SHARING THE EXPERIENCEParticipatory culture, social media, interactive documentary, and nailing online engagement, the prototype, and report

!Patrick Kelly, 15th September 2014

OVERVIEW• My background

• How can we contextualise social media, interactivity and participation, when we approach from a heritage media background? 

• How do we successfully engage with the audience as users? 

• How do we connect our media practice with the investigation into the prompt?  

BACKGROUND

• Traditional filmmaking degree (QUT, 2006-08).

• Honours (QUT, 2009): short film production.

• PhD (RMIT, 2010-2013): investigation of online media production.

• Currently: Festival Director/Digital Producer (Critical Animals) + Interactive Documentary (Detour Off the Superhighway) (+ teaching!)

• Short films (Fiction + Documentary)

• Film Festivals seen as the ultimate aim

• YouTube/online video fairly new and seen as where short films go to retire

• Modern trends in filmmaking…

TRADITIONAL FILMMAKING

• How does the creative process differ for a filmmaker who creates exclusively online content?

• Investigated web series, with a view to make one of my own (12 x 5min shorts).

• Participation & Collaborative Content Production

PHD - ONLINE VIDEO

• Kind of went in the other direction, while still looking at newer technologies. “No one knows who discovered water, but it probably wasn’t a fish”…

• What are the implications of a modern filmmaker utilising traditional media technologies instead of more contemporary equipment?

• Situation Documentary format for 80 day experiment…

FINAL VERSION OF PHD

• Part of the answer to my final prompt question: take a holistic approach to media production and provide context, no matter what type of media you are producing.

• Film became quite personal in nature & aimed for genuineness.

FINAL VERSION OF PHD

• Detour Off the Superhighway (80min feature documentary)

• Closed off, linear narrative.

• The documentary itself: Good, but kind of eclectic in style. Lots of different types of content within (doco, sketches, animation, parody, sentimentality etc etc). Personal in nature and not really conforming to any one genre.

• PhD passed…

DETOUR

• Working more within Mobile Video practices (Instagram Video) + interactive documentary (Korsakow).

• Festival Director & Digital Producer for Critical Animals (www.criticalanimals.com)

• Generally, embracing the ideas that first interested me in doing a PhD (but didn’t necessarily form the focus of that PhD)

• So, now what?

AFTER THAT PROJECT…

• Working more within Mobile Video practices + interactive documentary.

• Festival Director & Social Media Producer for Critical Animals (www.criticalanimals.com)

• Generally, embracing the ideas that first interested me in doing a PhD (but didn’t necessarily form the focus of that PhD)

• Finding the time to connect the theories I learned about collaborative content production, social media, participation, and interactive documentary to transform the Detour project…

AFTER THAT PROJECT…

• How do I turn a traditional documentary into an interactive and participatory documentary?

[Quite similar to our prompt ‘How can social media be used to produce an interactive documentary?’] • Look at case studies (Goa Hippy Tribe, Welcome to Pine Point, Transcendent Man, Big

River Rising, Digitial Deadly Sins).

• What types of content do they have? How are the projects structured?

• How are themes used to structure these projects?

• What platforms are being utilised? Are they being fully utilised? What do we want to do that our platform cannot do?

• What sort of participation is possible? What sort of participation do I even want to achieve?

APPROACHING INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY

• http://pinepoint.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint

• Interactive Documentary (Linear, No Participation, but you can take your time wandering through)

• Content: Photos, Text, Audio, Video, Drawings, Images of small details.

• Story of reconnection (like Goa Hippy Tribe) - perhaps social media could have been used more effectively as an additional platform?

WELCOME TO PINE POINT

• https://www.facebook.com/TranscendentMan?ref=ts&fref=ts

• Traditional Documentary (closed off, linear structure, no participation)

• Great use of Facebook - has become an ongoing information source

• Themes: everything technology >> medical, professional, social, humanitarian, intelligence, communication, etc.

• Content: news articles, blog posts. Links from elsewhere.

TRANSCENDENT MAN

• http://www.christianaid.org.uk/whatwedo/in-focus/big-river-rising/big-river-rising.aspx

• Web documentary. Closed off to participation. Linear. Five ‘episodes’.

• Content: Images, Video, Text.

• Good use of themes. Belen (profile), Hazards, Warning, Solutions, Emergency. Very clear.

• Participation does not extend beyond navigation.

BIG RIVER RISING

• http://digital-deadly-sins.theguardian.com/#/Grid

• Non-linear, navigate freely, some participation.

• Content: Video, Text, Drawings, Questionnaires.

• Very good use of themes (the Sins).

• Website could utilise participation more. Perhaps more could be built into it? News outlets want participation - why no contribution section?

DIGITAL DEADLY SINS

• I have the content: Video (cinema verite, sketches etc), Text (journals etc), Photos, Animations. Need additional content (more interviews, newer footage)

• Themes: a number of approaches. By segment from original film (year/tech). Family, friends, self. Film, photos, music, text. New tech, old tech. So on. Good to have plenty and to expand them out from one another (eg. Family + Participation).

RE-APPROACHING DETOUR

• Platforms? Facebook = essential for me. Drive project with conversation. ‘Questions’ not available on pages though.

• Would like to be able to curate the experience more (incl. arranging of content). Perhaps Wordpress + widgets for participatory sections?

• Participation: I want more people involved. More experiments from participants. Collaborations. Remixes.

• Re-brand the project as an ongoing interactive documentary that critiques modern media practices. Content from elsewhere that relates to themes of project.

RE-APPROACHING DETOUR

• Story is key - keep it personal and enthralling

• Take a holistic approach - treat it like an educational resource

• Think ahead - what content will you need later? get it now.

• Be flexible in the field - is the best story hiding from you? how can we find it?

• Remember your audience - what do they want to watch? will they participate?

TIPS FROM BIG RIVER RISING

• Much like gathering footage for a film, how will you cover the process that you’ve undertaken in the production of your event? Make sure you have plenty of content (Video, Audio, Text, Drawings, Photos).

• What are the themes of your story? How can you arrange your story by using these themes? Are there themes within themes?

• Work out what you want and need in your prototype. What platforms are available to you? What are their capabilities/weaknesses? What kind of participation do you want?

• Find a way to approach the prototype holistically and to take a genuine approach. Why will people want to look at your project?

FINAL TIPS