Digital product design consultancy Ostmodern has worked closely with the British Film Institute and Ooyala to create a new responsive on-demand player. The BFI Player is designed to simplify the discovery, syndication and contextualisation of BFI’s collection of video content.
Since the launch of the first generation player in 2013, Ostmodern has been advising the BFI’s team on a long-term platform and product strategy for the second generation player.
Aspects of the original product were reconsidered, following an in-depth consultation with 1,000 BFI Player users. The UX and UI has been optimised with the aim of showcasing the range of the 1,400 films within the service and presenting them in the most engaging and accessible way. The amount of new content has also been enhanced, with further features to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Built using Skylark, Ostmodern’s technical backend framework product, the new BFI Player achieves a solution designed to meets the BFI’s needs and support its ‘Film Forever’ ambition.
“BFI Player is uniquely placed to join the dots of film, taking audiences on an expertly curated journey from the very earliest films to the very latest releases,” said Edward Humphrey, director of digital at the BFI. “Growing audiences for British independent and specialised films is core to everything the BFI does and we recognise that audiences are seldom offered a real diversity of choice in the on-demand market. The revamped BFI Player continues our path towards a richer, more rewarding digital film experience for UK audiences.”
Key features of the new BFI Player include collections curated by film experts at the BFI; a film of the day linked with a key topic, celebration or anniversary; a large volume of free content; and a ‘Did you know’ feature with facts, anecdotes and stories about movies included on the Player.
As part of the remit to support the UK film industry and grow audiences for independent and specialised film, the service includes a mix of free and transactional HD video on-demand content, Ostmodern partnered with Ooyala to ensure the BFI benefit from Ooyala’s digital rights management system.
