#i-docs

[hannahbrasier]

I don't know why it's taken me so long to find the actual .pdf for this. Definitely going to have to read this. Emerging interesting interactive documentary reading from the i-docs crowd.

[hannahbrasier]

editing, sketching, making connections, reshaping the research question, what's important?

[hannahbrasier]

KIG #3

Korsakow Interest Group meeting on Monday was great and it forced me to talk through some of the concerns of Korsakow. It was great to see some of Paul Ritchard's shots of the Flinders Rangers and the potential for these to be a great K-Film, well I think so. Some things:

soundtracks allow for continuity. I hadn't really thought about this much, well I knew it from all my Cinema Studies stuff but had not really considered it in much detail in respect to the effect it would have in a K-Film. Having a continuous soundtrack makes the fragmentary nature of the clips seem less jarring because the user hears a continuous soundtrack making navigation smoother in some sense. Whenever I have previously hear a continuous soundtrack on a K-Film I had always found it quite irritating, but thinking about it this way makes a lot of sense.

films that shrink in time. Adrian talked about how he liked the idea of K-films shrinking in time or eventually dying. I like the poetics of this and think that it would be useful to think about this in respect to the interactive docos that are going to come out of my PhD. This relates to Darren Tofts's article on how beginnings have more meaning because they don't exhaust into an end. 

travelling through, and never getting anywhere. We talked a lot about the possibilities for Paul Ritchard's collection of driving videos from the Flinders Rangers and how they could be constructed in Korsakow. We talked about randomness, and how perhaps these videos should just be put into Korsakow with one keyword and the user could just explore through the work, well this as a starting point, with a continuous soundtrack narrative. We discussed how the videos never lead anywhere and there are these great visual and aural textures between gravel and bitumen roads, and perhaps this could dictate the keywords. Looking forward to what Paul brings to show in the next meeting.

copyright. When I discussed my Marker speculative essayistic noticing K-film the problem of copyright emerged in terms of publishing the work. Whilst in a academic context it's alright, to be exhibited it's not. Got to contact the owner of Marker's films, whoever that may be.

Overall, the meeting had a lot of great useful discussion around Korsakow and the affordances of Korsakow, and it was interesting to hear about all the different works that were in progress. 

[hannahbrasier]

i-docs special, studies in documentary film

I've just completed the i-Docs Special of Studies in Documentary Film, and have had a few conversations about a few of the articles to a few people, and thought maybe it was time to give it a place on my blog. I thought overall the issue was pretty great, and helped clarify some things around where my research sits in the field of interactive documentary. The post is a few observations on the i-Docs issue.

"Interactive documentary: setting the field"

In the first article of the issue "Interactive documentary: setting the field" the author's Aston and Gaudenzi give an overview of interactive documentary and how it emerged into theorisation post the i-Docs symposia in 2011. Particularly relevant to my research is their defining of the i-Doc, as an expansion of the web documentary to include "any digital platform that allows interactivity" (126). Defining interactivity as 

a means through which the viewer is positioned within the artefact itself, demanding him, or her, to play an active role in the negotiation of the 'reality' being conveyed through the i-doc. This view of interactivity requires a physical action to take place between the user/participant and the digital artefact. It involves a human computer interface, going beyond the act of interpretation to create feedback loops with the digital system itself. (126)

"Documentary's metamorphic form: Webdoc, interactive, transmedia, participatory and beyond"

Siobhan O'Flynn's article "Documentary's metamorphic form: Webdoc, interactive, transmedia, participatory and beyond" was my favourite due to the connections I found with my own research. Realising that the database and how this is theorised is probably the most productive precursor area for me to look into. What is of particular interest to me in terms of O'Flynn's article is her emphasis on fragments in the design of i-docs, where she considers that i-docs

are often designed as databases of content fragments, often on the web, though not always, wherein unique interfaces structure the modes of interaction that allow audiences to play with documentary content. (142)

