Bluecadet Interactive

Virginia Quarterly, one of the nation's premier literary magazines, approached Bluecadet to produce Assignment Afghanistan, an ongoing, interactive reportage from war-torn Afghanistan.

Assignment Afghanistan features the stories and imagery of the multimedia journalist Elliott Woods. Woods, as a journalist, photographer and former soldier, was granted incredible access to the front lines of the war still raging in Afghanistan.

While on assignment, Woods collected hours of video, dozens of interviews, thousands of images and produced several long form essays. This content formed the basis of the site, from which we crafted original video, narrated slideshows and photo galleries.

Yet, the site is more than a portfolio; it is a forum and platform for new stories and reports. Accordingly, we created an interactive timeline, slideshow and video application which Elliott can use to populate in real time from the field. Further, we created a public forum, in the form of an interactive map, with user-generated stories of Afghanistan and its people.

Press & Awards

National Magazine Award, Digital Ellie for Best Multimedia Package, 2011

The National Magazine Awards for Digital Media were established in 1966 and have long been recognized as the preeminent awards for magazine journalism. The Multimedia Package award recognizes the use of interactivity and multimedia in the coverage of an event or subject.

From U.Va. Today: "Thomas C. Skalak, U.Va. vice president for research, under whose office the [Virgina Quarterly Review] is housed, said, 'This national award, against high-level competition such as National Geographic, is really impressive.' "

VQR editor Ted Genoways said "These honors [are] welcome recognition of VQR's efforts to forge a new kind of storytelling for the digital era."

National ADDY Award, 2011

Websites, Consumer HTML and Other Products category

Communication Arts, Webpick of the Week, 4.1.2011

"The site features beautifully-produced multimedia videos and slideshows of Elliott’s reportage and an interaction map built on a Google map interface that plots his, and user-generated, stories geographically. Weaving together stunning stills, dramatic video and captivating audio, the pieces transport visitors into the field. In the hopes of fostering dialogue, site visitors can also contribute their own stories and comment on site content. "

Credits

Creative Direction

Josh Goldblum

Art Direction & Design

Troy Lachance

Project Management

Rebecca Sherman, Ted Genoways

Video Production

Elliott D. Woods, Owen Linton, Joshua Cogan, Dallas Lillich

Interactive Development

Jason Grandelli

Text and Photo Editing

Elliott Woods, Ted Genoways

Multimedia and Audio Production

Jesse Dukes

Music Track

Ki:Theory

Multimedia Technical Assistance and Production

Shea Shackelford