GROWING DOCUMENTARY - PLACES + PERSPECTIVES

PROJECT MANAGER, PRODUCER AND RESEARCHER

 

Growing Documentary is a unique concept for producing a documentary film. The content from one film can continue to develop and lead to another documentary film within the same path. Growing documentary involves many people from different backgrounds as resources for providing data, which could help to build the documentary itself.

 

The first iteration of Growing Documentary which originated at Keio Media Design, Keio University, Japan focused on the aftermath of the Tohoku disaster in 2010. The first outcome of the Growing Documentary was Lenses and Landscapes.

 

Places + Perspectives is the second iteration and was an international collaboration between graduate students from Keio Media Design, Keio University and undergraduate students from the Visual Arts department at the University of California, San Diego. This research project provided a rare opportunity to explore new methodologies for cinema production using emerging technologies including Vroom (virtual room @Calit2); Cinesage for media sharing, review and critique; and HD/4K video teleconferencing for face-to-face discussions, knowledge sharing and project development. Our process was featured as part of the 12th Annual ON*VECTOR International Photonics Workshop in Feb/March 2012. This collaborative project began in January 2012, addressing themes connected with people's experiences with new places and cultures. The resulting 15 minute documentary Places + Perspectives premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival October 2012.

 

Using high-speed optical networks to connect advanced collaboration spaces, we were able to bridge diverse ideas with complex workflows in a novel format for next generation digital cinema production and distribution. As a result the project has became a case study for user-centered design in remote collaboration which I presented on at the 2012 Cinegrid International Workshop. Places + Perspectives was also screened at the 2012 Cinegrid International Workshop and invited into the Cinegrid Exchange.

 

 

Growing Documentary is supported by NTT, UCSD, Calit2, Keio University, KMD, Pacific Interface and PIX System.

 

 

Publications:

 

Ohta N., Margolis T., Cornish T., Bhimani J., Almahr A., Shirai D., O’Hara D., McLemore W., (2013) "The Growing Documentary Project: Creating a Collaborative Computer-Supported Storytelling Environment", In Proceedings of OFC/NFOEC 2013