Video Production For Interactive Media

Video Production for Interactive Media

Interactive media is something that normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio etc. However for this report I will be focusing on video in interactive media.

Since film was first introduced in 1895 and the first TVs were introduced in the 1940’s, we then had to wait until the 1960’s for colour TV. However since the 1990’s and the World Wide Web became prevalent video technology has come a very long way below are a few examples of the new and old pieces of technology that we now have.

Platforms of Video
The world wide web is a big platform for videos , as there are many videos on such websites as YouTube and there is also all the catch up sites from the different television channels such as BBC Iplayer and 4od (on demand), all of the catch up sites are very popular as video recorders have now gone out of date and are hardly used anymore and its now more DVD but not many people have a DVD recorder so its mainly catch up sites that are used if they miss there favourite show. Although some cons to these sites are that they can easily be pirated and put onto a DVD so if people are doing this then they loose money for if they were to in the future release a DVD of the programme.

Another platform is email attachments as they can have photos or videos added as attachments to them, for many companies this is good as it is a cheap and easy way to advertise. Although for many it could be bad as when most people see these types of emails with these attachments they put them in there junk mail straight away and never read them. DVD’s used to be a big platform for videos but now they are starting to go out and now its more Blu-ray , although not many people have a Blu-ray player at the moment so they are still a big part and are still sold all over, but in the near future they will get overtaken by Blu-ray.

CD-ROMs are another platform for videos in interactive media they are mainly used for educational purposes, which is a con as it means the target audience for whatever is on it will have to be for quite a narrow target audience, although it could be good as some students may remember the video that they saw then go home and show parents and others on YouTube which can then spread the video very quickly so it can be very effective and it can also be very ineffective.

Kiosks are a very new sort of interactive media, they are mainly information desks which are used to distribute information, such as maps of the surrounding town in which they are placed they also have internet access where in the lower tool bars different companies can advertise so this can be a very successful was as people will look at them if they are lost so then they will see the adverts, although if people know where they are going then they may very easily miss it and not bother looking to see what it is.

Presentations are another use, although they usually contain certain information and are usually made on PowerPoint’s which are good as they can have videos embedded into them, they can also be made on blogs which again can have videos embedded in them, they can also have videos, photos and text uploaded onto them so they are in some ways better than a power point.

Some thing that is now coming on and is fast becoming very popular is the TV click through the red button, with this you can vote, sing/play along with game or singing shows and you can get up to date news, sport and weather for your area, this is a new type of media technology and is only really used by the Bbc, Sky and Itv, on itv and sky they also have different videos in them and adverts over them, and bbc sometimes have some shows put onto the red button for so long so people that have missed them can catch up, rather than having to go on Iplayer.

Mobile devices (phones, Pda’s and games consoles.) are a newer sort as they can now record play and send things around to friends, this is good as some phone companies pre-load adverts and things onto some phones, which can them be sent around and advertise that particular company also if the phone is a good one and one person likes it and recommend it to there friends then the phone company get more sales, also if the phone isn’t very good then they will get a lot less sales.

Interactive Media
Short films are a use of video in interactive media; there are many of these on YouTube, new grounds and Britfilms they all host and encourage short films. This is a medium for aspiring directors (usually young) to show their work and get recognised. One big pro is that this is a very good way to get recognised especially if it’s a good video as it would mean that you would get recognised easier although if it was a bad one then people would loose respect for you and then may expect that all your videos would be as bad so would then not check out your videos or your site again.

Promotional material is where companies use to promote aspiring films/projects such as music videos and film trailers, this can be could as it could turn a small film into a hit blockbuster, although it could work the other way round and it could totally destroy as small film so that no-one would ever go and watch it.

Film trailers are another use of video in interactive media they are mainly used for promotional purposes, to promote the film, it can be in the form of a short film, and is often found on many websites, this is a real pro for the makers of the film as it means that the film is advertised well, although one down side to this could be that they could be taken out of context, so they have to be very careful of what they put into them.

User generated content is material that is produced by random people who may aspire to be a director or somehow work in the industry, they are usually posted on sites such as YouTube, a pro of these are that they could get spotted and get a good job in the industry. However, a downside to this is that someone in the business could steal there idea and then get all the credit for it.

Another use of interactive media is Viral Marketing this is a tool that is used to advertise things quickly. One pro is that it is cheap as it only costs to make it, however a downside is that as soon as some people see it in there in box they count it as junk and delete it without taking the time to read it.

Advertising on a website is also an interactive media as it could be an advert (video) embedded into the webpage; a pro of this is that as soon as they go onto the site you would see it. A con is that some people would see it was an advert then think they hadn’t got the time so didn’t bother looking at it.
One newer interactive medium is virtual reality tours they are a simulation of an existing location usually composed of a sequence of images, the newest example of this is Google’s street view, a pro of this is that a lot of people find it fun and a laugh to find there house and see if they can see there cat or dog or someone they know, although a con of this is that some people thing its invading their privacy and helping prospective burglars to see what there house is like and where the best place would be to get in and get what they wanted.

