transmedia storytelling

Transmedia Storytelling

By Robin Low


What is Transmedia Storytelling?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFo-rR1kQl4&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFo-rR1kQl4&hd=1



• Transmedia is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies.

• Transmedia engages the audiences on multiple platform, and are synchronized to enhance the story experience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmedia_storytelling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmedia_storytelling



• Selling toys does not necessary constitute to Transmedia Storytelling. In transmedia, elements of a story are dispersed systematically across multiple media platforms, each making their own unique contribution to the whole.

• Transmedia does not necessarily mean game, and they are definitely not the only model.



• Transmedia is a not just a marketing strategy. The best transmedia allows gifted storytellers to share their vision to the dedicated fans through a creative impulse.

• Transmedia does not require a big budget. In fact, the Blair witch project, a low budget horror movie was followed by a book, comics and later a game.

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/research/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Velikovsky-Transmedia.pdf

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/research/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Velikovsky-Transmedia.pdf



• Many stories work well with 1 medium, and poorly executed transmedia that does not add to the characters or the world may be seen as just milking the franchise.

• Transmedia is still used today, even though many attempts failed. Flash Forward, the Event has failed to recreate the success of Heroes and Lost, but The Walking Dead and many other new initiatives still attract big audiences.


Transmedia Storytelling Framework

Some examples

• The Matrix• Enter the Matrix• The Animatrix• Matrix Comics• The Matrix Online• The Art of Matrix

The Matrix

• The Matrix is a great example of transmedia. • The series of Animatrix animes greatly

enhanced the world, and fleshing out characters.

• Enter the Matrix allows the player to play as side characters which play very small role in the movie, but important parts.

• The Matrix online allows the players to immerse into the world of the Matrix

Why Tell Stories?

• We tell stories to entertain, to persuade and to explain.

• Our minds do not like random facts or objects and so they create their own stories to make sense of otherwise discrete, isolated events and items. We naturally and often subconsciously connect the dots. And dots connected in a stimulating way we call great stories.

• Great stories win hearts and minds.

Why Multiple Media?

• We tell stories across multiple media because no single media satisfies our curiosity or our lifestyle.

• We are surrounded by an unprecedented ocean of content, products and leisure opportunities. The people we wish to tell our stories to have the technology to navigate the ocean and can choose to sail on by or stop and listen.

Why Multiple Media?

• Technology and free markets have allowed unprecedented levels of customization, personalization and responsiveness such that a policy of “one size fits all” is no longer expected or acceptable.

Opportunities on the Internet

• Technology today allows us to share experience and engage an audience.

• Social media also allow the audience to give feedback.

• On multiple platforms, the experience of the story can become more tangible when the audience can interact with the world and understand more about the story.

Opportunities on the Internet

• When audience engage, they can also co-create and feel that they contributed to the story even when most of the story has already been conceived. Story can be crowdsourced.

• An Engaged audience will share on the various platforms and their friends may share as well, causing story to go viral.

Tips for Transmedia Storytelling

1) Think Transmedia from the beginning.

From brainstorming the story, transmedia must be part of the strategy from day 1.


2) Find the concept and...hide it!

Don´t show everything beforehand. Release the content slowly, always creating calls to actions to integrate the stories and fidelize the audience.


3) Keep content unique

On the different platforms, match unique story bits to different platforms. Separate the different contents and don’t repeat them. The web specialist will focused on a SEO text and strategy, the offline editor will create titles and subtitles, the screen writer will work on a movie story format. Then, work on an integrated narrative platform.


4) Have a transmedia crew.

Different media requires different specialists and different skill sets. They will see opportunities and ways to engage that others don’t


5) Interface is king

Because audience engagement is central to this form of storytelling, make sure whichever platform you’re using gets readers to interact in a very simple way. “Interface is king; nothing kills an ambitious multiplatform effort faster than a clunky point of entry”


6) Let the story flow

A transmedia story has lots of touchpoints: Internet, cellphone, books, games, music concerts!Let the audience decide by themselves, don´t force them.


7) The story is key

Have a good story. This is the secret. Then, everything goes well. The number of platforms is not important.Getting caught up in the bells and whistles and ignoring storytelling basics could harm your project. “The story comes first, always,”

Seven Principles of Transmedia Storytelling by Henry Jenkins

• http://henryjenkins.org/2009/12/the_revenge_of_the_origami_uni.html

Transmedia by Jeff Gomez

http://youtu.be/p9SlVedmnw4


Transmedia

• Transmedia can be a very exciting way of storytelling.

• It can be an immersive experience, now made possible with current technologies.

• By allowing the audience to experience the story on different platforms, the whole experience and background of the world and characters can be much expanded.


Contact me at Twitter: @robin_low

Facebook: facebook.com/socialhub

Special thanks to Gabriela Mafort@gmafort

[email protected]
