STORY, MEET CODE.

STORY,
MEET CODE
Woodbury University
March 31, 2014
These slides were produced for a presentation called “Story, Meet Code” at
Woodbury University, Burbank, CA.

3-LEGGED STOOL:
More than ever before, the form of our stories is impacted, indeed, deﬁned by more than just the traditional concerns
of story, character, structure, etc. -- story is impacted by the technology through which it is consumed, and the
business model by which consumers access the content.

CONTENT
Tale, story, novel, play,
motion picture, comic,
serial, radio play,
television show,
videogame, interactive
story, transmedia story…
If I ask you to name some different forms of story, we see before very long that the form of the story has
emerged as a result of some innovation in technology, and just as importantly, the ﬁnancial viability of the
means of production and distribution. This is the root of Marshall McLuhan’s deceptively simple phrase, THE
MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE -- in other words, the content cannot be extracted from the medium (e.g.
Technology) by which we experience it.

TECHNOLOGIES
Book, magazine, newspaper,
telegraph, telephone, sound
recording, cinema, radio,TV,
computer, game console, digital
network, Internet, cell phone,
social media, apps….
As we progress, it seems to get harder and harder to distinguish the actual technology from its application, or
specific business use-case. The movies, for instance, are a cluster of technologies applied in a specific
business use-case that evolved over our history. McLuhan used the term ‘rear-view mirror’ in describing a
typical early strategy for a new media technology -- e.g., that it mimics an earlier form. TV used radio and
cinema at first, before unique story forms evolved. YouTube encompasses many technologies and many
creative formats, in addition to spawning its own. Ditto with social media.

BUSINESS MODELS
Patronage, philanthropy, work-
for-hire, direct sale,
subscription, advertising, loss-
leader, cross-subsidized, e-
commerce, in-app sale, image
marketing, B2B, white label…
A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value.We often take the business model for granted --
movies require payment, either at the box ofﬁce or via advertising -- until they don’t, with the advent of p2p ﬁle-sharing protocols.
Early stage businesses, especially tech startups, are unique.As Steve Blank puts it:“A start-up is an organization in search of a
repeatable and scalable business model.

3-LEGGED STOOL:
Content
Technology
Business
More than ever before, the form of our stories is impacted, indeed, deﬁned by more than just the traditional concerns
of story, character, structure, etc. -- story is impacted by the technology through which it is consumed, and the
business model by which consumers access the content.

ME?
Movie Geek
Journalist
Filmmaker
Marketer
Strategist
What qualiﬁes me to give this talk?
I am a movie geek.
I am an ex-journalist, ﬁlmmaker and marketer.
And I spent 20 years running digital programs and initiatives at the American Film Institute, some of which are
listed on the next slide.
To learn more about my career, check out my website at http://www.nickdemartino.net

20YEARS @ AFI:
Computer Media Salons
EnhancedTV Workshop
Digital Content Lab
DigiFest
I discuss a few highlights of my years at AFI and the relationships I developed with innovators at the
intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. I discuss a few highlights of the training-based programs
and the showcase programs, leading into our signature approach: collaborative prototype
development around content.
To learn more about my career, check out my website at http://www.nickdemartino.net

WHAT I DO NOW:
Strategy for the
Digital Era
In 2010 I launched a consulting business to help companies navigate the digital era. Most of my work
is in content and distribution.

STORIES TODAY
* Across multiple media
* Each contributing to story
* Multiple entry points into story
The term transmedia storytelling is, by all accounts, a coinage from Henry Jenkins, a much-published academic from
MIT, now on the faculty at the University of Southern California. Henry is a good source for info, particularly his
courseware, which is published on his blog: http://www.henryjenkins.org/
The speciﬁc article is from MIT Technology Review, "Transmedia Storytelling.”
Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
ISBN 9780814742815. Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New
York University Press. ISBN 9780814742815. Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media
Collide. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9780814742815.

