A COMPLETELY PERSONAL AND QUITE POSSIBLY PIXELATED SUMMARY OF KEY TAKE-AWAY POINTS FROM THE 2012 I-DOCS SYMPOSIUM, by Kerric Harvey 1. Match the tool with the job and start with “the job.” In other words, let technology enable, assist, or augment creativity, not define it. By the same token, avoid gratuitous interactivity—the act of making something “interactive” because you …
3WDOC on i-Docs 2012
A guest post from our friends at 3WDOC: Recently returned from Bristol, where we have participated to the i-doc Symposium 2012, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Sandra Gaudenzi, Judith Aston, Maria Yáñez and Eva Dominguez for organizing this event dedicated to interactive documentary, and for inviting us! Here is a summary of what 3WDOC noted during …
Max Whitby on i-Docs 2012
Max has sent me this post on the participation and authorship panel from the touchpress website: http://www.touchpress.com. As a pioneer of content-led approaches to videodisc and CD-ROM, he really does know about the deep bedrock that lies beneath our feet. Over to Max: Just back from the most excellent i-docs conference in Bristol. I spoke at one of the early …
Editors and HTML5: Klynt, 3WDOC and Popcorn Maker
The i-docs 2012 hosted a very interesting debate about multimedia content editors. At the symposium were representatives from content editors Popcorn Maker, Klynt, and 3WDOC. The debate was very illustrative. In this article for my column The Fourth Bit in La Vanguardia, I highlight some aspects based on what it was presented and discussed there. Why talk about the HTML5 standard, about Flash, about programming …
Authoring tools confronted
Over the last year we have been witnessing the raise of new authoring tools that allows us to build an interactive documentary with no need of coding skills. Three of them are Klynt, 3WDOC and Popcorn Maker. On the second day of i-Docs Symposium we will have the opportunity to meet their creators, who will show us some projects made …
Algorithms ≠ Automation: guest post from Jesse Shapins
I write this from an eerily warm Cambridge, saddened by the fact that I cannot travel to Bristol for i-Docs. The group coming together is incredible, and while not physically present, I look forward to following the conversation virtually. As a provocation, Mandy invited me to write a blog post on Zeega — an open-source, HTML5 platform for creating interactive …
Awra Amba: Utopia in Ethiopia
Interactivity, collaboration and activism A guest post from one of this years speakers Paulina Tervo. Background – why did the story turn into an interactive project? In 2004 I came across a small community called Awra Amba during my travels in the rural parts of Northern Ethiopia. Having seen a lot of poverty and hardship on my trip, I was …
Interactive Media: the first 40 years
A guest post by Brian Winston. People might remember Barbara Kopple’s Oscar winning documentary Harlan County, USA. It was about a bitter strike in the Kentucky coal-fields in 1974. Most memorably, the company goons were so out of control they even started shooting at the film crew. But my memory of Harlan County coverage is a little different. It centres on …
Bear 71
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/35267742] Just launched at Sundance, Bear 71 is a brilliant interactive documentary created by Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison with the NFB Digital Studio. It’s a haunting story told from the point-of-view of a female grizzly bear – Bear 71 – about humans and animals in the Banff National Park, and how animals are being devastated in that relationship. It’s about nature, technology, …
How can 3D worlds be used in documentaries? A review of One Millionth Tower
Kat Cizek, and her NFB team, have just launched Highrise’s latest baby: One Millionth Tower. This is the fifth experiment in four years of what is now becoming a networked documentary, rather than a simple idoc. When Highrise started at the NFB in 2008 it was described as a “multi-year, multi-media documentary” but I have to admit that the whole concept was not very clear …
Popcorn.js and i-docs: the start of a great relationship?
A glance at popcorn.js and its possibilities for i-docs making, one week before the release of its 1.0 version at the Mozilla Festival in London. The last article posted by Arnau Gifreu on the evolution and the future of the Internet invited me to start my collaboration with i-Docs introducing the first proposals that are coming from different studios to …
Multimedia content editors
The production of multimedia specials has a lot in common with the artisanal process. Apart from the narrative work, one has to put the pieces together, which involves web programming. The lack of editors and content managers which can adapt to the needs of each project has obliged people to use a made-to-measure programming method for each job. The necessity demands it, and the …