Featured Projects:
Parallel Tracks:
- A Bitter E.V.E. by Haya Qubbaj (play interactive video)
- Earth Day by Jo Zera (play interactive video)
- The Murder of Mr. Mayweather by Lawrence McCormick (play interactive video)
- Interactive Video Design: Interviews (Parallel Tracks)
Multiple Forms:
- Welcome to Puerto Rico with Klein GO by Rebecca F. Sebring (play interactive video)
- Learn a Language by Andreea Ioanas (play interactive video)
- From America, with Love. — Stories From Chinese American Adoptees by Jacqueline Minnis (play interactive video)
- Interactive Video Design: Interviews (Multiple Genres)
Curatorial Statement:
The projects featured here are interactive videos, which means that – as these videos play – audience members can click on them (with a computer mouse or track pad) or tap them (on a mobile device) to select what content is seen.
In the first batch of projects, students from MSP 3701: Genres of Media Production with Prof. Laura Zaylea work with a form of interactivity called “parallel” tracks. Whereas many interactive videos present specific moments of choice, essentially “pausing” or prolonging a moment within the video to present a decision screen to the audience, videos with parallel interactivity take a different approach. These videos contain 2 or more video tracks running simultaneously (although only one is seen at a time) and invite the audience to click or tap the screen at any time to change which track they see. Students were asked to break away from the traditional “choose-your-own-adventure” plot-based interactive videos and instead to create character-driven projects with parallel tracks. The works here do this in a variety of ways. Featured projects include two murder mysteries and a music video. In the interview, 5 student producers discuss how they used the form to juxtapose multiple perspectives, including gender euphoria versus gender dysphoria, different reactions to a date night, and more.
In the second section, graduate students working with Prof. Zaylea were invited to explore various forms of interactivity, including map-based decisions, database-driven projects and educational content in addition to plot-based and character-driven interactive narratives. The class included two getting-to-know-the-platform projects, four treatments exploring various types of interactivity, and a final project taken through the stages of treatment, rough cut and final edit. The interactive projects featured here include a travel video, an instructional video and a documentary, and the interview video includes reflections on interactive projects combined with two additional forms: narrative and stand-up comedy.
Return to the Emerge, Volume 6 (2022) table of contents