EXAMPLE?
Is this transmedia? (Bible & Jesus Christ).

EXAMPLE?
Is the Royal Wedding a transmedia story?

EXAMPLE?
Certainly Star Wars is transmedia, with many different media and formats. Though, there are those in the ﬁeld who
prefer to think of Star Wars as the ﬁrst major storytelling FRANCHISE, not really transmedia. What is the distinction?
Whether new elements to the story are added in every platform, and therefore make the experience of all platforms
necessary for a full experience of the work.

OTHER TERMS
Franchise
Multi-platform; cross-platform
ARG
Interactive media
Multimedia
Connected entertainment
These are related words describing various story forms. Some would say that none is as complete as “transmedia.”
Others say, to hell with the language wars. Let’s get to storytelling! (Note: ARG=alternate reality game)

Is It Really Transmedia
Storytelling?
Are there action
ﬁgures?
Is it a single
story or multiple
stories
Is it on multiple
media
platforms?
SINGLE
MULTIPLE
YES
NO
Are the pieces of
story content
unique or
identical?
IDENTICAL
UNIQUE
YES
NO
Is it really a
story, or is it a
story universe? STORY
UNIVERSE
STORY
C'mon, is it
*really* a story,
or is it a theme?
STORY
THEME
Is it an
Alternate
Reality Game?
NO
YES
Are there
casual games?
Is the story just
a light narrative
wrapper?
NO
YES
YES
NO
Do the content
fragments link
to each other?
NO
YES
It's not
Transmedia!
It's not
Transmedia
Storytelling, it's
just a crummy
Entertainment
Franchise.
It's not
Transmedia
Storytelling,
it's integrated
marketing.
Congratulations!
You're a
Transmedia
Storyteller!
It's not
Transmedia
Storytelling,
it's an
adaptation.
Which is more
important when
deciding how content
will be delivered?
WHAT'S MOST ORGANIC
TO THE STORY
WHAT'S MOST EFFECTIVE
TO REACH YOUR TARGET
AUDIENCE
Was the story
transmedia
from inception?
NO
YES
Do you own the
IP?
NO
YES
START
2011 Steve Peters (www.about.me/stevepeters)
Are the pieces of
content linked and
in narrative sync
with each other?
NO
YES
Steve Peters (@vpisteve) has created a very engaging (and amusing) info graphic “Is it Really Transmedia Storytelling?”
You can download here from Scribd:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/59897583/Is-It-Really-Transmedia

ASPECTS
Not every example I’m going to cite goes from live to the web and back again, which is the topic of
our panel. But I thought I might set up a key idea here, and that is, that properties that people are
calling transmedia today have a lot of different aspects. I’m going to whip through many different
examples from our history in order to discuss some of these aspects, and wind up with a deeper dive
into a few from the recent past.

PERFORMANCE
1981:TAMARA. Interactive Theatre
Tamara was a theatrical event launched in Toronto in which the audience moved into different rooms
and interacted with the actors. The story would unfold differently, depending upon your journey and
what happened in each room. The show ran for many years in Los Angeles and New York, and was
revived in Toronto. This is interactive, but not really multi-platform, though a CD-ROM was
attempted.

INTERACTIVITY
1990: Hyperland
BBC & Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams, the creator of A HITCHHICKERS GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE built this work with the BBC at the dawn of the
interactive media age in order to explain and explore hyper-media. It could be said to be multi-platform because the
links took the user into different environments and domains. You can tell that the ideas were ahead of the technology
by looking at the clunky fonts.

IMMERSION
1992: MYST from Cyan & Broderbund
MYST was a ground-breaking game series on CD-ROM back in the 90’s, which remained the highest grossing
title until the SIMS overtook it. Unlike the classic “videogame” format, which were usually shooter or role-
playing games, MYST was a journey of discovery in which users proceeded into environments and worlds by
ﬁnding clues and activating elements of the system. Again, not really multi-platform, but a new way to tell a
story. MYST and its sequels are now available in the iTunes store in both a free and $4.99 version.

