interactive documentary: 10 things i have learned

@fromthehip

Stories + Technology + Design

10 Things I Have Learned

Stories are important

1

“I think stories are necessary, just as necessary as food and love. It’s how we make meaning of our lives.”

- Chimamanda Ngochi Adichie

Tell me and I will forget,Show me and I may remember,Involve me and I will understand.

Technology has always changed how we see

and talk about the world

2

Collaboration is hard

3

This slide was stolen from David Eads. Sorry David.

Agile Film User Soundtrack Code Edit Design Jump-cut

GitHub Lens Iterative Close-upSprint Blocking Front-end FrameSoftware Clip Bug-tracking Boom

Dev Zoom Refactoring Verite

The audience are makers and the audience has an audience

4

... fun things to do with the people formerly known as the

audience

From this...

...To This

HackerActivistGamer

Producer

InventorBlogger

Every time a new consumer joins this media landscape a new producer joins as well, because the same equipment - phones, computers - let you consume and produce. It's as if, when you bought a book, they threw in the printing press for free...

- Clay Shirky, How Social Media Can Make History

Authorship vs Openness is a challenge

5

Authorship Openness

Fail Fast Forward

6

#tribecahacks

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/labs/i/hazardoushospitals/

Transmedia can amplify local voices

7

http://www.dadaabstories.org/

http://beta.18daysinegypt.com/

Digital Access

http://www.leagueofnannies.com/

User Experience Design is now part of what we do as

storytellers

8

http://alma.arte.tv/en/

http://hollowthefilm.com/

Stories can be both software and hardware

9

Stories as hardware

http://www.connectedsparks.com/

We need to show interactive work,

not just talk about it

10

http://sandbox.tribecafilminstitute.org/

Of course as I was giving this talk I thought of many more lessons I’ve learned. Here are just a few.

11. Learn to listen. Storytelling is as much about listening as telling.

12. Make the interaction the story. For example the border in Gaza/Sderot: http://gaza-sderot.arte.tv/

13. Be clear about your indicators for success. If you don’t know what success means for your project, you may lose your way.

14. Sometimes you should just delight your audience. Give them things to do that make them feel wonderful.

Thank youMerci

Ingrid Kopp@fromthehip

www.tribecafilminstitute.org