Games are now more like a DVD in the way that it is so realistic and that you can get hints up onto the screen, a pro of this is that its life like and more fun to play, you feel as if your there, although a con is that many people think at times its too life like and too gory and that its teaching younger children to ‘kill and maim’.

E-learning is where you find info off the computer, rather than learning from a person. Some problems are that they don’t know whether your doing the work or not, it can also get boring. One good thing is that you can get it anywhere, so teachers would say that there is no excuse for not doing it!

Interactive Media Technologies
Video compression is where you make the size of the video smaller so that it’s easier to transport around although it can result in the video being of a lower quality. Although if this is done, it means that it can be uploaded to sites such as YouTube much quicker and it will play better when up, so sometimes loss of quality is a sacrifice you have to make.

A codec is when a file is able to be played on a certain programme. For example an Mp4 file could be played on windows media player. However a con of this is that if you can’t find the needed codec you can’t play the file, also if the codec isn’t compatible.

One Media technology that has become much bigger is recent years is streaming and download, streaming is a sequence of data elements made available over time. A con of this is that sometimes it can be very slow and can keep stopping, and this takes even longer if the video is in high definition. Download means to receive data to a local system from a remote system. A pro of this is that quite a lot of the time it can be free, however a con of this is that sometimes from downloads you can get virus’s attached to the download so end up with virus’s in your computer system, also there are quite a lot of illegal download sites, so if you pick the wrong one to use and are found out you could get into a lot of trouble.

There are many different interactive video formats, a few of them are MPEG, this is the moving picture experts group and was formed to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. Another is AVI, the audio video interleave and is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft. One con of this is that it is only compatible with a Microsoft computer. MOV, the QuickTime (.mov) file format functions as a multimedia container file that contains one of more tracks. WMV, Windows media video is a compressed video compression format; once again a con of this is that it will only work with windows media player.

Data Transfer rates (Bandwidth) is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources. A con of this is that if you have low internet speeds and not a very quick broadband then you will not be able to see that particular website or it will take absolutely ages to load up for you to see.

One media technology that has been around since the start of film and video is frame rates; these are the amount of frames shown each second. Usually it’s 25 per second in any film or normal video, but it changes to 24 per second when in TV. A con of this is that it can easily be confused between the two and it they are crossed over then it can sometimes cause some problems.

Screen resolutions are a fairly new media technology as they have only really been around since Colour TV, but they have only really been started to use more than anything with computers. But they are the amount of information passed through, the more information passed through the better quality.

File sizes have again only really been around since computers, they are the amount of data in a file; a con of these is that if it’s a big file then it takes ages to load/move around, and if you try to compress it then you loose quality. However a pro is that most computers are now quick enough to deal with all files however big they are.

Picture ratios or aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to the height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, some examples of this are 4:3 and 16:9 the latter the one that is used the most. One con of this is that a lot of the time if it changes from one to the other you loose quality in the picture, although a pro is that the 16:9 size can fit quite comfortably onto a HDTV screen and have now been issued on DVD without black bars.

Digital Rights Management or DRM for short is a generic term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware, manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to try to impose limitations on the usage of digital content and devises. A con of this is that they can never limit too much what people can see or use as if one person gets it now they have ways of sending it round to all there friends which means every one can then get it and there is nothing that anyone can do about it.

There are now so many media players each doing a different thing and each one meant for a particular programme that won’t work on a different computer meaning you have to spend more money to either get one it will work on or buy a converter to convert it so it will work, a few different media players are; DVD, digital versatile disk or digital video disk is an optical disk storage format and is mainly used for videos and data storage as this is one of the few things that is compatible with nearly everything. Iplayer is an internet television service that is used for television and radio catch up, the con of this is that it can only be watched over the internet and is usually only available after release, so if you don’t have the internet then you cant catch up with your show. QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia frame work and is capable of handling various formats of digital video, 3D models, sounds, text, animation, music, panoramic images and interactivity. One pro of this is that it is compatible with most programmes. Windows Media Player (WMP) is a proprietary digital media player and media library application, one big con of this is that it’s only compatible with windows computers. Real player is a closed source cross- platform media player by Real Networks that plays a number of multimedia formats including Mp3, Mpeg-4, QuickTime and Windows media. A pro of this is that its compatible with nearly everything.

Embedded Video is where the video is put into the site/page and it will play without the need of opening another window to see the video or with the need to open any of the above media players, which is a pro itself, although a con is that sometimes it can take longer to steam and that not all videos are able to be embedded so there will be a box there but they just won’t play.

One of the newest Media technologies is Video tagging this was mainly introduced for social networking sites and YouTube where you can either tag yourself in the video, or you can tag a particular spot on the timeline where you can make a comment on it. A con of this is it will still be some time before all the browsers start supporting it and much more time before most people upgrade to that browser so they can all see it. One pro is that it is not dependent on a single commercial 3rd party entity Adobe, which means you, would have to keep updating your adobe programme so you could keep up to date with it all.