Your mom is Transmedia (updated) - 4D Fiction. (img based on Chaotic Fiction diagram by Sean Stacey) (followup articles, links, and commentaries appended) Can someone tell me what on earth “transmedia” means these days? As an ARG enthusiast, traditionalist, and one who’s previously done some developing behind the scenes, I’m here adding my voice to the antitransmedia chorus. Back in “the day” (mere years ago), there were these things called “Alternate Reality Games”. Sometimes they’d tie in to a movie, and we ended up choosing to see it; or a video game, and we ended up choosing to play it. Then word got out. As Jeff Watson stated recently in an article reflecting on ARGs and the issue of accurately labeling the entertainment genre: The boundaries between gameplay and storytelling, single-platform and multi-platform, real and virtual, author and audience, are all disappearing as we speak. But soon these things really started to go mainstream… discovered by the kind of people who wanted to ‘embrace and extend’, as it were.
And He-Man! Meanland — Some Things I’ve Learned from Transmedia Worldbuilding · Meanjin. If you’re playing transmedia bingo, ‘worldbuilding’ scores 10 points and one of those little jelly desserts from the kitchen. It is a term used by just about every transmedia evangelist, and me in the early days. Indeed, it seems a rite of passage for transmedia practitioners and commentators alike. There is a reason for this: it is a helpful metaphor for understanding and communicating that a transmedia project involves many stories and media — there is a whole ecology operating. Of course, ‘worldbuilding’ has been around longer than transmedia, and is employed in many different ways.
Some invoke ‘worldbuilding’ to describe the use of multiple media forms, especially ‘immersive’ ones like ‘virtual reality’. Buzzwords ahoy! But what this article focuses on is worldbuilding for writers and designers at the development stage, and especially two types of worldbuilding in transmedia: expandability and believability. — Setting & Character Obviously your setting is quite important. Four criteria for evaluating IP and transmedia potential « Simon Staffans // Transmedia Development. A quick post on one thing I’ve been looking into lately; with all the rage around multiplatform storytelling, transmedia storytelling etc, many of the examples and projects up right now are ”fresh” transmedia projects, fairly recently developed and released.
At the same time, there are countless great narratives already in existence that could work wonderfully if looked at from a transmedia angle. A lot of these will be on display in Cannes the coming days during MIP, but often not even the IP owners will have realized the transmedia potential inherited in their property. Here are four points that matter when it comes to evaluating a TV IP and its transmedia potential: Story There’s no contest here, at least not for me.
Story is everything when it comes to transmedia. Context I’ve heard several people arguing that in today’s world, context beats content hands down. Audience Financial / business models Like this: Like Loading... At Home In Fantasy's Nerd-Built Worlds. iStockphoto.com Once, in an age long past, "epic" was a dirty word. Way back when I was a young nerd growing up in the Midwest in the 1980s — long before I became a professional writer — histories of magic rings and chronicles of ancient evils were not exactly mainstream fare. Indeed, to publicize one's knowledge of Elvish sword-names and Orcish myth was to contract a kind of voluntary leprosy. But it would seem that age has passed. In recent years, American culture has fallen in love with epic fantasy. Film versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books have grossed more than $3 billion. What is it that draws millions of readers and viewers to these works?
A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend an informal lecture/pep talk for up-and-coming fantasy writers by the man Time called "the American Tolkien," the now-world-famous Martin. Hide captionSaladin Ahmed's debut novel is Throne of the Crescent Moon. Al Bodgan Saladin Ahmed's debut novel is Throne of the Crescent Moon. With interactive elements, digital documentaries are changing the way we tell and consume stories. Jaime Woo | Wednesday, January 09, 2013 Highrise Producer, Gerry Flahive and Director, Katerina Cizek. - Voula Monoholias Documentaries really can change the world.
Films like An Inconvenient Truth,Super Size Me, March of the Penguins, Corporation and Cove have stirred and influenced audiences about important, timely topics. While the stories that drive documentaries often grab the spotlight, there's an interesting technological shift happening, too: they're becoming interactive. Some of the most innovative and experimental work with documentaries is happening right here in Toronto's backyard thanks to the National Film Board. For nearly a decade, the NFB has been incorporating new technologies to revolutionize how we consume media. "There is no business model for this yet and that's where a public agency like the film board can take risks," Highrise producer Gerry Flahive says.
The shift to interactive makes sense. Interactive documentary is still a young form. Steve Peters » Blog Archive » What the hell *is* Transmedia? Well, much like herpes, this subject just won’t go away for me. :) To further highlight the problem with the term “transmedia” and the increasing chasm between storytellers and franchisers/marketers, I am going to start collecting the amazing amount of sometimes contradictory definitions, which should nicely illustrate the problem.
