Universidade da Beira Interior
Covilhã 27/05/2013
[Index]
- Introduction
- Denis Renó
- Beginnings of Transmedia Documentary
- Crossmedia or Transmedia?
- Brazilian Experimentation
- Fake Documentary in Transmedia Storytelling
- Documentary as Reality?
- Interactivity
- Mobility
- Transmedia Video-Report
- Galalician-Portuguese
- Conclusions by Denis Renó
- Filmography
- Useful Links
Introduction
Today I bring something different to diversify the blog's contents. A couple of days ago I was walking through UBI's hallways when I saw a poster announcing an "open class" given by Denis Renó about Transmedia Documentary.
Although I didn't know Denis Renó's work, the themes Documentary and Transmedia have interested me for some time and so I decided to attend the class. What I bring you today is a resume of the class hoping that you become interested about Renó's work or about Transmedia Documentary.
Denis Renó
Denis Renó is a Journalist, Ecologist and Documentarist, Master and Doctoral in Social Communication, Post-Doctoral in Transmedia Journalism and Interactive Interfaces for Transmedia Journalism and Tactile Devices.
In the present he's a professor at University of Rosario in Bogotá (Colombia) and at State University Ponta Grossa (Brazil), being also a visiting professor at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), University of Aveiro (Portugal) and at University of North (Colombia).
He has already participated in congresses and academic meetings (like this open class) in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Equator, Colombia, Mexico, United States, Portugal, Spain and in Poland.
Beginnings of Transmedia Documentary
After a little moment of relaxation were Renó told us about his difficulties to get to Covilhã, we started with a little introduction to the thematic, which took us in a trip with one hour and a half.
Renó begins this class by showing how Documentary was transmedia since its birth, something we can see in the Documentary Nanook of the North by Robert Flaherty, where among other things a half iglu is used to capture images of the quotidian lives of an eskimo family from Arctic.
Nanook of the North (1922) Robert Flaherty
It's important to remember that before Cinema we had Documentary Photography Exhibitions which consisted mainly in recreating documented environments using Scenery, Gastronomy, Costumes, Photographic Sequences and Musics from the space and time portrayed. All elements used today to create a Documentary.
This creates a Multi-Platform (physical or linguistic) which sustains the main idea of Transmedia projects.
Crossmedia or Transmedia?
We can consider Transmedia as an evolution of Crossmedia. Crossmedia is about expanding and dividing a story, sending each part through the best suitable media to that part. On the other side, Transmedia is a contemporary language whose main objective is to deliver distinct messages through distinct platforms whether they are social networks, environments with retro-feeding (which guaranty some level of feedback) or mobile advises.
Brazilian Experimentation
Kiko Goifman breaks Brazilian Documentary conventions with his 33 (2003) creating at the same time a kind of Transmedia Documentary.
(images of "33")
When he turns 33 years old in 2001, Goifman decides to produce a Documentary in 33 days about the search of his biological mother. In addiction to the Neo Noir as the stylistic choice, he creates a blog where he writes about his search through the days (using it as a online diary) and he even asks Rede Globo (a famous brazilian tv channel) to help him find his mother. All this stories end up creating a brand new story in the form of a Documentary.
Another well-known work from Goifman is FilmeFobia (2009) where he shows us some people with all kind of phobias, including the director's.
Fake Documentary in Transmedia Storytelling
On April 2nd, André Moraes releases a movie entitled MPB: The Story that Brazil doesn't Know (2013) as a Documentary about a conspiracy which consists in the idea that the United States are trying to destroy Brazilian Popular Music.
MPB: A História que o Brasil não Conhece (2013) Andre Moraes
no english subtitles
no english subtitles
Presenting this production as a Documentary, Moraes gets some musicians and shows them a supposed american book about this scheme, recording their reactions to it. During this short-movie we can also see the way those same musicians feel about the american influences.
In the end, we find out that this Documentary is only a Fiction. But is the all movie just a big lie? Or can we find some truth behind this absurd theory?
The success this work managed was such that a brazilian tv channel is currently producing a tv show based on this story, making MPB a Transmedia product.
Documentary or Reality?
Since the beginning of Documentary that we can find studies about the way this cinematographic genre can portray or not reality as it is. Most people defend that Documentary can only portray interpretations of reality. But does that mean we have numerous realities?
