| [BACK]
During the 70s and 80s, video reigned supreme as the audiovisual medium of choice for corporate communication and training. Since the late 80s and early 90s, video is more likely to be integrated as just one element in interactive digital media presentations. Instead of a linear video, with a discrete beginning, middle and end, video clips are one form of input for a media rich environment that includes on-screen text, graphics, animation and audio.
This has important implications for media writers:
1. The ability to "chunk" content into discrete units that allow users to explore subjects on their own-going where their particular needs or interests lie.
2. A repertoire of writing skills. Multimedia writers must be deft writing on-screen text as well as writing for the eye and ear. The larger the palette, the better the finished product.
More so than in most other forms of writing, multimedia writers are also collaborators. Granted, motion picture directors greatly influence the translation of a screenplay into a sight and sound viewing experience. Yet, it is possible, and is often the case, that the scriptwriting and directing processes take place as two discrete activities. Writer and director may never meet face-to-face.
You can't, however, write multimedia in a vacuum. You have to understand and appreciate how graphic designers and programmers intend to integrate your copy into the self-paced interactive experience. How will the navigational interface work? What options will users have? What functionality will be present on a Web site or CD-ROM? Will sound and animation on the home page function as part of the user experience? If so, how does that influence your home page copy?
As a form, it is rich in possibility. Yet, it must also be guided by an appreciation of what your collaborators bring to the table (as well as the ever-present issues of budget and production schedule).
Interactive media writing at its finest is an interactive process. You work through successive drafts as the graphic designer and programmer refine "look and feel" and functionality. It may require several iterations to combine all the elements into a unified, aesthetically pleasing whole. Seeing it all come together is one of the great satisfactions of this kind of writing.
|
