Living in an alternate reality: ARGs and marketing | Excerpt from The Next Great Generation

Kelley Executive Partners director of emerging technologies Dr. Sarah Robbins believes ARGs will play a large part in interactive advertising. “ARGs are the most extreme application of the mobile advertising spectrum. They are the most engaging platform, and they use a lot of different technologies,” she said.

Robbins got to make her case at ARGFest-O-Con 2011, held at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus last week. The conference was attended by a conclave of geeks and storytelling aficionados who got to hear about the commercial prospects for this nascent storytelling mechanism.

Executives from Coca-Cola North and West Africa recently requested the KEPs’ help in finding marketing solutions for their region and Dr. Robbins devised a game to convince them of the potential for ARGs.

Social media training more effective through visual storytelling | via ParkHowell.com

The Power of Story Part II: “Social Media and the Storyteller” from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.

Do you feel cornered by social media? “Like” this. Tweet that. Friend me. Poke you. Give me some link love-in’. It seems the virtual online world is more frightening than the real one.

These were just some of the social media fears and myths we explored during the Power of Story training at Forever Living Product’s International Super Rally in Washington DC. The first part of the training focused on how to craft and tell a compelling story to increase the success of sales and marketing. You can view the video and Keynote presentation on how to structure your 9 beats of story here.

Once we outlined the structure of every great tale, we did a social media training on how to share your story with the world. We had to be very visual in our presentation, because I was in front of over 3,500 distributors from more than 140 countries.  Even though it was translated in 10 languages simultaneously, much of the meaning in one’s words can get lost in, well, translation.

Are Social Films the Next Big Thing in Hollywood? | Excerpt via The Next Great Generation

"...Directed by DJ Caruso and starring Emily Rossum, Inside follows young twentysomething Christina Perasso as she awakes in a strange room with nothing but the clothes on her back, a Toshiba laptop and no recollection of how she got there. Over the next 11 days, Christina frantically reaches out to her friends on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, begging them to help her figure out an escape. Now, her life is in your hands, and its your job to solve clues left by her captor in order to set her free. This phenomenon, where a story interacts with its audience to help progress the action, is called social film.

“It’s sort of the first integration of how the Internet and social media can work in conjunction with a film,” Inside director DJ Caruso said in an interview with YNN Austin. “You can experience this film and watch as it unfolds in an episodic way, and participate in the outcome via social media.”

A few social films have been made before, but none with such breadth and big-brand sponsorship. The first social film, Him, Her & Them, was distributed just a few months ago, in April, by the New York-based studio Murmur. The film interweaves both fixed and interactive scenes, utilizing Facebook API to incorporate the “social” aspect of the social film. And while Murmur’s social film is certainly a wonderful example of 21st century storytelling, Inside has a few more working parts.

Using multiple social platforms and real-time audience interaction, Inside does a wonderful job at harnessing the power of the audience to influence plotlines. For instance, in episode 3, the captor leaves Christina a note that reads, “If you want food or water you need your ‘friends’ help. Post a plea and if you get enough ‘likes’… you will eat.” Christina then posts a video to YouTube asking that people ‘Like’ the video so she can get a decent meal. The result? Over 4,200 likes. And in the next episode, Christina was rewarded with a delicious-looking cheeseburger.

This experiment in storytelling in the digital age seems to signal a shift in the way we consume content. It’s become clear that the normal linear way of storytelling just doesn’t cut it any more. And with the empowering tools bestowed upon them by the Internet and social media, audiences are demonstrating that they don’t want to simply be spoken to — they want to be spoken with. By allowing the audience to not only be viewers, but actual characters in the story, Inside is a great example of the opportunities storytellers have today..."

Scholastic and Ruckus Media Announce New Children's Transmedia Imprint | via Scholastic Media Room

New York, NY and Wilton, CT — September 7, 2011 —

"Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children's publishing, education and media company today announced the creation of a new innovative children’s transmedia imprint with Ruckus Media Group, an independent digital publisher and creator of award-winning interactive stories and learning games. The new Scholastic Ruckus imprint will publish top children’s authors across all platforms, including print, e-books and enhanced e-books, with Ruckus Media publishing interactive story apps. With more than a dozen projects already in development, the first releases are planned for 2012.

