Hollow: An interactive documentary
Story elements:
Events: Hollow- is an interactive web documentary that focuses on the issues of losing population day-by-day through an eye of a person living in the Southern West Virginia. It is a story of McDowell County, W, VA which is famous for a place where more people leave than stay. It is a beautiful interactive non fiction which takes the viewer to the the actual world and places you with the 30 documented people, currently residing there. It starts with the history of McDowell County, when in 1960s, the population started decreasing by every second from 100,000 to barely 20,000. It shows pictures, paper cuttings and videos of the challenges it faced during that time. Everything was destroyed. The Pocahontas Theatre caught fire in 1978, the oldest US steel processing plant came down in 1980s, 1,200 jobs were lost, Bank of Keystones quoted missing assets of $515,000,000. The poverty rate increased to 37.7 per cent and drug abuse increased by 200%. It also signifies the massive floods in 2000 and 2001, also when the population came down to 30,000 only. The documentary has 6 parts to it-
- The way it was
- These roots
- For each other
- For the land
- When coal was king
- Around the Bend.
All these parts have an inclusive of about 30 documentaries of the people currently living there. They share their experiences and how they faced the challenge and came out of it. i t involves beautiful soundscapes, portraits, visuals, etc.
Actors: All the actors in this documentary are the locals living in the country. They have been documented such that the viewer gets an idea of how the residents have managed to cope up with the issues and how they sustained themselves in their rough patches.
Time: It is a rollercoaster ride which starts from the early 1940s and continues to the present. There have been honourable mentions of the future when the locals talk about the life they want their kids to have in this country.
Place: The setting is all bases in the Southern West Virginia’s McDowell County which was once the biggest producer of coal in US. When talking about the past, they have taken newspaper cuttings and old visuals.
Narrative elements:
Ordering: All the events in this doco occur in a chronological manner. It starts from 1940s and ends in the present. All the incidents of demolishing of the country are presented by well written facts and figures. Flashbacks, White and Black show reels are shown so as to give the feel of the 20th Century.
Pace: This 45 minutes documentary (including the interviews) is pretty fast paced. It involves all aspects of emotions as well as facts and figures and conveys them in only 45 minutes.
Focalisation: The viewer is brought to the homeland of the locals speaking about their lives in the country. It educates the viewer and henceforth uses the powerful tool of interactivity when the user can feel he/she is living the world from the character’s eyes.
Narrator: The main narrator is outside the country. He takes the audience with him to the destroyed land of McDowell County . He tries to speak for the people. To whatever he narrates is followed by powerful images, sound, music, videos etc. I think it adds more weight to the speech. There is also a speech by John F Kennedy from June 20, 1963 where he talks about how everybody including him is working towards making this country a better place to live.
Text: It is an interactive documentary. All the text used is graphically presented and narrated.
Traditional narrative features:
Linearity: It is a non linear non fiction but still has the traditional linearity as the story starts from the history of McDowell County from 1940s and ends in the present time. All the incidents are projected on a linear basis such that the viewer has a good grasp of the past of this country.
Series of conflicts that leads to a climax and resolution: There are many incidents, that puts this country in a conflict, like Burning of the Pocahontas Theatre, Steel plant closing down, Financial loss, Poverty, Drug Abuse, Floods, Lack of resources from 1970s to 2002 respectively.
Protagonist and antagonist: Protagonist of this doco is none other that the residents of the country. The antagonist is the conflict raised in the country which has made many lives suffer.
Three-act structure:
Act 1: Beginning – The diminishing history of the country. The past analysis.
Act 2: Middle- How the locals suffered this issue. How the life of the human being was on a risk.
Act 3: End- How the locals coped up with the mess. How they see their future and the next generations to come.
Heroe’s journey: The heroes are the witnesses of the calamity happened to the country. The 30 people documented are the heroes. The makers of the doco, show the life of a local there and how these people made their ways out of it.
Digital narrative features:
Numerical coding and Modularity: It is an interactive video. It needs a big team for graphics, sound, developers, editors etc. So I am sure the coding and modularity of the video is high.
Variability: It is an interactive video. The user can choose what to see and at what pace to move forward. The story of the country remains the same, so not much of a variable texture is given to the documentary.
Programmed elements: There were many programmed elements used like the user interactivity of scrolling the years down to know what happened in a linear motion. Many maps, animated visuals and characters are used.
Participatory aspects: It is a brilliant documentary in terms of user participation. It gives the user a free hand to skip or watch a desired documentary, flexibly move forward from 1940s to 2000s just through a scroll. I loved the participatory aspects of this interactive documentary.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ALL MY VIEWERS!
anuritp 