Creating work in Korsakow
This weeks reading by Matt Soar provides a highly relevant description of Korsakow as a tool for creating interactive documentaries whilst acknowledging the limitations of all data base documentaries.
The uncomplicated open-source software is ideal for developing non-linear, interactive, web-based documentaries without the requirement of programming knowledge. A large number of films made in Korsakow ‘are documentary-oriented, typically small-scale, observational, character-driven, even meditative’ (Soar, 2014).
There are numerous changes occurring to the ways in which individuals develop and engage with media. These include:
- Introduction of HTML 5
- Promotion of alternative media platforms and audiences
- Opportunities for funding and exhibition of new media
- Introduction of rapid computer networks for high quality viewing and distribution of work
- Broader availability to a varied audience
- Development of ‘online read-write culture’
- Low production costs involved in creating this new media
These developments in new media practices such as data base story telling has formed after large experimentation in combining new digital media with cinema.
With easy and affordable internet access filmmakers are presented with a new freedom to delve into specific details of stories that they were never able to due to the restrictions of filmmaking such as time constraints.
This technology is intended for filmmakers rather than highly skilled technologists as it is relatively simple to use, but offers huge opportunities to explore creative concepts.
Some issues that need to be considered when determining the sort of interactive documentary software a filmmaker will use include:
- The Programming language
- The platform
- The operating system
- The plug ins
- The versioning
The new term ‘software salvage’ presents the dilemma of resurrecting new media works after the files are no longer viewable due to the rapid developments in technology, specifically online media. This issue is already problematic for works created on CD-ROM now that many computers or tablets do not provide a component for watching the media in their machines.
Creating a work in Korsakow allows the filmmaker to develop concepts that connect the images to form relationships. The creator can refine the presentation of their clips by determining the number of times they can be viewed and when they can be viewed through the connections made to other clips.
K-Films can be frequently altered and updated, allowing the story to evolve through time. These films require a certain level of time and consideration to fully engage and understand concepts.
There are three components of editing involved in this form of interactive documentary that provide the audience with their interpretation of the work:
- Traditional selecting and cutting clips together (before Korsakow)
- ‘Algorithmic editing’ (within Korsakow)
- Viewer selection (whilst viewing completed Korsakow project)
Soar refers to ‘the process of creating SNUs - adding self-identifying (‘in’) keywords and contextual search terms (‘out’ keywords)’ (2014).
The key words used to connect clips need to be clear, without being too ambiguous. To create an effective K-Film, it is advised to draw the keywords from the meaning behind the clips rather than the obvious visual elements on screen.