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Multimedia journalism

Multimedia Round Table | “Carrying Darisabel”

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ April 13, 2010 ⋅ Email This Post Email This Post ⋅ Post a comment

This post is also available in Spanish

Carrying Darisabel by The York Daily Record

Carrying Darisabel by The York Daily Record

After watching “Carrying Darisabel” by The York Daily Record, I knew that it would be a great fit for II’s round table series. Specifically, I have two distinct questions I would like to ask you regarding this site. First, do we, as producers, still need to create a Flash intro screen to “glam up” a video or other simple media presentation? Then, going back to the infamous length question, is 20 minutes too long for a passive video story that occurred in the past with limited real-time content?

Let’s start with the design and layout of the site. I love the image of the little girl smiling in the background. The static title and intro treatment is fitting. But, what about this forced intro of multiple sound bytes – is it needed here? It reminds me of the introduction I programmed for Roanoke.com’s “Age of Uncertainty” package. Granted, they added a skip button which was definitely needed on the one I did, but is 2010 the year where we completely forgo intros and simply present the users with the best content from the site as a way to grab their attention?

I was disappointed when I clicked on the “Experience their story” button and it jumped me out of the package to a blank video page. All of the time and effort spent creating a mood and feel for the story in the splash page was gone once I got to the video page. Why not just overlay the video player on the splash page over the girl’s face? There should be no reason to push the user to a separate page and then force them to use a back button to get back to the homepage.

Furthermore, why does the site navigation disappear once I click on a section? Since it is located along the bottom of the page, it seems as if they could have kept the navigation links up while I read about the story, looked at the community resources, and browsed through the other related content. This would remove the need for having an “Exit” button on each of the section pages and allow users to more easily navigate from one sub-section to the next.

Now, let’s talk about the video. Photographer Jason Plotkin (and others) did an excellent job producing this piece. The lighting and angles of the interview tracks are beautifully shot and edited together. While I would have liked to hear the 911 call at the beginning, or see more crime scene footage to get a better sense of what the responders saw, I completely understand the limitations that they probably encountered in using this type of content (if it even existed).

Truth be told, I watched five minutes and then started clicking around the timeline to see if the other 15 minutes also had mostly interview footage. It frustrates me that it lost my attention. How is it that I will dedicate 30 minutes each night to the nightly news, but I can’t sit and watch a 20 minute web documentary?

Honestly, there are only a handful of web videos that I will sit and watch from beginning to end. Why is that? Is it because the TV only has a limited offering and so I’m not as likely to browse, but once I get on the Internet it is too easy for me to click away to something else?

We have had the debate here on II before regarding the length of other passive multimedia, including MediaStorm’s videos. If I recall correctly, Brian Storm told me recently that the average time on their site is 12 minutes. Do viewers have a different mindset when they peruse videos on MediaStorm, similar to Hulu where they go to the site already invested to spend quality time with the content? Or, did YouTube ruin us in terms of not being able to watch a passive video for more than the infamous three to four minute mark?

So, be honest: how long did you watch this video?


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Discussion

View Comments for “Multimedia Round Table | “Carrying Darisabel””

  • http://kat-downs.com/blog Kat Downs

    Nice topic, Tracy.

    To your first question, my answer would be no, the intro is not necessary. I like the display type and the use of imagery, but this page could’ve easily been done with CSS and an embedded video player. That would allow the designer to maintain the display type while allowing the user to watch the video in-page. They could add all that supplementary information below the player. I don’t think the time and effort that goes into building that sort of simple intro in Flash is worth the time and effort required to create it. It’s not searchable and the navigation is much more complicated than it needs to be.

    For the second question regarding video length — it was not as much of an issue for me. Normally I have less than a 3-minute attention span when it comes to web video, but I thought this story was very compelling. Some of the angled shots were a little distracting, but for the most part the emotional testimony of the officers kept me interested. Doesn’t hurt that I’m a huge Law & Order fan :)

    Overall, I thought the piece was an interesting and powerful window into how law enforcement officers are affected by the crimes they witness every day. It could use some design and usability improvements, but I think the video works.

  • http://www.thirdratetropics.com Nico Colombant

    very powerful!

    a bit of poor man’s errol morris

    I think they should have done a short version and a long version of this though

    intro not necessary since it’s the same type of intro in the video anyway

    it just adds a barrier to entry rather than inviting in

    on video I would have used more broll, reenactments, stills, graphics, maps … since there is so much interview footage which is very nicely done but after a while I find there needs to be other visual enticement

    I would have used less music too. For such a high quality piece, the quality of music is important too, and can drag down piece rather than lift it.

    as far as site enhancement, I think there could have been a character description sidebar with text and photo for each main character in piece

    Im very old school though and have my own peculiar style as well.

    I think it’s good online video is coming from so many different directions, so that it avoids the formulaic,

    Nico

  • http://www.adamwestbrook.co.uk Adam Westbrook

    I agree the video length question is a tough one. I guess as you say it depends on the strength of the story, but there are other factors at play watching video online.

    You’re probably sitting on a chair at a desk, watching on a small screen, not on a couch with a TV.

    Distractions are greater and just a click of the mouse away.

    I wonder whether this is not a story which could have been told in six minutes instead of 20?

  • http://www.tracynboyer.com Tracy Boyer

    Great thoughts everyone!

    @Kat Great suggestion about designing the splash page with CSS and then embedding the video within the HTML page. That would have completely removed the need for Flash …

    @Nico I agree that more supplemental content over the interview track would have helped, but reenactment is always tricky and most of the time it’s not done well. Other graphics and a map of the area would have been nice additions, though.

    @Adam I think your last point complements Nico’s in that perhaps after editing a 20-minute longer web documentary for those who are truly wanting to spend that quality time with the story, they could have edited a shorter take so that people can still get the full story without dedicating the full 20 minutes.

    For the others out there: Did the intro engage you more so than if it had just been a video on a nicely-designed, static web page? Why or why not?

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