Henry Jenkins: Announcing Transmedia, Hollywood 2: Visual Culture and Design Conference

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Check Henry Jenkins' blog for full deets on the conference:

TRANSMEDIA, HOLLYWOOD 2:
Visual Culture and Design

A UCLA/USC/Industry Symposium
Co-sponsored by
UCLA Producers Program,
UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television
and
USC School of Cinematic Arts

Friday, April 8, 2011
James Bridges Theater, UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television
9:45 AM - 7 PM

Event Co-Directors:
Denise Mann, Associate Professor, Producers Program, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

Henry Jenkins, Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts, USC Annenberg School of Communication

Grazie Henry Jenkins!: "Deep Media," Transmedia, What's the Difference?: An Interview with Frank Rose (Part One)

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Excerpt from the Jan. 26, 2011 interview:

HJ: "You write in the book about what you call "deep media." What do you see as the core characteristics of deep media? How do you see your concept relating to others being deployed right now such as transmedia or crossmedia?

FR: To me it's mainly a question of emphasis. Are we focusing on the process or the goal? Transmedia, or crossmedia, puts the emphasis on a new process of storytelling: How do you tell a story across a variety of different media? Deep media puts the focus on the goal: To enable members of the audience (for want of a better term) to delve into a story at any level of depth they like, to immerse themselves in it. Not that this was fully thought out when I started--the term was suggested by a friend in late 2008 as a name for my blog, and when I looked it up online I saw that it had been used by people like Nigel Hollis, the chief analyst at Millward Brown, so I adopted it.
That said, I think the terms are more or less interchangeable. I certainly subscribe to the seven core concepts of transmedia as you've laid them out. I also think we're at an incredibly transitional point in our culture, and terms like "deep media" and "transmedia" are needed to describe a still-evolving way of telling stories. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if both terms disappeared in 15-20 years as this form of storytelling becomes ubiquitous and ultimately taken for granted...."

Read the full interview on Henry Jenkins' blog:

http://henryjenkins.org/2011/01/deep_media_transmedia_whats_th.html

A Peek Behind Previously Closed Doors with Power to the Pixel | ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network

Unless you’ve presented a slide deck to potential production partners and financiers, the process of pitching a transmedia property probably seems like a foreign concept. Since 2007, Power to the Pixel’s Cross-Media Forum has sought to make this process more transparent. The centerpiece of the conference was The Pixel Pitch, where nine transmedia projects were pitched in an open forum before a jury of decision-makers, commissioners, and industry executives with a £6,000 prize on the line.

Michel Reilhac, the Executive Director of ARTE France Cinéma, gave the first of two keynotes kicking off Power to the Pixel’s Cross-Media Forum on October 12, discussing The Game-ification of Life. In his keynote, Reilhac recognized that the ubiquity of gaming culture is a reality that cannot be ignored in storytelling and experience design.

Reilhac traces the gamification of life through cash incentive, loyalty, and status reward systems. He notes that in gaming culture, the status / bragging mechanic is the most powerful tool for interaction, citing the prestige of having a platinum airline mileage card, earning Foursquare badges, and gaining social equity through Twitter followers as examples. Just as players turn to games to satisfy different motivations, transmedia participants seek different methods of interacting with stories. Specifically addressing alternate reality games, Reihlac celebrates the genre’s ability to empower players, not through an avatar, but as themselves. Alternate reality games engender trust that extends beyond the game and into the real world.

The second keynote was delivered by Campfire Media’s Mike Monello with the alliterative title Babies, Buns and Buzzers, a historical look at the last century of experiential entertainment told through the framework of Coney Island, and running through an ARGFest-spawned obsession with tiki bars (along with a brief mention of Campfire’s work, including the multi-platform viral campaign leading up to author Andrea Cremer’s Nightshade).

Monello explains that in his mind, “transmedia is not just a buzzword. It’s…the form of story that’s closest to how we perceive the world.” He hearkens back to early examples of experience design with George Tilyou’s death-trap experience design at Coney Island, where lines would be longer the day after a ride killed somebody. Monello noted that “Blowhole Theater” viewing platforms were key factors of the experience, where men were assaulted with electric prods and women were pushed over blowholes for the edification of an excited audience. Reiterating Tilyou’s philosophy, Monello explained that “customers would pay for the privilege of entertaining other customers, and that people liked seeing shows, but they liked seeing other people more.” Monello continued discussing elements of design through other Coney Island fixtures: baby incubators that helped make the issue of premature birth tangible; Nathan’s hot dog stand’s launch fostering self-discovery; and culminating in The Tingler, a horror film wired with buzzers.

