This also reminded me of Interlude, technology that enables creators to create a choose-your-own-adventure-style video. I'd love to participate in something like this but the cost to create tree-like narratives is so high and difficult that I don't see it becoming more than a rare novelty until that changes.
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@rrhoover Ryan, I'm not sure that's true. It takes planning, but Interlude lets you simply film parts and then merge them. You don't have to film beginning to end five times or whatever to allow people to switch between the branches of the tree. Also, the payoff is also really great!
I have been thinking a lot lately about what the next level of museum-going is. I just quit my job and I'm exploring all options available to me to see what might be my future in ten years. I have always considered pursuing a career as a museum curator. Museums have basically been forced to be more and more and more interactive because it is what the audience demands basically...
I have seen this demand split two ways:
1- Add a device to the mix (e.g. additional info on your smartphone)
2- Add an interactive element to the mix (e.g. Chicago's Science and Industry has an actual three story tornado you can interact with!)
The second option is by *far* the best, but it suffers from being passe too quickly. I was at Israel's Diaspora Museum a few years back and it was entirely dated (although a lovely museum) because it was state of the art in 1995! Adding a device makes it easier to update, but adding interaction is what makes something memorable. Risk and reward I guess...
@UXAndrew you're right that the second screen is coming to more than just at-home TV but other experiences. It's an interesting shift.
Going back to Interlude/interactive videos, even if you can film independent cuts, it still takes more work than a single threaded narrative. Obviously this depends on the story but the decisions made in the beginning could have a butterfly effect on later decisions, requiring creators to film 2 cuts instead of one for each path in the narrative, for example.
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@rrhoover If you think about feature films, I think the level of complexity increases..but even in the 1980s we saw this with Clue (which had 3 endings...Tim Curry ftw!)...
Think about advertising or music videos, however...
Advertising and music video budgets are huge, and the desire for repeat viewers is enormous.
See if you can watch this video just ONE time (go on, I dare you!):
http://bit.ly/1jIhL0M
Also, imagine what you gain in analytics from an ad campaign like this one and how you can change the paths later to further optimize your ad campaign:
http://video.interlude.fm/madewell/
This is an emerging field, and I'm not convinced that second screen is the future. It seems like a stop-gap measure until we really roll out better experiences!
@UXAndrew I'm totally with you on short-form videos and the advertising angle is super compelling.
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I have worked with Interlude.fm who are bringing interactive experiences to video, and they have done some work with the big screen if I'm not mistaken. I'm always interested in how to get people excited!
I have slowly stopped going to the movies...they tried to bring back in viewers like me when 3-D came out, but the glasses hurt my eyes...I like that there are people out there trying to figure out how to make the movie-going experience more interactive.
In Israel, we have VIP movies where you get a kind of all-you-can-eat thing before hand and then there are only 30 seats in the theater and they're all large and plush. The experience isn't that much more than a normal ticket and it's so much better.
There is a similar problem in sports. Why should I pay two hundred bucks to see the Colts beat whoever they're playing (Go Colts!), when I could watch it in ridiculous full HD at home in my pajamas and not worry about parking, lines at the bathroom, or expensive food? If @mcuban posted here (does he?) I'm sure he'd have something to say about this!
It's good to see products like this try to break down barriers but base them on existing infrastructure. I think it improves the chances of both market penetration and ROI.
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Audiences generally show their appreciation of an entertaining performance with movies films all performers run the risk of failing to hold their audience's attention and thus, failing to entertain. Audience dissatisfaction is often brutally honest and direct.
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