Excellent Post on: Transmedia in the Music Industry | Grazie! Transmedia Lab

Grazie to Transmedia Lab for a great informative post:

Par Ana Vasile et Olivier Godest • 12 May, 2011 • Catégorie: Study Case

"Faced with the evolution of uses and new media consumption habits, the music industry has to face similar problems to those seen in the audiovisual industry: unstable audiences, growing competition and pirating. However, new economic models and multiplatform projects are emerging: Jay Z, Gorillaz or Nine Inch Nails for example, are reinforcing their relationships with their audiences through storytelling.

New distribution models

The authors of record labels are faced with one main problem these days: the decreasing sales of material media (CD, DVD), which is directly linked to the digital explosion.

Even though it’s often brought up as producers’ number one fear, music only represents 2,9% of illegal downloads, as shown in this Ars Technica study. While most big producers are concentrating their efforts on fighting pirating with entities like the BPI in the UK, the Hadopi law in France or the RIAA in the US, new music development actors and economic development models are changing the playing field.

For example Spotify is a free music access provider that had 10 000 000 users last year with a service financed by advertizing. Since May 1st, Spotify’s policy has changed under pressure from record labels.

New Spotify Users will still be able to enjoy free service as it is offered now for the next 6 months. Afterwards, all the users of the free service will be able to listen to a song a maximum of 5 times, after this limit, the user will have to buy the song.

The number of listening hours will also be limited to 10 hours a month, a 50% decrease from last year. Spotify had to change its free policy under pressure from record producers who were denouncing an economic model that caused them losses. For example, Lemonde.fr criticized streaming based models by analyzing the distribution of money that comes from them and highlighting the fact that they hurt independent labels and artists..."

read the full post on their site.

Transmedia Experts Jenkins, Gomez, Kring, Hurd... Tell the Story to NABShow Attendees | ARGNet

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What a great day! Excellent long post detailing the talks of the day:

"For the second year in a row, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show hosted a panel of transmedia luminaries to discuss the state of the industry. This year’s panel, Transmedia: Telling the Story through Narrative Content, Games and Real-World Adventures was hosted by Henry Jenkins (Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California, and author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide) and included Jeff Gomez (President and CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment), Kim Moses (Executive Producer/Director, Sander/Moses Productions and Slam Internet), Gale Anne Hurd (Executive Producer, The Walking Dead; President, Valhalla Motion Pictures), Danny Bilson (Executive Vice President of Core Games, THQ, Inc.), and Tim Kring (Transmedia Storyteller, Conspiracy for Good, Heroes)....

"...Jenkins next introduced Gale Anne Hurd, asking her to speak on any struggles with the transmedia expecations for The Walking Dead franchise. Jenkins noted that the zombie series was based on “a comic book that’s well known by comic readers, maybe not so well known by viewers of AMC, and you had to work to keep both satisfied.” Gale responded,

Genre fans are already very familiar with transmedia, because most of the properties they respond to have existed in another medium . . . look at Lord of the Rings, [and] some of the films I’ve done, including The Punisher, which became a THQ video game which started as a comic book...."

read the full post on argn.com

Great Post Series by Mark Harris on Managing THE LOST CHILDREN Storyworld with WordPress: Part 1

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Excerpt from Mark Harris' series on WorkBook Project:

"Organizing Our Data

The first thing I need to say is I am no expert on Transmedia or ARGs or anything like that. There are many other people who are. So this post is not meant as me preaching The Truth down from on high. This post is meant as an exploration of what I am working on now, in the hopes that it sparks some others’ imaginations. In the interest of us all learning, I’m simply sharing the process we’re going through right now.

The second thing I need to say is that this is not a tutorial, and not something that just anyone can do. I’m actually writing some software for this, and the things I’m talking about here will require more custom software to deliver to users. Eventually, if this works, I will likely write a set of WP plugins to simplify this process and make it something anyone can use. But for now, I believe that ideas are what count, and I think many people will be able to understand the ideas here and maybe contribute some of their own.

This is sort of an experiment in stretching WordPress beyond it’s original purpose. The goal here is to see if we can use WordPress as a place to maintain our entire storyworld, and then feed that storyworld out to our various platforms; Tweets, Text Messages, Phone Calls, Location-based content, blogs, etc. The benefit here is that all of our data is in one place, it can be queried, analyzed, related, tagged with metadata, etc. Another benefit is that we are using a good deal of free tools...."

