Flash Forward

Think you’ve seen everything the ubiquitous yet divine vector-based animation software can do? As developers working with Flash’s newer video features have found, the tool knows few boundaries, especially when it comes to video playback windows. So when Macromedia saw how Volvo and its ad agency, Forsman & Bodenfors, had used Flash MX and Flash video to push the envelope, or in this case, erase the traditional frame of the video playback window in its new online campaign for the V50 sports wagon, the company decided to "create a landing experience and intrigue that would move people online to see it for themselves," says Kathi L. Skow, Macromedia’s senior creative director of marketing campaigns.

The resulting testimonial, " Volvo: Moved by Flash Video," begins as Volvo’s original does with a static, yet dimensional cafà© scene in the foreground and Volvo’s newest station wagon, the V50, parked on the street just outside the window. People and other vehicles move past the stationary car-in a non-standard playback window-all while the site continues to load.

"Volvo made it appear as if it was playing back video at full screen," says Skow. "It was actually layered and only a small piece of it was playing video. Every other [streaming video] product has to play back in a tiny little square window, so that was an absolute revelation for our customers to see how Flash can play back in any format up to the size the server can handle."

Macromedia’s behind-the-scenes tour includes an interactive map that guides the viewer to interviews with the Sweden -based Volvo and Forsman & Bodenfors creative team, who in turn dissect the build process with descriptions of concepts, storyboarding, compression, timelines and resolutions. Scenes from the original site-including an interactive flip through a video-peppered print "magazine" and a virtual test drive-play alongside the testimonials. "When I first saw [the opening cafà© segment of our site] I was laughing," says Bengt Junemo, Volvo marketing manager, who was interviewed for the Macromedia case study. "It was such a great thing [to use that moment during load time] and to add such a‘wow’ effect on it. You must take some risks to create something new."

To find out more about how Volvo did it, go to www.macromedia.com/software/flash/special/volvo/?promoid=AHYT. The original V50 site is at http://demo.fb.se/e/v50/site.