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Important Note to the Reader

This is a free sample of the very rst practical survival guide

about web-documentaries. We still need your support ;) If you

like this initiative, do not hesitate to oer a hard copy of this

book to your friends or colleagues. This will help us producing

the follow-up version with updated content in one of the hottest

debate regarding documentary lm production! Your help is very

much appreciated.

Hard copies can be found in just a few clicks here:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/mlietaert

Register to our newsletter for updates:

http://notsocrazy.eu

For discussion, comments, networking:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/webdocumentary

Twitter http://twitter.com/notsocrazyprod/

Thank you for your understanding, fasten you seat belt and

enjoy the re@ding! ;)


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6/ Webdocs - A Survival Guide

Table of Contents

Table of Contents > 6Preface > Peter Wintonick 9

Introduction > 12

Who participated to this book? 16

PART 1: A survival guide

Where Are We Going to? 23

Webdocs - Case 1 > 29

The Age of Connected TV_ 31

POV: James McQuivey (Forrester) 31

POV : Tom Koch (PBS) 34

POV: Alexander Knetig (ARTE) 35

Ten key tips for your webdoc_ 37


Interactive Storytelling 45Storytelling Tips - Caspar Sonnen 45



Transmedia Storytelling - Caitlin Burns 54

Interaction Design - Vinay Venkatraman 58


Tips from the Game Industry - Marc Meurisse 61

Building your audience 65



Using social media - Sheri Candler 72


Think Outside the Box Oce - Jon Reiss 78



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Funding your webdoc 83Webdocs - Case 10 85

Webdocs - Case 11 88

Be successful on IndieGoGo - Danae Ringelmann 89

Pitching Your Webdoc 93



How to Pitch your Webdoc? - Anne Vierhout 99

Commissioning Editors POV 103

POV: Tom Koch (PBS) 103


POV: Alexander Knetig (ARTE) 106

POV : Mark Atkin (formerly SBS) 107


POV: Andrew DeVigal (New York Times) 111

Starting Your Own Webdoc Company 115FWA webTV - Rob Ford 118

PART 2: Webdocs in Depth

Prison Valley (Alexandre Brachet) 123

Out My Window (Katerina Cizek) 132

Collapsus (Femke Wolting) 140

Montral en 12 Lieux (Nicolas Saint-Cyr) 144

Gaza Sderot (Arik Bernstein) 148

From Zero (Stefano Strocchi) 156

Useful Websites > 160

Table of Contents


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Introduction >

Matthieu Lietaert, producer/director @ Not So Crazy! Productions

Dear guerilla webdocker ;)

If you also believe that the 21st century

is the century of audiovisual interactivity

and that we have denitely moved away

from a world of pure audiovisual passiv-

ity, this book is for you. Today, with the

technologies which are out there, one canliterally shoot messages to a responding

audience and our cross-media projects

can trigger a debate in society as never

before!

There are indeed moments in history where everything seems quiet

or boring, as if nothing is happening. Then there are times when

history is shaken up by one great revolution. In this case, what is

amazing is that we are all in the middle of a double revolution! This is

just unprecedented: on the one hand, there was the digital revolutionthat aected the way we could collect, store and process data, and

on the other hand, there is the internet revolution that is inuencing

the way we broadcast the content, network with each other, and

now increasingly how we fund our projects. These two revolutions

have had immediate implications on the speed and the scale of

production.

When we think about it, people started to use e-mails only 15 years

ago and today 170 million e-mails are sent... every minute! Mobile

phones became popular in the late 90s. Rare are those who, today,

can work without one... The rst digital camera for professional pho-

tographers was released in 1991 by Nikon, equipped by Kodak with

a 1.3 megapixel sensor... in 2008, the Canon 5D made a revolution

with its full-frame sensor. In 2005, the advent of Youtube made it

clear that there was a huge audience consuming media online and,

only three years later, millions of video are uploaded and watched on

a daily basis!


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Then came the idea of social networks and the concept of sharing in

real time over the internet. Blogger was launched in 1999 by the per-

son who 7 years later would go on to create Twitter. Today, 100.000

tweets are posted per minute! Facebook was launched in 2004 and

in 2011 about 10% of the worlds population is using it. Its Chinese

counterpart Weibo is even growing faster! On the funding side,

crowdfunding platforms started to emerge in 2008, like IndieGoGo

and Kickstarter, with amazing results for successful campaigns.

Finally, connected TV is increasingly out there and this will change

many habits.

