Open space documentaries challenge the pre-existing, traditional stereotypes of what a documentary “should be”. The practices of documentary making and story-telling in general have shifted over the past decade and it is clear that open space, in it’s various forms is emerging as a popular medium to tell a story. Traditionally, the chronologically ordered, one-way message documentaries presented ideas as fact, leaving little room for audiences to challenge what’s presented to them. As it makes sense in a simple, easily read format and it’s what people are familiar with, it’s still assumed that is what a documentary is and any other style is secondary to the original. However, with the advent of new technologies, new ways to communicate arise and with it, new subject matters and forms of receiving a same message. This new generation is embracing an increasingly interactive and online based living with most audio and visual information now being considered documentaries no matter the length or the platform. This new age of documentary making has been ever-present this semester, encouraging invention and trial and error to add to the library of new open space documentaries anyone can enjoy.

The collaborative nature of open-space documentaries lends itself easily to being more engaging and community driven. From the nature of its content to the way it’s absorbed, social interaction and engagement become key factors into separating the open space from it’s traditional predecessor. Open space documentaries can be interactive. This involves the user / viewer of the documentary to physically be able to contribute to the story in some form. Wether it be through adding a comment or choosing which clip to watch in a specific order unique to them. In chapter 6 of Documentary as Open space, it states that open space documentary involves a practice whereby media practitioners and exhibitors become “context providers rather than content providers”, creating scenarios that facilitate dialogue; “participation, collaboration, shared experience and interconnections across boundaries.” This practice that relies on the viewer to contribute is instantly more engaging and becomes exciting for the viewer inviting them to continue on and experience more. Once a user has control of the story and feels involved in its construction, they instantly have more of a connection to the project and desire for it to succeed. “It is a practice of continual engagement between convener and participant.”

In the semi-open project Journey to the End of Coal (2008) interactivity is explored in a more integrated way. The documentary is an interactive road movie that explores and reveals to the audience the untold and vast depths of coal mines in China, where migrant workers risk their lives every day. The project consists of 300 photographs, three hours of video, and 10 hours of sound materials gathered in China by directors Samuel Bollendorff and Abel Ségrétin. The viewer can choose the direction of the film, ask questions to the miners, and are able to gather additional information in text.

Another film that celebrates the practice of collaboration, multiple agency, adaptability and migration across media platforms is the more conventionally made Capturing the Friedmans (2003). With Andrew Jarecki’s research persistence on the Friedmans he dug deep and dared venture where others hadn’t with  access to the archive of home videos documenting the family history. Jarecki interviewed the Friedmans as well as investigators, lawyers and the children Arnold and Jesse had allegedly abused. This documentary although traditional in storyline and movie length obtains the qualities of an open space piece with the nature of reflexive moments and montage practices used to gain an audience’s attention. “The representational gap between maker and subject critiqued in provides audiences with greater ability to make their own informed assessments of the truth claims being proffered.” (Fox, Broderick. Documentary Media : History, Theory, Practice, Routledge, 2017.) Through different communities, permeability and mutability are central.

Documentaries and quite holistically, stories themselves don’t offer a single truth and often unfold into a new project than what was originally intended. This was noticed during the progression of our Westgate bridge project where what was originally intended, many short clips all along an interactive visual bridge with stories attached to each pillar became unattainable due to time constraints and money or program constraints. However, through a more polished design and clean-cut form we rebranded the original idea to transcend what we thought we’d lost; a unique edge and more interactivity. ‘Westgate’ contains the online characteristics of non linearity, interactivity, cross platform integration, variability and modularity. Our individual fragments or modules are non sequential and have no correct final form. It can be an ongoing project with users potentially submitting their own stories and keeping the work alive. It is also clear no one can have the same journey and therefore experience of our project as they select what to experience, how and when.