I’ll add to this list as I find stuff, and please, link me to more definitions in the comments section and I’ll edit them in! :) Oh, and I’ve saved my definition until last… (Note: all emphases mine) First, we start with Henry Jenkins: Stories that unfold across multiple media platforms, with each medium making distinctive contributions to our understanding of the world, a more integrated approach to franchise development than models based on urtexts and ancillary products.
From Wikipedia: Transmedia storytelling is a technique of telling stories across multiple platforms and formats, recognized for its use by mass media to develop media franchises. Transmedia Storytelling: What Is It? Jeffrey Katzenberg & Asking The Right Questions | Transmythology. Zen Films: Developing a Transmedia Project: My Approach Part 1. There seems to have been a lot of Twitter and email activity recently about how to actually go about developing a transmedia project so I thought I’d share my approach to a project I’m producing right now. This is a work in progress so this is only part 1! Background & Objectives I have a suspicion that many readers and viewers – I’ll collectively call them the audience – aren’t as demanding... or as knowledgeable... or as willing... to consume stories as much as the technology will allow. Hence, with so many platforms and so many things that can be done I wanted to scale everything back to do something very simple. I want to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Step 1 - Keep it Simple. I started with a high concept: One story, three perspectives – each point of view told across a different media. Step 2 – What’s the Business Model? I wanted to employ the CwF+RtB model so that I could give away all the digital content for free but still get paid. I'm also assuming the audience is fickle. Do You Have a Big Stick? An if:book Australia Essay by Christy Dena Can I write across media? Yes and no. No, I can’t begin writing a sentence with a pen on paper and then use that pen to write on a screen.
I have to change my tools. But, I can use those different tools write a story that begins in paper and ends on the screen. At it most fundamental level, this is transmedia. Transmedia is not synonymous with digital media, as it often involves both digital and non-digital media. Right, now that these crucial details out of the way we can proceed. This essay addresses four of the key approaches that have emerged so far in transmedia writing. The second transmedia type is a collection of media that tells one story. The text two approaches to transmedia storytelling, can be described as the timing of a transmedia project: when it becomes a transmedia storyworld. The expansion of an existing mono-medium story has it pitfalls. Footnotes Video of talk: How can you measure & design a Transmedia Experience? Reclaiming Transmedia Storyteller. Developing Open Narrative Frameworks #Transmedia #DynamicPublishing #ContentDevelopment.
Deep Inside the #Algren Project: A Framework for the #Transmedia Experience | #ThinkState. Better User Experience With Storytelling – Part One - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement Stories have defined our world. They have been with us since the dawn of communication, from cave walls to the tall tales recounted around fires. They have continued to evolve with their purpose remaining the same; To entertain, to share common experiences, to teach, and to pass on traditions. Today we communicate a bit differently. Our information is fragmented across various mass-media channels and delivered through ever-changing technology.
It has become watered down, cloned, and is churned out quickly in 140-character blurbs. We’ve lost that personal touch where we find an emotional connection that makes us care. Image credit: guldfisken Using storytelling, however, we can pull these fragments together into a common thread. It Begins with a Story In 1977, a simple story set the film industry on its side. Image credit: Wired (Courtesy of Ballantine Books) The movie, if you haven’t guessed, was Star Wars. Star Wars wasn’t a new story though. Revealing the Design in Stories. Better User Experience With Storytelling, Part 2 - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement In the first part of this Better User Experience With Storytelling1 series, we explored some of the basic structures and story patterns found in myths and religions.
We saw how these patterns continued into modern stories such as The Matrix and Star Wars. We also explored some of the basics of bringing storytelling into the user experience process and some places to get started. Concluding this two-part article, we hear from creative professionals who are leading the way in this relatively new world of combining the craft of storytelling with user experience. Image credit: guldfisken2 A Few Modern-Day Storytellers Although the idea of using storytelling within the user experience process is fairly new, a few professionals are using it in their projects. Dorelle Rabinowitz Dorelle3 is a storyteller who designs, illustrates and tells stories in a variety of media and contexts. Question: How do you approach storytelling in UX? Question: Where is the best place to learn more? (al) Performance theory.
Experience Themes. There’s an old adage among screenwriters that when a writer can sum up a story in a sentence or less, he has discovered what’s important about the story. He’ll know what the story is about and therefore have a strong sense of theme. And in knowing the theme, he’ll have a compass to use in the process of “designing” the damn thing (i.e. what to keep, what to lose, what actually happens at the end). The story will be all the better for it because it all hangs together with a central idea that will give it greater impact and meaning.
