seanalan

Project Status

Status: Live
Launched: Oct. 5^th, 2007
Web Site: Tucson Survivors

Project History

During my tenure at Commotion Studios, EEE and the JFSA approached us to create an educational web site as a resource for teaching the Holocaust to middle school children in the Tucson area. From the very beginning I was really excited about this project because I find history fascinating but moreover, felt it had a great deal of social value - as if people might really take something away from it. The survivor's stories are incredibly powerful and I was honored to have the chance to meet several of them at the launch event. The web site is one component in the Federation’s overall program on Holocaust Education. They also facilitate survivors visiting classrooms and other venues to tell their stories and answer questions in person, host teacher in service events and provide support materials.

Goals & Objectives

While the main purpose of the site is to assist teachers in educating early teens about the Holocaust there are several other important goals the site set out to achieve. First, to document and archive the stories of survivors living in Tucson who on average are in their early eighties. The second goal was to create a bold first impression and a personal connection between the survivor and viewer that captured the fleeting attentions common in younger generations accustomed to the constant stimulus of MTV and video games. A moving introductory video captures the audience and through video testimonies, survivors tell their incredible stories of how they endured one of the most terrible spans of the twentieth century. Perhaps even more astonishing is despite all they have been through, they clearly reject hatred and express hope for the future. Finally, the site was to be built in a way that made adding survivors relatively easy without requiring a database.

How It Was Built

The front end was created entirely in Flash MX 2004 and Flash 8 using a Form Application and OOP Actionscript. Essentially the code engine is an object array that holds the data for each survivor and associates the individuals with other object arrays that hold the data for each image and video clip. This could be considered the Model component in the MVC programming pattern.

I also produced the introductory video montage using Apple Motion, a motion graphics and video compositing tool similar (but superior, imho) to Adobe After Effects. Traditional music familiar during that time period was chosen for authenticity as well as its dramatic and haunting effect. Provocative imagery and effects were used to grab the viewer’s attention and yes, the client did request the burning Star of David! We all thought it might seem extreme to some viewers while simultaneously apropos to the subject matter. Since there was little negative feedback from stakeholders and teachers that were part of the pilot program, we may have overreacted.

For the survivors navigation a random list is generated around the star each time you visit using a custom class that loads the thumbnail and rollover images, attaches and rotates a mask based on its position in the star as well as setting the ‘current survivor’ to what is clicked on. When you navigate to the video and photo galleries, the object arrays are used to load the image or video and their captions. Most of the resources are not embedded in Flash but kept in external folders so that the viewer is only downloading the content they choose to see. This kind of modular approach has a number of advantages.

Other than the general no-no of embedding video directly on the Flash timeline because of audio sync issues, having each visitor download over a gigabyte of video would not do well for anyone's patience much less the client's hosting bill. The entire site has a footprint of 1.23G and the video folder weighs in at a hefty 1.21G of that! The introductory video and the “Why We Remember” documentary produced by Tucson Channel 12 take up their fair share, although the bulk is definitely the amazing testimonies from local participants. All the videos are streaming which allows the clips to start almost immediately reducing wait time to a few seconds. Another perk of streaming video is that a copy is not cached on the user’s computer - a huge advantage where copyrights are concerned.

Adding or removing survivors is also pretty easy. The most time consuming tasks are formatting and color correcting images and renaming files that aren’t web ready, while updating the Actionscript code takes a matter of minutes. Once the image and video folders have been added to the project, all that needs to be done is add the new survivor to the main object array and add arrays for the images, videos and their captions. Database management would have been ‘easier’ although it was not in the client’s budget and adding survivors is still far easier than editing keyframes!

A slide show was added towards the end of production so that other survivors who did not participate in the video interviews could be included. Once again my preferred method for storing application tier data in Flash was used to create the slide show - an object array. The code to run the show is similar to navigating through the video clips or photo galleries with some important enhancements. When the screen loads, a timer is set to advance the show automatically every 15 seconds. Manual navigation controls are also provided that reset the timer when the user clicks the next or previous buttons. If the visitor does not click a second time within that 15 seconds, the slides resume advancing on their own.

The rest of the code is fairly straightforward… I’m planning to write a couple more articles about some of the techniques mentioned here so check back soon. Feel free to email or leave a comment if there are aspects you would like me to expand upon sooner!

Commendations

This letter arrived in the mail and made my day! It is always a wonderful feeling to be recognized by your clients for the work you do. The only thing better is knowing your work is making a positive difference in the larger community. My hope is that the site will continue to be a valuable resource for teachers and students alike.

Technologies Used

Credits

Video production and editing by Tucson Channel 12 and Ping Pong Media, “Why We Remember” documentary created by Tucson Channel 12. See the web site for a complete list of the organizations involved.