Blue skies and green grass for Easter weekend on the Sheldon farm.
Two of my favorite things: 1.) My niece, Emeline Jane
2.) Evening light and lens flare
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Hollow an interactive documentary that explores the issues and future of small-town America, was named as an official honoree in the Community Category in the 18th annual Webby Awards. Established in 1996, the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Hollow, which launched June 2013, tells the story of 30 residents living in McDowell County, W.Va., a once-thriving community in Southern West Virginia. The interactive documentary merges cinematic techniques with web-based storytelling to encourage a dialogue about the issues that small-town America faces.
Hollow was created by group of Boston-based designers, editors and developers. The development and post-production team included Elaine McMillion Sheldon (project director and editor), Jeff Soyk (interactive designer and architect), Robert Hall (senior technologist), Russell Goldenburg (interactive developer), Billy Wirasnik (sound designer and editor), Tricia Fulks (associate producer and research), Sarah Ginsburg (editor) and Kerrin Sheldon (editor).
Official Honorees’ work exhibit remarkable achievement that was not selected as a Nominee in the Webby Awards. Out of 12,000 entries submitted from more than 60 countries and all 50 states, the Official Honoree distinction is awarded to only the top 15 percent of all work entered.
Future screenings of the film will be held at Shepherd University (Shepherdstown, W.Va.) on April 11; Wheeling Jesuit University (Wheeling, W.Va.) on April 15; Nyon, Switzerland from April 27 to 29; and Vermont College of Fine Arts (Montpelier, Vt.) from April 30 to May 3.
To experience the interactive documentary, visit www.hollowdocumentary.com.
To purchase a DVD, visit http://projecthollow.bigcartel.com/.
To see a full list of awards and screenings, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ng9wo2z.
It was announced yesterday, but I am still grasping the reality.
What an amazing honor for our team and project to be recognized for this award.
I am so excited to announce we have won 3rd Prize in the World Press Photo Multimedia Awards in the Interactive Documentary category. It is such an amazing honor to be chosen for this award as an independent filmmaker and journalist. Congrats to the whole Hollow team and McDowell County community. Check out the winning projects here. Below, a jury member reflects on why Hollow was chosen for 3rd Prize:
"Some of the most impressive elements of Hollow are the depth of the content, the richness of the content. The characters that are portrayed are totally believable and I think it's these small stories told in a big way...it's not a large production piece but it has that feeling, it feels very much as if it was created by people who care about the subject that they are documenting." [vimeo 89865336 w=500 h=281]
I'm honored to be a part of the team that won a Digital First Media Award for January. Here is what the judges had to say:
The Charleston Daily Mail deftly managed the Elk River contamination, providing all-angles coverage without diluting content. The show-stealer is the artistry of videographer Elaine McMillion in "West Virginia Water Woes, 36 Hour Recap," which is also a testament to the explanatory reporting skills of David Boucher. This video is not just informative — it's striking. I was further impressed by the work of reporters Marcus Constantino and Matt Murphy; a hot shower well-earned by all.
Award announcement here
Behind the scenes of our coverage here
Congrats to the whole team!
[vimeo 83906115 w=700 h=394]
A recent trip to Bisbee, Arizona (visiting Allison Otto) led us into an old copper mine.
Random street photography taken last Sunday in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Enjoy.
Over the past couple days, some pretty cool awards have been announced. Check out the images/links below and thanks to everyone for your continued support of Hollow! HOLLOW is a finalist in the SXSW Interactive Awards in the "Activism" category
Green, governmental and non-profit projects striving to make the world a better place.
Hollow is featured for Eastern Oregon's Film Festival's Online Selection.
The rise of digital cinema has shown that 20th Century exhibition models are increasingly insufficient. Cinema is in constant flux, and without adapting to changes in the distribution landscape, most filmmakers cannot survive. We believe that festivals’ inclusion of online works is progressive, and vital to independent cinema. The Internet also serves as a temporary home for some of the more intimate, experimental works that move us.
I have also been invited to lead a discussion and screening at the following places, this spring:
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.
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: West Virginia stands in a state of emergency after a potentially harmful chemical spilled into a local river and contaminated the water supply. And no one knows how long it will last. More than 100,000 customers in the nine counties receiving water from the 1,500-mile affected network were ordered to stop using their water for almost everything.
I produced this piece for the Charleston Daily Mail on Friday. If you need caught up on what has been happening in West Virginia, during the past 36 hours, take some time to watch the video.
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!
I traveled down to McDowell County, West Virginia yesterday to hold an intense (yet small) workshop for two high school students. Cody and Josh were chosen for the Opportunity Launch program, supported by Scott Widmeyer and WVU's School of Journalism. I taught Cody and Josh the basics of what makes a story newsworthy, compelling and the process to research and develop your story. They practiced their interview skills and learned how to use the Canon 5D. I was very impressed with the quality of their work and the amount of dedication they brought to the workshop. Over the next week, we will be working on their video segment and interview with Linda McKinney (featured in Hollow), photo gallery with caption, and press release. You can download my Storytelling 101 presentation here.
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.
I took the old 35mm out for a stroll last night in Pittsburgh. Not much to write home about, but I liked these moments. Enjoy.
The five short films commissioned (including our film, "For Seamus") by the NYT magazine for "The Lives They Lived" issue are featured in the most recent issue and online at nytimes.com/magazine.
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.
Our short film, FOR SEAMUS, has launched today on The New York Times. The film celebrates the life and work of Ireland's most famous contemporary poet, Seamus Heaney. It was commissioned by NYT Op-Docs and NYT Magazine for "The Lives They Lived" series, along with four other films. See them all here.
