\nAuthor<\/strong>: John Branch
\nPublication:<\/strong> The New York Times<\/em>
\nPublication date<\/strong>: December 20, 2012
\nExperience here<\/strong>: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/projects\/2012\/snow-fall\/<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"avalanche\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/avalanche.png\")
<\/a>In late October, on a sunny but chilly Thursday afternoon, I called John Branch<\/a> to talk about Snow Fall<\/em>, our first DRC Webtext of the Month. Below, in four-parts, I attempt to share that conversation, but mostly John\u2019s part, his words. As engaging as Snow Fall is, so, too, are the author\u2019s thoughts about the project. \u00a0While we chatted, his comments struck me as a reader, a writer, and a teacher. At times, while he was talking, glimpses of the project came to mind: The snow moving across the screen in that opening image, the mountain rising as I scrolled through the first part. At times, his words invited me to think about my own writing projects and what digital technology might be able to do for a project beyond make it look cool or pretty. At times, I found myself planning future discussions with my composition students: \u201cBut tell me, should that image appear here? How does it serve the story, the argument you want to make?\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I hope it is the same for you, that you feel inspired not only by Snow Fall<\/em> but by the project\u2019s process and influence, by the opportunities and challenges it represents for storytelling in the 21st century.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Part I: The Process of Snow Fall<\/strong><\/p>\n Snow Fall \u201cstarted as germ of an idea about how to pack all the stuff in about avalanches.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFive or six weeks in,\u201d John decided to \u201ctell all stories of avalanches\u201d as \u201cthe story of one avalanche.\u201d At this point, he had a \u201cgiant file of quotes and notes\u201d pulled together \u201cinto a tight minute by minute chronology.\u201d This was, he admitted, \u201cfor my own sanity: who went down the mountain first, who said what when, who was thinking what when.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, he did something \u201cunusual.\u201d He \u201ctook the file and sent it off to [his]editor.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, the editor did something unusual. \u201cHe passed on [John\u2019s] raw material to editors in photo, graphics, video, and said, \u2018Sneak peak. This could be kind of great; at minimum, we are going to need your help.\u201d<\/p>\n John was \u201cproud of [the project\u2019s]very organic process. Just a story that kind of grew. People came along and helped out, helped nurture it over several months.\u201d<\/p>\n Part II: Snow Fall, the Product<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSteven Duenes, assistant managing editor, he had the vision for Snow Fall: melding text, graphics, videos.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past,\u201d a final piece worked like this: \u201chere is text, click on graphics, all very separate entities.\u201d But Snow Fall was going to be different, designed to be \u201cseamlessly orchestrated and multimodal, text flowing into graphics.\u201d So you\u2019re \u201creading, scrolling down, [and the]graphics take over the text.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a \u201cdiscussion about blending, needing to change the text, the need for transitions into spoken quotes.\u201d But \u201cin the end, the text didn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSnow Fall worked because of the multimedia…in a lot of ways.\u201d Graphic elements \u201cshow you what the mountain looked like, show you the heart-wrenching interviews of the survivors.\u201d\u00a0That is, \u201cEverything in the story helped the reader understand the story better.\u201d<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not all media helped Snow Fall<\/em> as a story do.<\/p>\n John says, \u201cThe one way in which I wrote this a little differently would have to do with the characters. There were sixteen characters, thirteen survivors and three widows, who I blend throughout the story. Without multimedia, I\u2019d tell the story through five or six people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMultimedia as a crutch\u201d for characters. \u201c17,000 words, 16 characters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone was quoted at least once. I didn\u2019t keep anyone out. In the end, I got everybody, and I thought if I got everybody, I want to use everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Part III: The Snow Fall Effect<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s real.\u00a0It’s talked about on blogs<\/a> and presented about at conferences<\/a> across the globe. And John says he hears of another Snow Fall<\/em>-like story every few days. He says they are very cool, but the imitators \u201cmiss the mark\u201d when they use \u201cbig graphics and scroll effects just for atmosphere,\u201d not information.<\/p>\n So John\u2019s advice to writers and students working with digital technology and media is simple, really: use media elements purposefully and well. \u00a0\u201cIf it makes a stronger story, I am all for it.\u201d \u201cMultimedia needs to inform people, not just evoke atmosphere.\u201d Writers need to ask of media, \u201cwhat\u2019s the added value to the story.\u201d Designers need to ask of writers, \u201cwhat elements would you like the reader to have?\u201d<\/p>\n Part IV: A Post-Snow-Fall Future<\/strong><\/p>\n For John, he\u2019s \u201csure it will\u201d change how stories are written, the stories that are told. Though he\u2019s \u201calways pretty good about thinking about graphics and videos, he still has not \u201creached a point of thinking of something as a multimedia project.\u201d The first step is the same today as it has been in the past: \u201cthe story from the reporter, the words from the reporter.\u201d Now, media come up in conversation not \u201cbefore writing the story,\u201d but while writing. And this is a change, a recent development.<\/p>\n For writers and reporters, it\u2019s the \u201cnew heydey of long-form journalism.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve realized in the last decade not everyone wants blogs, tweets, and short bursts…People want something to sink their imaginations into.\u201d<\/p>\n The question arises, then, \u201cseeing more long-form, seeing more digital publishing: how they will blend.\u201d<\/p>\n For writers, \u201cit\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Still and digital publishing storm aside, John admits, \u201cI like to think that there is always a place for print.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n I like to think so, too, but I’m glad we\u2019ve made room for digital multimedia story-worlds like Snow Fall<\/em>, and their innovative, inspiring writers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Title: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek Author: John Branch Publication: The New York Times Publication date: December 20, 2012 Experience here: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/projects\/2012\/snow-fall\/ In late October, on a sunny but chilly Thursday afternoon, I called John Branch to talk about Snow Fall, our first DRC Webtext of the Month. Below, in four-parts, I attempt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":9510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[101,153,156,188,216],"ppma_author":[1199],"class_list":{"0":"post-5733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-webtext-of-the-month","8":"tag-fellows","9":"tag-multimedia","10":"tag-multimodal-webtext","11":"tag-snow-fall","12":"tag-webtext"},"authors":[{"term_id":1199,"user_id":18,"is_guest":0,"slug":"linzster","display_name":"Lindsey Harding","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d564931da7fdce1b5f69b8e355ca7878?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","user_url":"http:\/\/www.lindseymharding.com","last_name":"Harding","first_name":"Lindsey","job_title":"","description":"Lindsey Harding graduated from the University of Georgia in May 2015 with her Ph.D. in English. She is now the Assistant Director of the Writing Intensive Program at UGA. Her research and writing interests include composition and rhetoric, creative writing, and digital humanities. In May 2011, she graduated from Sewanee University\u2019s School of Letters with her M.F.A. in creative writing. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University in 2004. She lives in Athens, Georgia, with her husband and three small children."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10488,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733\/revisions\/10488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5733"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Screen](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/mountains-rising.jpg\")
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