What I think is particularly strong about O'Flynn's article is that it looks at i-docs in light of the digital, framing it in the context of Manovich's database, and also in cinema, referring to Bruzzi and Nichols. Through doing this she enables herself to situate i-docs within these two fields, hence carving a space for where the particularities of i-docs rest. Specifically she discusses where the i-doc emerged from in reference to the network; from database narratives and web 2.0. Of particular interest she references Manovich's database which "represents the world as a list of items and it refuses to order this list" (Manovich 1999), contending that

what is lost in this conception is the complexity of narrative structures that layer meaning through patterns, juxtapositions, associations and reversals that can telegraph meaning through the poetics of the text. (144)

This is particularly relevant as it views interactivity and the database as complex, not reducing interactivity to a definition, but viewing it more as a complex tangle. O'Flynn discusses this complexity in light of other artistic antecedents, including surrealist films, the complexity of poetry and traditional documentary. Similar to Aston and Gaudenzi, O'Flynn has a rather reductive explanation of Korsakow discussing that whilst providing "new aesthetic possibilities" that are web specific, the resulting interactive documentaries "are more often reified experiences that rarely create create an emotional resonance" (146). She suggests that this lack of resonances results from the "removal of a fixed editorial structure resulting in the absence of a sense of a narrowing horizon of choice leading to a dramatic climax and conclusion" and also that the "often 'flat' or 'static' interface design...takes only minimal advantage of the affordances of web interfaces, where the focus of interaction is only on what to view next" (146). In reference to my honours I find this a rather simplified vision of the possibilities of Korsakow, and think that Korsakow films can be quite emotive; Matt Soar's work being evidence of this, in that the whilst the main form of interaction may be to choose what video to select next that this decision is related to an emotive attachment with the work, in terms of that moment of indecision. In terms of interface Korsakow interfaces can change as the user moves through the work positioning the user to interact in different screen spaces with the film, as thumbnails and the main video can reorganise spatially on the screen. The second part of O'Flynn's article discusses the impact of Web 2.0 on the development of transmedia and multimedia projects, and does not directly relate to my research. Hence, I see the database as the most productive antecedent in which to research my practice.

"We're happy and we know it: Documentary, data, montage"

The third essay "We're happy and we know it: Documentary, data, montage" is also of relevance, and is the last article I wish to discuss from this issue, as the last article focuses on locative works and the use of GPSs which isn't of particular relevance to my research though interesting nonetheless. Dovey and Rose in "We're happy and we know it: Documentary, data, montage" are concerned with finding meaning in the ubiquitous data of the web, contending that the "challenge in these marriages of mass media form and rhizomatic network is to find new ways of shaping attention into a coherent experience" (159). This essay differs from the others as it directly discusses how the authors wish to use the term documentary; adapted from Nichols as the "memory of documentary as a social praxis in its attempt to argue for new modalities of coherence within the emergent online environment" (160). The main works Dovey and Rose discuss in this article is how the web has been used to generate documentary content which is then used to construct interactive online documentaries such as Harris and Kamvar's We Feel Fine which was created by "sampling the world's blogs every few minutes for the words 'I feel fine' or 'I am feeling'" (161). What is interesting is how they discuss this as a documentary in terms of it neither containing video or sound. They discuss it as a documentary because it is a social praxis, where the

snatches of self-expression, which are Harris's raw material, can be seen as 'actualities' of the Information Age, units of content reflecting the world that can, with a creative treatment, be fashioned into a documentary artefact (162) 

From this contending that the "Web is now a vast repository of social information that is potential documentary content. The live and changing nature of that data is a new affordance" (162). What is significant about this in light of my research is the ability of the online to capture documentary content as it is happening through sources such as vine, instagram and blogs. This is an important affordance in terms of capturing what is noticed as it happens and links the noticing methodology to the networked aspect of my research. 

