Unit 62 work.

Unit 62 – Criteria 1
Understand the principles of digital video in interactive media
Designers working in the interactive media industry keep coming up with new innovative ideas on more interactive platforms. Because the internet is so widely available and more and more people are now connected many ideas are uploaded here for our responses. Ideas such as interactive advertisement which involves digital video becoming somewhat interactive, the user can view parts of the video and sometimes even choose the outcome of the idea. Also, on other platforms such as games consoles, there are many ‘cut – scenes’ in which you play for a section of the game, then a small digital video piece is played to accompany, or illustrate a part of the story or game play. But this is just a small sample of what ideas designers are coming up with to incorporate digital video to interactive products, or taking the original digital video and making it interactive in some way. It can entertain the user more, and make the experience more memorable which in advertising cases is very important. According to www.business-innovative.com ‘interactive video improves the experience.’ (See, http://www.business-innovative.com/innovation-in-advertising-%E2%80%93-interactive-video-improves-the-experience )
One way of incorporating basic interactivity in terms of digital video is using short films (A smaller file size means they can be uploaded easier.) is to link a video with a webpage. For example a video when clicked on will go to a previously specified site that is in some way relevant to the video. But designers can also create short videos of which you can choose the outcome, short videos that have buttons or links to another short video to show the next part of the story. These videos can have different buttons so that each one will link to a different video and changing the storyline. By letting people choose the outcome of a storyline, digital video has gone beyond a passive experience; you are no longer just watching and accepting the story but interacting with it and the choices you make change the story. Examples of interactive digital video can be found and can be very popular on websites like YouTube. YouTube is simply a website created so people can create an account and easily upload their own videos. This is one example of an interactive digital video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ba1BqJ4S2M. In this case it also acts as a type of advertising. It has become a viral video (Spread rapidly throughout the web to many users.)having over 14 million views to date and you can decide to either shoot, or not shoot a bear which is supposedly going to attack the main characters in the video. The advert goes on to create the experience even more interactive by actually letting the user type in a word of which then they act out in the video. Key words link to different videos, and the characters even interact with the ‘tippex’ advertisement in the side bar to connect the video with the advertisement. Short video’s are also good for advertising other types of media such as bands. Because videos are quick and easy to upload to the web, a band could advertise their music for free.
To upload a video to the web, after the editing stage the video must be compressed in order to have a smaller file size which means easier loading but less picture quality in the long run. If a file is more compressed it will have a lower bit rate, while this is good for lowering download speeds it also lowers the quality ( A bit rate is how much information is streamed each second.) although, there are different types of digital video compression. For a band it would be essential to keep some quality for audio purposes. Lossless compression means that none of the original file is lost; it is simply put into a smaller area. A good example of this would be a zip file; it is a smaller file yet still contains all of the data. Another type of video compression is called lossy compression in which some of the original data will be lost as the video quality gets lower because of the compression. Compression is essential when uploading videos to websites such as YouTube because if the file size is too large, the video simply will be too large to load! www.microsoft.com says that ‘Digital video is compressed because it takes up a staggering amount of room in its original form. (See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/expert/digitalvideo.mspx) But even before the editing stage, designers and editors must capture the video footage if they wish to edit this later. This means that the recorded footage is uploaded to a computer from the video recording device probably in a editing program such as Adobe Premiere. Users can choose when to stop capturing film so this means the film being captured can be taken in smaller clips to upload easier and to edit easier. Then after the film has been edited it is rendered and compressed. A video file can be converted into a variety of different formats. There are different types of containers which hold movie files, the most popular of these include AVI, MPEG/MPEG- 4, MOV, FLV and WMV. Whilst converting and compressing video files is good to keep its size down, the bit rate will usually become lower. After production it is not always essential to change the bit rate at all but more experienced users may do so. Video uploading is free, with the most popular site being YouTube as it continues to grow with many videos uploaded daily.
To play any video, you need some sort of media player which will recognize the type of file of which you want to play. The most common media players are currently Adobe Flash Player, Windows Media Player and QuickTime. These are generally good for playing a range of digital videos with different file sizes, also easy to use and are widely available. Designers will create videos in formats to suit these media players so that more people can view them, making them more popular.
Games such as ‘Gears of War 2’ have good examples of how digital video can be incorporated into interactive game play. The player starts the game by watching a video clip and then following the story on from the clip. The cut scenes of the game will enhance the players experience as it explains the storyline better, on top of game play. Killing enemies for hours without reason would seem to make the game tackier and even though during game play the story does unfold and evolve, this is enhanced but the cut scenes. Here is a good example of a cut scene during the ‘Gears of War 2’ console game - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-JKSM3b5A. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-JKSM3b5A for more of the game information.) Also, having cut scenes in video games is now very common as it can help to give a feel of professionalism in the game, designers who have animated the characters to create cut scenes give users the impression of what may come up next in game play. For example if there is tension with building music there will most probably be more action in the next section of game play.
In terms of larger video files such as DVD’s and presentations the file size will be larger so will need more buffer time in many cases. This means the video needs to load on a program or device before viewing. For a basic example, DVD’s can be played easily on a computer with a media player such as windows media player or obviously on a different media platform such as a DVD player. As film size progresses we can see that designers face problems with interactivity if they wish to make the user more involved with the film. In terms of cinema viewings, this is difficult to make interactive. Effects such as adding 3D to the movie may add extra viewing pleasure elements but still is not interactive. By letting the user decide what happens next in the storyline and ultimately causing the outcome whatever that may be is a good way to add interactivity to a movie. Some may argue that some video games are a type of interactive movie but the prime idea for a video game is just that, interacting with the game, not the film. (See - http://www.interactivemovies.org/ ) Also, interactive DVD’s have also come out. These can sometimes replicate game shows and have many video sequences in between the basic playing parts of the feature or choosing where to go to explore different areas of the DVD. Also because of online video viewing it is easier to create an interactive feature within online film playing. Advertisements are becoming more interactive for online viewers too. Before popular or branded videos designers sometimes run small advertisements before the video starts, in some of these it is possible to click a ‘skip’ button or other buttons that are actually links to that particular company’s website.
To design an interactive feature that includes digital video is to make the user enjoy the experience of the film, whilst still having some input into the feature which could determine the outcome of the experience. (This is where it changes from a film into an interactive product.) At the other end of the scale are video games which are nearly all interactive with digital video on some occasions. In between is where we are seeing more ideas which grab the user’s attention and makes the experience memorable for them. In the long run, generating more profit for the producing companies. As YouTube is such a highly viewed website a good search for interactive films will definitely come up with some interesting results, and can be used on many devices such as mobile devices.

(1,638 words.)

Alex Mold.