MULTI(PLATFORM)
1992: Bram Stoker’s DRACULA
Game based on Coppola’s Film
Francis Ford Coppola created a successful film adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel about the original vampire
starring Gary Oldman, and Sony released a game version that utilized footage shot on the set of the film,
which nudges into the terrain of multi-platform. We were excited to show it at the time because of the high
profile of the director, who created iconic films like THE GODFATHER trilogy.

MYSTERY… PUZZLE
1995: In the First Degree
Interactive CD-ROM from Broderbund
Another CD-ROM title from Broderbund was created by my friend Haney Armstrong, a ﬂlmmaker who came up
with this extension of the traditional police procedural story by allowing the user to interrogate people.

GAMEFIED
2002: Push, Nevada: ABC & LivePlanet
Play along with the mystery to win $$
TV interactivity is a whole topic in and of itself. I included PUSH NEVADA in this presentation because it did
represent a breakthrough. Clues were peppered throughout the show and the website that allowed users to
amass points leading to a winner. I think I remember that some clues involved mobile calling as well, Even
though the show was not popular enough to be renewed, it was an early example of multi-platform
enrichment of a primary story.

COMPLEXITY
1995: Johnny Mnemonic. CD-ROM from Sony Imagesoft
This William Gibson classic was made into a ﬁlm with Keanu Reeves, not well reviewed, but signiﬁcant because
Sony released a CD-ROM game simultaneously which allowed gameplay in a movie-like setting based upon
the same story. The casts were different.

EMERGENT
2003: Battlestar Galactica.AFI team: Schematic, Syfy, others
When the Sci-Fi Channel wanted to bring back the classic Battlestar Gallactica, representatives of the company,
as well as Universal’s game division, came into the AFI’s Digital Content Lab to create a multi-dimensional
viewing experience. The user interface, created by Schematic’s Dale Herigstad, allowed seamless movement by
the user in and out of the primary story (TV), a ﬁrst-person spaceship ﬂying experience (game), and deep data
about the ship, the characters, and the backstory, which also included clues. This was not the version
launched at the time of the show, but inspired lots of others.

GREATEST HITS
In this section of the talk I whip through slides of what one might call the modern canon of transmedia
examples, expecially those originating on television, where I spent a lot of my time in development work.

HEROES
Ditto with HEROES, which launched its 360 experience, later renamed EVOLUTIONS. Producer Jesse Alexander worked
closely with the TV series creative team.

LOST
The Emmy went to the LOST EXPERIENCE, an alternative reality game from ABC and Hi-ReS, a design and experience
company. The TV Show’s millions of fans could deepen their experience of the story world via this comprehensive site.

TRUTH ABOUT MARIKA
My mind was blown by this Swedish alternative reality game from Company P, headed by Christopher Sandberg. They
used TV, newspapers, the web, live events and kind of took over the whole country for a few weeks. The premise was a
fake event, but it was treated as real, and people engaged with the story in a sort of ambiguous way, not knowing for
sure what was real, what was fake, what was conspiracy, etc. Such a ﬁctional trope is often part of ARG work, and many
would date it back to Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre’s radio adaptation of H.G.Welles’ WAR OF THE WORLDS in
the 30’s.

I LOVE BEES
42 Entertainment produced an ARG called I LOVE BEES to support the release of Microsoft’s HALO game.

WHY SO SERIOUS?
42 Entertainment created this multi-platform alternative reality game that invited players during the period
bridging the release of the two Batman films, especially the much-anticipated DARK KNIGHT from director
Christopher Nolan. Because the Gotham setting and the tone and elements of the franchise are so well known,
the creators could play off of that with newspapers and other media released in sequence that contained clues
and links to fill in the complex world of the films.

