'From a son of Vietnam' review

The Boat was originally a book of short stories written by Nam Le with each story taking place all over the world. However, this story in particular focuses on an event that happened to approximately two hundred refugees who fled Vietnam on a boat. They are all squashed onto a space meant for fifteen over a two week period. This short story was then transformed into an online multimedia piece by SBS. SBS, commonly known as Special Broadcasting Service, is an Australian public broadcasting radio, online and television network. The most impressive part of their online website is that SBS have an entire platform to show off a number of there award-winning multilingual and multicultural productions.

In a section labelled ‘interactive graphic novels’ I stumbled upon one of the most incredible multimedia storytelling pieces that I have ever seen. With just a click of a button I was transported into another dimension.

Flashes of lightning followed by a rumbling roar of thunder smacked my ears as rain pelted down the screen. Suddenly I found myself rocking back and forth with the rolling waves, like the animated painting of a boat swaying in the stormy sea before me.

Taking the plunge, I scrolled down to face the first chapter of the story. Descriptive text, that embodies the definition of simplistically powerful, runs throughout the production in both comic and paragraph form. With each scroll the viewer makes, a new scene emerges creating a display of detailed emotive paintings that give the audience a sense of the chaotic movement on board the boat. Every inch of the screen grabs the viewers’ attention, from the creative interactive displays to the tranquil sounds of ambience. My eyes could not hold still.

What really works well throughout the entire piece is the transition between the text and the ability for the production to connect the viewer to the story. For example, when the people on the boat are slammed against each other, due to the stormy sea, the entire accommodating section of visuals and audio would also slam accordingly. Even the theme of monochromatic black and white imagery and animation completely transformed the viewer to feel the characters emotive sense of danger and fear.

Scrolling further down, the visual comic book comes to life as speech bubbles pop up over the paintings to allow for an intensive dialogue to begin between the characters. Still images of real people from history, float inside thought bubbles which can also be selected for further information or back stories to certain paragraphs, giving the viewer a taste of the past. With a voiceless narration to the story it gives the viewers the opportunity to think for themselves and simply be in the moment. The only fault is that without earphones, you cannot give the story justice. Earphones will always make any media production more intimate.

This visually pleasing transition from art to animation and from songs to ambient sounds ends with a simple paragraph describing the actual event in history. This paragraph slaps you into reality as we are transported back to our lives behind the screen. Overall this powerful interactive production enhances the actual historical event by placing us into the characters’ lives, thus giving us a sense of how they felt during the escape and making the point of the story even more compelling.