I’ve been a bit quiet for various reasons, but thought that this idea was worth a mention here. It is still too early to say how the new technologies of collaboration – all that stuff about web 2.0 – will affect the way documentary-making is made. I actually think it won’t have any effect at all on TV and cinema productions. The interactivity will probably create a new genre within documentary and journalism. So as we have today TV documentaries, there’s going to be this new style specifically related to the web and the use of collaborative tools.
Here is a good example of what I am talking about – in case you couldn’t make any sense of the last paragraph. Extreme Studio2Cine was an advertising competition that allowed people to create a short film by editing a given repertoire of sequences. You could also elaborate the voice-over and even the soundtrack. The winning film – which received a special screening on a posh theatre at the Champs-Elysées – can now be seen online. Now imagine this same idea applied to a documentary, with perhaps the possibility of people contributing with their own footage. That would be real DIY documentary-making!
