YouTube Annotations!

YouTube has come a long way since first being founded back in February 2005 where then, it was utilised by viewers to just simply watch videos originally created videos. Since then, Youtube is now a forum where users can create videos, share and connect with others globally. A way in which creators and users have the ability to do this is via annotations. Where annotations are not a new 'craze', they are being used more frequently which I would argue is due the fact that we are becoming more interactive and creators are wanting their audience to engage further into the notion of interactivty. They are unique and can immediatly take viewers to more content which can increase the viewers numbers of subscribers and also increase the comments within a video which acts as a community, boosting engagment.

These interactive Youtube videos are being used in ways to simply play games, answer quizzes, link to a video related to that of the one you are watching or to promote a buisness by linking to a website ect. Another interesting choice of interactivity through the use of annotations is creating stories with multiple endings.  Users are able to engage with the creators by choosing their own ending thus putting a spin on the creators own narrative, similar to that of adventure books where choosing the route you take determines then ending of the story.

Creating annotations within Youtube is not new, however it is something that is being used on new levels. Creating content in this way can be time consuming as in order for the annotations to link to each video, you have to create a serpeate video that would link the annotation to a website or video.

It is easy to do once you have uploaded your video to Youtube, from there you simply add annotation from the menu, create your link and save and publish!

An example of Youtube annotations can be seen below:

We were asked to create a short, engaging and not forgetting interactive video that would involve the use of annotaions via Youtube. My group and I decided upon a two camera set up at our flat and began to film a short sequence. The sequence consisted of adiscussion between two flat mates about doing the washing up. The user would watch the video and be able to interact with it by choosing and clicking on either answer A or B similar to that of my horror project for Isadora whic i dscussed in an ealier blog post. We wanted to make our peice humourous by adding sound and music which I feel really worked and brought the project together even more. I enjoyed creating this piece and was able to get my hands on some editing software! Editing has never been my strong point, but through the course I have carried out extensive research via Youtube tutorials and found that once I begin, I have the ability to edit to a good standard. 

The whole group helped to edit our piece together using Premier Pro becasue Final Cut was not unfortunatly not available at the time but we soon had it finished with time to spare, probably due to editing it untill 2am! The only time consuming part was the rendering and exporting and then Premier Pro decided to force quit for no apparent reason...luckily we had it saved!

The feedback from peers and lectures was good overall. I am pleased that I was able to create an interactive piece that worked and will use this skill in the future.  

Take a look below at our interactive video 'Washing Up'. We hope you play along and enjoy!