Original title: interactive video will be popular, where is its future? Source: hot spot micro-review
At present, interactive videos have been launched from Tencent Video, iQIYI, Inc. to Bilibili Inc..
The launch of interactive videos has long appeared in foreign countries. For example, "Black Mirror Panda Sneki" was launched by Netflix at the end of last year. It can be said that Netflix has pushed this interactive model to a new and most exciting part. Viewers can influence the direction of the plot through different choices while watching the movie, and there can be 12 different endings in the end.
The length of the movie varies from person to person, it is said that the traditional plot only takes about 90 minutes to finish, but if you open the feeder plot, the total walking time may reach 300 minutes.
It is precisely because of this immersion that allows the audience to be God, users will be willing to watch multiple lines of the plot repeatedly, resulting in more content consumption.
But although the production company of "Black Mirror: Pandasneki" took 18 months to prepare and produce, the final audience rating was not ideal, which means that the interactive video is still in the exploratory stage from home to abroad. It's still a long way from maturity.
In addition, in the game field, there are also a series of games that rely on players to choose the plot and promote the development of story narration, such as "Invisible Guardian" and "Paper Man".
In China, the pioneer of interactive video is Bilibili Inc.. Not long ago, Bilibili Inc. also launched a big wave of interactive videos created by well-known UP hosts.
If you go through the interactive videos on Bilibili Inc., you will find that some of the videos are really interesting, but you will find that the interactive videos produced by up are of mixed standards, mostly sand sculptures, immature editing techniques and screenwriting skills, or the recording of games that game manufacturers have already done, and the editing is simply processed, or through editing, ghosts and animals, roads and other ways of secondary creation. There are not many real boutiques. Obviously, it is much more difficult to generate popular styles in this field than one-way video.
Of course, Bilibili Inc. is not the only player. In May 2019, iQIYI, Inc. released the world's first interactive video standard, announced plans to launch an interactive video production tool platform, and produced the interactive drama "his smile". On March 24 this year, Tencent released his own interactive narrative collection platform "1001" at the UP conference, emphasizing the interactivity of the content. In January this year, Pan Yueming starred in Mutual Picture Entertainment and the interactive drama "the Origin of Buddha's head in the Antiquities Bureau," produced by Wuyuan Culture, was officially launched in Tencent's video.
Not long ago, an interactive online film called "the painter" also appeared in Tencent's video. Insiders commented on the interactive film. After choosing the plot, the lens switch was relatively stiff, and the continuity of the story was not satisfactory. However, the click-through rate of 3.27 million and the score of 7.8 show that this novel approach has been initially recognized by the audience.
Why is the interactive video picked up by Tencent, Bilibili Inc. and iQIYI, Inc.?
Interactive videos have suddenly attracted the attention of the giants for several reasons.
First, to return to the problem of traffic competition and retention competition, the current traffic anxiety of video sites is very obvious. Judging from the overall Internet market, the number of new users and traffic are peaking. According to QuestMobile data, the net increase in the number of mobile monthly active users in the first quarter was only 7.62 million, and the per capita daily use time increased by only half an hour.
Second, the current background is that all major video platforms are emphasizing member revenue, and the improvement of member revenue on the one hand depends on buying the copyright of movies and TV dramas to attract consumers to pay, on the other hand, it depends on the output of self-made independent content, including online dramas, network ensembles and Netuniversities. the growth of member fees is also closely related to this exclusive content strategy.
From the perspective of the future, how to extend the payment cycle of users and enhance the payment value of a single user has also become a problem to be considered in the next stage, such as iQIYI, Inc., Tencent video and so on. The interactive film has opened up a new way of storytelling and a way to drive the audience to participate in the topic. due to the novel model and strong enough topic effect, it may be a key category.
For video players, as the traffic of the platform reaches its peak, the mining of the stock market becomes more and more important. in essence, in the current summer vacation, the short video market, which is dominated by student users, may harvest a large number of user time in the student market. long video platform needs a new means to stimulate users to use time and stay time, and compete with short video users to use time.
For those student parties who like to play on-screen comment and complain, the interactive video actually caters to the preferences of young people through a multi-threaded open topic interaction mode, which itself turns the video into a game. so that viewers can discuss strategies, bullet screens, and explore different endings and challenges. Turn watching video into playing video.
Third, the mature stage of the platform needs to improve interactive indicators to maintain bilateral balance.
Tivana, a professor at the University of Georgia, suggested in the platform ecosystem published in 2013 that in maturity, the platform should focus on the indicators of core interaction: first, the platform must adjust and extend products and services according to changes in the market environment and user needs to find those products and services that fit in with the platform but are temporarily unsatisfied by the platform, and the platform can choose to absorb these functions to drive new interaction models. Provide new features that can create value for users.
Interactive video can be said to be a new function that the video platform can improve the interactive indicators of the platform and create value for users.
Strictly speaking, the video website is a bilateral network composed of producers and consumers-there is a clear distinction between consumers and producers, producers produce content, consumers consume content, but the current trend is that the interaction rate has declined.
Just like Airbnb's efforts to convert the tenants of the platform into landlords, increasing the side-changing rate is an important means to maintain the bilateral balance of power (users in the platform market are converted to users on the other side). The video platform needs to maintain the bilateral balance of the network through the side-changing rate and maintain the continuous growth of the platform. Therefore, interactive video is a relatively good means to pull the side-changing rate.
Is the future of interactive video a live game?
So, since interactive video is a new outlet for the giants, can interactive video become popular and have a future?
In essence, interactive video can be said to be a multi-threaded video mode, that is, viewers can participate in continuous interaction during viewing, intervene in the environment of the play, and make multiple operations at key plot nodes. to influence the plot or the direction of the game can be said to be a supplement to the current single-threaded mainstream video mode.
