Final Major Project: The "connected" Documentary Genre

Documentaries by their nature are already connected, collaborative, participatory, and interactive, at least in some ways. However I am looking to produce a documentary project that engages viewers via interactive tools — from customising the experience depending on when and where it is accessed, to providing a “choose your own adventure” structure. This isn’t your typical documentary. I want to make the most of technology and the web and create a film that can constantly update itself with breaking information, movies that are built and shaped by users, and interactive narratives that let viewers chart their own path. This could call for a collaboration with different courses at UCA including: BA (Hons) Advertising & Brand Communication BA (Hons) Graphic Design: New Media BA (Hons) CG Arts & Animation Here are examples of the "Connected" Documentary I found online: 18 days in Egypt A Collaborative Documentary Project about the Egyptian Revolution. 18 Days in Egypt is a crowd-sourced interactive documentary that will feature thousands of videos, photos, e-mails and tweets created by participants and eye witnesses. The project’s goals are to provide tools for Egyptians to tell the story together–from their perspective– create a robust user experience and a living documentary that contributes to the dialogue around democracy in the 21st century. The Tillman Story "Creating a interactive version of the film The ending of the movie tends to engage people to act. The audience asked how to engage. That's why they decided to create an interactive edition of the feature film. The movie's based on a huge amount of archives with a lot of scribbling in the margins. Filmmaker tried to recreate this experience of margin annotation. The feature films plays in the center of the frame and is surrounded by a group of widgets. The widgets break down in four categories. Updates, outtakes, documents and forums Updates. Allows to show updated information about the subject Outtakes. Filmmaking is building a story and sheer away everything that does not fit in the story. In the end you have a lot of good material on "the cutting room floor". Especially for this film, some of the most incendiary information was not included in the final cut. Documents. The ability to visualize the 350 (and more) pages of document the film is based on. Forums. Live chats and annotations in the documents"

Emerging technologies like HTML5 and WebGL liberate film from the constraints of runtime—and there are storytelling opportunities that have yet to be explored or even imagined. Imagine how the web could supercharge documentary filmmaking, for instance. B-Roll that was once discarded can now find a useful half-life on the web. Virtual spaces can be created and explored on the web, leading to new understandings. Data can enrich a story and help untold stories emerge. Viewers can contribute time, money, and attention to help expand documentary projects. Subjects can be represented in more intimate ways than ever before. This working group will survey some of the possibilities in web-native documentary. Four projects will serve as case studies, and the participants will help the projects with practical advice to help get them off the ground.

Final Major Project: Ideas Generation

Another great doc for inspiration: Grizzly Man by filmmaker Werner Herzog

Werner… on self-improvement Werner… on truth Werner… on telling stories Werner …on dreaming Werner… on his films: on More4

Have come up with another documentary idea. Inspired by this documentary: Running to the Limits: Running: Loseley House The 5 time New York Marathon running owners of Loseley House, Sarah and Mike More-Moleneuex run and host a 10K race every November at the historic location and we could potentially gain access to the whole event and its build up... The house has often been in films and the house is used to film crews on location,

Loseley Park is becoming increasingly popular as a venue for corporate events and as a location favoured by film and television companies. Partly this is due to its excellent communication links and its proximity to London, but it is also due to the fact we recognise that such activities require a high degree of flexibility and commitment on our part. Something we are happy to provide.

The race is on 4th November 2012 in aid of Shooting Star Chase. here is a short video which has a very brief VOX POP with Sarah (the houses owner) at 1:31

Been busy with a project for the summer looking to start up a company this summer so I have been plugging away at a business plan since the last day of term! But I have been thinking about Final Major Project. I'd like to follow my passion of Documentary/factual and I'm trying at the moment just to get the ball rolling on some ideas. To start I will think big with no boundries. The next process will be to find the best, yet simple ideas and as Steve Jobs used to do, say no to the good ideas but yes to the one great idea...

- the Modern Novelist: Ben Galley is a self published novelist. He regularly vlogs and blogs and his website links to every social medium available. The father of Eugenics: a story of the man behind the theory of eugenics lived in my village and and freind of mine lives in his old house. I will be looking at finding more ideas and motivate ideas generation through going to libraries in Maidstone, visiting the Kent Messenger and other newspapers, going to universities, sports clubs, I will look into going to the local government building in Maidstone: perhaps they will know an inspirational character or historic moment in history.

Lots to look into but the research part is the best bit! BBC Four have been showing docs recently which have essentially been a montage of showreels and archive from the BBC looking into the UK tourist industry. I have found interesting films online aswell...

God Is the Bigger Elvis: Trailer

Media World: Sci-fi tag-lines Quiz

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-06-01/sci-fi-taglines---the-film-quiz-has-landed

Pre-Production Unit: Finished Product

Here it is: The Cockleshell Raid 2012

Pre-Prodution Unit/Dissertation: The Final Flourish

This week has been making the final adjustemtns to both Pre-Production and Dissertation I feel the old adage of the 7 P's has been the way in which we've succeeded in this porject:

Proper preparation prevents p***-poor performance

Here our (almost) final designs for the pre-produtcion unit The Pre-production package (PPP) book design made at Hollingworth & Moss

and the PPP's DVD made at Cyclone

Pre-Production Unit: Script Writing

Spent yesterday working through the introduction part of my Shooting Script. This was a quite a hard task but managed to finish the first section. Today I decided to tackle the bulk of the script in a different manner. First I found the outline for Act One which I created in the Presentation stage:

Through archive and face-to-face interview we meet the crew, led by Historian Dan Snow. Interweaved with historical footage we are taken through the History of the raid which includes stylistic montage of the next generation team training at relevant land mark Eastney in Portsmouth, reflecting that of the ‘Canoe Commanodes’. Dan then takes us through the ‘Cockle Mk II’ cutting to sequence of the canoes being crafted by experts, The Historic Canoe and Kayak Associtation, with our crew helping the Kayaks take shape. Preperation concludes with a visit from presenter of Bullets, Boots and Bandadges, Military historian Saul David. Saul kits out the team in orignial uniform. The Frankton Four can now undertake:

- I took this as a base and then used post-it notes to formulate a succinct order separating out the individual components. - I then took the notes and put them on our production board and played with the order with the help of Chloe:

Here is the short hand version of the notes we made: Script Order