Simple, Elegant Genius: The BBC's Transmedia Sherlock - Part 1

Here’s my favourite recent integrated transmedia production. I put this one together for a talk for the Transmédia Journées Festival in Montreal and I’m still a little OCD about following the Sherlock Twitter streams. And heads up! there are small spoilers here though I've avoided the biggies. If you don't want to know anything, DON'T READ!

 

What I really like about the BBC’s approach to creating transmedia content for Sherlock was that the show’s producers kept everything super simple and everything they created was worked back into the show as important story points.  The efficacy, unity and coherence across platforms is likely helped by the fact that Steven Moffat is co-creator, an executive producer, and co-writer, with Mark Gatiss. 

 

Having chosen to make the Sherlock series a contemporary reworking of Conan Doyle’s original stories, it makes perfect sense that the characters blog, and that they’re active, no - hyper-active on Twitter. This decision then supports all kinds of cross-referencing between the blogs and blog content during the episodes.

 

That Watson blogs is mentioned in the first episode of Season One, when Sherlock states that he looked at it before meeting with Watson. Then as the episodes progress, Watson posts his accounts of Holmes’ cases through his blog, cross-linking to Holmes’ blog, The Science of Deduction  and Holmes’ cross-links back, referring those who are interested in his cases to read Watson’s posts. 

 

Watson’s blog also pushes fans quite directly to help solve the cryptic puzzles Holmes is posting on his site: 


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The blog hosts further exchanges between Watson and Holmes, reinforcing their characterrs, as in this exchange after Watson posts his first case study, A Study in Pink:

 

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Moffat and Gatiss also use Watson’s blog to return to key moments within the TV episodes, as in the final confrontation with Moriarty in The Great Game, where the reader re-experiences the moment in which Watson is very close to death in multiple ways from his pov.

 

Season 2 then ramps up the integration of Watson’s digital life into the show and during episodes we see him writing his blog, 

 

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Holmes irritated at the sky-rocketing number of views Watson’s blog is getting, 

 

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and headlines on Holmes’ becoming a “Net Phenomenon” because of the attention Watson’s blog and case studies are generating.

 

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Holmes posts key documents onto his blog, The Science of Deduction, that connect back significantly to mysteries in given episodes. (I’m not going to spoil it! You will find it :)

 

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The production then nicely breaks the fourth wall when Watson’s blog is then 'hacked' and a video filmed by someone breaking into their apartment is posted via his blog (again, I’m not giving this one away).

 

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And ditto with the inclusion of a BBC video reporting on the climactic ending of Season Two, again, cross-posted to Watson’s blog,

 

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And as Season Two ends with the mystery of Holmes’ fate and character, and Watson’s declaration that 'I’ll always believe in him,' fans across the globe take up the invitation and begin posting affirmations of their faith as well.

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This is a smattering of the transmedia content developed for and generated by the BBC’s Sherlock. What’s really fab is that you can see how the show’s producers have started a movement that lives on after the end of Season Two, in a community that continues to engage with and create content around the show, waiting for Season Three. Genius.

 

Part Two will dip into other social media content developed around the show and there is a lot of it!


 

 

'The Hunger Games' Movie: Author Suzanne Collins Likes It, Fans Even More Excited - International Business Times

By Cristina Merrill: Subscribe to Cristina's

March 2, 2012 11:13 AM EST

Suzanne Collins, author of "The Hunger Games" trilogy, gave the first movie adaptation an official stamp of approval, causing an extra titter of excitement to rush through fans of the book series who are eager to see the story on the big screen.

"The Hunger Games" author Suzanne Collins has given the film adaptation a stamp of approval. She was involved in the screenplay writing process and served as an executive producer.

The author -- who co-wrote the screenplay with director Gary Ross and screenwriter Billy Ray, and served as an executive producer -- wrote about her impression on the film's Facebook page.

"I'm really happy with how it turned out," she wrote. "I feel like the book and the film are individual yet complementary pieces that enhance one another. The film opens up the world beyond Katniss' point of view, allowing the audience access to the happenings of a place like the Hunger Games control room and President Snow's rose garden, thereby adding a new dimension to the story.

read the full post here:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/308139/20120302/hunger-games-movie-author-suz...

Using Great Storytelling To Grow Your Business | Fast Company

FC Expert Blog

Using Great Storytelling To Grow Your Business

BY FC Expert Blogger Kaihan Krippendorff | 03-05-2012 | 1:14 PM
This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

Every two months, I pull together a community of innovators. We meet somewhere in New York City, usually a boardroom overlooking a park or cityscape. But last month we all found our way into an acting studio operated by The Actors Institute to learn about storytelling.

The members of this group certainly already know something about the topic. They are senior executives at some of the largest corporations, partners in some of the most prestigious consulting and private equity firms, and several cutting-edge entrepreneurs. But the more you know, the more you realize there is to learn, and this group wanted to learn more about how to use effective storytelling to drive change in and grow their organizations.

The experience shocked me, to be honest. I considered myself an expert and snobbishly thought there was little more to learn. How wrong I was. Here are my two key takeaways from this session. Apply them today at your next meeting or phone call and I am willing to bet you will have a better result.

1) Use lots of LOTS. Our facilitator, Gary Lyons, senior coach at The Actors Institute, told us a story and had us dissect what we remembered. Do this, and you will realize your audience is often checked out, comatose, or unable to hear or remember what you are saying. The key to engage them is to use lots of “language of the senses,” or LOTS. When telling a story, share with us what you see, smell, feel, taste, and hear. When you trigger a sense in someone, you bring them into the story with you.

Read the full post here:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1822792/using-great-storytelling-to-grow-your-busi...

Excellent Post on Future of Film | Tips For Connected Documentarians from Ben Moskowitz

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Read Moskowitz' full detailed post here:

http://www.tribecafilm.com/tribecaonline/future-of-film/Tips-For-Connected-Do...

Here are the bullet points:

#1: Always stay in service of story.
#2: To thrive on the web, adopt “systems thinking.”
#3: Always be shipping’.
#4: Be an auteur, and work backwards from your user experience.
#5: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Get Help.

Very Cool! NYMF to Stage A Letter to Harvey Milk, Prison Dancer, Flambé Dreams, Rio and More - Playbill.com

NYMF to Stage A Letter to Harvey Milk, Prison Dancer, Flambé Dreams, Rio and More

By Adam Hetrick
22 Feb 2012

The New York Musical Theatre Festival has announced that A Letter to Harvey Milk, Prison Dancer: The Musical and Living With Henry are among the musicals selected for the 2012 Next Link Project.