I remember way back in the day when YouTube was still in a Flash Player, you had the ability to dynamically overlay link buttons and clickable areas over videos at specific times/area and it was a lesser used but nice feature. There were a couple of videos that used it to sneak links to unlisted bonus content but it mostly helped when something was highlighted and clicking it would take you to relevant info. Think you could also use it for spesific playback controls.

I'm scoping out a small project and think it'd be cool to have a video with simmilar basic interactions and even fire off some scripts at different parts of the playback.

Since Flash died, I can't think of any web player that let's you create this sort of dynamic overlay/interface or implement logic to the media playback. I know Adobe Encore can be used to make this sort of stuff for DVD menus and I used to make training videos with old software that did similar things. But I don't believe those files are easily web compatible without Flash.

I'm sure a front-end wizard can layer a transparrent canvas and player and script their way to the same functionality and more. Or maybe use a web game engine and build a UI over video playback. But I'm curious if there's any service or library that does it already and saves me from another abandoned side-quest.

Unless I missed something obvisous, the only similiar functionality I've found in the common player libraries are overlaying adverts at set points in the display and you just set the scale and frequency.

So this is pretty different from the typical stuff on here. I want to share an interactive music project that showed up on my YouTube feed called MILGRAM. It's produced by Deco*27, a popular Vocaloid/Utauite, and Yamanaka Takuya, a member of the band The Oral Cigarettes who's also been a key figure in producing some anime and video games (Caligula Effect is a major one). This could probably fit into ~anime too, but this is specifically a music project so I figured this is the best place for it.

To quote the MILGRAM wiki:

MILGRAM, established April 2020, is an ongoing interactive music project by DECO*27 and Takuya Yamanaka.

The premise is that there are 10 prisoners residing in the Milgram Prison; they have all committed "murder". Over time, their mental images will be projected into a music video, containing hints and clues hidden in it. With these videos in mind, it is up to you to find out the truth behind their actions and deem whether they should be forgiven (innocent) or not (guilty).

In Milgram, there's a three trial system. Each prisoner will have 3 different MVs. For each video, you will be able to vote on their verdict (for the specific prisoner). Dependant on their previous verdict, their trial will change it's direction. Keep this in mind when you vote!

I like songs that tell stories, and MILGRAM definitely fits that criteria. I haven't finished listening to all of the songs released yet, but it's fun to watch the music videos while searching for clues to whatever murders they committed. Sometimes it's fairly obvious from the first video and lyrics. Other times, we're doing a lot of extrapolation. If you didn't know the context of the overall project, a couple of the songs and videos seem pretty typical for their musical genre. Just look at the top comment of that one: "imagine my confusion clicking onto a seemingly cute and catchy song only to scroll down and see people talking about abortion, murder and death??"

Even without that context though, I think all of the songs and music videos can stand on their own. I wouldn't have realized they were part of a series if they didn't mention "X Trial Music Video" in the title. The songs span multiple genres, ranging from rock to J-pop to metal to... I guess more jazzy and classical/blues? Not sure how exactly to classify that last one, the music video has my brain biased towards seeing it as a "musical theater song". Anyways, there's probably a little bit of something for everyone, and all of them are incredibly well done. I've been playing Undercover in particular on loop, and the melodies of a couple others have gotten stuck in my head.

Currently, the second trial/season recently wrapped up, and no word on when the third season/trial will start releasing, so the interactive aspect is currently on pause. But I figured this might be a fun rabbit hole for some others to go into. And there's some emphasis on it being a rabbit hole. There's a lot of related content like voice dramas and a Japanese mobile app that provide additional context. The wiki I linked at least has translated transcripts for the voice dramas and interrogations, and some of the messages on the app. Meanwhile, the music videos have some Japanese text that's left untranslated, but have YouTube comments mentioning rough translations. Basically, the music videos are just the surface of the story.

Mainly though? I just want to share some cool music and music videos. So I hope someone here enjoys this as much as I am!