Our project was quite reactive in terms of figuring out patterns after the data was sourced and what we could make from the interviews we collated. After initially wanting to demonstrate a timeline and focus on the structure, we discovered that the stories we were told began their own collection and a way to link the different segments together. We then opted to focus on the humanistic side of the bridge collapse and it’s impact not only politically but socially within the western suburbs community. In addition, this project being reactive can also be through possibly witnessing expansion of content and interaction on the site overtime. Originally I would have liked to create something more poetic and artistic, left up to interpretation a bit more as I felt that was my strength but I figured that seemed a bit more like fiction if I went too avant-guard with the project. According to Documentary as a statement: defining old genre in a new age, the argument is that the two genres (being documentary and fiction) can be more clearly defined by focusing on the intent of the communication by the producer, rather than the content of the communication. This is because people believe both can be representations of reality and it is getting to a stage where the boundaries are so blurred that there may not be much of a distinction at all. In our project instead it became quite people focussed and we tried to tell the subject’s stories delicately and sensitively to best tell their stories instead of fitting our own original agenda, enough so that an audience can’t sway too far from accuracy.

The Living museum of the west housed many influential, important documents that inspired me to think creatively and aided my research however, it was the images of the Westgate bridge and seeing the faces of those involves in it’s construction and demise that truly captured my attention and connection with telling it’s story. I housed little knowledge on the bridge. I knew of it’s name and how it was famous as a running joke for teenagers who don’t understand the significance of suicides that occur on the bridge. I hadn’t even heard of it’s collapse prior to my research let alone the death of 35 workers in 1970. I also couldn’t believe it when Tom Watson uncovered that it was the fires that killed people not being trapped under rubble like I had assumed and then Danny Gardner’s experience with the ease of landing a jo on the bridge as well as the immense impact it had on the community that was being covered up and forgotten by the next generation. I believe a lot more work is needed to create interest in interactive small-scale projects. It rely’s on people wanting to use it and not clicking out because they are overwhelmed and confused whereas traditional media is comfortable and easy to absorb because it is usually already edited and available directly for them to source and not work for. Generally, these works also have financial backing and access to quality equipment which elevates their production. As a result, important stories such as what we have told about the Westgate go unnoticed and disregarded when real stories have so much impact and can ignite change.

I found editing a soundscape to be quite challenging. As I am used to working with visuals to show a point of view, I instead had to remember what was being said from voice recordings rather than the aesthetics I could use to construct a story. I had to think of it a lot like a podcast and work with my team to ensure we were on the right track. A reliance on audience participation has been a big hurdle we collectively faced. Making engaging online content has proven to be difficult with the plethora of documentaries already out there making for a crowded space online. I’ve found that expository and shocking/surprising works gain the most traction and see the best results. The works need to offer something unique to users. Wether it be learning new useful information, exposing something or being creative and adventurous. Of course this seems limiting but from my perspective, boring and “filler” pieces that people can’t relate to don’t get the same reactions as useful projects that have a unique point to make. I also looked at A place Like This, a short documentary that inspired me by it’s simplicity and unobtrusive nature. Ultimately, It’s an interview that delves into the life of one old man as he sits around nature. It is eye catching, inviting and comfortable. It appeals to all audiences and by it’s very nature is sweet and calm.

Another hurdle we faced was the way we wanted to present it in it’s final form. The project was designed to follow a pathway a long a bridge yet was steered another direction. This challenged us but ultimately worked in our favour the we decided on the website to construct. It wasn’t as adventurous as our earlier idea but fit the sombre nature of our work. It fit our own brief and stood out by being neat and well constructed, separating ourselves from other new works online. There is already such a wide breadth of users online that anything new or unusual is broadly welcomed. Being online and available because of the 21st century internet allows users to connect, explore and enjoy what is on offer and the limits of what’s acceptable are lessening which excites people. It also is now opening up to creating change in real life, raising awareness and igniting change. And when people are using the media to their advantage and like what they see, it’s recommended to others and users grow.

This project allowed me to meet new people who told interesting stories. They invited me in and welcomed me to their world which I was then able to show to others. People were engaged with our story because we showed clear and succinct recounts in an easily identifiable way. I am grateful that this studio has opened my eyes to the online world a lot more. Now I actively search and enjoy interactive documentaries and I crave wanting to make more. It has drawn my attention to a new online world and I realise how much impact we could make just by documenting in a new way. I hope to continue growing and creating in this field as I know the space itself will.

References:

Bollendorff, S, Ségrétinhttp, A, (2008). Journey to the end of coal, video, ://www.honkytonk.fr/index.php/webdoc/.

