In my previous posts, I talked about the online documentary I analysed in our A1 Asessment as well as one we looked at in class. With these in mind this post will be about generating and finalising ideas for the proposed online documentary in our A2 Assessment. I will strive to incorporate elements used in both Soul Patron and Welcome to Pine Point as well as introduce my own ideas into the medium of online documentary.

The name of my project will be called ‘Plastic Planet’. Using the issue of plastic production and pollution I have decided center the online documentary around a timeline of when plastic products such as bottles, plastic bags and even things like electrical goods are made to the time they are left in a landfill or left as rubbish in our environment. I”ll be doing heavy research to investigate facts on production plastic production as well as information on types of plastics and what effect they have on our environment.

In terms of structure and interface, I want the project to begin with a short video that offers a short cinematic introduction about what the project is. The landing page will offer four options that will explore the production of four plastic products determined to be most harmful to our environment. At the moment these will include bottles, straws, plastic bags and electrical goods (mobile phones, computers etc). While I expect that the documentary will be somewhat linear to maintain cohesiveness, there will be opportunities for the user to click and explore each scene and discover information based on the plastics harmful effects on the environment.

The project will incorporate a similar interface to the one used in Soul Patron. Many scenes will be comprised of video content that continues to loop. I wanted to achieve a sense of immersion with the project and make each scene feel like somewhere the audience actually is. Like Soul Patron, the interface wont be static and buttons will only be revealed when the audience moves the cursor across the screen. I will include a ‘home’ button and a ‘back’ button just so the audience can return to the menu for easier navigation. If I do have trouble shooting video and photos, I will look at other options such as stock photos, videos or create set pieces myself.

While these ideas are all still in development, I think the takeaway concept is a timeline of when plastic is produced to where it ends up. My intention with this project is for it to be an educative experience and present the truths about plastics that people might not know about.