How Netflix's Bandersnatch Brought The Idea Of Interactive Video To The Mainstream?

1. How Netflix's Bandersnatch Brought The Idea Of Interactive Video To The Mainstream? Black Mirror is an sci-fi anthology series made by Netflix and while the series was in the news for offering a very frightening perspective of how many future technologies could affect our lives, the creators managed to pursue a very unique and innovative idea of video presentation during it, one that’s primed to change the way we interact with on-screen media or videos in general. Bandersnatch was a film in this series which allowed users to choose between multiple options whenever a scenario presented itself in the movie’s narrative. From choosing the breakfast cereal to making decisions on whether or not to board trains, the film was the first mainstream idea of what it was like to experience interactive videos. The matter is in interactive videos; viewers don't watch the movies or TV shows just once. They're watching multiple to view multiple endings based on the viewers' multiple choices during the watching the interactive video. Most movie enthusiasts spent hours on the movie to view all the different endings the movie has to offer.

2. Most brands would definitely be interested in this new video format and they might be looking for advice on some great tips when making an interactive video, but this new video format will require more than a generic series of instructions to create. Here’s us explaining more about this new, exciting video format in detail. Illusion Of Making a Choice Netflix leveraged the algorithm to evaluate its viewers' preferences based on their previous viewings and suggest similar content. In the scene where the protagonist was two choices in the breakfast cereals, it may seem too constrained. Since there are various options, the protagonist could go for, either to skip breakfast, go for peanut butter and jelly (my personal favorite), scrambled eggs, and could even just for the juices. Although it's quite fun and engaging with a diverse range of options to choose from, just like in video games, the writers' jobs become much harder with the addition of choice; for instance, there are different kinds of juices, orange, mango, or apple. That would further require three different types of scripts for the writers to work on and the consequences of each of the choices. In gaming terminology, this process is called "branching narrative," where each choice gives rise to new branches. The growing branches will make the tree bigger. It doesn't end with the writers; the movie will also need multiple sets, extras, special effects, a longer time for production, and an increase in the movie budgets. A movie with multiple options for the viewer would take a toll on the viewers' time. Avid video game players are known to these situations, as they save the progress of the game, take rest and return to gaming whenever they feel like it. The producers of Bandersnatch took inspiration from the classic book series of "Choose Your Own Adventure" in giving the illusion of choice to the viewers with limited alternate endings.

3. What Lies Ahead For Interactive Media? There will surely more interactive videos to come, as Netflix made new software for Bandersnatch, which can be utilized for other movies or TV shows. Gamers are already accustomed to the interactive media and branching narrative by playing cinematic video games. In games like Beyond Two Souls and Heavy Rain, the player steers the course of the game's ending based on selecting the dialog and other aspects of the game. In the future, where advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence can make stories, it will make the viewers' experience much more real and enthralling with seamless story progression based on the viewers' choices. This technology is way into the future. Meanwhile, viewers who love Bandersnatch and want to explore interactive stories can go to local gaming shops. Many interactive and live-action role-playing games become popular, where people are required to act out physically in their fantastic encounters. These games put no limitation on the illusion of choice.