Another significance of this article is that it discusses a project that Dovey and Rose are making in light of this research, based on Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin's Chronique d'un Ete (Chronicle of a Summer) which is discussed by Corrigan as an essay film. Hence, this article may just be the most useful in terms of my PhD, in terms of connections. The project which comes out of this research for Dovey and Rose is called Are you Happy? is about "finding out what happens when we ask the same question in the global environment of the Web today" (166). The project is going to use Popcorn Maker to create an interactive documentary using vox pops of videos submitted by people across the world via vimeo accompanied by images and text from the web which relate to the themes present in the vox pops. What is interesting about this work-in-progress is the essayistic nature it adopts without ever referring to the essay film in the article, especially in how Dovey and Rose want the textual and video elements "in a creative tension...rather than as explanation, to combine word and image in the spirit of Godard rather than current affairs" (169). Further, the authors of the work state that this tension "'thickens' the visual/auditory 'description' provided by the video" (169, borrowing these terms from the anthropological work of Clifford Geertz). These descriptions of the progress of Are you Happy? are obviously linked to my PhD research through the everyday quality of the work and how the work is essayistic in that it thickens description as opposed to moving through a sequence of events. This essay is great because it uses it evidences how the project work links in and out of research, making explicit that the artefact is going to provide knowledge about creating meaningful and affective experiences with interactive documentaries through using content from the web as raw documentary material.

References:

Aston, Judith, and Sandra Gaudenzi. “Interactive Documentary: Setting the Field.” Studies in Documentary Film 6.2 (2012): 125–139. Print.

Dovey, Jon, and Mandy Rose. “We’re Happy and We Know It: Documentary, Data, Montage.” Studies in Documentary Film 6.2 (2012): 159–173. Print.

O’Flynn, Siobhan. “Documentary’s Metamorphic Form: Webdoc, Interactive, Transmedia, Participatory and Beyond.” Studies in Documentary Film 6.2 (2012): 141–157. Print.

[1001tales-blog]

New Crowdsourced Film Project Launches in UK: MyStreet #idocs2011

via mystreetfilms.com

Looks like you need to be UK:

"My Street is many things... It's where I live, it's where you live, it's an idea, it's your hood, your locale, your community, your neighbours, it could even be your corridor or your lift.

Now it is 2 more things: it's a nationwide competition for you to make a short documentary film about your "street" and it is a new website where your film will be seen, telling the nation's stories, street by street ... by you. Anyone can take part. Professional, amateur, journalist, animator, young, old, activist, artist. You can make a new film or perhaps you already have one.

Each year the shortlisted films will be showcased at the OPEN CITY London Documentary Festival (June 16th - 19th 2011).

The submission deadline for this year is May 26th. Fims submitted after this date will be eligible for the festival in 2012."

[makhila]

Juke / Footwork Mini Documentary feat Da Mind Of Traxman JP

[honkylab-blog]

Entretien avec le journaliste-photographe Jean Matthieu Gautier

1/ Comment êtes-vous arrivé au webdoc ? Qu'est-ce qui vous passionne professionnellement ?

Journaliste-photographe, je travaille principalement pour Enfants du Mékong Magazine, la publication de l’ONG du même nom. Je me sens avant tout « rapporteur de réel », et c’est pour cette raison que le webdoc, en tant que nouvel outils de création et, pour résumer, nouveau moyen de « raconter/rapporter du réel » m’a assez tôt intéressé. Enfants du Mékong a une tradition de communication particulière, à la fois familiale, intimiste, avant-gardiste autant que faire se peut et surtout, anti-larmoyante et manichéenne. Ma mission en tant que journaliste pour le magazine édité par Enfants du Mékong est donc de rapporter des histoires vécues, de rendre compte de situations concrètes, sans jamais chercher à « faire pleurer mamie ». 2/ De quoi parle votre projet ? Manila-Moneyla est une sorte de voyage à travers la Manille des mal-logés. La capitale des Philippines compte près de 20 millions d’habitants et attire quotidiennement des centaines de milliers de pauvres venus de toutes les provinces de l’archipel. Ils viennent s’installer à Manille pour fuir des conditions de travail moyenâgeuse ou des conditions climatiques désastreuses et meurtrières  comme l’a récemment rappelé le typhon Washi, en décembre, qui a fait plus de 1 200 morts… et parce qu’ils s’imaginent que leur vie y sera meilleure – un leurre, dans la plupart des cas. Au fil de ce voyage, l’internaute est invité à s’interroger sur les conditions de vie des habitants des bidonvilles de Manille – des bidonvilles qui peuvent prendre des formes bizarres, comme le cimetière-bidonville de Navotas, à l’ouest de la ville, ou qui sont tout simplement menacés de destruction par les autorités, avec à la clé des solutions de relogements inadaptées. Le parcours des mal-logés de Manille suit malheureusement un cycle qui n’est pas difficile à retracer : ils vont de la campagne à la rue ; de la rue au bidonville ; du bidonville à d’éventuels sites de relogement à l’extérieur de Manille… et beaucoup recommencent le cycle à partir de ce point. Au-delà de l’aspect documentaire qui consistait à rendre compte de cette situation bien spécifique, Manila-Moneyla permet également de présenter quelques-unes des solutions mises en place par Enfants du Mékong, non pas pour enrayer ce phénomène d’exode rural, mais tout simplement pour venir en aide aux victimes de ces situations.