YEAR ZERO
YEAR ZERO is an ARG that involved fans of the band Nine Inch Nails at concerts by leaving USB drives in
restrooms. Those who activated the ﬁles contained therein on a computer got instructions that involved them
in launching the viral game, which depicts a theocratic dystopian future, the subject of the album.

CONSPIRACY FOR GOOD
Tim Kring created Heroes and in 2010 launched a global ARG called Conspiracy for Good which was
sponsored by Nokia. There were extensive live events that contained clues that could be retrieved via mobile
augmented reality technologies, as well as many other events. The ﬁctional elements, especially those about
the evil corporation, were quite elaborate. There was a real-world charity in Africa that beneﬁted from the
activities as well.

HEAD TRAUMA
This is just one of the properties created by Lance Weiler, whose breakthrough ﬁlm THE BIG BROADCAST was
itself a precursor to more complex storytelling components being added beyond the ﬁlm “platform.” 2010: HEAD
TRAUMA/Hope is Missing Lance Weiler/ Seize the Media

COLLAPSUS
COLLAPSUS was a documentary ﬁlm on Dutch television that was expanded into a broader transmedia
experience that integrated game-play, global mapping, animation and other elements. Directed by
Tommy Palotta, who produced Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Won the best interactive ﬁlm award
at the SXSW festival in 2011. From Submarine and VPRO.

PLAYING ON THE WEB
If we are going to discuss going from “live” to the web and back again, it might be worth examining some
examples of trends in the presentation of content on the web.

TAKE THIS LOLLIPOP
Interactive Live Facebook Connect Experience
Take This Lollipop is a cinematic website created in HTML 5 that requires users to launch Facebook
Connect and authorize the use of content in the account, which is integrated into a creepy, serial killer
type short ﬁlm. http://www.takethislollipop.com/

TAKE THIS LOLLIPOP
The cinematic experience of “Lolllipop” is startling because it embeds images, maps, names and facts
extracted from your Facebook account into the movie seemlessly.

ARCADE FIRE
LEVERAGES HTML 5VIDEO
The Wilderness Downtown. http://thewildernessdowntown.com/ : Indie Rock Band Arcade Fire, working with
ﬁlmmaker Chris Milk, released a song “We Used to Wait” produced with HTML5. Users enter the zip code of the
place they lived as a kid, and the video incorporates street scenes grabbed via Google Map Street View feature.
Milk has a slew of experimental video/web projects on his site, including the 2012 FWA Best website (voted by
fans), another collaboration with a band, this time Danger Mouse. http://portfolio.chrismilk.com/

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
Tommy Pallotta and other collaborators created a game to support the release Mission Impossible:Ghost
Protocol, requiring a Facebook Connect log-on. http://cobalt.missionimpossible.com/

FACEBOOK CONNECT INTEGRATION
This is the image generated at the end of the Cobalt game, which is then sharable on Facebook.

3 DREAMS OF BLACK
WebGL/Chrome Project by Chris Milk & Aaron Koblin
http://www.ro.me/?id=86057 is another Chris Milk project using Google Chrome’s browser, this time
leveraging the power of Web GL technologies.

3 DREAMS OF BLACK
Users can generate their own “dreams” by drawing on the landscape provided by the site or vote for
their favorites.

LEVERAGES HTML 5VIDEO
AIM HIGH is a web series about a teenaged spy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1730374/ “Viewers log on via
Facebook” and by giving permission, become part of the story. https://www.facebook.com/AimHighSeries.

FAN-BASED
STORYTELLING
Another web format that inspires is fan-produced video, uploaded into a storytelling frame. The innovation
here is the direct address format, with the user speaking to viewers via the webcam ubiquitous on personal
computers, especially laptops.

Another web format that inspires is fan-produced video, uploaded into a storytelling frame. The innovation
here is the direct address format, with the user speaking to viewers via the webcam ubiquitous on personal
computers, especially laptops.

