Transmedia storytelling: An interview with the makers of Love Radio

Love Radio, a transmedia documentary with interactive elements, explores the process of reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda in a unique format; a radio soap. I spoke with Anoek Steketee and Eefje Blankevoort, the pair behind the project: What compelled you to make Love Radio?  Travelling and working in Rwanda in 2008 we met the team that created Musekeweya, a popular radio soap that is …

From iPad to installation: interactive documentary on multiple platforms

Avatar Secrets, the interactive documentary for the iPad has scaled up its ambitions, installing a large scale interactive installation at Hot Docs for the duration of the festival. This is the first time that an interactive documentary has been included in the programme of North America’s largest documentary festival and it’s great to see Ramona Pringle’s work has been picked up. …

Choose Your Own Documentary in Tribeca Storyscapes section

Exciting news from Tribeca last week as they announce their selections for the upcoming festival. Five projects made it into the interactive Storyscapes section, including Choose Your Own Documentary – a show which is part of i-Docs 2014! Tribeca Film Festival’s Storyscapes, created in collaboration with BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Gin, is a juried section at the Festival to showcase innovative and interactive …

Don’t miss out! The i-Docs IDFA Roundup

Although the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) finished on Monday, there’s still tons of things to explore from the event. I’m still on the look out for any slides that get posted up or reviews of the festival, so this list may get modified, but for now here’s a a few of the big things that happened there: Jonathan …

Making Unspeak: an interview with Submarine Channel

Based on British journalist Steven Poole´s intriguing book of the same name, Submarine Channel presents Unspeak, an interactive documentary investigating the manipulative power of language. Blending filmmaking, data, technology, and design, the story of Unspeak unfolds across a series of short films, data visualizations, and a participatory dictionary in an interface designed for the web and tablet.  I spoke to …

MozFest 2013: should you go?

MozFest 2013 is back in London (Ravensbourne) in ten days time (25th-27th of October). Why should we care? I used to think this was a place for coders only. I was wrong. Or maybe what was wrong was to think that the clear distinctions between coder and non-coder was a way to position ourselves in the professional world. Wrong again; …

image credit: Shutterstock

Don’t miss out: 3 Awesome talks from SXSW so far

Not everyone can be at SXSW and despite regular updates via twitter, it’s incredibly hard to not feel like you’re missing out, particularly when you know you’re missing things like this: However don’t be too downhearted! The folks at SXSW are incredible at sharing and have been uploading talks to Soundcloud throughout the festival allowing you to keep up with …

“Interacting with Transmedia” – A Live Google Hangout hosted by NAMAC and The Daily Dot

Last Thursday the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) and The Daily Dot held a Google Hangout on the ever relevant topic of Transmedia. Moderated by Convergence Culture author Henry Jenkins, the discussion also featured the voices of Ingrid Kopp, the Director of Digital Initiatives at Tribeca Film Institute and documentary filmmaker Marc Smolowitz amongst others. The concept …

Open Doc Lab explore the New Frontier

As most of you are probably aware, Sundance Film Festival recently took place in Utah. One area of the festival which particularly caught our attention was New Frontier, an “experiment in Festival presentation, New Frontier is a social and creative space that showcases media installations, multimedia performances, transmedia experiences, panel discussions, and more.” It sounded great and some of the projects which were showcased …

Translimitstorytelling: creating stories for the digital age

Translimitstorytelling is a brand new company dedicated to creating stories for the digital age. Headed up by Nina Simoes, who spoke at i-Docs 2011 & 2012, they already have two strong in-house productions, the company is also open to co-productions with creators who are experimenting with groundbreaking technologies and innovative ways to engage with audiences. The team behind Translimitstorytelling is …

Interactivity and Transmedia: new presentations

At i-Docs we love a couple of things: sharing and our community and this post is a perfect combination of the two! A couple of brand new slideshows from Siobhan O’Flynn which she presented at  the CWC Strategic Digital Leadership Accelerator in Toronto last week, particularly useful for people interested in interactivity and transmedia: CWC Social Story Business & You …

Upian strikes back: Alma is out

After 2 years of hard work, Upian (Gaza/Sderot, Prison Valley) has just released Alma. This is not a story like others, nor an i-docs like others. Although it is a cross-media production (it is an iPad application, a website, a documentary, a book and an exhibition) it is one unique story made available on different platforms. No game, no story-world, no transmedia …