#web-native

[ebuzz-bestpractice]

Web-native storytelling and why it matters

If you were asked to describe a detective story you might think of an Agatha Christie novel or one of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. What they have in common is a linear narrative that guides the reader or audience along a carefully constructed path towards a denouement.

But what does a web-native detective story look like? The user experience is of course different to anything in books, broadcast media or on celluloid because every medium has its own language.

The web enables storytelling to be non-linear, allowing users to find their own way towards the conclusion, as well as interactive, dynamic and participatory.

‘The Last Hours of Laura K’ is an immersive detective story from the BBC and provides a good example of what is possible. In order to solve the mystery, users must look for clues and find a motive for Laura’s murder by plunging themselves into the characters’ digital lives, including their social media updates.

Users are given 24 hours of fictional CCTV footage to help them recreate the victim’s last hours. They have access to Laura K’s profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Spotify and Tumblr.

The fact that only a very few people have managed to solve the cryptic puzzle has helped to create and consolidate a sizeable online community. Users can follow the official Twitter account, use #LastHoursofLK, or join the Facebook group to share ideas or discuss theories.

This kind of non-linear storytelling, which is clearly influenced by gaming, can also be found in other genres.

The multi award-winning ’Refugee Republic’ is an immersive web documentary that mixes sound, drawing, photographs and film to transport users to a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq. Users navigate around the camp with the aid of an interactive, hand-drawn map.

Users gain insight about the lives of the nearly sixty thousand refugees by seeing the places, hearing the sounds experiencing the atmosphere of Camp Domiz. As they explore users stumble across stories and find out how the refugees have transformed the camp into a bustling town, complete with schools and businesses.

User-generated content often plays an important part in digital storytelling. Belgium’s French-language national broadcaster, RTBF, created ‘Phone Booth Stories’ when the country’s last public telephone booth was demolished in May 2015. Before the ubiquity of mobile phones made them redundant, there were eighteen thousand phone boxes in Belgium, covering the length and breadth of the country.

RTBF asked users to share their memories about things that happened in pay phones on a dedicated Facebook page and via a special dial in number. There is also a web documentary.

Digital storytellers are finding new ways to engage audiences and to provide them with original multimedia experiences. This is not only immensely exciting, but also vital for the future of legacy broadcasters who need to engage digital audiences.

We’ll be looking at the importance of digital storytelling for public service media at our first Eurovision Online Media Conference. Register to participate at the NDRC, in Dublin, on 22nd October.

[philovankemenade]

“It is clear that the long-term future of broadcasting is online and the BBC needs to find new and exciting ways to help audiences make that transition, while bearing down on costs overall.”

Rona Fairhead on the BBC trust's approval to make the BBC3 TV channel online only - http://gu.com/p/4a8pp?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

[philovankemenade]

Another strength of The Carp And The Seagull‘s control method is that it’s not signposted. It is for us to explore and work out for ourselves. I love this approach, I’ve used it in my own projects. Encouraging the user to peek and poke and see-what-it-does can be quite counterintuitive with our grown-up reserve and respect. It’s something children do instinctively, before we beat it out of them in our efforts to shape them into adults. It’s by tapping into this inner child, the unshielded sensitive lump at our core, that interaction can become an emotional activity.

Matt Pearson on using interaction as an emotional trigger

[philovankemenade]

Contrary to what those in marketing may have you believe, not all users want to be able to “create their own stories”. This is because they’re not all coked-up control-freaks like the agency wankers who spout this shite. Some, believe it or not, have an interest in what the author is saying.

Matt Pearson on 'No-one Ever Cried At A Website'

[philovankemenade]

"It tells a big story about why the stories we are told today have stopped making sense.

But it is also an experiment in a new way of reporting the world. To do this I’ve used techniques that you wouldn’t normally associate with TV journalism. My aim is to make something more emotional and involving - so it reconnects and feels more real.

BBC iPlayer has given me the opportunity to do this - because it isn’t restrained by the rigid formats and schedules of network television. It's a place you can go to experiment and try out new ideas.

It is also liberating - both because things can be any length, and also because it allows the audience to watch the films in different ways."

Adam Curtis on releasing Bitter Lake on BBC iPlayer

[philovankemenade]

This video piece by the NYTimes gives you a feel of what it’s like to race down a snowy hill on a pair of ski’s. The link between volume and radius of the circular video at start and end gives it a sensory touch. It’s a newly invented sensory motor law, utilised in an online sports feature. To me this is a great example of phenomenal storytelling on the web.

I mean phenomenal in the experiential sense [2] of the word:

phenomenal |fəˈnämənəl| adjective 1 very remarkable; extraordinary: the town expanded at a phenomenal rate. 2 perceptible by the senses or through immediate experience: the phenomenal world.

Something we’ll see a lot more of in the immersive times ahead of us.

[albertmarch]

La historia del web-native cinema no ha hecho más que empezar y nadie sabe cómo va a ser, pero si algo parece claro es que se escribirá con líneas de código. La programaremos nosotros si no queremos que nos venga programada. Le quitaremos incluso lo de «cinema» o «documentary» para evitar confusiones y debates con puristas, y relajarnos: será simplemente lenguaje web, con imágenes, movimiento, ritmo y otras cosas. Buscaremos significados hackeando significantes en busca de nuestra propia narrativa. Lo haremos juntos, lo compartiremos y ése será nuestro auténtico código fuente audiovisual.

El audiovisual que viene nace de la web por María Yáñez en EMBED.

"De la web como plataforma de publicación a la web como materia prima. El nuevo audiovisual nace de la red y se alimenta de otros seres que la habitan. Web-native cinema y open video: un informe sobre estado de la cuestión."

Lectura imprescindible via Marta Berenguer.