Digital (Mostly)
Multiplatform (Maybe)
Interactive (Low vs. High)
Social (Shareable)
Media Dense (Video)
Contextual (Story)
FAN-CENTRIC MEDIA
There are a range of factors that help us understand how “fan-centric” your media may be. Of course, it’s all digital media. Sometimes the story plays out on several platforms.
Sometimes there is interactivity -- “Low is liking or clicking” & “High is deep fan engagement. It is shareable across the web. Then there’s the question of density -- video and
gaming are dense. Text is not. Finally, we talk about context, especially the story in which fan engagement occurs.

WALKING DEAD
AMC’s
Walking
Dead
is
an
iconic
show,
now
in
its
fi8h
season.
I’d
like
to
use
the
show
as
an
example
of
the
fan’s
journey
of
engagement
in
the

story
world
created
by
a
contemporary
(and
very
popular)
television
series.
Note:
the
image
I’ve
selected
is
not
on
a
TV
set,
but
a
computer

screen.
So
from
the
outset,
the
linear
TV
series
is
now
rouLnely
being
consumed
across
a
variety
of
screens.
And
it’s
digital.
This
is
our
starLng

point
for
fan
engagement.
(For
a
deeper
dive
into
the
markeLng
world
of
Walking
Dead,
check
out
this
panel
from
the
PGA’s
“Produced
by”

Conference
hRp://youtu.be/de5hfc7JSs0
..
My
hypothesis
today
is
the
“Era
of
Fan-‐centric
Media.”
As
the
mobile/social/networked
web
has

become
ubiquitous,
fans
now
have
both
the
means
(and
the
desire)
to
engage
with
each
other
about
the
things
they
are
passionate
about
–

especially
popular
TV
shows.
The
result
is
that
TV
shows
are
essenLally
the
hub
of
a
vast
fan
network
which
enables
massive
sharing
and

content
interconnecLon
across
the
web.
This
is
for
both
official
web
properLes
from
the
TV
show
and
network,
but
much
more
these
days
on

unofficial
sites.
Experts
like
Kris
Longfield
(@fanthropologist
on
TwiRer)
segment
the
audience
by
acLve
vs
inacLve.
There
are
superfans
and

ambassadors,
and
they
tend
to
curate,
collect
and
produce,
depending
upon
where
on
the
spectrum
of
fan
engagement
they
fall.

FANS=CONTENT
• Fans have the desire & means to engage others
– Show is hub for vast fan networks
– Shareable and viral across the social graph
– Authorized and unofficial platforms
– Content takes many forms & depth
– User-generated content – deep, deep engagement
– Derivative UGC – the ultimate fandom
• Important lens to view audience - Fanthropology
– Active (10%) vs Inactive (90%) Fans
– Fans / Superfans / Ambassadors
– Curators / Collectors / Producers
– Fan engagement & content is part of the TV experience
My
hypothesis
today
is
the
“Era
of
Fan-‐centric
Media.”
As
the
mobile/social/networked
web
has
become
ubiquitous,
fans
now
have
both
the

means
(and
the
desire)
to
engage
with
each
other
about
the
things
they
are
passionate
about
–
especially
popular
TV
shows.
The
result
is
that

TV
shows
are
essenLally
the
hub
of
a
vast
fan
network
which
enables
massive
sharing
and
content
interconnecLon
across
the
web.
This
is
for

both
official
web
properLes
from
the
TV
show
and
network,
but
much
more
these
days
on
unofficial
sites.
Experts
like
Kris
Longfield

(@fanthropologist
on
TwiRer)
segment
the
audience
by
acLve
vs
inacLve.
There
are
superfans
and
ambassadors,
and
they
tend
to
curate,

collect
and
produce,
depending
upon
where
on
the
spectrum
of
fan
engagement
they
fall.

