Hollow was chosen for the 2014 FIFE film festival (in Paris) as part of their Web Documentary category. We're out of competition (because of English-only/no subtitles) but very honored to be selected for this French film festival! Check out the full competition here.
Viewing entries in
Hollow
Thanks everyone for joining us! If you missed the hangout, you can check it out below in two parts.
Part One: research, building an audience, pre-production, funding and on-the-ground production.
Part Two: production, participatory video, sound design, visual design, development, launch and outreach.
As promised, here are some helpful links mentioned in the hangout:
NYT Op-Doc: West Virginia, Still Home
Nathaniel Hansen's Kickstarter Guide
Tribeca Sandbox (great resource to find funders/festivals)
MIT Docubase (great resource for inspiration)
Welcome to Pine Point, Clouds Over Cuba (inspiration for us)
Parallax Scrolling Sites of 2013
The Creativist, Zeega (storytelling platforms)
ELAINE’S DOCUMENTS TO SHARE
Quick Guide (to take with them in the field)
McFarland Guide (not written by Elaine)
Participatory Method and Evaluation
ROBERT'S FULL TECH STACK
Node.js SocketStream Redis MongoDB Jade Stylus Engine.io AWS and CacheFly for hosting
SYNOPSIS Do you have questions about producing an interactive documentary? The makers behind Hollow, an award-winning interactive documentary about small-town America, are holding a live discussion to help you kick off your interactive projects in 2014.
The team will be available to answer questions about Hollow's fundraising and community building model, as well as design and development. Come with questions and be ready to learn from the team's successes and failures.
REMEMBER Google limits 10 people in the "room" at once. So come with questions and then let others in. The entire discussion will be posted on YouTube at 1 pm after the chat ends. After that point, you can reference it, revisit it and post it as you please!
Find us HERE on January 21, 2014 from noon to 1PM (EST).
TEAM MEMBERS IN HANGOUT: Director and Producer - Elaine McMillion Sound Designer - Billy Wirasnik Technical Director and Senior Developer - Robert Hall Art Director/Designer and Architect - Jeff Soyk
MODERATOR: Opeyemi Olukemi - Program Associate, Digital Initiatives at Tribeca Film Institute
HOW WILL IT WORK? When we go "live" there will be a Q&A sidebar on the video. You can post your questions there OR tweet at #hollowdocchat
FESTIVALS: New York Film Festival - 2013 Camden International Film Festival - 2013 Doc Lab at International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam - 2013 Future of Storytelling (featured in the Story Arcade) - 2013
AWARDS: Adobe Creative Edge Award - FWA Site of the Day - FWA Site of the Day - CSS Design Awards Selected for Doc Lab (Hollow was nominated as one of the top 3 projects out of 15 projects) - International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam Research and Documentation Award - National Coal Heritage Foundation
FEATURES AND REVIEWS: LA Times Huffington Post Filmmaker Magazine PBS Media Shift
WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING ABOUT HOLLOW?
LA Times:
Filmmaker Elaine McMillion’s project "Hollow: An Interactive Documentary" bridges that gap between the storyteller and the audience. The project is practically a living, breathing thing; viewers can subscribe for updates on individual people. Such connections create insight and understanding.
Huffington Post:
Anyone who saw promise for the future of web-based journalism after watching/reading The New York Times’ highly innovative "Snowfall," will positively be drawn to the work produced at "Hollow." It is next level. Maybe the most magnificently presented, web-aware journalism I’ve ever seen. But more important than the visual achievement is what it does — documenting the lives of people who live in a mostly ignored rural community, far from the traditional media bastions and bubbles.
TWEETS FROM VIEWERS:
I can say with confidence (Hollow) wins the Internet for 2013.Beautiful documentary execution of both film and interactive. Put down the #netflix and watch this. #hollerhomeExploring the greater tensions of modern America.Everyone–historians, students, designers, developers–drop everything you’re doing and watch this interactive doc.Hollow, the story of the American 20th century; the opening interaction is worth the price of admission (free) alone.Beautifully arresting. Stereotype-busting. An interactive documentary about people and a community.Hauntingly beautiful web-based storytelling@hollowthefilm is a game changer for interactive storytelling. Stunning!
Over the next couple months I will be adding to a series of microshort films (1-2 minutes) that focus on observing life in Appalachia. The footage from the series was shot in 2012 while I was filming for Hollow, an interactive documentary about the residents of McDowell County, West Virginia. From May to September, I filmed seven terabytes of footage in the coalfields.
Many of the interesting moments and awesome people I met did not make it into the interactive doc so I'm happy to find a new home for these people and places in this series. You can expect to observe church services, front-porch haircuts, residents wandering through abandoned buildings, riding on golf carts with the elderly, tent revivals and moments at home. I am very excited to share some of these slices of life with you.
You can view the first five shorts and read my artist statement here. Enjoy and stay tuned.
2013 has been an amazing experience. I am extremely grateful to all of you who have supported, shared and helped bring Hollow to life. There is still work to be done, but I can safely look back on 2013 with full satisfaction and gratification. I feel so lucky that we have been invited to screen and present Hollow 23 times in a 5-month period. We have traveled from California to NYC and from Appalachia to Amsterdam. We have won several awards and were most recently chosen for IDFA's DocLab. Nearly 80,000 people all around the world have experienced Hollow online since June 20. We're looking forward to experiencing what 2014 has in store for the team and community. We have several more Kickstarter-backer screenings to hold, but here are some university and conference screenings that are already lined up (starting in January): OSU, Davis & Elkins, Shepherd University, Wheeling Jesuit University, iDocs, Appalachian Studies Conference and Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Hollow was selected for the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam’s Doc Lab! The project was on display throughout the festival at De Brakke Grond. Out of 15 projects, we were named among the top 3 and nominated for the cash prize. Congrats to Jonathan Harris who won the DocLab award!
What an honor to be able to present Hollow alongside Barbara Kopple and “Harlan County, USA.” Interesting discussion all made possible by the awesome work of Sean Flynn and Ben Fowlie at Camden International Film Festival and the Points North Documentary Forum.
Thanks to the awesome IFP conference team for having Hollow as their case study this year. Check out some of the press following the presentation on PBS MediaShift and Documentary.org.