Nick DeMartino on - WHY “TRANSMEDIA” IS CATCHING ON (Part One)

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Excerpt:

"...What’s new here is the idea that storytellers can create deeper experiences for their audiences when they unfold a story and its world via multiple venues, and when they invite consumers to participate meaningfully in that world –– especially when they do so from the outset of the project.

Whatever the nomenclature, the transmedia trend is gaining traction, fueled by some observable trends:

• Demand. Today’s audiences expect their media to be social, participatory and customized for every device they use, especially the much-coveted hard-core fans who are especially drawn to properties which let them go them deeper into a story or discover something first.

• Creativity. The formulaic is giving way to the innovative, as producers, including a new crop of digital natives, compete to engage fans in their stories over time and space with new approaches and on new devices.

• Buzz. Transmedia is becoming the Next Big Thing in both Hollywood and on Madison Avenue with more press coverage, more blogs and websites, more panels at film festivals and commercial conferences and ultimately more pitch meetings.

• Money. Big names in film, television, and games are placing bets on talent with transmedia chops. New studios have been capitalized to produce made-for-multiplatform properties, and proven creative services firms in the space are prepping their own original projects. Marketing dollars now routinely extend anchor properties onto additional platforms..."

Words from Susan Bonds, Jeff Gomez, Lance Weiler.... on Why Transmedia is Catching On (Part 2) via TribecaFilm.com

Great Post from Nick DeMartino:

Excerpt

Brian Clark: The Innovation is Other People

"The real innovation of the Internet is other people, not just data," GMD Studio’s Brian Clark told me, which is what inspired him to co-found IndieWire.com in 1996 and to produce films like Nothing So Strange, which imagined the assassination of Bill Gates. Since then, he has been busy crossbreeding indie filmmaking, the web, brand marketing and creative services. He likes to think of the web as a production tool, and the outcome as alternate reality games (ARGs).

"With ARGs," says Clark, "you’re writing a work that doesn’t really exist until it’s populated by the audience. The audience’s interaction with it is what creates the moment. You’re hanging cameras around and putting microphones on things and to capture a moment that you’ve created. That is a production technique, and it’s what the web is really good at."

Clark calls himself an "experience designer," placing the focus upon audience participation. GMD typically works with a team of collaborators, both individuals and companies like Mike Monello’s Campfire. Monello’s work ranges from Blair Witch Project through this season’s HBO hit Game of Thrones.

GMD’s techniques caught the attention of ad agencies and brands, and "they seem to want to buy," says Clark, whose work include projects for Sega, Scholastic and Audi. 2005’s Art of the Heist employed a wide range of digital and real-world elements that involved half a million consumers in a faux theft of Audi’s then-new A3 car.

Not surprisingly, Clark, who is working on a major 9/11 project, believes that the art form is ready to soar. "Never have I seen more money available for this kind of work. For all the failures we’re talking about with Hollywood and advertising, the taste is there now."

Doesn't Get Any Clearer: Austerity and Anarchy: Budget Cuts and Social Unrest in Europe, 1919-2009 « Center for Economic Policy Research

In this paper, we assemble cross-country evidence for the period 1919 to the present, and examine the extent to which societies become unstable after budget cuts. The results show a clear positive correlation between fiscal retrenchment and instability.

Download the report here:

http://williambowles.info/2011/08/11/austerity-and-anarchy-budget-cuts-and-so...

One pov: How the internet has all but destroyed the market for films...(via The Guardian) RT @rosspruden

It seems obvious, but an information economy needs a functioning market for information. Traditionally, that market was created by copyright, but those laws haven't been enforced effectively online. This helps companies such as YouTube build businesses on the backs of creative professionals.

Certainly, copyright laws need to be updated for the digital age. Many reformers say they favour protection, but view any attempt to enforce it as unacceptable. This doesn't make sense: a market can't be based on voluntary payments, and laws don't work if they can't be enforced. There needs to be some penalty for illegal downloading, although slowing the access speed of a lawbreaker makes more sense than cutting their account entirely. By the same token, why should internet users be allowed to access sites that clearly – and that last word is important – violate UK law? If the UK simply declines to enforce its laws online, it will leave many of its businesses vulnerable as the internet becomes more important to commerce in the years ahead.

Robert Levine is the author of: Free Ride: How the Internet is Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business can Fight Back