What do you think of the concept of books with 360 cinematic illustrations?

[TrevorInOxford]

Hi guys,

(Chris O’Connor knows I’m posting this.)

What do you think of our concept of books with 360 cinematic illustrations?
Do you agree that young adults will be encouraged to discover reading with this concept?
Do the demonstrations on http://www.turlbook.com/ engender the magic experience for you?

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I’m new to this forum. I volunteer for TurlBook. We are a small team. Isti is from Hungary and got an art degree from Oxford. I’m from Southampton (UK) and I worked in publishing for 9 years (US sometimes).

We have a whole new eBook format. Someone on Twitter compared it to Harry Potter magic newspapers where drawings suddenly wake up and move. (In our case it goes further: 360º panoramic animation. Characters act out a scene as you move around.)

There’s a singular aesthetic to match the text and 360 together. I tell Isti he’s tapping into ancient Eastern European storytelling when he does his thing. He kind of agrees.

When I tried a demo first time on my tablet I was afraid it would be like seeing LOTR movie; a lot of the scenes weren’t how I'd dreamed. It actually encouraged me to imagine more. Others have said the same.

It’s a bit like making real the shared dream we’ve all had at least once of a book coming alive so we can step inside its world. (Hence “the magic book is now real”.)

We have working demonstrations (see http://www.turlbook.com/).

Before we do a Kickstarter or an Indiegogo to fund the making of the first three books we’d like to canvas opinion from the book loving community. We’re not going for “feature rich”. (We hope you will love the concept and sign up your support on the site.)

Questions at the top.

Trevor

[Chris OConnor]

To me this is an intriguing concept that almost seems inevitable. With eBooks gaining in popularity the division between text and video is becoming blurred. Why not blend them together in text pages combined with 360 cinematic illustrations?

Any thoughts guys? Can you see this gaining in popularity?

[Cattleman]

Okay, I have not explored this concept deeply, but I am a confirmed e-book user, for practical reasons (eyesight problems - I like the ability to increase font size). As I usually have several books on my tablet, I would worry about the amout of data such a book as TrevorinOxford descibes - remember, even the most sophisticated tablet has its limits. If I am way off base here, I apologize.

[TrevorInOxford]

That's a good point, Cattleman, and one we are already considering. We are undecided yet about having each book as its own app or having one app to download books into. But it's on our requirements list to ensure the content runs smoothly and is not too hungry for bandwidth or processing power. After all, if it doesn't work on a tablet (stutters or crashes) then it's not a good product.

We do have to start with tablets and desktops. Existing eBook readers don't support 360 video. But in the longer term we may end up launching our own eBook reader. Personally I'd like it to have a leather cover with flexible paper display...

But that's some way off. The crowdfunding will support the making of the first three books. Sales of the books will go towards future books. When we have enough content we'll look at the eBook technology itself.

It's interesting to note that some of the early eBook readers were unlit, which improves reading speed. Now some are front lit (unlike tablets which are back lit) and that's still marginally better than back lit. We're aware tablets and computers aren't the best devices for eBooks. But on the other hand that doesn't stop people reading books on tablets or mobiles these days. The eBook reader hardware needs improving too.

Thanks again. It's useful feedback. Crowdfunding support could be anything from a few dollars/ pounds/ euros/ etc.

[TrevorInOxford]

Have made a note about font size.

[TrevorInOxford]

Here's our new trailer. What do you think of it?

https://vimeo.com/166990876