| Close |
| Comment |
| Close |
| Comment |
The process of adapting a television show for a walled garden experience is not, by nature, formulaic. We hope that the following will provide enhanced television producers with useful information that they can incorporate into their own production system, but the production process is by its nature so individualized, that what works for the NOVA team may not be applicable across the board. This documentation, therefore, is intended primarily to illustrate the procedure NOVA follows in turning their award-winning television show into a walled garden experience, built on the Liberate platform.
The NOVA process includes two distinct teams: the television production unit, and the NOVA Online team. Because the final enhanced television content grows out of the NOVA Web site, we need to outline the two distinct tasks: one, creating a contextual and educational Web site from each NOVA production, and second, re-purposing the Web content for enhanced television, on the Liberate platform.
Web production generally begins with a screening of the rough-cut. Afterwards, the Online team brainstorms about the show, and possible features. What questions does the team have after watching the show? What issues were raised that could be better explained? Could the audience be involved in an ethical question the show raised? NOVA Online enjoys the freedom of flexible site features; "Hot Science," an interactive educational activity especially appropriate for teachers and students, is the only recurring content vehicle.
The feature selected for Liberate is generally the most linear feature -- the one that lends itself most easily to an environment that significantly differs from the Web in terms of navigational experience. The team also takes into consideration the number of images available, since their goal is to have a different image on each Liberate page.
Initially, a third party worked in conjunction with NOVA and Liberate to develop a template, consisting of a center area for feature content, sandwiched by a header (NOVA logo and feature title) and footer (navigation through the Liberate elements of the NOVA site: Feature, Archive, and Schedule). Each feature has a "splash page," or title page, usually adapted from the Web site's home page, and some number of "inside" pages with graphics and text. Whereas a computer mouse allows the internet user to freely navigate a site of complex links, the enhanced television viewer is limited to having to step through a feature link by link with the remote control. For this reason, the inside navigation allows for simple back and forward movement, with the footer always available at the bottom. In retrofitting the Web content for Liberate, the text must be edited, the captions dramatically reduced, and the graphics redesigned and adapted to meet television color standards. Text and graphics, for example, must be larger and less intricate than one is used to seeing on a computer monitor owing to the lower resolution and difference in the viewing distance between working at a computer desk and watching a television from the couch across the room.
The new graphic treatment may present the greatest challenge to the NOVA team. The NOVA Web site relies on a bright color palette that is well-suited to the high-resolution world of computer monitors, which support a wide range of color and luminance; the NOVA Liberate site, in contrast, must reflect the limitations of the television monitor's ability to display colors accurately, and comply with NTSC color safety standards. For NOVA, this means that the backgrounds change from intense pinks or oranges to a darker palette of blues and greens, with light-colored copy overlayed. Each splash page, as well as each occurrence of the header and footer, sports NOVA's signature blue in the background. The backgrounds of the inside feature pages vary slightly from feature to feature, but NOVA's signature blue is evident throughout.
The design of the splash page is mostly at the discretion of the Designer, who has free rein to choose and arrange the images, the one requirement being that the feature title must appear in the treatment.
On the inside feature pages, the Editor supplies the Designer with the edited text and captions and graphic assets, broken down screen by screen. In choosing the assets, the NOVA team considers the impact of their visual material in driving the story, and selects the most compelling for the context. Despite the preformatted template, each feature layout must still be carefully designed, based on the size and orientation of the image, and the amount of text per page. The following adjustments must be made for each feature page:
- Find the Image.
- Drop the image in the template.
- Resize the image.
- Tweak the colors to meet NTSC color standards.
- Bring in the type (caption and feature text) and style.
- Cut the feature letterbox out of the template and into its own file (NOVA's Designer likes to design on the full template, even when only the middle portion is needed, in order to see the full composition).
- Compress as a .gif (.jpgs are not supported).
- Send the new feature files to the Enhanced Television Tech.
The Liberate coding is done by the Enhanced Television technical team, tested for accuracy, and then delivered.
