In December 2018, Netflix surprised countless people with "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" and started the "interactive" process of the entire video industry. However, nearly eight years later, Netflix has almost given up on interactive video as a media form. On November 5, Netflix c

In December 2018, Netflix surprised countless people with the film "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" and also started the "interaction" process in the entire video industry.

However, nearly eight years later, Netflix has almost given up on interactive video as a media form. On November 5, Netflix confirmed to the verge that it will remove almost all interactive videos from December 1, including movies, TV series and other programs, leaving only a few works such as "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" .

But if it weren’t for this, I’m afraid many people would have forgotten that there is such a thing as “interactive video”, let alone remember the interactive video that once swept the global video industry.

In China, video platforms such as iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku, and Bilibili are all actively entering the interactive video field around 2019, supporting video interactive functions, and launching a series of interactive videos:

Iqi Art launched the interactive drama "His Smile", Tencent Video launched "The Origin of the Buddha Head in the Antique Game", Youku brought the interactive drama "When You Wake Up", and Station B opened the interactive video creation function to encourage up owners Create content with branching plots.

图/iQIYI

Interactive video was once regarded as a breakthrough to refresh the traditional movie viewing model. During the viewing process, the audience can choose different options to influence the direction of the plot and gain a stronger sense of participation and immersion. Coupled with the inherent "piracy-free" advantage, interactive videos have swept the world at an extremely fast speed since 2019, and have also attracted the attention of major video platforms both overseas and domestic.

However, even though a lot of resources have been invested in trying to attract users through innovative viewing experiences, the popularity of interactive videos has gradually declined. As the investment and output of major platforms in this field have significantly reduced, the number and influence of related works are not as expected. .

This also makes this large-scale removal from the shelves more like a farewell and end to the attempt of interactive video. But is interactive video born at the wrong time, or is it just a detour?

Interactive video was once the favorite of Aiyouten.

When it comes to the development of interactive video, "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" is undoubtedly the key tipping point and a node that we cannot avoid.

In 2018, "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" quickly aroused global buzz after its release. During the movie watching process, every choice made by the audience will make some differences in the direction of the plot, and even change the fate of the protagonist. In fact, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch featured 5 different endings.

The plot branch established by netizens, picture / reddit

What’s important is that in “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”, the audience no longer just passively watches the story, but the “hand of God” that determines the direction of the story. 's deep involvement in the plot has also brought an unprecedented sense of participation to many audiences who have never played interactive movie games such as "Detroit: Become Human" and "Invisible Guardian".

Since then, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku have also entered the market, and a large number of film and television companies have also begun to try to develop interactive film and television projects, such as "His Smile", "The Origin of the Buddha Head in the Antique Game", "When You Wake Up" A large number of interactive film and television works such as "Coming", "Celebrity Detective: The Number One Suspect", "The Age of Love" and "Love Apartment 5" were intensively launched between 2019 and 2020.

"Love Apartment 5", picture / iQiyi

In addition, UGC platforms such as B station and YouTube have also launched interactive video functions and encourage creators to upload video works that bring interactive content.

Without exception, these interactive videos are trying to give the audience a stronger sense of involvement through the "right of choice". The audience can not only influence the protagonist's behavior, but also gradually understand the character's complex heart and enhance their emotions as the choices progress. resonance. This is also something that linear video cannot provide.

At the same time, for many viewers, the novelty of interactive videos also brings sensory stimulation to the audience beyond "watching", providing an additional layer of "playing" experience compared to traditional movies. However, compared with interactive movie games, which are much more interactive and require frequent operations, the core of "interaction" in interactive videos is to catalyze rather than interrupt the audience's emotions while watching the movie.

Of course, in addition to the exploration of audience needs, behind the popularity of interactive videos is the collective choice of video platforms after they face growth bottlenecks. Around 2019, the traffic of long video platforms actually generally peaked, and audiences gradually became tired of traditional narrative methods, and even began to turn to short videos collectively.

At this time, interactive video is regarded as a "surprise weapon" that can break the game. The key is that this form of innovation can help the platform re-attract more viewers, extend users' viewing time, and improve the platform's stickiness and activity.

"The Invisible Guardian", picture / new one studio

In addition, piracy is also an old problem that video platforms have always troubled and suppressed, and the "interactivity" of interactive videos has brought unexpected advantages to the platform - anti-piracy. Compared with linear video content once online, piracy platforms can easily copy and spread the content. Interactive video’s multiple endings, branch selection and other interactive elements greatly increase the difficulty of piracy, because the audience’s viewing and interactive experience is almost impossible to replicate.

But if this is the case, interactive video will obviously not "fail again and then exhaust itself" in the future.

Interactive videos are popular but not popular. High cost is not the only reason.

First of all, the core reason is of course the huge difference between input and output. The cost of producing interactive videos is much higher than traditional videos. is not only a technical challenge. To achieve multiple endings and multiple branches, content producers need to shoot different plots for each choice point, which consumes a lot of time and manpower.

However, as costs rise, audiences are the first to give up on interactive videos. Audiences give up on interactive videos. On the one hand, the novelty has faded. In fact, the "choices" of interactive videos are actually limited. The plot direction is still subject to the producer's presets. Of course, there are also many relatively shoddy works.

On the other hand, interactive video is not a panacea, and many types of stories are not suitable or require careful design to be done well in the form of interactive videos. In fact, for most interactive videos on the market, audiences are not as interested in multi-branching and multiple endings as the platform expected. They even dislike selection and loading, which affects continuity, resulting in a less-than-expected viewing experience.

In the short video era, "It's over!" I'm surrounded by beautiful women! " also once triggered the "interactive + short drama" model, and even led iQiyi, Tencent, and ByteDance to successively launch interactive short dramas in the past two years. But earlier this year, three interactive drama mini-programs built into the Douyin platform, Bubble Heart Selection, Claw Heart Selection, and Jelly Heart Selection, collectively announced that they would cease operations.

Picture/intiny

In short, interactive video requires the production of more content materials and the implementation of complex technical architecture. The production cost is much higher than that of traditional linear video, and the production efficiency is also lower. In addition, user acceptance is not High, the platform gradually realized that its input-output ratio was too low.

"Games" of the same format but with a higher degree of interaction, such as "It's Over!" I'm surrounded by beautiful women! ", etc., on the contrary, it has achieved very high results on game distribution platforms such as steam, and has even expanded beyond the gaming circle. Will the explosion of

aigc bring interactive video back to life?

But today, interactive video may still have a chance to return to center stage. The core of is that generative AI is changing the mode of content creation at an unprecedented speed.

In the past, the production of interactive videos was expensive due to its multi-branch and multi-ending narrative mode. Each choice node required different plot shooting and production. The complex branch design even slowed down the production cycle, causing many platforms to incur cost Choose to give up in the face of benefits.

But now generative AI has very efficient content generation capabilities, and can fully participate in video production, or even directly generate videos, which may completely change the way interactive videos are produced. In short, the in-depth participation of AI has the potential to significantly reduce the production cost of interactive videos and improve production efficiency.

The development of generative AI is still in its infancy. It will take some time before large-scale investment in interactive video creation, and technical and ethical issues cannot be ignored. But there is no doubt that generative AI provides a new direction for interactive video.