Verse Redefines Storytelling with Launch of Revolutionary Interactive Video Player

Verse today debuted its interactive video player empowering filmmakers, journalists and marketers to create and publish authentic, soulful stories in dynamic new ways. Created by a team of veteran filmmakers, journalists and interactive designers, Verse helps content creators combine video and photography with interactive elements that provide a unique, non-linear viewing experience -- at a fraction of the cost and time associated with traditional solutions. 

"We believe Verse will fuel the future of journalism and media," said Antonio Bolfo, co-founder and CEO, Verse. "Our team has developed a new approach to interactive video that gives people the freedom to tell more complete stories, unfettered by limited budgets and lengthy timelines."

The easy-to-use player requires no coding, little to no training and limited technical understanding. Verse is embeddable, shareable and works anywhere -- from iOS and Android to desktops and tablets. Work produced on Verse has already won a host of awards in 2016, including a Webby Award for Best Use of Interactive Video in Online Film & Video and honors from Pictures of the Year International and Photo District News. Engagement rates for some of these pieces have exceeded 70 percent, with audiences watching 50 percent or more of the entire piece, regardless of length.

Designed to illuminate storylines, Verse provides content creators the ability to combine video and photography into interactive elements that bring them to life. Simple, intuitive navigation for the viewer helps make stories more impactful and memorable. Some of the player's interactive features include: 

• Video Hotspots: Create non-linear narratives with interactive, contextually relevant hotspots placed at key moments that allow viewers to choose their own story path and engage with more content. 


• Pathfinder: Craft "choose-your-own-adventure" style narratives that let the viewer determine how the story unfolds.  


• Interactive Q&A: Organize interview content in a simple, interactive way that gives viewers the ability to access individual questions or full interviews.


• Slideshows: Both HD video and still images can be combined into a single, powerful presentation.


• Chapters: Order content into easy-to-navigate chapters that are accessible and shareable through a dynamic story timeline. 

"The Verse platform enabled us to approach our interactive documentary, ‘Undertow,' in a manner that allowed viewers to interact and engage with the raw story and pull back the curtain to join us in the reporting process," said Shaminder Dulai, director of photography, Newsweek. "The level of layered content which can be added using the Verse platform allowed us to reach our goals of journalistic transparency and implementation -- nearly nine months of reporting into supplemental material which traditionally would have ended up on the cutting room floor. A key scene that invites viewers to ask ‘Did he do it?' and forces them to wrestle with the unsatisfying ambiguity allowed us to turn the clichéd tropes of ‘True Crime' stories on their head and would not have been possible without Verse."

Since the beta launch in late 2015, the Verse team has been engaged with visual storytellers for a wide range of work. In partnership with Verse, independent filmmakers, journalists and marketers have produced compelling interactive visual experiences by weaving together stories using the player's intuitive content management system that streams the highest quality HD video with the latest HTML5 adaptive streaming formats. 

"The Verse platform helped us categorize a lot of video content to tell a compelling story," said Hall Carlough, account director of activation, Grey. 

"The intuitive interface encourages users to interact with and explore more content than a static video. Verse's use of chapters and sub-chapters enabled us to showcase our most important content without losing the opportunity for users to explore other videos for more in-depth information."  

A free version of Verse lets storytellers create and share their work immediately, while a professional solution, VersePro, adds functionality such as advanced analytics and password protection for stories. VersePro licenses start at just $29.99 per month. Custom and enterprise-level solutions are also available for large organizations with complex needs.

For more information on Verse, or to see a demo of how the solution works, please visit: https://verse.com/. 

About Verse

Verse is an interactive video player that combines video, photography into interactive elements to tell rich, compelling stories. By empowering filmmakers, journalists and marketers with the ability to create, publish and analyze how their stories engage their audiences, Verse is setting a new standard in interactive video storytelling. Headquartered in New York, Verse works with some of the world's leading brands, including Grey, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, San Francisco Chronicle and The North Face. For more information, go to www.verse.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Industry Announcements's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net