So, yes, all this is creating profound changes in the relationship

between lmmakers, their projects and their audience. It is then kind

of normal that an increasing number of people want to develop thepotentiality behind web documentaries. I am not a big fan of deni-

tions (webdocs, crossmedia, transmedia, etc.) but what is sure is

that things are moving: workshops and pitchings are being organ-

ised in most of the documentary lm festivals. While developing

The Brussels Business and We R Democracy, two sides of our new

cross-media project, I needed to nd the answers to some of my

questions and I thought that a book could be useful for anyone who

is producing their rst webdoc!

What is fascinating is that our audience can interact withour content and with one another creating communities or

even social movements. The tools are there, so lets see

what we can produce to make social change happen!

Based on interviews with some of the key players who kindly shared

their knowledge about webdocs and related elds, this book is

designed as a tool box or a survival guide in the big online jungle.

I hope that you will nd relevant ideas and practical advice from

webdoc authors, producers, from social media analysts, or commis-

sioning editors. Let us know when your own webdoc is out, send

us feedback or questions, and register to our newsletter to get free

updates of this book! >> www.notsocrazy.eu

Now, lay back, fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the reading! Hope this

book will be of relevance to you as much as it was to me!

Introduction


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2 >The Age of Connected TV_

In this second chapter, we start with an interview on the connected

TV phenomenon which is rapidly reaching homes. I thought it was

necessary to get some clearer ideas about what tomorrows TV will

be like. In fact, whereas people have been watching TV in a more or

less similar way for the past 60 years, things are now changing fast,

and interactivity among viewers as well as with the content itself isbecoming a key element that webdoc makers should be aware of.

This interview is then followed by the points of view of Tom Koch

(PBS) and Alexander Knetig (ARTE).

POV: James McQuivey (Forrester)

(James McQuivey, Vice-President @ Forrester Research)

What are the core changes that connected TV brings?

Once the video gets up to a high enough quality, people very quickly

get used to the idea that they can be in control of what they watch

and when they watch it. This is very dierent from the traditional

world of TV that dictated to you what you can watch and when you

can watch it. What the internet does not do is to put the content in

the place where you want to watch it. People still prefer to watch

video content on a TV set, this is why they buy a large TV screen,and arrange the rest of the room around it. Thats where connected

TV comes in.

Connected TV uses the internet to provide exactly the right show

at exactly the right time on exactly the right device. This is very

challenging to the traditional TV model. For documentary lms, this

creates opportunities that were not there before. For instance, a

broadcaster can only buy a few of the documentaries that are on the

Chapter 2 : The Age of Connected TV


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market because they have limited budget and time slots: they do

not really have the tools to let the viewers know that there are many

other documentaries out there that could be of interest to them.

Connected TV can use the tools of the internet such as social rec-

ommendation, and algorithm discovery engines such as those usedby retail websites like Amazon, so the viewers can nd the docu-

mentaries that are of interest for them and the producer can nd

their audience. I wont say that we have reached the full potential of

connected TV, but there is a huge potential there for documentary

lm makers.

How are broadcasters adapting to this? Or how should they

adapt to these changes?

One of the rare exceptions is the BBC, which has very actively made

its content available through all kinds of connected TV. Of course

the BBC is unique as it does not have to worry about the the loss of

advertising that occurs when programs are watched via connected

TV rather than the traditional TV screen. Most other broadcasters

around the world do care about that. In the long run however, theycannot pretend that the customers will continue to be happy with the

traditional way of accessing their content. They wont be.

The internet is too powerful! As it has done with music, newspapers

and other forms of media, it is now doing the same thing to video,

which is forcing the broadcasters to rethink their entire strategy for

reaching consumers.


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5 >Building your audience

Chapter ve is about what I consider to be the most fundamental

element of a webdoc. In my view, what is amazing about the internet

is that it brings the lmmaker much closer to his audience. And

what is crucial to understand is that on the net, your audience is in

fact much more signicant than it used to be with TV. Your audience

is probably one of the most valuable resources you have in termsof feedback, in terms of distribution strategy, and even in terms

of funding strategy. The dictatorship of the audience is not just a

faraway idea... my point is that if a lmmaker learns to establish a

two-way communication with their audience, it opens up possibilities

never thought of before! Think about it, your audience is just there,

ready to know more about you and your projects...

Focus on the timing and the publics POV

Classic marketing strategy is a basis that we still use. But the em-

phasis now is on choosing projects and positioning them in relation

to public dialogue. For example, we had a project about suicide, and

we decided to release it on a day dedicated to raising public aware-

ness about this issue in order to contribute to the dialogue. The

notion of timing is very important, both in the editorial process and

for the lms release.

