Jam3 is adding to its already strong portfolio of interactive online web documentaries with the launch of the companion site for The Defector: Escape From North Korea.
The feature-length documentary (directed by and produced by Ann Shin) is based on six North Korean defectors and their long and dangerous journey to freedom.
The website combines all six stories into one character to create what Adrian Belina, partner and creative director at Jam3, calls a “composite journey.”
The story unfolds as visitors to the site choose their own adventure, along the way accessing video content, startling statistics and additional images.
“We wanted to do something that translates the idea and the story online… we didn’t just want to do video clips of interviews,” said Belina. The goal, he said, is to give users a first person perspective.
This type of project isn’t new for Jam3. The Toronto-based web design company created award-winning interactive sites for the documentaries Waterlife and Bear 71.
Belina believes Waterlife was the tipping point “for a lot of people looking at how documentary and narrative can be told in a completely different way.”
The Defector debuted at the 2012 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and will make its broadcast premiere on TVO this spring.
The website was developed in collaboration with Fathom Film Group, while Psyop developed the animation.
