Creating the Creative Space
An unsung feature of Verse is the live-preview CMS, which is where you create your interactive video stories. No matter what kind of story you are creating whether it be an interactive experience or a blog post, all stories have a beginning, middle, and end and how you structure those stories likely will determine whether it is a hit when released into the world. Verse blows up how you create a narrative because it allows you to rearrange your structure on the fly. The live-preview allows you to watch your story come to life, while you create it. As you create chapters and set-up your story, your imagination will be ignited because you’ll quickly see all the possibilities for interactivity.
Professional video requires huge amounts of planning and resources. Once footage has been shot, edited, and post is done, it’s hard to go back and make any real changes. This is where Verse really shines and offers freedom and flexibility. When you create a Verse story, you create blocks of content that you will then arrange in Verse’s CMS. Each block of video (or images for slideshow) can then be arranged anyway you wish through chapters.
In the Story Editor on the left hand side, you’ll see all the chapters and sub-chapters that create your story experience. The beauty is that making changes to that story structure is just a click away! It takes only seconds to take chapter 1 and make it Chapter 3, or to take a sub-chapter and make that its own chapter. And you can instantly see how your story flows from the live-preview found in the center of the CMS. This is an amazing tool for creators because most of us create based on trial and error, and Verse allows you to do this seamlessly.
Beyond chapters in Verse is the hotspot tool, which is where the real interactivity comes from. Hotspots are buttons on the screen during the experience you’re creating that can take viewers to additional content. Verse gives you three button types that you can place anywhere on the screen: Title, Invisible, and Tags. Title buttons are more prominently displayed and include a visual timer. These are usually your go-to buttons when using hot spots. However, we also include tags, which displays just text. And lastly, we have invisible buttons if you have the buttons already integrated into your video. As you place hotspots in your videos, you’ll instantly be able to feel how it affects your story and you can tinker away till you feel your story is just right. Or, you can wait till you receive feedback from your peers or audience, and go back and make changes.
One of the last things that I’ve noticed when I and others use the platform, is the ease in which you can try different types of chapters to see what best serves the narrative. For example let say that you have five videos of folks talking about a similar topic, you could try them individually as videos linked by hotspots or you can throw them all in a single Q&A chapter. All of this can be done in less than five minutes. And the options are only limited by your own imagination and design ideas.
The reason that Verse is able to so ably free your creativity and is so much fun to use is because you see results instantly. Verse was design to allow you to focus on the most important aspect of any video experience and that is the content. We focus on making the putting together of that content as seamless and intuitive as possible. This type of spontaneous and reflexive creation is appreciated by the viewers of these stories because it allows for more genuine interactive experiences. So jump in and remember, if you have any questions or feedback, please let us know! I’m always available via e-mail at eric.emma@verse.com. Free your story at www.verse.com.