The second thing is that we try to start from the publics point of

view, not our point of view. Interactive projects are viewed and

played mostly by people in their 20s and 30s, because they are

much more connected, often through social media, and they

are more willing to engage in dialogue around a project. Then

we try to carry on with this audience to our next project, instead

of starting again from scratch with each new project. This way

you build a relationship with your audience for the long-term.

(Hugues Sweeney, Web Producer @ NFB)

Chapter 5 : Building Your Audience


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Do not protect your stu online

We are going through an absolutely epic revolution in this area right

now. We recently redesigned our website, and a lot of that wasabout allowing people to embed our projects.

So we decided to give it away for free. Its now branding

Mediastorm, and it pays o because it is driving serious

promotion. Its been a great success for us.

Then of course, the spreading of viral information through Twitter

and Facebook has been nothing short of phenomenal for us. Its not

just that we are reaching a lot more people, but the right people. Itsterric to see that happen.

(Brian Storm, Founder & Executive Producer @ MediaStorm )

Know your audience!

A Webdoc creator is also a designer of an interactive experience,

and should understand how people are going to behave once they

get to the website. You denitely should know who your audiencewill be! Otherwise, how on earth are you going to design something

for them and let them know that you have done so? You then have

to make sure that once they are there, they will not quickly leave and

go somewhere else. If you dont understand that, what you are going

to do will most probably fail, no matter how good it is. At Crossover,

we focus a lot on designing the user experience and putting the user

at the centre of everything.

(Mark Atkin, Head @ Doc Campus Masterschool )


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Prison Valley

(Alexandre Brachet)

* Alexandre Brachet is e-producer and CEO @ Upian, one of the

worlds major players in the area of webdocs. They have producedprojects such as Lacitedesmortes.net, Thanatorama.com , Gaza-

Sderot, and Prison Valley. Http://www.upian.com

What does it take to make a good webdoc?

Firstly you have to be able to dene what a good subject is. This is

far from easy. There are two elements which are dicult to separate

but each is extremely important: on the one hand, the relationship

between the producer and the subject, and on the other hand, the

ability of the subject itself to be a suitable subject for the webdoc.

What makes a good web topic?

I do not have precise criteria; it has a lot to do with intuition. Does

the subject meet the expectations of the internet users and my own

expectations?

Webdocs in Depth : Prison Valley


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What will be decisive at an early stage is the teams ability

to involve themselves in the interactivity of the project, to

understand that the subject is good and that the treatment

by the producer will make it suitable for the internet.

One of the best examples of this is Gaza Sderot. The web designer

considered the idea of synchronicity for a few minutes and, all of a

sudden, the project made sense. We must also realize that not all

subjects lend themselves to involvement. Sometimes a subject will

inspire rather more passive contemplation and therefore it is more

suitable for TV. Its an extremely delicate balance.

A good topic also results from a good writer and a good team. Fora good webdoc, it is as much the team as it is the subject which

makes it come alive. In addition, there is no doubt that the more

these people understand how the internet works, the more they will

be successful.

Finally, there is the ability of a subject to aect both producers and

broadcasters. As a producer, what really called out to me in Prison

Valley is the way in which it addresses the issue of an ultra-violent

capitalism that makes prot through the exploitation of prisoners.


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It was not so easy to convince the broadcasters at rst! They

were questioning whether such a topic could succeed in captur-

ing European internet users, besides the fact that there are already

many productions out there about prisons. For me, there are certain

subjects that must be regularly dealt with on TV and on the internet.

The aggressiveness of capitalism is one of them.

What can you do with interactivity that can not be done via other

means?

It is crucial to know what space will be given to the internet user and

how we are going to allow them to experience the interaction. For

the moment I work a lot on the notion of feeling.

The interaction is not just going click click click on a

mouse; it can be very much a sensory and emotional ex-

perience. What will really count in the end is the story we

will tell and how we are going to tell it.

It is a false idea to think that all projects must be frantic with interac-

tivity. In Gaza Sderot, the user creates their own path and the click

is a very soft one, actually sometimes its just the movement of themouse. This is a new sensation.

What makes a good web format?

In Thanatorama, we explored an arborescent system with several

options to choose from. What worked very well was that there was

no hero, or rather it was the user themselves who was exploring the

idea of their own death. With Gaza Sderot, we developed another

format based on a series of short programs that make up a long

story, and it was shot and uploaded almost in real time. Finally, withPrison Valley, we explored a longer, very linear program. These are

three examples showing that there is denitely room for experimen-

tation when it comes to formats, but in any case, this is a feature

that you must work on from the outset.

Webdocs in Depth : Prison Valley


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