Okay. Let's do this one more time.
Documentaries, everyone. They're a thing, let's go through a comparison of your normal broadcast documentary and an "i-Doc", otherwise known as an interactive documentary. For this lovely chat we're going to use the following choices:
For our i-Doc: POPPY Interactive - War and Organized Crime Gone Global
Four our broadcast documentary: Citizenfour
Let's go through the questions, shall we? Bonus points: We're going to do it without ruining anything of them! (Or at least we're going to try to)
How does the story structure differ between the two documentaries?
The i-Doc primarily doesn't have much of a structure, it has points that you can follow and they all tie in together but the individual threads are just that, threads. They can be watched by themselves or watched as a whole, each piece one after another in the sequence of your choosing. Citizenfour, on the other hand, has a typical chronological structure to it that follows events in the sequence they occurred. The difference there is quite obvious, the free floating node-like segments of the i-Doc are just that, free floating, and Citizenfour is ordered chronologically.
How does the story structure differ between the two documentaries?
The i-Doc primarily doesn't have much of a structure, it has points that you can follow and they all tie in together but the individual threads are just that, threads. They can be watched by themselves or watched as a whole, each piece one after another in the sequence of your choosing. Citizenfour, on the other hand, has a typical chronological structure to it that follows events in the sequence they occurred. The difference there is quite obvious, the free floating node-like segments of the i-Doc are just that, free floating, and Citizenfour is ordered chronologically.
How does the editing and filming style differ between the two documentaries?
The filming style of the i-Doc and Citizenfour differ drastically as the i-Doc seems to be focused on the audio telling the story and the visuals being more abstract while still being topical and relevant. Citizenfour is a direct telling of the story, and because of that, each cut, each visual track, every audio clip, it's all put deliberately together to tell that story. Anything that obviously wouldn't have been captured at the time, would be recreated as best it could be for the purposes of the documentary, however it wouldn't remove anything from it, only add.
The filming style of the i-Doc and Citizenfour differ drastically as the i-Doc seems to be focused on the audio telling the story and the visuals being more abstract while still being topical and relevant. Citizenfour is a direct telling of the story, and because of that, each cut, each visual track, every audio clip, it's all put deliberately together to tell that story. Anything that obviously wouldn't have been captured at the time, would be recreated as best it could be for the purposes of the documentary, however it wouldn't remove anything from it, only add.
How does the experience of viewing the documentaries differ?
This is a fairly important question, while also being quite brief. Citizenfour plays out much like a standard movie, it has a story arc to it and if you sit down and watch it, you'll be there for a while. The i-Doc, on the other hand, plays out individually. You lose nothing by watching segments at a time when it's convenient as opposed to navigating through all in one go. The i-Doc is much better of an experience for those who want to feel like they're searching for their information and the story instead of being handed it, while Citizenfour's "standard" narrative approach also has it's own experience of seeing an entire story play out in front of you, right in one go, without any breaks in between.
This is a fairly important question, while also being quite brief. Citizenfour plays out much like a standard movie, it has a story arc to it and if you sit down and watch it, you'll be there for a while. The i-Doc, on the other hand, plays out individually. You lose nothing by watching segments at a time when it's convenient as opposed to navigating through all in one go. The i-Doc is much better of an experience for those who want to feel like they're searching for their information and the story instead of being handed it, while Citizenfour's "standard" narrative approach also has it's own experience of seeing an entire story play out in front of you, right in one go, without any breaks in between.
What are the advantages and disadvantages to each platform?
Okay, we're going dot points here.
Okay, we're going dot points here.
i-Doc Pros:
-It's a new style of displaying the documentary work
-It's engaging and kinda fun to navigate
-You can watch it piecemeal or whole.
i-Doc Cons:
-It's segmented, navigation can be a little squiffy.
-You can lose interest fairly easily.
-There aren't ANY volume controls, so you blow your ears out half the time.
Citizenfour Pros:
-It's a standard platform, it isn't limited to viewing from one place.
-It's a whole piece so you can sit down and view it without missing anything.
Citizenfour Cons:
-There's no unique experimentation with content, just a retelling of the story.
-You feel a bit odd about watching it. HI NSA, HOW ARE YOU?
On that note, I think that concludes this segment quite well, stay safe, be kind to one another, don't throw baseballs into windows.