Toolkit | 5 Lessons About Transmedia from The IFP/Power To The Pixel Cross-Media Forum - indieWIRE

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Having caught most of the day via the live stream, grazie to indiewire for summarizing key points of a day of great talks:

Transmedia Is Not Just Applicable to Entertainment

The Concept Isn’t Entirely New

The Living Room Has Evolved

Experimentation Is Essential

Transmedia Won’t Kill The Movie

Will Renny Reports on: Across Transmedia from Power to the Pixel: The Cross Media Forum. Oct. 2010 (still worth the read!)

One of the really fascinating keynote presentations of the day for me was Michel Reilhac’s The Game-ification of Life. Michel, who is currently Executive Director of ARTE France Cinema and Director of Film Acquisitions for ARTE France, has been involved in producing, directing and writing films since 1998. His talk wasn’t about film making though. Michel instead spoke about how games and the notion of ‘play’ have recently emerged as models to incentivise engagement, learning and social change.

Michel posited the idea that games have contaminated reality, now more so than ever. Contamination sounds a little OCD, but I think the premise of infiltration works. As if gaming is leeching into the system, below the radar. Michel went further to suggest that the ‘As if’ scenario within a fantasy game structure, is now becoming an ‘As is’ scenario in reality. By this I think he meant that the mechanisms of gaming are being folded into the real; the lived, physical world. A game structure can now be used to wrap around other things in order to make them more attractive as well become an integral form of interoperability – between ourselves and the world around us, as well as with the people we engage with.

Michel maintained that the reason games are beginning to proliferate into our daily lives is down to two factors: Social networks and geo-localisation. Both of these factors you should note are down to technology making it possible for us to connect on the move, and across multiple types of networks. So it’s about our improving ability to connect, that and the fact that games are more fun, as Michel says, than reality. Once connected, we can now have ‘fun’. We can now play.

The concept of play really resonated with me as something that is not only integral to how we learn (Michel made this point too) but also something that needs to be comprehended when considering what makes transmedia storytelling different to more traditional one to one or one to many forms of storytelling.

Read the full post on jawbone.tv - excellent article!

Storytelling Via the Transmedia Lens

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Excerpt:

"...Super Session "Transmedia: Telling the Story Through Narrative Content, Games and Real-World Adventures."

"TV is no longer the only canvas," said Jeff Gomez, president and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment. "You can now dovetail and provide access across new media channels."

For example, producers of the program "Ghost Whisperer," which aired on CBS, use a transmedia model to drive eyeballs from one medium to another, said Kim Moses, executive producer of Sander/Moses Productions. "Ghost Whisperer" leverages different platforms — mobile phones, the Internet and social outreach — to keep viewers engaged.

"I'm always asking myself, 'What would a fan want?'" said Danny Bilson, executive vice president of Core Games. Fans of the video game "Homefront" are able to experience the game in widely varying ways: through a recently published novel written from the perspective of a journalist, YouTube video clips that advance the game's plot and an interactive online map with video clips shot by a reporter on the run.

It's that fan base that transmedia experts say is the most important element to consider when attempting to branch out into different media.

For hard-core fans of the comic "The Walking Dead," for example, it was imperative to consider the attachment and knowledge the fan base had with the original comic when attempting to re-create it on the small screen.

"These fans have an enormous connection to the material and they're terrified [the new program] will no longer be true to the underlying material," said Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer of the show, which airs on AMC.

In response, the producers worked closely with the comic's creator, put up a website to show the evolution of the television program and made adaptations to the program after seeing viewers' responses, both positive and negative...."

'Chopper' Goes From Comic-Con Indie to Sponsored Transmedia Web Series

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By Barc Hustvedt:

"There are, as it turns out, other reasons to make the annual geek pilgrimage to San Diego Comic-Con every summer besides convincing your friends to dress up with you in authentic Battlestar costumes. Producer J.C. Christofilis spent some time perusing the indie comics corner of the sprawling convention floor, finding comic artist Martin Shapiro and his graphic novel Chopper.

Months later, a teaser trailer for the upcoming Chopper web series is now out (below), and even a clothing line has come on as lead sponsor. To be sure, the actual series hasn’t been shot yet, but the recent addition of horror actor Tyler Mane (Michael Myers from Rob Zombie’s Halloween films) is helping with the early buzz. Mane stars as the titular ‘Chopper’ character, a headless horseman killer—who’s horse is a Harley—seeking vengeance on “mortal sinners.” This means killing and collecting his victims heads of course.

