Interactive Media Case Study

Issues to consider with interactive planning

Decide on where to place your decision points 

When creating an interactive video, it should always be clear for where a decision point is. The main places where you would place a decision point would typically be when there is going to be something which would decide the outcome of the story for example choosing the character to go to one location or the other, or choosing a certain object which could help or not help the character(s). If decision points are placed inappropriately it could lead the audience to become confused upon what is happening in the video and possibly lose track of the plot.

One  interactive video which I think shows this well is A Date With Markiplier as this placed the decision points in the appropriate places which allows the audience to feel as if they are actually the person in the video as there is a lot of user involvement 

 Language

The way you set out your decision makers is essential especially with how you are addressing this with the audience say if you put “Where should (character’s name) go?” this is more likely to make the audience less interested whereas “Where do you want (character’s name) to go” as this makes the audience feel more involved as they feel like the character’s fate is in their hands and they are relying on the audience. Here are two examples which I found which show the two different types of languages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7gWVA3lts4 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFsv8tGHkHY

Steps to uploading an interactive video to YouTube

https://www.incomediary.com/ultimate-guide-interactive-youtube-videos

what setting you would use, how to link the other clips with the main clip, how to hide the option clips from showing up on the channel.

To upload an interactive video to YouTube you must upload your main clips and all the decision routes. 
Once this is complete you can then go onto your main clip and link each different decision clip to it using spotlight annotations which you can place on the video for your chosen amount of time and this will allow the audience to click on their option. After this is done you can publish the videos.

Additionally, you can hide all your routes from your channel page by un-listing them in the settings menu, so that the audience doesn’t look on your channel and know what is coming up and that they aren’t able to skip to different places on the interactive video.

Integrating interactive video with social media

When trying to integrate your video onto social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter you could either just copy and paste the URL  onto a new post or more advisably go onto the video click on the share tab, below the video, and click on your chosen social media site which will then usually show a clickable link with the videos thumbnail on it or it will allow you to watch the video on the social media site itself.

Additionally on blogging sites such as blogger.com you have the option to embed your video into your post. This can be done by doing the steps you'd do to post on social media sites but then click on the tab which says embedded and then copy and paste the link into the HTML option on the post which you are writing.

Your Solutions

To create an interactive video you must first decide upon what the story is going to be and whether it is going to work as an interactive video. Ideally this will include a storyboard which shows all the different routes (this will help you to notice any inconsistencies in the story), a script, and a list of shots you will be filming on the day, which can help you be more time effective (filming the same types of shots all at once instead of filming them in chronological order).

This is the brief we got given to create as an interactive video.

This is the storyboards which we designed before shooting the story.

Camera plan 

Once you have done all of the above you can then film all the shots. After this you will then need to edit each different route. The best way to do this is to create a sequence for your main video and one for each of your routes. Whilst in editing you should also consider how you should pose the questions to the audience as shown earlier in the post but also you need to consider who your target audience as you may  need to word it differently to ensure that it will keep them interested (e.g. if it was aimed for a young audience you may get away with it being simple and less direct whilst for an audience who are teenagers and adults you will have to be direct).

This image shows each of the sequences I made to create my interactive video.


After that is done you can upload it onto youtube and link all of the different routes onto the main video (as explained earlier in the post) and publish it. Then you can share it across all of your social media platforms by clicking on the share tab (via posting link or embedding the video).

This is the final outcome of my attempt at an interactive video.

Sources:

https://www.incomediary.com/ultimate-guide-interactive-youtube-videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CICbO4L_-iI  
https://lbbonline.com/news/5-simple-tricks-to-follow-when-making-an-interactive-story/