This document discusses various multimedia components that can be used to combine different media types such as text, images, audio, and video. It provides examples of how silent films used title cards and musical accompaniment, and how storyboards, site maps, and thumbnails can be used. Guidelines are given for creating slideshows, working with audio and video, animation, and interactive elements. The document stresses selecting the right multimedia elements for the content and interface.

1. MULTIMEDIA
COMPONENTS
Chapter 12, White Space Is Not Your Enemy

2. DEFINITION
Multimedia may combine type, image, audio, video, infographics, and
interactivity

3. MULTIMEDIA IN SILENT
FILMS
 Interspersed type frames to deliver dialogue and establish context
 Theatre organists provided musical accompaniments

4. THUMBNAILS,
STORYBOARDS, SITEMAPS
 Sketch thumbnail layouts
 Storyboard slideshows, animations, videos
 Site map content relationships along with user flow

5. STORYBOARDS

6. SLIDESHOWS AND IMAGES
 Don’t let transitions outshine your actual slides. Pick just one.
 Sort, crop, and edit photos before assembling a slideshow
 Consider image content, theme (colour and subject), orientation
 Focus on narrative continuity more than technical superiority
 Storyboarding can help if the slideshow has a narrative

7. SLIDESHOWS
 PACING.
 “KEN BURNS’ EFFECT.
 CAPTIONS/CUTLINES.
 LOOPING.
 INTERACTIVE IMAGE GALLERIES.

8. INTERACTIVE IMAGE
GALLERIES
 Generate more viewing traffic than automated slideshows
 Commonly offer an automated slideshow option

9. WORKING WITH AUDIO
 Use ambient audio sparingly
 Give the user control
 For narration, use the best microphone possible
 …Digital stock sites offer free music

10. VIDEO – SHOOTING TIPS
• Steady your camera
• Bright even lighting
• Shoot more than you think you need
• Capture a variety of angles (close-up, medium, full, wide, long)
• Zooming and Panning
• Composition (rule of thirds)
• Don’t talk while shooting

11. RULE OF THIRDS

12. VIDEO CONT’D
 Interviews, monologues (talking heads)
• Shoot in a quiet location
• Select talking head subject wisely
• Test footage
 Editing
• Best quality video possible (uncompressed, raw)
• Best quality audio
• Transitions
 … Stock video

13. TALKING HEADS

14. VIDEO ENCODING
 MPEG4 (MP4) is the most popular file format
 Aspect ratio
 Video-sharing sites (YouTube) offer embedding codes

15. ANIMATION
 Motion tweens.
 Pacing frames.
 Duration.
 File formats.
 Use restraint, don’t clutter.

16. ANIMATION

17. APPS, PLUG-INS, WIDGETS
 Apps are programs designed to run on computers, tablets,
smartphones, websites, or social media sites
 Plug-ins are code that give browsers or websites additional
functionality
 Widgets are the visible expression of a plug-in.

18. MULTIMEDIA
STORYTELLING
 Not every story or subject lends itself to multimedia treatment
 Choose the best multimedia elements for your content
 Select a primary medium and let other media play a supporting
role
 Make the interface intuitive
 Don’t let technology get in the way of the information

19. INTERACTIVE
COMPONENTS…
 Interactive music videos
 Augmented reality
 Comment boxes
 Interactive image galleries

20. TWEET #1
Name 1 multimedia component used on Montrealites or EatingCrow
E.g. Twitter Widget - EatingCrow Homepage #eatingcrows

21. MULTIMEDIA TOOLBOX
 Text (headlines, summaries, captions, external links, blogs)
 Data (statistics, spreadsheets, numbers, archives, lottery results)
 Images (still photos, illustrations, info-graphics, slideshows, galleries)
 Video (recorded clips, live feeds, historical footage, animation, tutorials)
 Audio (narration, music, sound effects, ambient sound,)
 User-Contributed Content (anecdotes, comments, photos, social networks)
 Mobile Content (RSS feeds, social networks, GPS applications)
 Site exposure (content and media sharing sites for video, photo, news, info)

22. TWEET #2
Give an example of something that uses multimedia, and list its
components
e.g. Silent film: video, text, music #eatingcrows

23. TWEET #3
Give an example of Interactive Media
E.g. The Wilderness Downtown-Arcade Fire, Interactive video
#eatingcrows