Carroll, A, (2018). First Casualty is Truth, article, https://www.headstuff.org/entertainment/film/film-features/capturing-the-friedmans-15/.

De Michael, H, Zimmermann, P, (2018). Documentary as Open space, Book.

Fox, Broderick, (2018). Documentary Media : History, Theory, Practice, Routledge, 2017, ebook, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/swin/detail.action?docID=5103711.

Jarecki, A, (2003). Capturing the Friedmans, Film, DVD.

Smith, N, Rock, J, (2014). Documentary as a statement: defining old genre in a new age, article, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682753.2014.892698?src=recsys&journalCode=rjmp20.

Tall story films, (2014). A Place Like This, video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_WzVVndUCY.

This week was a very busy one for myself and others in my group.

I finished editing a soundscape and collaborated with Georgia to interview and record the interview with Enza. Enza was warm-heartedn and an ideal subject to interview, she wasn’t so proficient on facts and figures for the bridge but she had a lot of personal anecdotes and colour to add to our pieces. She also voluntarily and sensitively touched on suicides at the bridge as her book revolved around her friend’s death in that same form. Being absent from Friday’s class was due to prior work commitments caused a bit of a problem with communication but fortunately each group member finished their portion and individually we all contributed the the project at large.

Georgia and I work extremely well together. We’ve been working on the soundscapes for each interview and have successfully navigated various platforms in order ton get the desired effect. Campbell and Nolan have focussed on the visuals and the idea of the website has come into fruition. We’ve also decided to not use the borrowed footage for potential legal reasons and focussed non what we already have as well as disregarding the initial hope for a Westgate bridge visual journey with instead showcasing an interactive timeline with out the imagery of the bridge attached to it. My role has also become quite solidified in doing a lot of writing and editing of written pieces for the group.

I hope next week proves to be easier and our work thins out a lot.

This week we presented to a panel and was very happy with the feedback we received. A very rough cut was shown to the panel and the cinematography, framing and overall high quality of our filming was noted and appreciated. Our whole group is very across the project and I think our collective bank of knowledge is makes us able to talk about the project on the same page and add to each other’s statements. Our big issue we want to focus on is actually physically building the website as we haven’t sourced a proper platform to host our videos and show our vision. Then there is also the physical editing. I’m going to edit an Audio soundscape including Danny’s interview which seems a bit intimidating and tricky for me as I’m used to working with visuals and I’m yet to discover how to make an in treating and engaging audio piece that can’t rely on visuals to help tell the story. For me it seems a bigger task than editing an audio film but I’m sure it will be interesting just with the inclusion of Danny’s voice. I aim to now research some successful podcasts and try to replicate one that ells a story and fits with our overall theme. Georgia and I have been interviewing sewing the subjects and have set up one with Enza for next week. I am impressed with my growing knowledge of filming and interviewing as I chose the location for Donna’s interview and that was noted as being successful. I also think I’ve adopted the role of being a producer as I tend to bring things together and, speak with our subjects and come up with, source and finalise ideas. The whole process has been very collaborative and my teams strengths have shone in every area. Our research has been thorough and really aided us when thin king of questions not ask.

This past week my group ad I have been very efficient in physically sourcing and producing work for our final project. Collectively, as a group we interviewed two important stakeholders in the Westgate bridge’s lifetime and got some unique insights into the history of the bridge and more importantly, the social impact of its collapse. After these interviews, a humanistic angle surfaced with emphasis on the emotional repercussions and lack of support shown to workers on the bridge. A lot of talk about the Westgate’s memorial occurred and an explanation into it’s importance was given. Speaking to Donna Jackson evoked a modern day understanding of its continued impact into people’s lives and brought new ways of seeing the bridge from an outsider’s perspective. She told us about the aboriginals performers who entertained the workers during their lunch breaks and spoke of her experience when the bridge fell. She was a great speaker who paused before each answer and spoke so eloquently in response to every question. She needed little coaching and prompting to speak on camera and her experience really shone through. The second time we interviewed as a group, the set up was a lot more seamless and fast as we had a general understanding of the set up and a lot more space to work with. I also appreciated how the surrounding for the interview with Donna was in a light, o-pen space hinting at hope and the future and a softer exterior whilst our interview with Tom Watson was in a darker space and set up in an opposite side to Donna adding variation to our shots. Everything was filmed exceptionally well, we covered a lot of questions and have so much to work with, making editing a breeze. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the interview process and feel I have a back for asking unasked questions and provoking more answers from both subjects. I gained a lot now in sight and knowledge and really felt for Tom Watson when he gave his recount of his experience when the bridge fell. We felt his guilty and sadness and saw his fight to improve today’s industry which he has successfully done all whilst keeping the memory of those who died on the bridge alive and respected.

