Prison Valley: multimedia, transmedia takes on Canon City, Co.

Prison Valley is an interactive production that combines photography, video, sound and flash technology to create an atmospheric piece about Canon City, Co, the ultimate prison town in the US.

The web platform is perfect for it. As a straightforward documentary, the exercise would have rapidly run out of breath.

But, the producers make the most of what the team brought back…every bits and piece of this web documentary serves the storytelling concept. And, it succeeds grandly as far as that is concerned.

It feels almost like a game. You’re not sure how long the journey will last or what the pay off will be. One goes along with the narrator who is generous in sharing with the audience, his feelings and impressions of the the place.

The narration is enigmatic and full of atmosphere, sounding at times like a Dashiell Hammett mystery.  

Again, without all the artifices, the content might come short. But, Prison Valley is a perfect demonstration of what transmedia can achieve when put in the right hands.