This complex plot and the introduction of new functions of flexible play is a kind of game operation. In terms of the nature of the performance form, it has changed from animation and 3D modeling to live performance.
For example, in Bilibili Inc. 's interactive video "manipulating the Square Auntie to Save Bilibili Inc.", there is a hidden plot of "repeatedly picking up the bouncing Sword" and "Auntie 1% record watch seconds kill BOSS". This 1% game value setting is actually the number of critical strikes in gamification, which, in the final analysis, is an AVG Mini Game.
For example, Fate/stay night, a game developed and produced by TYPE-MOON in 2004, has three main lines and five different endings in the game, just like this kind of interactive video play.
As some Zhihu Inc. users said, the video that emphasizes interaction does poorly is inferior AVG does well, that is, divine AVG.
It is undeniable that creators with strong editorial skills may be able to make blockbuster dramas, but some industry insiders have mentioned that, considering the current situation of China's screenwriting industry, interactive videos produced by domestic video platforms will become the promotion of creative works and the packaging of IP.
However, even if the creators entertain themselves, it can also increase the frequency of interaction between the content output of the platform and the stickiness of fans. After all, for video platforms like Bilibili Inc., spoof, ghosts and animals themselves have their own genes.
However, in order to enhance participation on the UGC side, video platforms such as Bilibili Inc. need to provide creators with support from technology to materials, data and other aspects. at present, Tencent Video has launched an interactive video technical standard, indicating that it is necessary to lower the threshold for creators and improve the standardization ability of production, but at present, the threshold for the production of interactive video is still relatively high, and it is not a game that everyone can participate in production.
Because even if it is not easy to shoot a single-line video, the difficulty and workload of multi-line video has increased geometrically, and it has been similar to a process of game planning. Therefore, this new form of video content, more rely on PGC promotion, UGC will stay in the level of self-entertainment.
Therefore, the arrival of the spring of interactive video in the future depends on the platform's participation in improving the professionalism of background editing tools and functions, lowering the technical threshold of participation, including accumulating a sound and authentic material library, and building interactive video into a new content-based game section on the video platform, game videoization, video gamification itself is the future trend, which will greatly boost the imagination of interactive video.
Just as some netizens imagined Bilibili Inc. 's game area-- in addition to explaining traditional games, there are also people who make interactive game videos, explain interactive video strategies, and broadcast live interactive videos. The future of interactive video is that it will become an interactive film and television game that everyone can participate in.
However, it cannot completely become a game, the game is auxiliary, and the content is core, which cannot be changed, because if it becomes a thorough game and loses the quality and quality of the content, it will only bring a phenomenal game. but this short and fast game is easy to make the audience fall into the fatigue of playing.
Interaction can break the fourth wall, but it needs a boutique to boost the market.
I think there can be early attempts, after all, everyone is feeling the stones to cross the river, but we should hold the mentality of making fine works, because interactive video, as a new category, people have a stereotype of a new category. Early works play a key qualitative role.
If there are too many shoddy videos, if the audience enters the endless cycle of various branch plots over and over again, it is easy to produce a sense of tiredness, resulting in a reduction in the final degree of participation, which in turn discourages the enthusiasm of the creators. then it will form the stereotype of interactive drama = bad drama, causing the market to be spoiled in a short time.
There is a theory of the fourth wall in drama, and the French dramatist Jean Rou Lian was the first to use the term "fourth wall". He suggested that actors should act as if they were at home, ignoring the reaction of the audience, applauding or disgusted. The front of the stage should be a fourth wall, which is transparent to the audience and opaque to the actors.
However, in many later film and television works such as "Lady Peron", "Birdman" and "House of Cards", the actors began to tell the story as a non-character to the camera, which seemed to allow the actors to pull out temporarily. But the essence is to break down the fourth wall and interact directly with the audience.
The essence of interactive video or interactive film and television is to let the audience act as God to lead the way to change the plot to communicate with the audience, and it is also an attempt to break the fourth wall.
But from the non-linear narrative process of the above film and television, we will find that the purpose of breaking the fourth wall is still to serve the plot and persona shaping, or to tell a good story.
Judging from the current way of playing on domestic video platforms, increasing the plot line is often unable to guarantee the viewing of the movie, and the tendency to interact for the sake of interaction is very obvious. For example, "his smile" has 21 choice nodes, but in the first node, "Wake up Service of a Thousand Birds", it does not have much impact on the follow-up plot.
Need to know, the essence of interaction is still by the new technology and narrative techniques, its core is still the content, the game element is to assist the plot service, but can not rob the host, let the interactive game play become the core.
After all, from another point of view, interactive video is actually the opposite of short and fast consumer goods such as short videos. The former requires users to actively move and play, while the latter just lies down and brushes, which is in line with human nature.
If the content of the interactive video itself is wonderful, the complex has ups and downs, and it can attract users to continue to participate in opening a variety of regional plots, it will easily lead to popular styles that give rise to topics. moreover, the profit model of interactive dramas is very clear. because it contains multiple open endings, it can open the space for feeder charging model and various plot advertisements.
However, judging from the current market situation of Internet universities and online dramas, the overall content quality is worrying.
After all, compared with traditional videos, interactive plays pay more attention to the fluency of stories, editing and logic, and the requirements of interactive dramas on the skills of the script itself, the ability of script arrangement, and the rationality of the story have been greatly improved. the difficulty of production has climbed to a higher level. if the content itself is not hard-core, then it is likely that the person who produced the video is tired and the audience is also tired of watching the video.
Generally speaking, interactive video is a new category worth trying. from the current creative environment and market environment, it needs high-quality interactive video to boost this market, but it will not become mainstream in a short period of time.