmmaking and managed Yekaterina Geltzer on tour.

In 1923, when Mustafa Kemal expelled Russian refugees from Turkey, Drankov left for the United States, living first in New York and then in Los Angeles.