Interactive Intimacy

On KobreGuide.com we previously spotlighted an innovative use of interactive video: A Conversation with Sir Ian McKellen, in which the acting legend discusses Shakespeare and "Richard III," line by line. You click on any of a series of questions about Shakespeare or the play, and the actor addresses the camera and answers it, as though talking directly to you. He'll even chit-chat while you're figuring out which question to click next, humorously cajoling you to select one already! It's the closest thing to having him in the room with you.

Now the Los Angeles Times has cleverly adopted this technique for its online mega-package about how south-of-the-border drug wars are impacting us in the U.S. : Mexico Under Seige.

In an interactive video Q&A session, staff writers Sam Quinones and Richard Marosi each fill your monitor as they look directly at you and answer such questions as: Is it safe to travel to Tijuana? How are drugs getting across the border? Why can't Mexican police handle the problem? You can even type in your own questions for them to answer another day.

As with Sir Ian, while they patiently wait for you to click on another question, the reporters just sit there, against a black backdrop -- not as a still image, but on a video loop, to give the impression that they're a living, breathing presence. It's the kind of intimacy that is designed for the one-to-one interaction that you're more likely to find on a computer monitor than on a TV screen.

We look forward to seeing what other uses videojournalists can find for this non-linear storytelling technique.

Bad Bugs

It's the third appearance on KobreGuide for New York Times videojournalist Erik Olsen. First he offered a video profile of Serena Williams' practicing partner, in Hitting with Serena. Then he updated us on the work of an artist who found fame at 21 when her design was selected for Washington's Vietnam Memorial, in Maya Lin's 'Wave Field.'

Now Erik is back with an ambitious video report on the devastation of millions of acres of North American forests, all because of an insect the size of a grain of rice. The tiny mountain pine beetle is responsible for the largest insect infestation in the history of the continent. It's a big problem with far-reaching consequences and no easy solutions. View it here: America's Disappearing Forests.