Ahead of the inaugural Melbourne Web Series Festival on 20 July, we’re profiling all 30 series that made the Official Selection list. Next up is The Journey of Documentary, created by Atalanti Dionysus.

Filmed across Melbourne and Adelaide, The Journey of Documentary was inspired by the potential that documentary lends itself to almost every platform.  The evolution of technology has seen documentary filmmaking change its form and become far more accessible to all. The fact that anyone in any situation can document an event, an uprising and upload immediately opens up so many opportunities and levels of storytelling.

What do you want people to take away from your series?

I want people to understand the various types of platforms that documentaries can be made for and to think about issues that they may want to document using very accessible and cost effective filmmaking techniques. I want people to start considering that television and the cinema are no longer the only mediums where content can be screened.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in production?

The biggest challenge I had to overcome in production was the time it took to convert a file and then upload it to the web. As I was across all the roles, I was in charge of my own time line and was able to manage and coordinate myself efficiently, this did bring its own challenges in that I had to be mindful of the camera and recording time left on the tape as well as maintain my connection with my subjects during the interview.

Why make a web series?

I made a web series as it allowed me the flexibility of making fragmented clips about content that I am interested in and also being able to broadcast more than one hour was a huge benefit for my project. My project currently features over 60 webisodes and almost contains 16 hours of filmed interviews.

It also gave me a platform to launch my series without having to approach broadcasters and funding bodies to approve the series. I distributed the content myself, via YouTube and funded the project myself. The outlay was not huge, a camera, audio device and some lights allowed me to produce my own series. The web provides accessibility to all and I am really excited that I have begun my journey using this wonderful new platform.

The Journey of Documentary on the web:

www.thejourneyofdocumentary.com

https://www.facebook.com/TheJourneyOfDocumentary?ref=hl

Melbourne WebFest is on July 20, and tickets are on sale now. Keep up to date with the festival on Twitter: @MelbWebFest

La Trobe University is an official partner of Melbourne WebFest