a CBC experiment with Second screen documentary

what is it?

Kidnapped was developed for CBC’s Fifth Estate in order

to enhance their 2012 season finale. This multi-platform

documentary examines the violent kidnapping of a

Vancouver university student in 2006, and the massive

police investigation that followed.

what is it?

According to host Bob McKeown, “the fifth estate and

cbcnews.ca teams have been looking for unique

opportunities to combine interactive storytelling with

investigative journalism...To explore new ways of telling

stories, and new ways of getting the audience

involved...Crime stories with victims and family members

and police officers all interacting have real drama and

turning points, points when crucial decisions are made,

and we want to get the audience to weigh in at those

points.”

what is it?

Kidnapped was a collaboration between teams at CBC

News’s the fifth estate, CBCNews.ca, and Fulscrn.

The project was fully funded and wholly owned by the

CBC News. Fulscrn was hired to provide strategy,

creative development, and interactive design and

development. The project team was made up of 12

people.

why look at this project?

This project stands out because of its reach into new

demographics through the use of second screen and

multiplatform elements intended to bring in new

audiences and to enhance the experience of current

audiences of The Fifth Estate, a long running staple of the

CBC television.

project goals

to reach a younger demographic

to experiment with second screen interaction

to experiment with the multiplatform documentary form

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to increase traffic to the season finale

to remain “respectful” to the underlying values and journalistic integrity the fifth estate has established over several decades

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to engage the audience and have them spend a longer time experiencing the content

to develop new ways to tell stories, and new ways to present investigative journalism reports online

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AST

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platform OverviewTV SHOW Live Across

5 Timezones

Social Media Mobile

QR codesNational

Audiences

Online Interactive

Documentary

Kidnapped Quiz

Timeline of Events

Expert Interviews

Instructions & Promo for Interactive TV

Experience

ROLL OUT

Starring Bob McKeown, who hosted the live, interactive event, and promo was created that both served as a teaser for the show and also an instruction manual to the show. This aired several weeks leading up to the show in order to prepare viewers for what to expect and also how to get the most out of the experience. You can check it out here:

http://youtu.be/o5s3d2Tke68

Instructions & Promo for Interactive TV

Experience

Online Interactive

Documentary

Two days before broadcast the online portal was was opened and an documentary documentary, timelines of events, expert interviews and a quiz were released. The documentary, which integrated many gamification techniques, was the main draw. In this documentary. online participants could help ‘police crack the case by gathering clues, viewing video reenactments, listening to audio clips of ‘phone taps’ (which did play a significant role in the actual investigation and subsequent trial) and by reviewing an interactive police notebook with collected evidence.

ROLL OUT

Kidnapped Quiz

Timeline of Events

Expert Interviews

Online Interactive

Documentary

In accordance with their goals to maintain the fifth estate standards of journalistic integrity, “Much of the material comes from the people who were at the centre of the story—the victim’s father, the Police Team Commander and others who relive the day-to-day drama. An international hostage negotiator also appears on the show (albeit in shadow), to explain how such crimes often play out, and how the family, the police and the media must proceed with caution so as not to trigger a tragic outcome.” This documentary clearly has the same outcome each time but gives users an opportunity to have a deeper understanding of the case. This part of the project remains online on the CBC portal.

ROLL OUT

Kidnapped Quiz

Timeline of Events

Expert Interviews

The social media, mobile and QR aspects were directly integrated into the live broadcast. Before each commercial break, viewers will had the opportunity to interact and give their view or votes on how the police investigation should proceed. Again, it is a documentary, so they were not able to change the course of the story, but, to a degree, could alter how the story was shown and how the presentation was framed.

The voting was done through the a voting app that could be accessed via the website, CBC’s Facebook and Twitter accounts or via the QR code on your screen.

ROLL OUT

As this was a live show, timezones/regions were taken into consideration. The show was broadcast live in each timezone in Canada, and the voting results tabulated per region, and presented back with each successive live airing.

ROLL OUT

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audience engagement:Broadcast

The fifth estate is normally taped for broadcast, but because this episode was driven, in large part, by audience participation and involved different outcomes the host’s links had to be performed and broadcast live to each of Canada’s five different time zones. Producing and delivering these elements of the show five times in an evening was a major rollout challenge for the production team at the fifth estate.

How did this affect the traditional -.h Estate broadcast?

During the live episode, host Bob McKeown, would ask the viewer to weigh in on what they had just seen and where the investigation should go. During ad breaks viewers responded through the various means described above. When the show returned their choices were revealed and the show carried on accordingly. This varied by region depending on the votes. Different tactics were promoted throughout the show and in the promotions leading up to broadcast.

During the live broadcast, what kind of prompts and calls to action did you draw your audience acr5s platforms?

audience engagement:Broadcast

The key to creating for multiple platforms is a lot of upfront creative development and planning. Knowing the story and how it was going to unfold on each platform allowed us to plan production around assets that would be used both on Television and online. You have to also plan out what you want online so in the content gathering stage you get exactly the right pieces you need to create the interactive.

How did you plan for different audience responses to the content & the platforms?

audience engagement:Broadcast

There are several mechanisms that initially attracted the audience to the digital elements {mobile, social media, online portal}. The initial promos of the show made it quite clear that this would be a different kind of viewing experience that would integrate several platforms. Throughout the broadcast the audience was invited to take part, vote and have a say in the show through social media and a QR code invitation. During the broadcast the engagement was maintained through the live nature of the show and the real time data brought in from the voting.

How were the connected with the digital elements? What made them stay?

audience engagement:digital

In addition, in order to really follow through on their goals of developing deeper and more connected viewers, there was a rich online documentary experience on the online portal. This was launched two days prior to the live broadcast and still continues to today. Online a rich set of experiences were created in order to develop a compelling story that would provide a deeper experience for the viewer. Through this they are able, at their own time and pace, to find out more about the story, the investigation, and the people involved. This has given the project a much longer shelf life than broadcast alone.

How were the connected with the digital elements? What made them stay?

audience engagement:digital

PLanning for multiplatform

A traditional show bible wasn’t produced but there was a lot of project planning developed. Much of the planning focused on creating assets that could be leveraged across the various experience platforms. Aligning TV and interactive production schedules was also a priority.

With any journalistic venture new revelations or access to information comes to light late in the game that requires you to change the story. This meant planning contingencies that allowed all pieces of production to re-edit, re-design, and re-develop on the fly.

How did you plan for this project? Did you create a project bible?

Kidnapped

Check out the project at: fulscrn.com/work/kidnapped/

http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/cbcs-fifth-estate-goes-live-with-special-interactive-documentary/1001049677/?&

Sources:Sean Embury, Fulscrn ++

www.CBCNews.ca/kidnapped

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http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2011-2012/kidnapped+

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