storytelling across multiple platforms
DESCRIPTION
A quick introduction to multiplatform storytelling with some broad examples.TRANSCRIPT
All the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players
~ The Bard, As You Like It
Using various media to express and expand story worlds isn’t new.
We’ve been telling stories across multiple platforms for centuries.
Take religion
Literature
Events Movies Merchandise
Music Art Architecture Monuments
Web/GamesTV
Stories are told across many different media.
All stories are connected by their underlying ethos.
Messages are broken into discrete pieces that are easy to communicate.
Unique features of each media make messages more
accessible.
Many works have been created by groups of devoted followers.
Producer consumer
Prosumer
In a way this follows the contemporary understanding of
transmedia storytelling.A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best—so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics; its world might be explored through game play or experienced as an amusement park attraction.
~ H. Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, 2006
Some Terminology
[Narratives] have been constructed to achieve unity. While postmodern narratives open out into fragments and bricolage in content, plot and style, distributed narratives take this further, opening up the formal and physical aspects ofthe work and spreading themselves across time, space and the network.
~ J.Walker, Distributed Narrative: Telling Strories Across Networks, 2004
Distributed Narrative
Integrating multiple texts to create a narrative so large that it cannot be contained within a single medium.
~ H. Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, 2006
Transmedia Storytelling
A Pervasive Game is a game that has one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play socially, spatially or temporally.
~ M. Montola, Exploring the edge of the Magic Circle: Defining Pervasive Games, circa 2009
Pervasive Games
Environments are the spaces in which creative works are experienced... Every distinct media has an environment, but for some creative works the environment is not incidental but constructed to be a part of the meaning-making process.
~ C. Dena, Transmedia Practice: Theorising the Practice of Expressing a Fictional World across Distinct Media and Environments, 2009
Environments
A Transmedia Narrative project or franchise must consist of three (or more) narrative story lines existing within the same fictional universe on any platform...
Transmedia
~ APG Transmedia Guidelines, 2010
} {GamesTV
Feature FilmShort Film
PrintMusic
WebsitesSocial
Live Performance
TravellingWorkTheme ParkStageSetVirtualTheatreOutsideInside
Integrated medIa
medIa envIronments
Fran-
chise • mulitple mono-medium projects
examples - book, film, game, internet
Project
• Multiple media products make up one
Transmedia project
examples - Why So Serious
(ARG for Dark Knight)
4 Approaches To Transmedia ~ Christy Dena, Pixel Lab , 2010
Concept (Native) • Designed to be
transmedia from the concept stage
Franchise
• mulitple mono-medium projects
examples - book, film, game, internet Transformation • Changing an ex-
isting mono-media property into transmedia
examples - The Fun Factory for Coke
How is this relevant to entertainment media?
The Modern Paradigm
aPPles
aKa the Past
Appointment ViewingSubscription
Ad Supported Broadcast Centric Marketing BudgetAudience passive
oranges
aKa the Present
Video On DemandFree Content
Brand IntegratedNetworks & Community
EngagementAudience participation
Audience
Know your audience early in development and design around
them. Some members will contribute whilst others will passively consume.
Consider each tier of your audience.
Prosumers
Base Users
Active UsersWill actively participate in the creation of auxiliary content and promote your project. Hardcore fans.
Will promote your project but not be active in the creation of content.
Will casually consume your project.
Designing a Solution
1. Find the underlying message or ethos2. Consider the environments in which people can
engage with your message3. Develop content specifically for appropriate media4. Listen to the audience5. Maintain a cohesive message across all platforms
The List
You may have an idea but you need to boil it down to basics.
try to:1. Find your archetype2. Write your OneLiner3. Identify themes4. Know your aspirational driver - Mastery, beauty, empowerment,
belonging, spectacle
Find the underlying message or ethos
Think of platforms and match them to the environments.
Consider Environments
asK:1. Where do I listen to music or watch TV?2. When do people need to be uplifted, nurtured or excited?3. Is there a shared space in which people can engage?4. Do I need to create a virtual or new space to get
my message across?5. Is my audience here?
You may have a platform in mind but take the time to think about what
platforms best fit.
Develop Content
looK for:1. The media that best suits the space2. The media that suits the user’s constraints (time and place)3. Short form engagement4. Longer form engagement5. Ways to innovate by using emerging platforms6. Ways the audience can participate
Your project is out there. Now you must evaluate, reward and adjust.
Listen to the Audience
lIsten to:1. What your audience is saying about your story2. How you can reward their input3. Can you integrate their contributions into your project
As you use more platforms for your message and take on new content
from communities, you MUST stay on message.
Maintain the Message
maKe sure:1. You don’t fracture your narrative2. Always repeat the previous steps when initiating new content3. Use variations of your themes to retell the same message
Social Media isn’t a broadcast platform. Make sure you have
conversations with your audience and reward people for participating.
Staying in Touch
socIal Platforms
1. Twitter2. Facebook3. Google+4. YouTube5. Blog Comments6. Newsletters7. Email8. SMS
Key Considerations
4 Key points to consider when developing Transmedia narrative
- Vision- Collaboration- Engagement- Raw Guts
~ Suzanne Stefanac - Director, American Film Institute
Examples(to be discussed in the workshops)
YouTube Orchestra