PROPOSAL

You will design and deliver a proposal outlining your major project. Your proposal should demonstrate:

• a clear and distinctive concept/idea/story

Our project will be a history of the Westgate bridge. Similar to the values of the living museum of the west, our group wants to uncover stories and history surrounding the Westgate bridge and preserve them. Through interviews we’ve done with the public, it has come to light that not that many people know about the bridge’s history and it’s story.

• research into participants, locations and other material

Through looking through the archives at the museum we’ve come across other documentaries on the bridge which look heavily into the collapse in 1970. These documentaries have information about the people interviewed who we would be able to get in contact with. One documentary filmmaker included in the museum is Donna Jackson. She has worked with the museum as well which means getting in contact with her will be quite easy. Being able to contact her would also help us find other leads for potential interviewees.

• evidence of research into other projects that have inspired you and/or theory

Through the videos we’ve already made we discuss information uncovered by the museum and Donna Jackson. Especially in the documentary interviews we found we got an understanding of first-hand experiences of some of the workers during the collapse of the bridge.

• production schedule with timeline

Working title:

Westgate

Form and medium:

Our major project will be a series of chaptered videos. This will be done using an interactive platform like verse where each video can be selected according to the viewer’s preference. This will be available online as well as at the living museum of the west. We aim for each video to be three to five minutes in length.

Short synopsis:

Our project will be a video collection which chronicles the history of the Westgate bridge, from before its creation to what it is today and how it has shaped Melbourne and affected the construction industry.

Longer synopsis:

1. Bridge Overview

This will involve a general, welcoming introduction to give the audience a sense of where we are in relation to Melbourne’s history and the importance of the structure in today’s society. This will act as a bit of a short timeline to bring the audience up to speed and allow them to gain the necessary knowledge to understand where we are up to in our chapters so they can easily follow along and enjoy the pieces we create.

2. Life before the bridge

This video will consider the political agenda of the time and setting up our film in a formal, structured manner would depict a fair recount of the time period before the bridge was built. We will look at why the need for a bridge existed at all and other possible options that were available. We will look at how life existed without the bridge, how people got on with their lives and why the bridge took so long to initially get permission to build. Then, how and why people were involved with its construction and possibly the indigenous music they listened to during their breaks.

3. Collapse/Aftermath

This section will use a lot of archival footage and material we have already dealt with. We will look at workers who were involved with the bridge at the time and what happened to make the bridge physically fall. We will rework a lot of our footage we already gathered and made videos of. This will hopefully be a poetic / artistic depiction as we need to sensitively handle such dire circumstances and show some variation in our videos.

4. Completion

This chapter would involve an interview with Danny who worked on the bridge after the collapse and we will focus on how it was built to be secure and sturdy. We can look at the important aspects of the bridge that make in successful in today’s society and how they went about dealing with the pressure to build such an important structure.

5. The bridge today

In this chapter we aim to cover and follow the real life use of the bridge in today’s society. By incorporating written texts and contributions from the community, we can showcase a plethora of people’s experiences and general thoughts on the iconic structure. Using modern archival footage from packages made by news companies focussing on the unsturdy structure as it stands, what the bridge looks like with two Australian flags, the continued use of cars driving along it, people’s lives who evolve alongside the bridge and those who work on it or see it often by fishing or walking underneath it. With Donna’s help, we can look at the way we see the bridge and how the memory of the collapse is being kept alive by the play production and the union’s involvement.

What is your individual role or component of this project?

