Met with Amy again. Now I feel like I have a good focus as to what I want to do. Interestingly enough, all this research has been about what I’m going to be making; not what the content will be. I spent so much time looking at how difficult it has been for publishers to deliver interactive content that I didn’t realize it was actually going to help me figure out how I would deliver to users/viewers.
Amy introduced me to an interactive narrative. It’s amazing. NY Times did a story called Snow Fall (you can check it out here). The best way I can describe is basically a documentary but in the for of text. Basically, the seriousness that surrounds an on screen documentary (the emotions of the people being interviewed, the music played in the background) is somehow captured in this. I actually read through this story and it really is nothing like I’ve read or experienced before. I’ve spent so much time looking at examples here. This is literally list of different interactive narratives. Seriously, I’m a little addicted these.
So, after looking at so many of these, the question is how the hell am I going to make one? The idea of using Javascript, HTML and CSS together is a little intimidating to me. Especially since I don’t even know Javascript at all.
However, I came across an online tool called scroll kit. Apparently, I can make one of these using this. How good is it? I don’t know. I’ll have to try it out for real. But, here’e the thing with this scroll kit. Where the NY Times said it took them hundreds of hours to develop Snow Fall, it took Cody Brown (co-founder of Scroll Kit) about an hour to replicate Snow Fall. Apparently the NY Times was not happy with how Mr. Brown was promoting this sort of information. NY Times sent a cease and desist. letter and he complied. He was, after all, using their entire story as his content. But, the scrollkit as a whole is not illegal, thank god. It’s still there.
I’d still like to find an alternative, perhaps something I can code (but that has some sort of guidance).
All in all, this is definitely the direction I want to head in. Coming up next, the content of this!