The i-docs’ “evolution”, in just 10 points | from Sandra Gaudenzi & Arnau Gifreu via i-docs

The i-docs’ “evolution”, in just 10 points

While preparing for the forthcoming i-Docs conference, and thinking about what a great year 2011 has been for factual narratives, we started a discussion between Arnau Gifreu and myself to see if we agreed on the i-docs trends that are emerging just in front of our eyes.

Arnau proposed to come up with 10 points that could illustrate the trends and novelties that the years 2011-12 are bringing forward. I thought it was a brilliant idea. As i-docs are getting more established as a genre we are witnessing the emergence of more production companies,  more tools and more dedicated conferences around the world. So…where is this leading us?

Here are the 10 points we came up with. Please do reply to this post and add your own ideas to it. Or maybe… do even better: come to i-Docs 2012 (it’s happening in just a month time, on the 22nd and 23rd of March, in Bristol!) and… engage in a lively discussion with all of us!

 

 1. Tools and HTLM 5 as the next revolution for i-docs

New authoring tools have emerged in the last year. Those can use HTML 5 language with javascript frameworks (such popcorn.js), and other frameworks (as Zeega, Klynt  and 3WDOC) will allow the incorporation and handling of different types of multimedia elements within linear audiovisual documentary. Now… those tools are not made for i-docs only, of course, but they greatly open up the possibilities for i-docs producers.

Figure 1. New authoring multimedia tools

This is particularly true for the tools that make use of HTML5 because effectively they allow live data to be linked to a specific video frame. So… why making such a fuss about HTML5? Well… effectively it turns video into a hyperlink. You can now link every frame of your movie to live data that is somewhere else in the web. This could be a news feed, a weather report, a community of people that blog about your precise topic… or anything else you can think of!

Both the very well-known projects One Millionth Tower and 18 Days in Egypt have used Popcorn this year… and we are ready to bet that there will be many more next year! By the way, Jigar Metha (18 days in Egypt) and Kat Cizek (Highrise/One Millionth Tower) will both speak at i-Docs 2012!

Figure 2. 18 days in Egypt Website

 Figure 3. One Millionth Tower project

 

read the full very useful post here:

http://i-docs.org/2012/02/26/the-i-docs-evolution-in-just-10-points/

New Crowdsourced Film Project Launches in UK: MyStreet #idocs2011

Looks like you need to be UK:

"My Street is many things... It's where I live, it's where you live, it's an idea, it's your hood, your locale, your community, your neighbours, it could even be your corridor or your lift.

Now it is 2 more things: it's a nationwide competition for you to make a short documentary film about your "street" and it is a new website where your film will be seen, telling the nation's stories, street by street ... by you. Anyone can take part. Professional, amateur, journalist, animator, young, old, activist, artist. You can make a new film or perhaps you already have one.

Each year the shortlisted films will be showcased at the OPEN CITY London Documentary Festival (June 16th - 19th 2011).

The submission deadline for this year is May 26th. Fims submitted after this date will be eligible for the festival in 2012."

Call for papers for new Interactive Doc Lab/Symposium: i-Docs

In an era of pervasive computing, social media and a networked ‘information society’, digital documentary is embracing new forms. Web-docs, docu-games, photo-reportages, trans-media projects and locative narratives are developing new languages of factual communication that challenge the established linear narrative of documentary.

i-Docs is the first lab/symposium to be dedicated to the rapidly evolving field of interactive documentary. The symposium will be a day-long event to showcase new projects and to discuss the artistic, economic and political implications of new forms of factual representation.

In the evening the programme City Symphonies will open with a screening of Jean Vigo’s 1930 film A propos de Nice, followed by a live response from documentary film-makers Keith Marley (Liverpool John Moores University) and Geoffrey Cox (University of Huddersfield)

Marley and Cox’s performance will explore the contemporary relevance of the City Symphony genre, suggesting new audiences for documentary through live performance, interactivity and VJ culture.

After this we’ll be turning up the tunes and showcasing some more VJ talent!

i-Docs is convened by Judith Aston, Sandra Gaudenzi and Jonathan Dovey on behalf of the Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol. The event will be held at the Watershed Media Centre in central Bristol on Friday, 25th of March 2011.

Participants are invited to present their current projects and research. There will also be panel discussion, with a view to promoting debate between media practitioners, commissioning editors, artists and academics.

Proposals for both paper and project presentations should be sent to:
idocs.symposium@gmail.com by Monday, 15th of November 2010.

The proposal should clearly outline your intentions in no more than 300 words. Links to further visual materials can be provided, if appropriate.

Confirmed keynote presentations from: Upian (Prison Valley, Gaza/Sderot, Havana/Miami), Blast Theory (Rider Spoke, Desert Rain, A Machine To See With), Nick Cohen – BBC Multiplatform Commissioning Executive for Documentary.

Suggested topics / themes:

  • what is an interactive documentary?: possible classification methodologies for a field in constant development
  • collaborative media and documentary making: objectivity, activism and shared authorship through the screens of mobile phones and web 2.0
  • user-generated content in documentary practice: the new role of the producer and possible models of collaboration
  • crowd sourcing when documenting reality: possible ethical and political consequences
  • docu-games and mixed-reality games: can games document the real?
  • database documentaries: navigational strategies and new possibilities for representing multiple points of view
  • the fine line between new media factual art, collaborative journalism and interactive documentary
  • what does the user think?: how do we user test, or evaluate user experience, of an i-doc?
  • possible financial models for i-docs: who are the financial players and what do they want?
  • case study presentation and/or analysis of specific i-doc projects

Selected papers will be considered for publication in the Journal of Media Practice. Several other publication possibilities are also being considered.