Excerpt from Jim Harris's Article in The Huffington Post, 13 Jan. 2012:
"On Thursday, Robert Kyncl, YouTube's Vice President of Global Content Partnerships keynoted at the at 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
He argued that the world of TV is changing profoundly: "If YouTube's top five channels were stacked against cable channels, they would be in the top 20 in terms of viewership."...
"...Kyncl pointed out that in 1980 there were only four TV channels and they had 100 per cent of the audience. But the emergence of cable TV in the 1980s dramatically changed the economics of distribution and resulted in hundreds of new channels. By 2010, 75 per cent of Americans viewing was spent watching cable channels, but only 25 per cent with the original four broadcast networks.
We are going through this same revolution again, with the Internet and streaming media once again dramatically reducing the cost of distribution. It eliminates barriers to entry, enabling content developers to narrow cast highly target audiences.
For instance, Kyncl cited the fact that today there are 17 million American yoga enthusiasts (and probably double that worldwide), yet there's not a single dedicated yoga channel on traditional TV. Kyncl predicted that within 12 month there will be a very successful YouTube Yoga channel.
And the fact speak for themselves: 350 million videos are shared on Twitter every year; and more than 100,000 person years worth of YouTube videos are watched on Facebook annually.
On hundred million iPads and tablets will be sold in 2012 according to the Consumer Electronics Association and analysts from GfK. Add that to the existing installed base of 70 million (15M in 2010 and 55M in 2011) -- all of them able to stream content; add to that the 600 million video enable smartphones that will sold in 2012 (add this to the 700 million smartphones sold in the last two years: 262M in 2010 & 435M in 2011); and finally add the 1.25 billion PCs worldwide. Presto, you're looking at more than 2 billion devices that can stream content.
By comparison there are only 115.9 million TVs in the U.S. and 1.6 billion TVs worldwide..."
"...Since the PGA started recognizing the role in April 2010, the first credits have already started to appear, with George Stayton getting a transmedia producer title on Paramount and Hasbro's "Transformers" franchise. The credit's also appeared on THQ's "Red Faction" videogame.
But 2012 should prove a watershed year, according to veteran transmedia producer Jeff Gomez, who's been championing the concept for more than a decade. The Canadian Media Fund will add the credit to its projects. And "there will be (another) major studio getting on board very soon," Gomez said.
Although the PGA doesn't have collective bargaining agreements, Gomez hopes transmedia work will eventually become part of the master contracts handled by the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, with those groups already starting discussions to consider the credit, which would net their members more money for their multiplatform work.
Expanding jurisdiction is tricky turf for the guilds -- SAG was unable to persuade the companies to include language addressing performance-capture by actors in the last negotiation -- but it's a potentially huge area for Hollywood's creatives.
Christopher Pfaff, a transmedia consultant who's vice chairman of the PGA's New Media Council, believes the PGA's support of the credit has already had a profound impact. "It took us about two years to get the credit enacted but doing that woke a lot of people up," he added.
Pfaff, noting that the guild counts over 600 members on the new media council, believes that the turning point in recognizing transmedia has been the cratering of the DVD market...."
Reporting to the Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Project Manager will be responsible for the development and production of a sophisticated augmented reality game (ARG), Body/Mind/Change. For a period of up to 24 months (from January 2012 through until December 2013 – with some flexibility), the Manager will lead final creative development, agency selection, workplans, budgeting, development, and implementation.
Responsibilities
• Leading brainstorming sessions, discussions, and consultations with the TIFF Gaming & New Media Think Tank and key project staff, the consultant will facilitate final creative development of Body/Mind/Change. • Developing a critical path, workplan, and initial budget to move the project forward. • Assisting in the selection of qualified creative professionals (e.g. agency) who can lead production. The Project and Production Manager will also be tasked with securing discounted services and in-kind contributions. • Working with TIFF staff and the selected agency, the Manager will serve as production manager to keep the project moving ahead. • Maintaining a detailed critical path and up to date budget, maintaining close contact with TIFF’s fundraising departments. • Leading user and technical testing, with input from various stakeholders at TIFF. • Leading a phased launch, with the initial content ready for users to explore by September 2012. The rest of the game will launch in phases across 2013, with full launch in September 2013. • Performing ongoing maintenance and improvements post-launch through December 2013. • Completing detailed final reports to government agencies, with exact performance measures and qualitative evaluations.
Profiling our new Wiki – A collaborative toolkit for Transmedia Storytellers!
Hello everyone,
I’m so excited to officially announce that Transmedia LA has created a Wiki. This Wiki aims to be an open toolkit for everyone in the Transmedia community looking into tools, services, and other innovative resources to facilitate the creation of Transmedia projects.