Read full post on argn.com

This looks like Transmedia Fun! Canadian Comic Book Combines Multiple Tech Platforms

Source: http://whatsyourtech.ca/2010/10/09/canadian-comic-book-combines-multiple-tech...

by Lee Rickwood on October 9, 201

In the city that never sleeps, it may seem like overkill.

But for the rest of the planet, today is a wake-up call from the digital future.

It’s the first launch of its kind, as Canadians unveil Are You Awake at Comic Con in New York City this weekend.

Are You Awake is going to slap you across the face and open your eyes wide to transmedia, where digital technology and interactive storytelling get mashed up into something totally new and totally cool.

AYA is a glamour-noir detective thriller with a multimedia twist, incorporating live action webisodes, a graphic novel, motion comics, original MP3s and even a new fashion line.

are you awake still image

 

Live Actions in Transmedia Project

But the mystery and its back-story really come to life through smartphone applications, social media feeds and geo-locating tools.

Some 50,000 fans are expected at Comic Con, and they will get a 32-page mixed reality comic book that contains cleverly embedded clues. Solving the mystery means going online and using digital applications developed by Zeroes2Heroes Media out in Vancouver, B.C.

The story – really a cross-continent search for a mysterious man who holds the key to a series of disturbing dreams with real-world repercussions for the romantically involved lead characters – uses both surrealistic and supernatural elements, and the comic itself features sexy, stylish artwork by DC and Marvel Comics legend Richard Pace.

Enjoy the comic, for sure, but make sure you have a smartphone handy to get even more from the page it’s printed on.

For example, iPhone users can download an Are You Awake app that unlocks clues about the deepening mystery. Then, by pointing the camera lens at individual comic panels in the book, new images and sounds are played on screen.

BlackBerries can be used to get similar story material, too, by pointing the device at QR (quick response) codes, square little black and white graphic icons that interactively trigger content delivery. 

The more clues someone gathers about the mystery, the deeper they can go into the story and the social network of digital properties that support it.

quick response codes shown in comic book

 

QR Codes Bring Quick Response When Scanned by Smartphone

Beyond New York Comic Con, fans can continue following the story and its characters through an extended alternate reality game on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and other social media channels.

“There’s a constellation of digital properties supporting and advancing the storyline,” explains Matt Toner, president of Zeroes 2 Heroes Media. “Some are just Twitter feeds, some are more elaborate. They are all little explosions, little pushes to get people moving, things they can grow into as they follow the story and learn more about the characters in it.”

And there is an online help centre for people who get stuck in the game, as people will, because audience involvement and direct engagement in the story is the name of the transmedia game.

The term itself was coined a few years ago by media instructor and commentator Henry Jenkins to describe the interactive, audience driven elements of storytelling that digital media platforms and online networking make possible.

More than just technology, transmedia takes guts and confidence for a story developer to let go.

Are You Awake is the creation of Keith Turner, a very successful Canadian investment banker turned author, songwriter and radio host. Keith is the Executive Producer, too, but he’s willing to let his baby walk on its own, as any transmedia producer must, so that the plot or the characters can be steered and influenced by the audience.

It often means that the original story must be revised or revamped based on new input and interaction.

Detail from Comic Book Cover Art

 

Cover Artwork Detail from Are You Awake Comic Book

That’s cool, says Turner, who wants to engage fans “Not only with great entertainment, but also by giving them an active role in future story and media development.”

He gives kudos to the crew at Zeros 2 Heroes, and how they’ve developed a multi-platform audience experience that goes to a whole new level through the creative use of social media, mobile apps and unique concepts like a mixed reality comic. 

As Matt puts it, despite the highly technical nature of a multi-platform transmedia project like this, “Really, we are tech agnostic. We don’t care what tech solution is used, as long as it accomplishes the goals.”

From Foursquare to 1-800 numbers, from live actors to computer animation, from PCs to cellphones, Are You Awake is making use of as many platforms as possible.

And it may just find its way to TV if things go according to plan.

This decidedly ‘non-Hollywood’ production will in fact feature a “who’s who” of genre entertainment stars on its website, and in live action sequences, including  Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary, Stargate: Atlantis), Alana Husband (Intelligence, The L Word), Jessica Harmon (Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy) and Michael Eklund (Caprica, Shattered) . 

The series’ online trailer is also being released this weekend, at www.areyouawake.tv

 * * *  

So, are you awake?