In getting this project off the ground, Christofilis pitched the concept to Southern Cal-based Sullen Clothing, an edgy action sports brand, in hopes of securing enough capital to shoot the first season. Sullen was looking to grow its presence amongst the horror-loving young male demo that Chopper is targeting. “We pride ourselves on being an innovative, art-driven company,” said Sullen co-founder Jeremy Hanna, “and J.C. laid out a clear vision of how Chopper’s creative execution will enable Sullen to authentically reinforce our edgy brand values with our existing fans, while driving awareness of our products with a new consumer base as well....”

Read the interview with J.C. Christofilis on tubefilter.tv:

http://news.tubefilter.tv/2011/02/18/chopper-goes-from-comic-con-indie-to-spo...

Wow! Tribeca Film Festival makes Video Game from Rockstar 'L.A. Noire's' an Official Selection - The Hollywood Reporter

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Houser also discusses the convergence of Hollywood and video games, and why we haven’t seen a "Grand Theft Auto" movie yet.

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival has broken with tradition and included the first video game to be honored as an Official Selection. Game publisher Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire, which was developed by Team Bondi, allows players to enter the violent world of 1947 Los Angeles as an LAPD detective fighting against the criminal underbelly that ruled the streets during Hollywood’s Golden Age.... "

From the interview with Dan Houser cont.

"...Another hot topic these days is transmedia -- what are your thoughts on the role video games play today in launching new properties that span all sorts of entertainment?

No one has done it very successfully yet. Virtually all movies made from games are awful, while many games made from movies are also pretty horrible. This will change, but with an ever more discerning audience, the goals of taking something from film-to-games or game-to-film have to be more than financial. If you feel the property has something about it that is universal or could work in another medium, and it is not simply about making easy money, then that is something worthwhile. Too often, however, the aim appears to be to cash-in on the success of a particular game, book, pop singer, website, etc., and that usually produces mediocre results.

Why haven’t we seen a movie based on any of Rockstar Games’ blockbuster franchises?

We have explored a lot of movie deals, but we have just chosen not to make a movie. We love movies, but we also love games and that is what we remain focused on. If we were to attempt to make a movie, we would like to make it ourselves, or at least work in collaboration with the best talent, so at least if it is bad, we can know we failed on our own terms. But doing that takes time, and making games properly takes a lot of time. So, we may make movies one day, with the right property and the right partnership, but we have not found the time to do that yet.

Would something like LA Noire work on the big screen today?

Well, we spent a long time being told Westerns were dead, then we made Red Dead Redemption, which along with True Grit showed that well-made classic Westerns have life left in them in any medium. The same could be said of classic Noir - a great film could be successful now, just as Chinatown and LA Confidential were long after the 1940s."

Q&A with Frank Rose on ‘The Art of Immersion’ | Interview on JWT Intelligence #transmedia

A contributing editor at Wired, Frank Rose is the author of a new book, The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories. Rose explores how the Internet is transforming storytelling and talks to creative minds who are “rethinking the ancient art of narrative for a two-way world.” He calls their efforts “deep media,” defined as “stories that are not just entertaining but immersive, that take you deeper than an hour-long TV drama or a two-hour movie or a 30-second spot will permit.” Most “deep media” content could also be termed transmedia, a topic we explore in a new trend report, “Transmedia Rising.” Attendees of SXSW Interactive can catch Rose on two panels; he’s also participating in the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit in London later this month.

What’s your elevator pitch for this book?

Essentially, that the influence of the Internet is changing stories—by which I mean movies, television shows, games, advertisements, any number of ways that stories can be told. It’s changing them in a way that is making them immersive above all, but also non-linear, because the Web itself is non-linear. That’s making it somewhat game-like and certainly very participatory. In other words, no more passive viewing. It means taking a much more active role.

And what’s driving all this is the emergence of a type of media that’s participatory, that is the opposite of the mass media we’ve known for pretty much all of the 20th century. What you’ve seen in the past 10 years or so is the emergence of social media, of any number of other things online that’s, first off, giving pretty much everybody a voice that wants it and is at the same time influencing how stories are told on television and in other media.

Read Marian Berelowitz' full interview with Frank Rose on jwtintelligence.com