An American Carousel: The Interactive Documentary

Through the detailed account of the filmmaking process of An American Carousel: The Interactive Documentary (Howard Kim, 2006), I attempt to demonstrate the influences the carousels as the subject matter and the design of Herschell Carousel Museums itself had on the documentary's physical form and the way in which it is ultimately experienced. I will also present the easily accessible DVD-Video technology as a viable approach to the interactive video which provided innovative ways of expressions in the documentary.; A great deal of time on this thesis will be assigned to describing the subject matter and the initial research in order to show their roles in the adaptation of various filmmaking methods---such as stop motion animation and super 8 filmmaking---and the interactive features. Many issues and concerns that I encountered throughout the filmmaking process will also be dealt with as well as the experimentations attempted as the solutions. This is also to show the progression of the thought process during the filmmaking, which may not be evident in the final documentary, in hopes that one can better realize the purpose and the significance of the work.; I will also explain the concept behind the main components of the documentary and their relationship to one another and to the general makeup. Each element is further described in term of various production techniques that were used and how it fits in the overall scheme of the interactive experience. Aside from the usual production stages of documentary filmmaking---pre-production, production, post-production---an additional chapter were added to address the issues in the interactive design.