What’s your tech, and how will you use it to solve this mystery?

 

Best Transmedia 'discrete: subtle: organic' YES!: Post from Storycentral Digital on 'Transmedia Transmafia? hype & hyperbole or buzz and b******t'

Transmedia Transmafia? hype & hyperbole or buzz and b******t

19 09 2010

There seems so be some confusion on Twitter lately about transmedia, what it actually IS and WHY it’s so important and the RT’s are coming thick and fast…

andresfox said, “@storycentral who cares about #transmedia an convergence culture, it is just a trend subject?

helionetto asked “Transmedia Storytelling? WTF?”

and fakebaldur stated, “I hate the word ‘transmedia‘. It’s an overblown, pretentious and self-indulgent buzzword. It’s hypertext, damn it. Just like everything else” and followed up with the only difference between ‘transmedia‘ and ‘hypertext’ is in the amount of hyperbole, gas and hot air being emitted”.

And they all have a valid point.

Transmedia is in danger of becoming a buzz word (if it isn’t already).   And never mind about the PGA accrediting the term ‘transmedia‘ – I’ve checked 3 online dictionaries to find that the word isn’t even acknowledged by the English language yet!

So, going back to our Twitterers, they have a point.  What IS transmedia?

A noun? A name of something?

transmedia /tra:ns, -nz  mi:dia (noun) (commonly used as a mass noun with a singular verb)

or is it more of a verb? An experience, something you ‘do’?

transmedia /tra:ns, -nz  mi:dia (verb)

Either way, it’s in danger of becoming a victim of its own success because of the buzz.  In the same way that anything that is overly hyped without amy commercial evidence of success, transmedia is being talked about a lot, but showcased very little in the public/commercial domain.

The amount of ‘transmedia producers’ that are popping up all over web 2.0 on a daily basis astound me!  I’ve been researching Transmedia Storytelling for nearly 2 years now for my PhD and still wouldn’t really consider myself a fully fledged ‘producer’ – doesn’t that come with experience over time?   I was recently invited to be a guest at Seize The Media’s Transmedia NEXT 3-day workshop there were delegates already working on transmedia projects and yet, it seems the hype, the analysis and the buzz are still bigger than the sum of it’s parts.

I feel the confusion is possibly because of the lack of commercial transmedia experiences.  Go to your local pub, wine bar, coffee shop or school gates and ask who knows about The Art of the Heist, The Truth About Marika or Head Trauma.  Check out who’s aware of Cathy’s Book or Level 26.

I can see the blank expresssions already.

That’s my point.

The fabulous transmedia projects are still relatively ‘niche’ – still firmly rooted in ARGs and are so subtley rolled out, so fabulously supported by a strong architecture of strategy and knowledge of audience behaviours, that they aren’t trumpeted about as ‘The Next Transmedia Project’.

They are discrete.

Subtle.

Organic.

I am pointed toward ‘new’ transmedia experiences on a weekly basis, often accompanied with a PDF or some kind of instructions offering ‘how to enjoy this transmedia experience. Click here to find out HOW’.  Isn’t that like taking years to build a maze, only to supply a map?

One of the huge challenges of scripting and storybibling great transmedia lies in the triggers that move audience from platform to platform seamlessly.  There’s heaps of analysis out there looking at audience behaviors, UX, UI, platforms, primary platforms and narratives and how they all mix into the pot of creating great transmedia.  The fact is that a transmedia experience will naturally move audience, progressing them across platforms – with relevance and almost subconsciously.

The viewers/participants who entered The Art of the Heist by seeing the CCTV ‘footage’ of the Audi being stolen naturally weren’t surprised to see it reported in newspapers, featuring in car magazines.  ‘Players’ who first came across the blog site of characters in The Art of the Heist were drawn to engage with the experience through blog links and might have came across the CCTV footage later.  The point is, at no stage was a ‘map’ supplied.  At no time was the magic blitzed by heralding this as a transmedia experience.

The difficulty, the challenge, the toughest part of scripting great, successful transmedia IS the moving of audience from platform to platform without them knowing and BECAUSE THEY WANT TO. If you’re going to cut into manhours, resources and budget to create a great transmedia experience it should stand on it’s own BECAUSE IT CAN and needs no maps or promotion as a ‘transmedia’ experience.

That just throws cold water all over it.