LONELY GIRL 15
The technique began at the dawn of YouTube: Lonely Girl 15 was a very inﬂuential early use of YouTube in
which actors portrayed young people’s lives as if they were really opening up to the world via video. Most
people thought these were real people, and responded in kind with video uploads of their own, creating a
tapestry of video storytelling that was quite unique. What has become a standard feature of YouTube was
pioneered by Lonely Girl, and the lessons are being applied by the ﬁrm founded by its producers: EQAL.
http://www.eqal.com/

BECKINFIELD
Beckinfield (2011) – User submitted videos tell the story of a town
Beckinfield is a new site that creates a story world, e.g., a mythical California town, and a storyline that
comes from the site, but the unfolding of the story is created by users who upload videos to the site
that they have made in characters. The originator is an actor who had been helping fellow actors
upload “audition” type videos to YouTube, and yearned for a way to let actors use their improv skills to
further their careers. The site’s platform company, Theatrix, hopes to license the software to other
content companies who want to leverage their experience. They call it “mass participation television.”
http://www.beckinfield.com/

BECKINFIELD
As the site and story forms have matured, Beckinﬁeld has featured more complexly edited pieces,
generated by the site’s creative team. Otherwise, all of the content is in the form of direct address into
the camera, usually webcam-style confessional formats.

For USA Network, Theatrics helped create The S#cial Sector, an online edition of PSYCH, showing that the
platform could be used to invite user-generated content into a branded storyworld

“Welcome to Sanditon” is the sequel to popular multiplatform webseries ‘Lizzie Bennet’s Diaries’,
both based on Jane Austen novels. Sanditon permits fans to co-create the story based on Austen’s
unﬁnished novel.

AURELIA: is billed as an interactive Steampunk Adventure Starring You. We’ll take a closer look at
the user experience for AURELIA fans. I’ll get back to AURELIA in a moment.

Show header
Call to Action
Content window
Social links
Fan response tools
Info about
window
•The header carries the title, subtitle and author. • The content window displays the ﬁle -video, blog or image.
•Below the player window is information about that content, and a full suite of social and sharing links.
•Fans can use tools to post responses & can check out the latest calls to action.

INVITATION:
Begin a co-creation
experience with your fans
now during Theatrics’ open
beta test period.

DON’T FORGET
THEATRE
“Live” content with a live audience is an ancient art form: theatre. Some innovations in interactivity, like
“Tamara” are being leveraged in today’s theatre world, along with the insertion of multi-platform story forms
and web-based extensions.

SLEEP NO MORE
2011: Punchdrunk Interactive Production London & NYC
“Sleep No More” is an interactive theatre presentation of Macbeth in which audience members in masks
interact throughout a physical space where the actors unfurl the story. http://sleepnomorenyc.com/

Punchdrunk Theatre, a London-based troupe, has experimented with interactive theatre in the past. The
brought “Sleep No More” to NYC in 2011, where it has been selling out almost every show.

NO GOOD DEED
2012: FuriousTheatre Company Play & Graphic Novel
Pasadena CA based Furious Theatre Company specializes in edgy productions by emerging playwrights. Furious
commissioned Matt Pelfrey to write the play, which involves a young loser who inadvertently becomes famous for an act
of apparent heroism and wanders into superhero fantasy inspired by the comics he wants to publish. His character--
Hellbound Hero, is the subject of a graphic novel released in conjunction with the show. The show ran for several
weeks in 2012 at LA’s John Anson Ford Theatre. http://www.iamhellbound.com/

NO GOOD DEED
2012: FuriousTheatre Company Play & Graphic Novel
Here’s the hero, hell-bound, of course.

ACCOMPLICE
The Accomplice is an urban-based exploration game/theatre piece, launched in
NY http://accomplicetheshow.com/details-ny.php and now in Los Angeles
http://www.accomplicetheshow.com/details-hollywood.php

THE SEED
The Seed (2012) – Facebook-based “Play” by DavidVarela, U.K.
I just learned about The Seed, a “theatre” project from UK’s David Varela that takes place on Facebook. Here’s
some info from the author’s blog: http://www.davidvarela.com/ and the FB site of the ﬁctional character, an
agronomist, who is the protagonist of the story: https://www.facebook.com/theseed2012

HAUNTED
2012: BXX’s HAUNTED
Daniel Knauf (Carnivale)’s online horror/mystery
http://bxxweb.com/ is the site for Daniel Knauf’s beta site for an interactive haunted house story called,
ﬁttingly, “Haunted.” His linear stuff (Carnivale on HBO) was beautiful and plenty weird. This is lower tech, not
so beautiful, but addictive in a strange mesmerizing way.