3/ Comment avez-vous conçu ce projet ? Il ne m’a pas été très difficile de convaincre la direction d’Enfants du Mékong. En tant qu’ONG basée en France, s’adressant principalement à des donateurs français, mais traitant de difficultés rencontrées par des populations localisées quant à elles en Asie du Sud-Est, il nous est souvent difficile de faire comprendre certaines situations, certains aspects de la vie des gens auprès de qui nous intervenons. Par son caractère immersif et interactif, le webdocumentaire apparait comme l’un des outils les plus efficaces pour arriver à cette compréhension. J’ai commencé à m’impliquer sur ce projet en décembre 2010 en suivant un flux de production dont je ne maîtrisais pas l’intégralité des tenants et aboutissements : écriture du scénario, prise de contact avec le terrain pour organiser le tournage, en février-mars, dérushage, début du montage… puis mise en ligne, en octobre, sur le site du magazine La Vie dans un premier temps, et depuis peu sur un mini-site conçu spécialement par Enfants du Mékong.

4/ Comment avez-vous travaillé sur le montage ? Manila-Moneyla est un projet composé à 80% de photographies, animées ou non. La première étape consistait donc à réaliser un éditing cohérent et le plus sélectif possible. Ensuite est venue la phase de montage sonore – une petite découverte pour moi… agréable mais parfois éprouvante. Puis le montage interactif sur Klynt – pour lequel j’aurais à peu près le même commentaire, à quelques nuances près.

5/ Quelles retours avez-vous reçu de la part des lecteurs (spectateurs) ? Les retours ont été très positifs au début, avec une moyenne de près de 9 minutes de temps passé sur le site et un taux de rebond de moins de 30% - je pense que nous avons bénéficié d’un petit effet sympathie sur les réseaux sociaux et de la part de différents blogs, ainsi que quelques retombées presse, notamment sur France Info, France 24, Le Monde.fr, Le Mouv’… Ainsi qu’une très belle critique sur Le blog documentaire. Et puis les choses se sont un peu tassées. Nous verrons pour la suite.

6/ Pourquoi avoir choisi Klynt ? C’est d’abord le hasard qui m’a fait tomber sur Klynt. Et en y regardant de près, ce logiciel semblait offrir beaucoup d’avantages, à commencer par une réduction de coût – le budget dont je disposais n’était évidemment pas mirobolant, insuffisant en tout cas pour faire appel à une chaîne de production avec monteur, monteur interactif, flasheur, graphiste, designer sonore etc., – et surtout une certaine forme de liberté. Par ailleurs, la possibilité qu’il offrait de maîtriser un projet de bout en bout via son interface me semblait assez novatrice et comme le logiciel est relativement facile à appréhender… J’ajouterais que la caution « Honkytonk » était un gage de sérieux non négligeable. Bref, je n’ai pas eu beaucoup à hésiter et de fait, à l’usage, en dehors de certains petits couacs – la version de Klynt dont je disposais pour mon montage était une béta – les quelques semaines que j’ai passées avec Klynt m’ont convaincues de réitérer l’expérience pour mes projets à venir.

7/ Un projet futur sur lequel vous aimeriez communiquer ? Je repars dans quelques jours au Cambodge pour y tourner – toujours pour Enfants du Mékong – un projet de webdocumentaire sur la jeunesse. Et le montage se fera avec Klynt ! Le storyboard est déjà en place dans l’interface, ainsi que la plupart des séquences avec leurs liens etc. Il n’y a plus qu’à intégrer les médias…

— propos recueillis par Damien pour le HonkyLab

[honkylab-blog]

What is graphic design?