Interactive video is a term to describe any video that the viewer is able to pause and play anytime and they also have different platforms. Interactive video could be accessed to public through many platforms, for example Television, DVD player, VHS player, as electronic billboards, game consoles, computers, mobile phones, mp4 player etc. Interactive video may be used for different purposes, such as entertainment, education, advertising, information etc. In this essay I am going to be looking at different categories of interactive video: Viral videos, user generated videos, virtual tours and film trailers.
Viral videos are the ones that become popular with internet sharing through email, video sharing website and social networking sites. Humour is a typical characteristic of a viral video but not a defining one. Viral video can be created professionally or amateurishly. I personally have received a few viral types of videos through emails that had been ''travelling in a chain’’ and had many views. I usually received humorous types of videos and I usually found them really amusing.I often tend to forward the emails and that is an example of a viral video. Example of a viral video is ''NHS Quit smoking advert'' because it had many views on video website called www.youtube.com as it became popular with public through social networking site. The reason why this video is successful might be the strong persuasive idea for families to stop smoking and also to help their children grow up well. The advert has been done professionally and the video was provided in good quality which might have been the reason why the audience enjoyed the strong idea of the advert. Another example of a viral video is ''FRANK Cocaine TV ad'' which is persuading people to stop using drugs and try to find help through government's national anti-drug called ''Talk to Frank''. It has been made professionally. It has appeared both online and on television.
User generated videos are the ones that has been created amateurishly by video sharing website such as www.youtube.com. It is often created by non-professional equipment. An examples of user generated videos can be different cover of famous songs, parodies of movies, short movie clips etc. I studied two user generated videos. One has been created to entertain people. This video contains user, producing his own show that contains his own parodies of famous songs and little talk. It has been done in good quality with good sound, but it has been restored. The user has been successful because of his humour in his user generated videos. The negatives of these videos are that they are made by non-professional equipment which is reflected on the total quality of the video.
The second video I studied has been a cover of Beyonce's song ''If I were a boy''
It contains two singers singing cover of a song, with a purpose to get known through this video sharing website. These users are trying for the video to look professional; they own higher quality cameras but they should improve the sound of the video, as they are producing singing sessions. The target audience can be anyone that enjoys covers of unknown singers. The intention for user generated videos is to entertain people and I found both of these videos entertaining a lot. The characters in these videos used good ideas to entertain the audience.
I personally think that these videos are good way for amateurs of any kind of industry-from movie to press, to become known through user-generated videos.
Virtual Tours is a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of video images. Viewers can use virtual tours to see places and also to get familiar what to expect from the certain place, for example virtual tours of shops or virtual tours of galleries and museums.The good thing about virtual tours is to experience the places easier way through internet and to save more time viewing places online rather than travelling to them. Virtual tours will definitely become more popular as web designers will develop more interactive virtual tours and internet users all over the world will be able to experience places even from other countries. Although I think that people will start to relay more on virtual tours in future I don’t think it will affect the outer world in any ways. I have been examining two examples of virtual tours. One is a virtual experience of a Ben Sherman store that allows customers to see what they should expect to see inside the store and if it attracts then bring customers inside the store. The picture quality of this virtual tour is excellent, although the controlling of the tour could be improved because it is slightly complicated to operate the virtual tour. This link contains the virtual tour of Ben Sherman Savile Row virtual tour: http://www.eyerevolution.co.uk/tours/ben-sherman/.
Another example of a virtual tour is Google Maps. Anyone that is searching destination on Google maps can now also view it in virtual tour. It is easier for viewers to find the destination as they can also see it through Google Maps. The target audience for this virtual tour is anyone that is looking for certain place on maps. This is the link towards an example of a virtual map http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=572&q=google%20maps%20virtual%20tour&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
The quality of this virtual tour is excellent the images are good, but again the handling of the website could be improved. Also the images should be updated more often.
Film trailers are advertisements for upcoming movies. They’re really short movie clips used to promote movie that are going to be screening in cinemas. They usually appear in TV, internet and cinema. I studied two examples of movie trailers. One trailer is of movie called the Toy Story 3. Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated film. It is the third film in the Toy Story series. The film is produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It contains short movie clips and short explanation of the plot of the movie. Its target audience are mostly children. It has been made professionally by specialised high standard equipment and with perfect sound.
Here is the link of the movie trailer:
The second movie trailer I studied was Shrek Forever After. The film is produced by DreamWorks Animation and is distributed by Paramount Pictures. It contains again short movie clips and short preview of the plot. Its target audience are mostly children. It has been made professionally with high quality cameras with high quality sound. This is the link for the movie trailer:
Interactive video has big future as it is part of modern spciety. There are soon going to be new platforms for interactive video that will accsess public through many ways.
