Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes of “Africa to Australia”

Many of you may know that I am a big fan of interactive documentaries. So, when Matt Smith of SBS Online approached me about their newest interactive “Africa to Australia,” I knew that I wanted to take you behind the scenes.

Six videos and six photo stories document the stories of African refugees and immigrants living in Australia. Each is presented in a full-browser Flash interface, and deep-linked for easy access. Moreover, all content is presented in seven languages, from English and French to Dinka and Swahili.

I hope you enjoy this interview with multimedia producer Matt Smith and documentary editor John MacFarlane. Personally, I enjoyed learning how they successfully managed a team of 30 producers and how they overcame difficulties that they faced offering multiple languages.

1. Explain the rationale for doing this story – how did the idea come about and who pitched it to whom?

John MacFarlane: The evolution of this project was slightly out of the ordinary. There wasn’t a pitch, but in this case that also meant there wasn’t pressure in the early stages to focus on anything too specific – which can be a luxury.

Africa to Australia actually began as an idea tossed back and forth between SBS and Screen Australia (a national funding body) to find a home for some new and archival footage about African refugees and immigrants.

SBS had commissioned a documentary called Community Cop, about a policeman in Melbourne working with a (mostly young) African refugee community in inner-city Melbourne, and it was decided that we could film additional interviews with the key characters with the intention of creating some kind of online project around that footage. Then the project grew somewhat and we began thinking about presenting a wider spectrum of stories – most Africans in Australia have arrived quite recently, and there are some common threads and themes in their stories, as well as (of course) many unique aspects. We realised we had an opportunity to provide a deeper look into these communities.

2. How long did this project take from idea to launch?

Matt Smith: There was overlap amongst all the various processes. For the content, it’s hard to gauge in man-hours, but it was gathered over a period of 12 months. The website build was stretched out over a period too, but probably accounted for 3 months of work. We released it in two stages. First with only in-language subtitles, then about a fortnight later, a second version entirely translated. Preparing the translations took about two months from brief to delivery.

3. How many people were involved in this project and in what capacity?

Matt Smith: We had around 30 people working on the project in various ways. At the risk of excluding some of the key contributors: Within SBS Online, I designed and built the site, with John-Paul Marin producing and John MacFarlane providing editorial direction. John Connell was tasked with producing the content, where he managed a team of independent content creators. The SBS Language Services team did the translating and was managed by Andrew McCormick.

4. How did you find the story subjects and how long did you spend with each to flesh out each story?

Matt Smith: Our content producer and researcher, John Connell, spent a long time reaching out to community groups across the country to get inspiration for stories and access to the individuals.

Initially there was some understandable caution: in the conservative media at the time African communities were receiving a lot of negative attention (there had been a foiled terrorist plot involving three men of Somali origin). However, when John explained the positive nature of the project they opened up and were a wealth of knowledge. They suggested the individuals who were most inspiring, or with the most interesting stories. Ultimately, it was the communities themselves that guided us towards the content we should be including.

5. Of all of the stories, which is your favorite and why?

John MacFarlane: I would hate to choose just one, but there are a few moments that really stand out for me: I love Lucky and Ramla, the surf-lifesaver sisters, and the way they challenge stereotypes about what a surf-lifesaver is (and the surf lifesaver is about as iconic an Australian thing as exists). They’re also extremely hilarious, and if you listen just to their audio they sound like the two most Australian girls in the world. Which is the point, of course! I also love Mbuyi, the Congolese farmer. He’s so positive and warm, and the way he says “it’s yummy!” when he eats a bit of cassava is so great.

Matt Smith: I really liked Open Door about the Somali taxi driver. The photos are every-day yet incredibly intimate. It’s hard to fathom some of the questions his customers ask him. And whilst his anecdotes are sobering, his outlook is really positive.

6. What was the most difficult part of this project and why?

Matt Smith: One of the trickiest technical and design challenges was working with the multitude of languages the site features. Some, such as Dinka and Amharic, are poorly supported even on modern computers. We had to also ensure the design worked and was still visually appealing in all languages. Some languages took up a lot of room on the screen, whereas others were much more compact and left a lot of empty space. Most languages ran left to right, whereas Arabic was an exception running right to left. Making this work was a juggling act.

7. If you could go back and redo one part of this project, what would it be?

John MacFarlane: I’m not entirely sure if redoing this would improve anything, but the way the content and the design were kept quite separate seemed problematic at times. I’m from the school of interactive design that says deep collaboration is essential, so I would have liked to involve design much earlier in the process. With that said, I love how this turned out, so it’s a minor quibble in this case.

8. Explain your reasoning for the full browser interface. What types of designs did you consider before finalizing the user interface?

Matt Smith: The first round of designs included an ‘always on’ interface. But early in the process, as the videos were being created, we decided it would be a disservice to squeeze them into a small player. The material is quite striking and we wanted the user to engage with it as much as possible. So we refined the design in favour of making the interface work in two modes. That is, be invisible when watching content, allowing the user to be immersed.

Then, encourage exploration at key points in videos when reoccurring themes are being discussed or when the user is seeking more information.

9. How have viewers reacted to this project so far? Can you tell us any stats such as pageviews, time spent on site, etc?

John MacFarlane: We’ve seen lots of very positive Tweets and Facebook posts, and feedback about the design and project as a whole has been extremely and universally positive. Promotion of the project is an ongoing endeavour, so the stats aren’t trailing off yet, and we’ve got some print advertising and TV promo spots still on deck which means traffic will still climb. Even without the formal promotional push, the site averages a few hundred visitors per day, and average visit duration is around 5 minutes.

10. Why do you think this type of large-form interactive storytelling is important for this type of a story?

Matt Smith: I think it’s necessary to approach each story as a unique entity with its own needs for presenting online.

In the case of Africa to Australia, if it were approached more traditionally the temptation may be to cut up the material into a documentary-proper at the risk of each of the characters losing their intimacy. On the other hand, placing the individual films in a space such as Youtube, they may get lost in an abundance of content and not necessarily receive the respect they deserve. So I see Africa to Australia as somewhere in between the frenetic short-form online video typically takes, and a more traditional considered long-form documentary.

The intention of showing diverse and digestible stories, but also fitting into an overall document celebrating African migrants is how we approached the project. So in that sense, to create both a resource and an experience, it was something that had to be crafted.

Other posts that might interest you:

• Behind the scenes of “Goa hippy tribe”
• Behind the scenes: “Soul of Athens: Our dreams are different”
• NFB and The Goggles launch interactive documentary Pine Point

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