Butch aka Travis

Howdy folks it’s me again with another message to convey

No, I am writing on the perils of living with females, yes its true, they are different, and it all begins in the brain.

Just kidding, I think all us men would agree that women are our superiors and that they are much much better than us at everything.

In any case, I am getting off the topic… what was the topic, ah yes, Interactive Documentary

I have a bit of an issue with this. How do you make a Documentary interactive? Documentary isn’t a story, or is it?

In my view, I think it is very hard to make documentary truly narrative, how do you manipulate something that is meant to be based in actuality?

The way Saurabh and I interpreted it in our assignment was that you can change the way you look at it.

Some ideas>–

Different Angles
Be able to rewind and skip
Become a part of the documentary somehow
The Documentary could have integrated hyperlinks so that the user can find out more about any item at any time
etc. etc.

Personally I think that documentary will never be truly multi - linear, and a part of me is happy with that fact.

I like traditional Documentary format, and I don’t think it needs any overhaul. I also think the feeling that all programs need to be interactive is a little off target.

Documentary is interactive anyway … How? When you watch a Doco you already interact with it. You learn from it, it makes you think, you comment about it, you take what you have learnt from the Doco and discuss it with people. Film is different, it is much more passive, people watch it and absorb everything that is thrown at them, Documentary by comparison speaks to the audience and it informs them, the audience develops its own point of view from what they have seen, for example, Bowing with Columbine.

BFC started out as an examination on the Columbine High Massacre and moved into a discussion on societal effects on impressionable teenagers, and in the end focuses on the Americans obsession with Guns.
I know that I formed my own impression after I saw it. The same thing happened to me with the President vs. David Hicks, and definately with Martin Bashirs now infamous Documentary Living with Michael Jackson.

One excellent example is the way Supersize Me really caused a social revolution (if only for a while) against McDonalds, and fast food in general, the audience reacted, they therefore became a part of the film.

I feel this is the trait of a good documentary.
Here is a list of Other Documentary’s I have interacted with mentally, and all of these made me think about what I had seen for days after

Bowling For Columbine
Supersize Me
To Be and To Have (Être et avoir)
Living with Michael Jackson
Afrika: Cape Town to Cairo

B.