Scholastic will publish, market and distribute titles for ages infant through teen developed under the Ruckus imprint through Scholastic’s vast school-based book clubs and book fairs channels and through retail and libraries, and will manage publishing rights for the print and e-books worldwide. In addition to intellectual property from titles in the Ruckus library and new projects developed for both digital and print, Ruckus Media is aggressively acquiring rights to out-of-print backlist titles to publish in print or in e-book formats to be distributed by Scholastic under the Ruckus imprint.

"Building on our success with multi-platform publishing, Scholastic is delighted to be working with Ruckus Media Group and Rick Richter in the rapidly growing area of children's transmedia properties," said Ellie Berger, President, Scholastic Trade Publishing. "Under the Ruckus imprint, we will expand the scope of our offerings to meet the rapidly growing demand for multi-platform properties that parents can trust and kids love."

"Ruckus and Scholastic share the same vision – to reach kids where they are, at home and in schools, and on the electronic devices they love...."

Henry Jenkins posts his Transmedia Entertainment Class Syllabus: Back to School Special 2 (Frank Rose Required Reading!)

Excerpt from original post:

"In this course, we will be exploring the phenomenon of transmedia storytelling through:


  • Critically examining commercial and grassroots texts that contribute to larger media franchises (mobisodes and webisodes, comics, games).

  • Developing a theoretical framework for understanding how storytelling works in this new environment with a particular emphasis upon issues of world building, cultural attractors, and cultural activators.

  • Tracing the historical context from which modern transmedia practices emerged, including consideration of the contributions of such key figures as P.T. Barnum, L. Frank Baum, Feuillade, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Cordwainer Smith, Walt Disney, George Lucas, DC and Marvel Comics, and Joss Whedon.

  • Exploring what transmedia approaches contribute to such key genres as science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero, suspense, soap opera, teen and reality television.

  • Listening to cutting-edge thinkers from the media industry talk about the challenges and opportunities that transmedia entertainment offers, walking through cases of contemporary projects that have deployed cross-platform strategies.

  • Putting these ideas into action through working with a team of fellow students to develop and pitch transmedia strategies around an existing media property.

  • Required Book:
    Frank Rose, The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and How We Tell Stories (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011)

    Recommended Book:
    Matt Madden, 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (New York: Chamberlain Brothers, 2005)

Love Barkin: Watch: Gorgeous Trailer for 'Shit Year' Starring Ellen Barkin - from indieWIRE

Watch: Gorgeous Trailer for “Shit Year” Starring Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin in Cam Archer's "Shit Year." [Image courtesy of Cinemad.]

Cinemad has released the U.S. trailer for Santa Cruz filmmaker Cam Archer’s sophomore feature “Shit Year,” and it’s a sight to behold. The film features Ellen Barkin as Colleen West, a Hollywood actress whose retirement leaves her flustered and in the arms of Luke Grimes, a young actor she falls for.

The trailer - which calls the film “a cam archer time mess revenge joke film love lapse of you” - includes a rush of stunning black-and-white 16mm photography by Aaron Platt and a collage of frenzied sound effects, narration and music.

“Shit Year” will be released in New York at the IFC Center on September 21. Ellen Barkin will be present on opening night for a Q&A. It had its world premiere last year at Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight.

SHIT YEAR trailer from Mike Plante on Vimeo.

Heroes writer to create new transmedia series, The Karada | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Media_httpstaticguimc_zkzvm

Excerpt from the Guardian:

"The Karada: a transmedia horror story about a collapsing metaverse. About as far from Modern Warfare 3 as you can possibly get.
Last year, Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes, teamed up with Nokia to launch Conspiracy For Good, an ambitious alternative reality game with web, mobile and live action elements, in which players got the chance to shape the story and donate money to third-world literacy charities in the process.

Now, the production company that helped produce Kring's project, Tea4Two has got together with Heroes writer Jim Martin and visual arts company Furnace Fighter Media to create a new transmedia series, The Karada. It's billed as, 'a supernatural thriller about a young woman, Emma Gossett, who struggles to save the multiverse as realities collapse around her'. Which sounds quite stressful. "We like to say that the story feels a bit like Inception meets Sliding Doors with a dash of demonic possession," explains producer Tom Liljeholm. "We take with us the good parts from Truth about Marika and Conspiracy For Good, but try to work hard at making it accessible and comprehensive."

As well as web episodes, the story will be viewable on mobile devices, and there will be digital comics and live events. As in Conspiracy For Good, participants will have an impact on the narrative...."