Each of us aim to film, interview and edit. I have done a lot of initial research and sourced materials / examples to use. I also will be a part of the filming process, sound sourcing and interviewing. Ultimately it will be very collaborative. I also will be focussing on one specific chapter, probably life before the bridge but also the bridge today and also reworking footage we already have.

Visualisation:

We will produce a website that guides the audience through a video timeline. These videos will consist of talking head interviews, audio recordings coupled with mise-en-scene shots and archival material. We will be focusing on video production so essential skills will be production and post-production knowledge will be needed. We will use WordPress to create the website so an existing knowledge of this is needed.

Rationale:

The premise is to create a video timeline of the bridge through chapters due to the lack of knowledge about the bridge’s history. We will look into experiences that cover pre & post collapse and also contemporary, personal accounts of audience’s experiences of the westgate bridge.  

Archival Material:

We will be using archival photographs from the museum and may reference other resources found. We will be focusing on creating most of the content for our production which will create a resource for the museum, which can be explored though the Living Museum of the West’s website.

Main participants:

Our main focus being the bridge as a whole means our participants will come from many areas of the bridge and its story. We’ve contacted Danny Gardiner who’s involved in the westgate memorial committee. He and Tom Watson had worked on the bridge, Tom working on the bridge during the collapse and Danny after it. Being so heavily involved in the bridge during it’s disaster period will help give us a good insight into that part of the bridges timeline and a first hand experience of these events. Enza Gandolfo has written a book on the Westgate titled The Bridge about the impact the collapse had made on the city and people/families who were involved in the collapse of the bridge in a really moving book. Donna Jackson, is someone we’ve been really interested in talking to since looking at the work she’s done at the museum and her research. The fact that she’s been involved in researching this topic for so long means her knowledge of the bridge and its story is quite in depth and we think this makes her an important character to telling the story of the bridge. We also thought talking to “Local Fisherman” or people who work on the river would help give us an idea of what the bridge means to them today and how it’s past events have sculpted their opinion of the bridge and its impact to the west and melbourne as a whole.

Setting:

The Living Museum of the West, West Gate Bridge, Under the Westgate bridge, homes/living rooms

Research video/photos/audio: 

Interview test shots:

Resources

Recorded meeting with Danny Gardiner:

https://soundcloud.com/nolan-howard-1/sets/danny-gardiner-meeting

Test footage of museum, vox pop and editing style:

https://youtu.be/KG5CQqVJlPs

Åkesson, B. (2008). Understanding bridge collapses. London: Taylor & Francis. Available at: EBSCOHost eBooks. [Accessed 8th September 2018]

Hitchings, B. (1979). West Gate. Victoria, Australia: Outback Press. Available at: State Library of Victoria. [Accessed 9th September 2018]

Gandolfo, E. 2018. The Bridge. Brunswick, Victoria: Scribe Publications. [Accessed 1st September 2018]

Westgatebridge.org. (2018). The West Gate Bridge Memorial . [online] Available at: http://www.westgatebridge.org/

This week my group and I spoke on the phone to Donna Jackson. After some initial reservations, she opened up and seemed happy to speak with us once she learned we really respected her work and wanted to focus on her rather than he research. We also will interview Danny Gardiner who worked on the bridge after the collapse and who is a founding member of the of the West Gate Bridge Memorial Committee. We devised a list of questions to ask him and hopefully another gentlemen who worked on the bridge, Tom Watson, so that we can tread carefully and be respectful. Tom worked on the bridge when it collapsed so our dreams have been fulfilled of interviewing someone who worked on it at the time of the collapse. We have yet to go out as a group and film on location but that is on 9ur priority list.

It has been hard having to delegate work as each of us have outside jobs and commitments which can b e quite demanding but so far we have kept in contact quite well and made good progress with leads that can be used in our final work. We also are very supportive and encouraging of one another which is refreshing and exciting.

Our work in progress plan is underway and we have mostly established roles. My group and I feel quite confident about the filming process, my main issue is focussing on editing techniques as it is quite timely and not as easy for me. As we intend to mostly film our own content, it eliminates the worry of having other people feel copied or betrayed though we do need archival materials as our topic is so historic and important. With such a large project underway it is important we focus on smaller fragments to give an outline of the bridge and perhaps not an in depth history lesson. We won’e be able to focus on every little niche aspect as we initially wanted but nonetheless I’m sure it will be a unique view of the bridge from the past as well as today.

