Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? They were interactive books written from a second-person point of view. You assumed the role of the main character and made decisions for them throughout the book. The story outcome changed and depended on the decisions you made. The books were popular in the 1980s and 1990s and you can still find them in bookstores.
I love those books because you could re-read them, make different decisions, and end up with a completely different story. That sort of interactivity could work in other mediums as well. Some YouTubers have made interactive videos in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure. YouTube works well for this because creators can set up the decisions as annotations. Choose option 1 if you want the characters to do this and option 2 if you want them to do that instead, and then the next video plays.
Netflix's run of Arrested Development is going to be somewhat in the spirit of Choose Your Own Adventure because the order in which you watch episodes won't matter. But we aren't going to be making decisions for Michael or anything like that (x).
I think Choose Your Own Adventure stories have great potential on a platform like Netflix. Each story would essentially be a mini-series with all of the episodes released on the same day (much like Netflix is doing with Arrested Development). The episodes would be written so that you can watch them in consecutive order, or you could jump around and experience a different story.
YouTube and Netflix have changed how we watch video content, but the format of TV shows hasn't changed that much in response to internet technology. There are opportunities for experimental, non-linear series. It's only a matter of creating them.
I love those books because you could re-read them, make different decisions, and end up with a completely different story. That sort of interactivity could work in other mediums as well. Some YouTubers have made interactive videos in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure. YouTube works well for this because creators can set up the decisions as annotations. Choose option 1 if you want the characters to do this and option 2 if you want them to do that instead, and then the next video plays.
Netflix's run of Arrested Development is going to be somewhat in the spirit of Choose Your Own Adventure because the order in which you watch episodes won't matter. But we aren't going to be making decisions for Michael or anything like that (x).
I think Choose Your Own Adventure stories have great potential on a platform like Netflix. Each story would essentially be a mini-series with all of the episodes released on the same day (much like Netflix is doing with Arrested Development). The episodes would be written so that you can watch them in consecutive order, or you could jump around and experience a different story.
YouTube and Netflix have changed how we watch video content, but the format of TV shows hasn't changed that much in response to internet technology. There are opportunities for experimental, non-linear series. It's only a matter of creating them.
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