Returning to Nanook of the North, although Flaherty used a real family from the Arctic he recreated half of an iglu so he could film the inside activities. More over, some of the scenes where staged like the scene where the family goes to sleep.
Interactivity
One of the main characteristics of Transmedia is its interactivity. Using that premise, Renó produces Bogotá Atómica (2009), a Documentary (a Pre-Transmedia experimentation) about the differences between the impressions of a foreigner before and after arriving to Bogotá (Colombia), a city haunted by the kidnappings of civilians by FARC.
Bogotá Atómica (2009) Denis Renó
no english subtitles
no english subtitles
After recording Bogotá Atómica, Renó divided the movie into eight fragments and created a kind of online editing table where 121 people had the chance to edit those eight fragments as they wished. This idea comes from the love Renó has about Editing, defending it as a interactive process.
The most interesting part in this experiment was the result. Having about 40.320 available hypotheses of edition, only 9 people chose the same sequence, 2 people chose another sequence and none of them chose Renó's sequence.
Mobility
In 2010, Denis Renó entirely produced the Documentary A Bola Rola (The Ball Rolls) from his cellphone. This new experience, which portrays the relationship between brazilian people and football, brought some hardships since the script's creation, to the capture of light and sound and to the editing process. We can't forget that in 2010 only one poor editing application existed.
A Bola Rola (2010) Denis Renó
no english subtitles
no english subtitles
On the other side, this work brings new possibilities not only for future projects but also this movie is something that gets closer to today's reality where more people end up watching their movies on devices with small screens. This issue is also discussed in Cinema where most filmmakers insist on making movies to be viewed in big screens, forgetting that they will probably be seen mainly in computers, tablets or cellphones.
Transmedia Video-Report
One of the biggest problems that television deals with nowadays (somehow like Cinema) is the fact that they can no longer concentrate and control spectators due to the numerous communication possibilities internet offers them in this new Era.
Trailer of Killing Lincoln (2013) National Geographic
In order to overcome this, National Geographic made Killing Lincoln (2013), a movie with an online support page where people can discover several curiosities about the movie.
Galician - Portuguese
Galego-Poruguês (2013) or in english Galician-Portuguese arrives after Renó's experimental A Bola Rola. Once again we have a production made only with an iPhone and an iPad, now we more applications for cellphone and several new possibilities.
Galego-Português (2013) Denis Renó
no english subtitles
no english subtitles
Although this can seem like a simple project, the short-story is supported by an online site where we can find a background photo with some embedded links which can take us to photographs, maps, musics, geographic curiosities and to the movie itself.
Besides the creative production, Denis Renó uses this project to tell us about the importance to concentrate online information in one single "page", trying to escape from the use of vertical sliding, which is gradually disappearing from cellphones. This process must be followed with the exception of pages with massive information like Newspapers which could never concentrate so many contents in one single block.
Conclusions by Denis Renó
To finished this class, Renó spoke about some of the conclusions he arrived at during these years working on Transmedia Documentary.
Although creativity is really important to make a project like this, it's also really important that people can participate on it, inviting the spectator not only to watch the project but also to become part of it.
This kind of Documentary becomes a complex and extensive form of building information through ludic paths, meaning we can create a platform both informative and entertaining.
Modern technologies can finally help us create without big economical problems, after all, Renó recorded A Bola Rola and Galego-Português with little financial help. Cellphone editing applications are mostly free, internet can be accessed from a lot of places, among other things.
Filmography
33 (2003) Kiko Goifman
A Bola Rola (2010) Denis Renó
Bogotá Atómica (2009) Denis Renó
FilmeFobia (2009) Kiko Goifman
Galego-Português (2013) Denis Renó
Killing Lincoln (2013) National Geographic
MPB: A História que o Brasil não Conhece (2013) André Moraes
Nannok of the North (1922) Robert Flaherty
Useful Links
Denis Renó
http://denisreno.wix.com/profile
http://ojosenelmundodotme.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/denis.reno
https://twitter.com/denisreno
http://www.youtube.com/user/denisreno/feed
denisreno@me.com
http://denisreno.wix.com/galegoportugues
Kiko Goifman
www2.uol.com.br/33/800/escritorio_06.html
www.filmefobia.com.br
Killing Lincoln
http://killinglincoln.nationalgeographic.com/
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