Now wouldn’t it be nice if we had something like that for user experience design? This article is about a method drawn from storytelling that can help us build a better story about our product, unify teams, inspire design concepts and get us closer to evoking the pleasure, emotion and meaning of the experience we intend to deliver to users through the products and services we design. So, What’s the Problem Anyway? We had a big problem at our company. Go team, go! Kicker Studio: Kick It! A blog by Kicker Studio » The Disciplines of User Experience. UPDATE: I updated this diagram in 2009 for the second edition of Designing for Interaction that addresses some of the shortcomings I note below. The diagram now looks like this (click for larger image): Like almost nothing I’ve done, a model that I put in my first book Designing for Interaction showing the overlapping disciplines of user experience/experience design has been referenced repeatedly in various places. The problem is I was never very happy with the diagram.
For one thing, it’s missing architecture in there, which is becoming increasing important. Click for a larger image or download the pdf. It’s still not perfect: it’s missing Sound Design and Ergonomics/Human Factors, and the way the circles had to overlap downplays Visual Design. This diagram also begs the question: what is user experience design by itself, those areas that aren’t filled up with other bubbles? Slideshare. The Art of Storytelling | Under the Influence of Design. As I was pondering topics for my speaking engagement at FLEX Camp Miami this year I stumbled upon an NPR interview called “A Movie’s Look, From Toilet To Villain’s Lair.”
An interview with award winning set designer J. Michael Riva. It was a fascinating look into the life of the Hollywood Set Designer and how they interact and connect with Producers, Directors, and ultimately the audience. The, sometimes, over-the-top profession where telling a story is all about making it believable for the rest of us. Where just the right prop can elicit a feeling of longing, happiness, or despair. Where creation of a story begins not with the “features” that can make it believable but rather the subtleties of understanding the movies goal, that overall emotional connection the story is trying to pull from the viewer. The Anatomy of a Great Story (lead Character. 1. 2. 3. Why are you choosing to use that platform and not this one? 4. How are we being engaged within the story? The End! Personas and how to increase the quality of solutions | BlobFisk.com. I recently gave a presentation about personas, and specifically how they can be used throughout a project lifecycle to ensure the highest quality.
I thought I’d share that presentation with you. I’m a big fan of the approach to presentations advocated by Garr Reynolds in his book Presentation Zen. When I present my slides have no more than 1 – 3 words on them. That way people listen to what I’m saying. Life before Personas This is my vision for how life must have been for users before Personas came into widespread use. It stuns me when I think that Personas really came into popular use after Cooper’s The Inmates are Running the Asylum. Primarily this is down to the cost and time it can take to create them, and in some cases a failure to see the great benefits that they have.
The Anatomy of a Persona I’m not going to go into much detail about what a Persona is or who we create them. Tasks, frustrations and goals are the really important ones. Empathy Understanding Usability Research Design. A Case for Web Storytelling. Much ink has been spilt lately bemoaning the lack of quality content on the web. “Sure the site flashes and whizzes and startles, but what does it have to say?” This type of complaint assumes an incomplete, overly stark dichotomy: namely that sites are made up of “style” and “content.” The underlying purpose of style sheets and their widespread use has unintentionally fostered this false and overly simplistic dichotomy. You’ve got your style, you’ve got your content, and rarely the twain shall meet. A recent article right here at ALA took the bold step of suggesting that maybe style and content aren’t so easily separable after all. Bravo. I agree. In addition to style and content (even understood in their broadened definitions), I propose that there is at least a third element in the web design mix that is getting overlooked.
Why so Tech, Beck? The web is first and foremost a medium of communication. For one reason, the web is a many-to-many technology. Not so the web. Entertainment Distribution & Revenue Streams in the Digital Transmedia Age | Transmythology. Time and Transmedia - Deus Ex Machinatio - Deus Ex Machinatio. Guagua Pública: How to start the transmedia standards process. WTF is Transmedia? - Deus Ex Machinatio - Deus Ex Machinatio. Myths and Realities of Convergence. Techniques for Segmenting Content Across Media. Guagua Pública: Introduction to the Transmedia Storycube for Authors. Seven Myths About Transmedia Storytelling Debunked. The Story of a Transmedia Revolution: (Part 1) To Arms... The Story of a Transmedia Revolution: (Part 2) The Story Wars. The Story of a Transmedia Revolution: (Part 3) The Rise of The Unbook. The Story of a Transmedia Revolution: (Part 4) The Bookstore Apocalypse.