As the launch of the iPad nears, we’re beginning to catch glimpses of what the print to digital transition actually looks like in the real world. Up until this point, it’s all been theoretical. But now digital magazines, like VIV (which produced the digital feature spread above for their magazine), Wired, and Time are leveraging motion for “edu-tainment” purposes.
*And before any emails me, I’m using this as an example of their smart use of media, not necessarily the message, which you may or may not agree with. Point here is that it’s smart and an interesting example of what’s possible visually.
This is just the beginning of what will be a mad dash by traditional magazines to create content. Check out this story that I ran across at enGadget this morning. Be sure to watch the “making of” featurette at the bottom of the article. It’s fascinating and gives you an idea of just how much work goes into creating a 1:46 piece, especially one with a stylized, Frank Miller edge to it.
How will writers and publishers use this? It’s hard to say. Producing something like the VIV piece is very expensive on a time increment basis ($X/produced minute) even if you know how to do it efficiently. The magazines monetize their content through advertising. Question is, whether or not publishers will consider a similar model when it comes to their releases, both fiction and non-fiction.
Pretend with me for a minute that we all read e-books more than print versions. Just for a minute.
Very interesting.
Creatively, I could definitely see stuff like that working for online magazines — ads could easily be on billboards or things within the articles itself. Financially, it seems reeeally expensive. Although, I suppose you could certainly set-up visual “templates” that could be adjusted and re-used, in a sense.
Book-wise, I could see stuff like that getting more kids into reading. In my generation, a lot of kids hated books, but got into reading because of comics. Now, those same people are veracious novel readers and, many of them, authors.
Specifically with the style of the above article, I could see a novel similar to Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW where you “move” into different rooms and read about what’s happening there.
It also makes me wonder how slowly scrolling lines (speed set by the reader) might become popular. If it didn’t make it too difficult, I could easily see how things like that might keep things more exciting in our ADD society.
Formats like this could really revitalize the Fantasy and Sci-Fi markets. Heck, with stuff like AVATAR and women going to see super-hero movies, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see a massive rise in those markets. The audience certainly seems to be growing.
Hmm…
18.03.2010, 11:33 amI agree. For me, I can see it having a sort of “premium content” edge to it. So, the whole story wouldn’t be in this kind of format (you might as well do a movie instead of a book), but maybe your Prologue or Epilogue would.
There are opportunities to tell closed loop short stories or lead into a story. I think that’s where the application is for now. Production costs are a big downside, especially this early in the game.
18.03.2010, 3:32 pmKSK
I love the idea of the flashy & interactive for certain media on the ipad/tablet/e-reader, but for a novel, no ads please. Good novels enable you to transport yourself somewhere else, just like a movie does. We very rarely will watch a movie on free-to-air TV for that reason – don’t want to be interrupted.
I would consider ads at the start of reading, so, eg, when you first switch on, an ad pops up, particularly if it’s relevant (nee: personalised) to me (eg, an ad for a new Ted Dekker novel or film) and maybe when I’m about to switch off as it’s time to hop off the bus or whatever…
Good debate KSK…
18.03.2010, 6:19 pmHave you seen that David Baldacci’s newest novel Deliver Us from Evil is going to be “enhanced” in the iPad format?
I see this trend as good and bad. Good in that it’s flashiness and innovation will allow us to experience novels in new and enhanced ways. People that don’t read but watch TV or movies (which is a majority of people) might read a book if they add other stimuli to go along with the reading experience.
But the negative is that the reader loses imagination in setting the scene in his head. It leads to a superficiality that might make a great story seem only good because the reader couldn’t connect with the characters.
Personally, as a reader, give me text, give me the story, let me imagine the world. I would just be distracted from the reading experience, even by occasional sequences like the one above. It breaks my reading rhythm. But I’m unique, I know.
As far as ads, I don’t think I’d like them in the middle of my novel. Beginning or end, yes, especially if they’re relevant.
I’m interested in seeing how an enhanced format changes education. Say you get your biology textbook as an ebook (or iBook, as I am sure Apple will call them) have for iPad. Instead of drawings, there could be animations. Instead of photos, there could be videos.
In any case, I think it’s an interesting development, I just hope that it doesn’t lead to a further loss of critical thinking in our society. Reading is an active process that requires critical thought to seriously understand a book. I don’t want this development to remove that aspect.
18.03.2010, 10:07 pmI think this has a lot of potential for graphic novels and the like. Imagine MAUS or WATCHMEN or The Goon being translated like this. I remember seeing a version of watchmen that was like this, only it had a bad narrator and no reading.
19.03.2010, 1:36 amHowever, call me old fashioned, I think there are a lot of readers out there who will be annoyed by stuff like this. Chances are, those people will die….. eventually
But then again I am one of those people who never found comic books interesting, not because of their stories or content, but the pictures and bubbles. My imagination was always better than the cartoonish graphics. So for people like me, who thrive with NO PICTURES and no FLASHY MEDIA, I shudder to imagine the Great Gatsby or Jane Eyre being translated into flashy pictures with cinematic sound effects. But some people, I guess, enjoy this and need it to help their imaginations along. Although I do realize there will be great artists who will use this technology for great art, I have no doubt of that. I think it still has a lot of experimenting, fumbling, and failing to do before it gains momentum in genres and formats outside of magazines and graphic novels.
I hate ads, but I put up with them when I really have to. Pretty much, I’m going high tech while kicking and screaming.
19.03.2010, 8:11 amI would tolerate ads if they done in a non-intrusive way. If they didn’t obstruct my search for the content and I could glance over them…I wouldn’t mind them. If they were like glancing at a magazine ad but being able to turn past that page I’d be OK.
19.03.2010, 9:21 am