After having presented to the panel about our upcoming work, I feel encouraged and I can further see how sensitive and delicate we have to handle the subject of suicides if we go down that route. I was in contact with some news rooms and was able to find an archived package were a reporter entered the Westgate bridge, physically underground and inside it and spoke about the likelihood of it collapsing again. If we don’t use this footage it can still be considered as research and resource materials.

This weeks we focussed on open space documentaries again and wrote down our understanding of it.

From my understanding, open space documentaries offer a broader, unconstrained version of a traditional, somewhat linear production. It combines technologies and different forms to portray the project in a unique way, there is an interaction with the filmmaker possibly seen more than in traditional forms. This may be through communicating directly with the filmmaker or effort and time has been spent in other areas to broaden the film’s perspective. As we aim to push the boundaries of documentary storytelling and we aim to add a more artistic flair to our segregated pieces of media, ours will be interactive, non linear, modular and transformative.  It will be collaborative and interdisciplinary. There is a clear theme and a story told but portrayed using new technologies and shown through a broader audience, with an intended audience expanding as our imagination does. As Patricia Zimmerman put it, “technology meets people and places”.

This past week my group members and I have remained in contact and been conversing about how we would like to structure our project. We decided as it is interactive, we’d aim to make a virtual, pictorial bridge that has a different video on each of the pillars on the structure with the 11th pillar having information about the collapse seeing as it was at that point the bridge fell. We thought we could have a chronological timeline that leads up to this moment and then the repercussions after or we could have stand alone pieces that can be clicked onto at any point. There may be an introduction or a POV travelling down the bridge, we have so many ideas that we find it necessary to start narrowing them down.’

We aim to interview a few important voices about the construction and collapse of the bridge. There is the obvious Donna Jackson and the writer of the fiction book as well as possibly Peter from the living museum of the west as he has a strong voice or even Vox pops from anyone who has an experience of the bridge.

The general idea however is to create chapters and cover the lifespan of the bridge.

This includes:

1. Bridge Overview
2. Life before the bridge
3. Collapse/Aftermath
4. Completion
5. Bridge today

A lot already exists about the collapse of the bridge and we want mot keep the topics broad so we have room and creative license to explore a variety or routes. We hope to be in contact with someone who directly worked on the bridge and can bring a first hand experience / perspective on it but we realise it’s be quite sensitive and fragile to handle. The same goes for suicides, the memorials and the prospects of the bridge collapsing again in the future. This is why we are conducting such thorough research like this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13pmar_QZkbHS2qfKE87xuZ4zzqKYSksrSQnJnbAOy8Y/edit for my section (most likely). We still do aim for this to be a collaborative process and handled with caution and care as this is such an important structure in society that can effect so many people still today.

This week presentations were conducted to showcase the work we’d done for the last assignment. I know Campbell, Nolan and my work’s were well received and memorable, standing out as cohesive pieces to tell a story but that can also remain seperate as their own stand-alone fragments. I think that was an aim of ours to create works that can be viewed, understood and enjoyed as a whole entity but can also be part of a larger work and still make sense.

Other people’s projects have clearer, stronger links to each group members work especially in the sense of the style the used to portray their messages where as ours were quite different and artistic showing a broad range of potential options for our final piece. It was inspiring to learn what other people’s visions are and ultimately so different and unique showing a broad perspective of the western suburbs.

My group and I brainstormed more ideas for our final project. Continuing with the Westgate bridge seemed natural as we had already delved into so much research about it and knew we wanted to show more sides to the bridge than we had. We were also very aware of being the only group to consider this topic and felt the need to have something solid to represent the bridge, our documentaries.

The modern idea of using the online space to create interactive documentaries was appealing and refreshing to us as we believed it would be a good way to demonstrate how a traditional, old structure can be learnt about in a new and interesting way. We hope to further explore different techniques to portray our findings. As we learnt this week about the different documentary styles, I believe an essay style is most appropriate and likely to be used by my group but shot in our own ways to demonstrate variety and creativity as we retell historic events.