Eoin DowdallCreative Director
Think about what happens when you browse the web. You read an article, there’s a link, you branch off to another site, then follow another link, and so on. Instead of reading one linear story, you find your own way round the information, and often get lost, but in a nice way. That’s what makes web surfing so addictive, and leads to hours of work time lost within a blink.
This was the big innovation of the 90ies, when the world wide web made hypertext popular.
Well, we are at a similar point when it comes to video. Right now, most video is still watched like you’d read a book: someone put everything in order for you; you start at the beginning and end when it’s done.
That’s often a good thing, because you can lean back, relax, forget that you are watching, just be drawn into a story. Good films are just like that.
However, with new technology, you can also make your video involving and addictive in a different way, just like web surfing can be.
Using YouTube Annotations, you can create interactive videos. In a very simple implementation, your viewers can pick between different endings to a video, or you can even provide entirely distinct storylines with multiple branching points. Be careful though: it easily gets complicated, and you don’t want the technical gimmickry take away from your storytelling.
With a bit more effort, you can also create interactive games or interactive tutorials. Because interactive video is still pretty new it’s also a great way to attract attention for online video ads; like this Tippex ad, which become one of the most successful online ads ever.
Get in touch with Kartoffel Films we have a great deal of experience in both video production and its applications.