So, in an attempt to reply to

andresfox who said, “@storycentral who cares about #transmedia an convergence culture, it is just a trend subject? I replied, “nobody necessarily. Depends on franchise, but can expand audience reach, spreadibility & engagement. Tell me more!…”

fakebaldur who stated, “I hate the word ‘transmedia‘. It’s an overblown, pretentious and self-indulgent buzzword. It’s hypertext, damn it. Just like everything else” and followed up with the only difference between ‘transmedia‘ and ‘hypertext’ is in the amount of hyperbole, gas and hot air being emitted”, I suggested, “re #transmedia – lots of hot air, but you gotta scratch the surface to see the value. Not just buzz – ace when done right!”

and I think for helionetto who asked “Transmedia Storytelling? WTF?”  I’ll point in the direction of the fab transmedia examples I’ve just mentioned.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

This is such a good post from Christy Dena - I am entirely with you on this! Going Indie for Meaningfulness and Money

For me, what is needed to promote story in transmedia projects are practitioners who have something to say in this world. Many transmedia projects are mere engines for plots and characters that aren’t meaningful. Transmedia needs more practitioners to use the form to express highly personal or different visions of the world.

Read the full text:

http://www.igda.org/newsletter/?p=352

Piece adds new elements to definition - don't agree with all myself: California Chronicle | TRANSMEDIA: Starring role

Transmedia is about more than just running content across multiple platforms; it involves engaging an audience in a story wherever they happen to be coming to it from

With half a million game downloads attracting 4,000 dedicated players in 165 countries and widespread media attention, Conspiracy For Good far exceeded the targets of its sponsor Nokia. Devised to introduce Nokia's service platform Ovi, it's an audience participatory entertainment unfolding online across interactive theatre, live event and mobile app.

"With the explosion of social media, the way brands interact with an audience has increased in vitality," says Tero Ojanpera, Nokia's executive VP of services and mobile solutions. "Conspiracy For Good is a unique attempt to enhance a story with technology. While the direction in terms of engaging people through interactivity is clear, exploration of this format is very new."

Much of the media hoopla surrounded the project's use of 'transmedia', a technique hailed in some quarters as a game-changer for the way people interact with stories and brands. Yet it's more evolutionary than the hype suggests, having been around for a decade in various guises.

Indeed, the writer of Conspiracy For Good, Heroes creator Tim Kring, says transmedia is a "fancy word for a simple concept: telling stories across multiple platforms". Ojanpera admits transmedia wasn't in Nokia's vocabulary when it conceived the project over two years ago.

Recognising transmedia

The term was first floated in the early-1990s to represent the idea that narrative can flow from one media platform to the next. It was resurrected in 2006 by MIT professor Henry Jenkins, whose work Convergence Culture lent the movement a conceptual template appropriated by everyone working in the field since.

One of those was Jeff Gomez, co-founder of New York's Starlight Runner Entertainment, who lobbied the Producers Guild of America (PGA) to sanction an official production credit. "In Hollywood, everything is in the credit," he says. "I became frustrated that what I was doing was being confused with game design or cross platform. Transmedia isn't about porting the same content across multiple media, but doing so in such a way that each platform contributes a new and unique aspect to the story." He got his wish in April this year when Transmedia Producer was ratified by the PGA as 'the person responsible for shepherding narrative content across at least three different media platforms'.

The term has since become a marketing buzzword, although its definition remains elusive. "Some people think of transmedia storytelling as a giant jigsaw, where the pieces exist on different platforms," says Simon Meek, producer at Tern TV, which produced transmedia-style project The Beauty of Maps. "As the user consumes these isolated chunks, they combine to create a bigger story."

Transmedia shares many characteristics with projects previously known as cross-platform. Channel 4 Education commissioned careers advice project The Insiders in 2008, which featured content entry points across multiple destinations, combining social media, bespoke sites, iTunes and on-air trails and even outdoors. James Kirkham, MD of Holler, which produced the project with TwentyTwenty Television, says, "We called it a cross-media platform then, but now a similarly exploded narrative would be classed transmedia."

While cross-platform indicates a product is spread across platforms, it doesn't convey the necessity to tell a narrative in the way that transmedia is understood to. Matt Locke, Channel 4's acting head of cross-platform, says, "Story worlds have been extended onto different platforms way back to Star Wars, when it was mostly seen as marketing and merchandise. Now the web allows the audience to immediately give their thoughts to the writers and producers so that they're a participant in the story's creation. Transmedia isn't about platforms but a decision by the creative team that bakes engagement into the project's structure at inception."

Gomez agrees. "Transmedia invites a mass audience to express themselves directly to the storyteller, who's obliged to respond. That dialogue is unique in mass media."