HAUNTED
2012: BXX’s HAUNTED
Daniel Knauf (Carnivale)’s online horror/mystery
Many items are available to help “viewers” navigate the story, including this map of the haunted house from an
early real estate ad.

BOOK ‘EM
Authors of books are also edging into multi-platform storytelling and interactivity. Here are a few examples.

AN AMERICAN STORY
ETHAN RUSSELL ebook (2012):“It’sYour
History: Help Write It”
Rock photographer and music video director Ethan Russell http://www.ethanrussell.com/index.htmlhas just
published his “illustrated” memoir “An American Story” that features copious photography, videos, and a
companion website that is seamlessly integrated into the narrative. He tells me the iBook version on the iPad is
the best user-experience. It’s also available for the Kindle, Nook, etc. http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/
ethan-russell-american-story/id531762062?mt=11

The website allows users to post their own reminiscences of the historical timeline events itemized within
Russell’s nonﬁction book. He intends to release these user contributions in subsequent versions of the ebook,
which he titled version 1.0.

NEXUS HUMANUS
2011: Nexus Humanus from Michael Grant
Nexus Humanus is a new project, just launched, from Michael Grant, a best-selling children’s book author,
and a transmedia team which has created a web-based story world for his next story, which is focused on a
mind-control organization. http://nexushumanus.com/

NEXUS HUMANUS
The story seems to be a satire of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

BZRK.COM
...and clicking the button takes you to another Michael Grant multimedia book and web project, this one for
teens called “Go BZRK.”

WHAT
TELEVISION
WANTS TO BE
Brands are experimenting with multiplatform storytelling. I dive into a particularly complex example in this
case study.

Always
keeping
in
mind,
of
course,
that
the
social
TV
ecosystem
is
growing
in
all
direcLons
and
that
experiments
in
fan
powered
media
will

necessarily
evolve
as
the
tools,
pla`orms,
and
enabling
technologies
come
and
go.
This
is
the
2013
version
of
an
infographic
depicLng
all
of
the

sectors
of
the
social
TV
ecosystem
provided
by
Trendrr
for
AdverLsing
Age.

TEN QUESTIONS
• What is a channel?
• What is a remote?
• What is a screen?
• What is an ad?
• How do you watch?
• How do you share?
• Where do you watch?
• How do you create?
• How do you participate?
• What is reality?
I’ve formulated ten questions about the future of TV that can help us examine trends. My thinking has
been aided by a survey of industry leaders shared with me by William Gerhardt and his colleagues at
Cisco. I will be on a panel with him next week at Georgia Tech. http://www.cisco.com/web/about/
ac79/sp/sptl.html

WHAT IS A CHANNEL?
• Internet: always on
• Video on-demand:
downloads &
streams
• OTT: websites are
networks
• Time- and place-
shifted
The days are numbered for the channel as a fundamental organizing principle for content. This
concept, and the business rules behind it, was a necessity in order to use the electromagnetic
spectrum efficiently, and it was carried over into cable TV.

WHAT IS A REMOTE?
• Keyboard
• Second Screen (touch)
• Gestural interfaces
• Voice command
• Facial recognition
The remote control was a revolutionary device because it allowed users much greater control of
content consumption. But it’s a primitive and often very annoying interface that is being replaced.

WHAT IS A SCREEN?
• TV is an application, not a
device
• Screens are everywhere
• Screens get huge
• Screens in our pocket
The invention of the cathode ray tube paralleled the growth of the content and advertising networks
that ﬁlled those early screens. Over time, of course, we’ve used screens to display all sorts of content,
to the point where television content is simply another application.

