I have just been teaching crossmedia documentary production to my undergraduate students in Bristol. Their brief was to create a character-led documentary across the three areas of moving image, sound and interactive. After several years of teaching this module, I have finally seen a good example of a cinematic interface helping to create an immersive framework for engagement with documentary narrative. The piece is viewable on-line as The Jeffrey Johns Story.
It’s currently described as a multi-platform documentary but is really a crossmedia piece. It is a highly packaged piece of work that looks slick and professional but how appropriate is it to the subject matter? What happens when content generated by the documentary subject is combined with more traditional forms of documentary making and edited to a narrative line? How well does it achieve its aim to uncover a world unknown to many in which passion and reflection take centre stage?
Comments welcome!