Lost is a prime example of a linear TV programme created with a complementary online narrative that feeds characters and subplots back into the show. Similar examples include Heroes, Misfits, Skins and upcoming web drama Hollyoaks Freshers, described by Channel 4 cross-platform commissioner of entertainment, drama and comedy Jody Smith as "a classic transmedia commission".

"We're putting characters onto Facebook so you can keep up to date between episodes via video blogs and status reports," she says. "Transmedia gives the story depth and keeps it alive long after the basic TV content has aired."

Exponents suggest audiences can access transmedia stories via any of the platforms on which it's carried, yet TV remains the primary medium. Perhaps this is because in Jenkins' theory few consumers will be able to dedicate the time required to get the whole picture.

"We don't want to turn any project into a wild goose chase and force people to consume everything," says Smith. "We don't want major plot points online or in live events where only a few thousand will see them."

Brand involvement

It's no coincidence that transmedia's best examples are from TV (Heroes), cinema (Head Trauma) and gaming (Electronic Arts' Dead Space), where the brand is itself the story. But that doesn't preclude brands getting involved as part of the story - series one of Misfits featured Nokia sponsorship, with producer Clerkenwell Films creating a mobile app that linked the drama to a Nokia- sponsored event - or devising its own narrative.

"Whereas branded entertainment or product placement drive awareness by tacking the brand onto something else, transmedia builds brand mythology," stresses Gomez. The attraction of transmedia to brands is that it encourages participation and the extension of the brand's narrative by its target audience. At the same time, this poses a risk since the narrative is then hard to control.

Gomez even points to the Iranian unrest last June as an example of transmedia erupting online then going global via social networks and transcending any one individual or group control. "This exhibited a vitally important aspect of transmedia in that there was no central person or brand behind this spontaneous outburst," he says. "This is transmedia taken to its logical conclusion."

Jenkins describes this as 'collective intelligence', where a community carries much more than any individual within it. So a vital aspect for brands building transmedia campaigns is to incorporate social benefit as a motivation to participate. Nokia achieved this in Conspiracy For Good, working with charities to equip five libraries in Africa.

"We advise that the brand message needs to have an aspirational core," says Gomez. "Content will have a certain invulnerability to negative feedback if its themes are seen to mean well or contribute something."

According to Kirkham, brands have an opportunity to shift from simple intrusive display advertising towards genuinely compelling experiences. "The smarter brands will be able to immerse themselves in a transmedia project and in turn attract and immerse the audience in their brand ethos, above all making people feel something."

Cross-over medium

The multiplicity of devices and near-instantaneous broadband connections have helped evolve cross-platform projects into transmedia ones. But smartphone growth has arguably been the biggest catalyst for its take-off.

"Mobile often provides the glue for many campaign elements," says Tom Thorne, MD of multi-channel agency Candyspace Media. "The crux to getting transmedia right is in the interface between technology and narrative."

It's no coincidence that Nokia has made the biggest impact in this space. "It's a natural fit for technology partners and mobile apps provide a means of getting your product involved in the story," says Ann Wixley, creative director of media agency MEC. "A basic trait of transmedia is to blur reality and fiction, and since you take a mobile with you everywhere, it can be used to weave all manner of real locations, objects or events into the narrative."

Is transmedia truly transformative of the way brands and content producers engage with audiences, or is it just dressing familiar concepts in new clothes? Opinion varies.

Wixley believes it to be "jargon", and even Kring admits it's a "catch-all phrase" for trying to create narrative across multiple platforms, "something born from the necessity of trying to reach people online".

Channel 4's Locke also downplays its influence. "Eventually we'll see persistent story worlds created as a matter of course, rather than producing a TV show which is aired once and forgotten about. What will define its potential is whether it can generate new revenue streams for broadcasters to invest in content."

Having fought for Hollywood recognition of the intellectual property he's creating, Gomez has the most forthright view. "Transmedia development, production and implementation is a paradigm shift," he asserts. "There's a generation of people who are the most self-expressed. They're already moving rapidly and seamlessly from one platform to the next; it's almost instinctual. The problem is that their content isn't doing that right now."

What is transmedia?

* A fusion of real life and fiction

* Tells bespoke parts of the same story on multiple platforms and through live events

* Access to the story can be from any platform at any time

* Needs to have an element of social benefit

* Closes the feedback loop between storyteller/brand and audience

* A community creates and extends the story beyond the control of a single creator

Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

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