Blog Websites for Documentary
The objective here was to document the four-month production process and rehearsals of a classic theatrical play. However the documenting (written commentary, photos, videos) would be done by my (non-techie) client, and she’d be doing it solo, overseas, from Barcelona, Spain.
Challenge: Design of a website that described, week by week, the four month development of a play in Europe and that could be managed by someone whose comfort level was one window open at a time, and who only worked with text.
Solution: imagiNed Web Design designed a website that: 1) used sophisticated graphics to advertise the theater and the production, 2) invited viewers to follow development of the play in English or in Catalan with a couple of clicks of their mouse, 3) was built around a flexible design that accommodated artistic changes and surprises, and 4) could be managed by a PC novice 5,000 miles from home. In addition, how the website was designed gave me confidence, and I’m editing photos and videos, working with multiple windows, juggling flash drives, configuring printers and so on all the time now.
– Linda C. – Documentary Producer
I proposed a blogging setup as the appropriate platform for her documentary and radically customized a Blogger template to incorporate YouTube videos and Flickr slideshows.
I tutored my client in PC procedures, blog post editing, camcorder operation, basic photo and video editing software and other skills she would need. I also created detailed step-by-step instruction sheets, so she could confidently to do all of her own content creation and site updating overseas, on her own.
See the instruction sheet for How to Edit Posts in Blogger. See the instruction sheet for How to Upload and Edit Flip Video. These instruction sheets (there were about eight of them) are nothing fancy, they were not written for general publication, but rather for use by one particular person.
I also set up a mirror site to switch languages between English & Catalan with the click of a button (with translations provided to me from a professional translation service paid for by my client).
The primary focus of this project was the tutoring of my client and establishing procedures to make it simpler for her to do the editing of photos, video and text. This project demonstrates how customization and integration of free web services (Blogger, YouTube, Flickr) enabled my client to create a professional-looking web-based documentary.
(These two sites are no longer available for viewing, so I’ve included some screen shots.)
