A Case Study on Producing Million-Viewed Video in Museum Channel

Demonstration
Shin'ichiro SUZUKI, Japan , Shin-ichi Minato, Japan

In this study, we discuss how to produce influential scientific video contents and how to expand it.
April 2012, we have developed an exhibition "The Art of 10^64 –Understanding Vastness-" with JST ERATO Minato Discrete Structure Manipulation System Project. Its theme was magnificent combinatorial explosion and ultra-fast algorithm technology for it in the realm of computer science. In this exhibition, we thought that static display method or interactive hands-on method are not very effective, we tried to use visual animation method. We created 2 videos: “Total number of routes that do not pass by the same place twice”, “Time with class! Let’s Count!” and published at YouTube. “Time with class! Let’s Count!” has been played over 1 million times in only 3 weeks. We have received many positive feedbacks from all over the world.
We had multifaceted analyzing of fundamental factors in an early stage. The analysis gives the following keywords; social background context, viral spreading trend between people, specific production process, eccentric animation methods, synergy with social media. These keywords indicated “To mix up with actual exhibition”. Unlike actual exhibition, online media bring many people to participate each other simultaneously without regard to actual museum closing time. These communication are easy to talk to. On the other hand, actual exhibition was designed to argue our message and topics. We could prepare some interesting devices to convey that more easily. We need the right media in the right place, and proper interaction with both.
This case study reveals some important points on producing and secondary effects obtained by spreading than we expected.