WHAT IS AN AD?
• Personalized, targeted
• TheVirtual Self
• Interactive
• T-commerce, M-commerce
• Content as brand, brand as
content
Corporate advertising and sponsorship has been ﬁnanced much of television, up until the rise of
subscription television. With the rise of the Internet, and its ability to target individuals based upon
data, the form of ads will change again.

HOW DOYOU WATCH?
• Watch with friends (real &
virtual)
• Motion capture, telepresence
& holograms
• Interact w/content &
characters
• Viewing becomes persistent &
immersive (transmedia)
TV viewing is sometimes lonely, sometimes social, often simply ambient -- based upon circumstances
within each household. In the future, other factors outside our physical reality will help change the
viewing envirnoment.

HOW DOYOU SHARE?
• Social graph integrated at
every level
• Content discovery is social
• Sharing reﬂected in content
formats
The social web is the web for most people, and with IP connected TVs, second screens, etc., the
conventions of the social web will naturally extend to the TV experience. It’s happening already.

WHERE DOYOU WATCH?
• Screens are pervasive
• Vivid portable screens
• Content (TV) follows you
• Cloud storage
• Stop & start all day
Content consumption left the living room a long time ago. We will view anytime, anywhere.

HOW DOYOU CREATE?
• UGC as an emergent form
• Faster, better, cheaper tools
• Crowd-sourced production
• Proliferation of outlets
• The rise of the fan/producer
A great story well told, that’s what we want from our media providers, along with information,
education, escape. It was a miracle in the 50s, and it remains so, to my mind. But the advent of
powerful inexpensive production tools and ubiquitous distribution via YouTube has created an
amazing revolution of content production that is competing for eyeballs and redeﬁning what we think
of as Television.

HOW DOYOU PARTICIPATE?
• Merger of story forms
(linear, games, distributed)
• Rise of collaborative
narratives
• Integration of big data
• Fan voting for more than
just stars
The audience is becoming used to being in the picture -- certainly as surrogates, in the triumph of
reality and competition formats -- but also directly in terms of interactive forms. Games are a big
factor here. We will see story forms merge, new formats created, greater involvement and immersion.

WHAT IS REALITY?
• Multi-sensory experience
• Perfected 3D
• Holographic video
• Olfactory and tactile
• Multiple POVs and camera
angles
McLuhan used the word synesthetic in describing television’s exploitation of multiple senses. We will
see additions to the sensory, particularly spatial elements, that bring increasingly realistic experiences
to life inside the home.

WHAT NEXT?
What kind of jobs should your incoming freshman look for in 4 years, or 7 if they go to grad school?
That’s a lifetime. Content creation and storytelling. Transmedia. Software. Data mining. Interface
design. Marketing. Entrepreneurship. Theory. For institutions, the need for rapid prototyping of
curriculum and learning experiences butts heads with traditions (including tenure) which can slow
down change.

WISDOM
It’s impossible to do anything
wrong. Because nobody’s done it
before, they haven’t made up the
rules to stop anyone...
Author & Screenwriter Neil Gaiman
I end this talk with these words of wisdom from Neil Gaiman’s recent talk at a
University Commencement.

NICK DEMARTINO
• TWITTER:
@nickdemartino
• SLIDESHARE:
www.slideshare.net/
nickdemartino
• EMAIL:
nrdemartino@gmail.com
• WEBSITE:
www.nickdemartino.net
• BLOG (and newsletter):
www.nickdemartino.net/
blog
Please feel free to contact me with questions. I will be posting this presentation on
SlideShare. If you give me your card after the talk, I’ll send it to you, as well. Please
check out my website, and if you like my blog posts, sign up for my newsletter. Much of
the research for this talk can be found on my Delicious site, under either transmedia
tag.

STORY, MEET CODE.

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