The NFB's Head of Digital Content shares lessons learned around story and form from award-winning, groundbreaking interactive projects Seven Digital Deadly Sins, Circa 1948, The Last Hunt, Bear 71 and Welcome to Pinepoint. Design and technology meets story and documentary.

1. ThePixelLab
28June-4July
Inverness, Scotland
#PixelLab

2. LocDao’sLessons
LearnedinInteractive
Documentary
Loc Dao
National Film Board of Canada
#PixelLab
@powertothepixel

3. Looking Back

4. CBC Radio 3 Digital Magazine
2002 - 2005

5. Connecting the dots…

9. 630 interactive stories

10. Good stories transcend platform
Users will read, listen and watch
all at once
We never play videos in little windows
Lessons learned

11. NFB/Interactive
Photo Essay

13. Interactive Photo Essay
for touch and gyroscope

15. Try, Fail, Repeat

16. The Last Hunt
New workflow
Webby Award
FWA Mobile Site of the Day
FWA Site of the Day
Possible new format
Linear written/audio story + semi-linear visual user experience

17. 1939
BirthofNFB
Canadiandocumentary

18. No pressure.
70 years(in 2009)
of Documentary History

19. Welcome to Pine Point
NFB’s first original Interactive Documentary

20. PINEPOINT

21. Critical Acclaim
Only 120,000 unique visitors
interactive marketing in its infancy

22. You need to have a good story
(don’t get stuck on form or tech)
Know your audience
(and why they will care)
The audience is the editor
(you’re no longer in control)
Lessons learned

23. Internet Content and Marketing need to be
conceived at the same time.
Different audiences use different platforms,
it should have also been a tablet app
Story and form need to be conceived before
you start programming. Scripts still work.
Linear written story + semi-linear visual user experience
Lessons learned

24. Storyworlds

25. Bear 71 Story World
Sundance
January 19, 2012

26. Act I: Bear 71 is performed live.
Full Band: Live music version.
Acoustic version: Co-Creator
Jeremy Mendes and Cellist
Heather Macintosh.

27. Act II: Installation

29. Act III: Interactive Documentary

31. Epilogue: Social Narrative
Lance Weiler’s Community Team
+
Microsite + Postcards with QR
Story in Filmmaker Magazine
@iambear71
iambear71.tumblr.com

44. Interactive Doc - 400,000 people
Installation and Live - 35,000 people
FWA Site of the Year
Webby Award
Cannes Cyber Lion

45. “People have been discussing the
possibilities of interactive film for
decades, Bear 71 is one of the first
examples of someone[sic] getting it
right.”
- Corinna Falusi, Ogilvy & Mather

46. Sometimes your first idea is the best one
Story and Script are still the foundation of the
work. The right author JB McKinnon (100 mile
diet) brought the project to another level.
Have the right team. Do you trust your devs?
Lessons learned

47. Telling the story on different
platforms can work.
The Storyworld was more than the
sum of its parts
Linear audio story + non-linear visual user experience
Lessons learned

48. Gods Lake, The Last Hunt, Main Street, This Land
Linear written/audio story + semi-linear visual user experience
Circa 1948
Non-linear audio fragments + non-linear visual user experience
Welcome to PinePoint
Linear written story + semi-linear visual user experience
Bear 71
Linear audio story + non-linear visual user experience
A new form: Interactive Documentary

49. Circa 1948 Storyworld 2.0
Tribeca Film Festival
April 22, 2014

51. Live Event

54. VR Interactive Installation

56. Stakeholder Campaign

63. Circa 1948 StoryWorld
Live artist talk
Play: Helen Lawrence
iPad/iPhone App
VR Interactive Installation
Circa website

64. Hybrid Agile between web and
game is tricky but does work
Things never go as planned - art
delays, projectors disappearing.
Non-Linear audio story + non-linear visual user experience
Lessons learned
We can’t stop learning. We learned how to
make a 3D render engine for tablets and a VR
physical environment.

65. Seven Digital Deadly Sins
StoryWorld
June 2014 - May 2015

66. Guardian Weekend Print Magazine

68. theguardian.com: desktop, smartphone, tablet
+
nfb.ca: desktop, smartphone, tablet

74. Media Campaign

75. 150 Media Stories

76. digg.com
Fast
Co
GeekSided
Huffington
Post
France
DesignTAXI
Interac=ve
Narra=ves
Refinery
29
Playback
Studio
Masbo
University
of
PiJsburgh
IDG
Now!
Crea=ve
Planet
Network
CretaDrive
Patheos
Wonderzine
Gigamir
NPR piece:
http://www.nprberlin.de/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
https://www.wnyc.org/story/digital-deadly-sins-the-morality-of-our-digital-obsessions/
http://wypr.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.kplu.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.alaskapublic.org/NPRstory/?320321221
http://nwpr.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=320321221
http://news.wfsu.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.wpr.org/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.ideastream.org/news/npr/320321221
http://wnku.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://wamu.org/news/14/06/09/digital_deadly_sins_the_morality_of_our_digital_obsessions
http://ijpr.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://wamc.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://apr.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-digital-deadly-sins-the-morality-of-our-digital-obsessions/
http://ripr.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://wesa.fm/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://kccu.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://tpr.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.kclu.org/npr/?id=320321221
http://www.wvpe.org/index.php?id=320321221&type=story
http://wgbhnews.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://peoriapublicradio.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://wuwm.com/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://krwg.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://kuer.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://northernpublicradio.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://wabe.drupal.publicbroadcasting.net/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://kwbu.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://news.prairiepublic.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://wkar.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.netnebraska.org/node/921306
http://kunm.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://indianatalks.com/site/2014/06/digital-deadly-sins-the-morality-of-our-digital-obsessions/
http://wutc.org/post/digital-deadly-sins-morality-our-digital-obsessions
http://www.wvpe.org/index.php?id=320321221&type=story
http://www.gpb.org/news/2014/06/09/digital-deadly-sins-the-morality-of-our-digital-obsessions?utm_source=feed
Canadian Press (Wire Service) pieces:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/movies/does-googling-lead-to-gluttony--doc-links-

77. 15,000 facebook shares
100,000 people referred

78. Sins Live
IDFA Doclab Nov 2014

79. Tribeca Film Fest, NYC April 18, 2015

80. DOXA: Vancouver May 4, 2015

81. Sins StoryWorld
Guardian Weekend Print Magazine
theguardian.com: desktop, smartphone, tablet
nfb.ca: desktop, smartphone, tablet
Sins Live Satire: Amsterdam, NYC, Vancouver

82. 400,000 unique visitors
130,000+ votes
218 countries
Sins StoryWorld Metrics
40,000+ overall shares

83. Industries work differently
Not Common Audiences and
Demographics
Merging two evolving but
established processes
CHALLENGES

84. Honesty - Be Frank
Trust
Play to your strengths
Be Flexible
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

85. The Living Documentary
= Guardian + NFB
Project #2

86. Links:
http://archive.cbcradio3.com
http://godslake.nfb.ca
http://thelasthunt.nfb.ca
Please download the free tablet app
http://pinepoint.nfb.ca
http://bear71.nfb.ca
http://circa1948.nfb.ca
Free iPad/iPhone app is the main project - link on website
Seven Digital Deadly Sins
http://sins.nfb.ca

87. nfb.ca/interactive
@locdao
Apple and Google Play app stores:
National Film Board of Canada