We encourage everyone in the community to not only check the Wiki periodically for updates, but also add to the Wiki when you find a service or tool that has come useful in your work. To add to the Wiki just request to be added to the workspace at the upper right corner of the pbworks page.
I’m assuming you’re all over this by now as this new web series & video trailer have been getting tons of global buzz in the last few days. But if you don’t know about it, you should.
Inspired by a real video of 1500+ prisoners in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines dancing en masse to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (49+ million views), Prison Dancer is a 12 part interactive video series that will launch in March 2012. The trailer launched on YouTube six days ago, is now over 50,000 views, and has been picked up as viral video of the week byFox News, “hot” on Trendhunter, and featured on Australian TV. Part of its appeal seems to be what co-writer and director Carmen De Jesus describes “as one of the first post-Dr. Horrible “made for web” musical web-series.” You know from the trailer that this is going to be a funny, campy, no-holds-barred production that will play up the romance and the drama in a way that reminds me already of John Waters’ musical homage to the 50s delinquent teen movie, Cry Baby (watch that one for an early singing Johnny Depp!).
Now, one genius aspect of this production is its in-built global reach. Produced in Toronto, it taps audiences across national boundaries. One of the series’ stars is Mikey Bustos, a superstar in Canada and the Philippines who Americans might know better as“that guy who did the Filipino accent tutorial on the Internet.
Producer Ana Serrano took a moment to answer a few questions and now I’m totally intrigued!:
SO: Prison Dancer is described as an interactive web series - that could mean interactive video where web videos have some kind of interactive interface to play with content flow or it might also include interactive participatory strategies for crowdsourced, fan-generated content - without giving too much away, are you playing with the latter idea? It would seem to be a genius project for that.
AS: We are playing with both ideas. One of the key interactive tools we are using is Youtube’s annotation tool. This allows folks to turn Youtube videos into clickable assets. For Prison Dancer, most of our episodes have interactive branches from them. However, these branches either provide more backstory to the characters or allow our audiences to engage with experiences they can then use to claim as their own and share back with the community. Think karaokified musical.
SO: As you say in your Toronto Star interview, this is “a perfect property for online because it was inspired by a web video,” the phenomenally popular Filipino prisoners’ YouTube version of Thriller. It was originally written as a play for stage and you give a little detail as to the long term vision, three seasons & maybe a Broadway Show, and Prison Dancer seems to have real substance as a cross-platform project. Is there a possibility of transmedia story extensions as well? It looks like this will be a story with multiple characters and easily multiple storylines, given the setting. Oz meets Glee but pitched WAY happier than OZ. And with three seasons in mind, that would seem to give you some scope for a really amazing transmedia story.
AS: yes, I think the possibilities for extending character storylines well beyond the web series and stage play are enormous. The original dancing inmates already have virtual lives. It’s not far off to see either the “real prisoners” or characters inspired by them to be hooked on their Internet notoriety and hence want to continue building a rapport with an audience rabid for their dances. So yes, part of what we are playing with is who these characters are and how they may actually be interfacing with the Web audience as individuals.
SO: Another really fabulous aspect of Prison Dancer, with what little is known so far, is that the project already has a trans-global audience, especially with the story being set in a Filipino prison and being a Canadian production. Have you and the writers given any thought as to writing for specific regional audiences? Or, if you write for a global audience, do you feel there are any specific considerations to keep in mind? Or do you just make the best damn web series you can and see what happens?
AS: We have very specific audiences in mind — Filipinos both at home and abroad; LGBT; and Glee/musical lovers (which arguable could be seen as slightly mainstream these days...so call it young women.) So we are writing and creating experiences with those audiences in mind only. Our thought is if we can satisfy this niche yet globally distributed sets of people we have the possibility of crossing over.
SO: Have you thought about the fact that both this current project and the CFC's interactive feature film are set in prisons? Is there a wacky backbone of interest or theme(s) running through these projects for you?
AS: LMAO have not even crossed my mind! But one of our themes is really about this idea of second chances. It’s a slightly subtle take to the classic underdog story. We’re creating a story not just about underdogs, or “losers” but about people who “lost their way” (as the first song “Point of View” says) and then finds it again by changing their “point of view” of what’s worth living for. (listen to the song to get the gist though you’ll here more of the lyrics in episode 1.) Which when I talk about it like this is also similar to the themes we explored in Late Fragment. So perhaps I am attracted to redemptive tales.
So props to Prison Dancer and to the launch of Ana’s independent production company, Prison Dancer Inc, co-founded with Carmen De Jesus and Romeo Candido (who penned writer of the lyrics and music and is co-writer of the book with De Jesus). I love it when smart people do smart work.
Mikey Bustos gives a peep inside the production here:
And if you haven’t seen the original viral Prisoners of Cebu Thriller it’s here: