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!

New Case Study: French transmedia first is a paranormal affair « The Pixel Report

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Just up on the Pixel Report!

"One of the first native transmedia experiences in France, backed by Orange, followed a videoblogger’s encounters with the supernatural

By Rosie Lavan, January 26, 2011

PROJECT TITLE: FAITS DIVERS PARANORMAUX (Supernatural Oddities)

SHORT STORY SYNOPSIS: Multi-platform immersive project which took a humorous look at the paranormal. Spurred on by the mysterious disappearance of his brother Fred, JC records his interest in the paranormal on his videoblog. A TV series follows the attempts of JC, his wife Muriel, and mother-in-law Simone to make sense of supernatural occurrences, while users interacted and contributed to the fiction online, with the project culminating in an ARG, Finding Fred...."

Read the full report

http://thepixelreport.org/2011/01/26/fdp/

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

Great Summary from Tom Sawyer of Power to the Pixel's tips for cross-media entertainment / pervasive game creation « The Tom Sawyer Effect

We’ve already shared some of the best case-studies Power to the Pixel cross-media conference as part of the London Film Festival, here is the promised round up of the insights and advice that were given on the night.We’ll add in our own thoughts following another pervasive Winterwell event last weekend soon!

Liz Rosenthal – CEO of Power to the Pixel

The way that consumers are consuming entertainment is changing… stories are being told, delivered, and shared across different platforms but also the viewer is being given different degrees and types of influence on the story. there are more ways to tell a story than ever before, but there are many more ways to receive one. New audiences are accessing and switching between different platforms – but most broadcasters are still looking for delivery on just one channel. It’s time to change that…

Michel Reihlac - Executive Director at Arte France Cinema

  • Play is circular – you can start again at any point;
  • play is open – you can become something or someone different
  • play is freedom – you don’t have to do anything that is asked of you
  • The most powerful tool to get people interfacing with a story is status. Cash or material rewards are ineffective
  • There are four types of players – achievers (use fair play to win); socialisers (are not playing to win, but to be playful); explorers (like to experience the game for its own worth) and killers (don’t just want to win, but want everyone else to lose)

What defines a game? it needs to be

  • fictitious (different to real life somehow)
  • separate (limited and contained within its own world)
  • regulated (by rules. obviously)
  • unpreddictable (with different outcomes possible)
  • fun (possible in many different ways)
  • free to join or leave (opt-in)
  • non-productive (not commercially based)

Mike Monello – Co-creator of the Blair Witch Project and founder of Campfire

Gave us an overview of designing for communal experiences

  • Make it tangible
  • Foster a sense of discovery
  • Make it personal
  • Build a world larger than your characters

From what he was sayin he seemed to have a sixth rule which he didn’t list:

  • To allow the players room to add to the experiences themselves (there, I just added that!)

Maureen Mchugh. Veteran cross-media writer and leader of – Nomime media

We are a young and naive artform. We copy older artforms – videogames, and – *even older* – film.

As a result we dont have our own conventions yet. we rely on conventions from these older platforms in order to make people comfortable and not be overwhelmed by the noise from multiple platforms.

Maureen said a lot more, but I was too wrapped up in it to make so many notes.

Lance Weiler – writer, director and one of the best known game-makers in the business

  • Story gameplay and community come together to create a social entertainment environment.
  • Stories have been controlled for a long time by the few.
  • the player wants to put their finger on the pond and watch the ripple
  • Take time to evaluate the story
  • Ask hard questions – why should anyone care about what you’re doing?
  • Let go of a single point of view
  • consider how to show not tell
  • make it easy for the audience to become collaborators
  • dont let the world get in the way of the story