Video Novel

Vertical Format

Why would anyone produce content in vertical format? Because this is not film and video watched at a distance, this is a close contact medium for use on a tablet.

Landscape is wasted at this distance because it is not utilising peripheral vision, vertical at close range can provide more visual information for the smaller screen.


For the Vidvel storytelling experience to capture the novel essence there are 6 current methods for screen layout, this combined with audio, which may be conventional narration much like an audiobook or voice actors like an old school radio play, gives the flexibility and capability to create the author viewer experience.


The footage can be shoot vertical which is very effective for portrait style images. The screen can have images, text, 3, 6, 9 videos running in tandem. The visual garden path which is greater than story alone.

Comic books are in a portrait format because it is easier for the eye to move down the page.


The viewers eyes can move down the Vidvel screen much the same way. Replace the speech bubbles with real audio speech combined with manipulated inflection and pitch pivots so it sounds exactly like the author intended, you have a Vidvel.

The Video Novel is to capture the essence of reading a novel in a digital media format. As abstract, pretentious and nauseating as that sounds, I’m going to justify the use of “capture the essence”. Vidvel defines the pleasure of reading a novel like this: a story which has engaged in your mind so completely with confusion and understanding you must put down the book and ponder what you have just read.


This is the essence traditional film and video storytelling does not allow. Or, the timeline and structure does not allow. They are a roller coaster, fixed for ride and duration.


Traditional script writing is so concerned with economy of story that it does not allow for the viewer to be taken down new and interesting paths, for a personal connection between storyteller and viewer for something bigger than story. A screenplay goes through producer, director and finally actor.


This is a murky system for words to get through. Vidvel eliminates the system with technology and common sense.


Log line. Vidvel - The Video Novel, is a format designed for authors to tell their stories in the digital age.


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