One year in transmedia

Staffans / ONE YEAR IN TRANSMEDIA / 1

ONE YEAR IN
TRANSMEDIA
2nd Edition

by Simon Staffans
27 December 2011


INDEX
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Introduction 4
The Core of Transmedia 6
The Three Facets of Transmedia
Transmedia - the Story of the Story
Twain on Transmedia
The “Why” of Transmedia
Interview - Jeff Gomez
Interview - Nick DeMartino
Developing Transmedia 23
Musings on Transmedia Development
Creating a Transmedia Symphony
The NOT of Transmedia
Transmedia, Time and Context
The Value of Truth in Transmedia
Interview - Andrea Phillips
The Transmedia Format 36
What Makes Good Transmedia?
The Mixing of Real and Not Real in Transmedia
Transmedia Sans Fiction
The Transmedia Format
Interview - Nicoletta Iacobacci
Transmedia and the Audience 48
Transmedia - Story, Experience and Needs
What Motivates a Transmedia Audience
Users, meet Story. Story, meet Users
Interview - Yomi Ayeni
Transmedia and the Market 58
Pitching Transmedia
Funding Transmedia - a comment
On Transmedia and Funding
On Funding Transmedia, part two
Interview - Brian Clark
Interview - Robert Pratten
Reports from Transmedia Gatherings 79
Transmedia - it’s kind of everything; SXSW
MIPTV 2011 Wrap Up
Transmedia and Multiplatform Business


MIPCOM 2011 Roundup
Storyworld - Five Thoughts
Interview - Alison Norrington
Interview - Karine Halpern
Other Transmedia Musings 98
Ten Advice for Transmedia Storytellers
Doing it the Transmedia Way
Transmedia - a Future 104
Transmedia in 2020 AD
Interview - Lina Srivastava
Resources 115
About the Author 118


INTRODUCTION 27th of December 2011
————————————————————————————————

UPDATE for 2nd edition - As I read this publication again some weeks ago, I
suddenly felt there was something severely lacking - the voices of other people. I’ve
learnt so much from so many people and have had so much inspiration and
awesomeness thrown at me from all corners, it felt unfair not to include the thoughts
of some of these great thinkers and practitioners. Said and done; I contacted a
number of people and asked them some questions, each connected to one chapter
or another in this publication. I’ve decided to include the interviews at the end of
each chapter to put them into as much context as possible. Thank you to all who
graciously agreed to answer my questions!

I’ve been in media for more years than I would ideally like to remember. Since the
age of 13 I’ve been writing, producing, reporting and hosting everything from
newspaper articles to tv reports to radio shows. In 2005 I left for the life of a format
developer.
The past couple of years might have been the most exciting in my professional
life. I love doing radio and writing articles and producing television, but utilizing the
powers of a connected multiplatform media landscape, drawing on transmedia
storytelling methods, learning from a lot of great people all around the world and
taking part of so many brilliant projects… it’s a whole different and very enjoyable
ballpark.
To come to grips with my thoughs and jot them down for further reference, I
started blogging about my development work, my thoughts on transmedia, some of
the talks I’d listened to and ideas that had been put to me. I also thought that if
someone else could find something of essence in my writing or find something in my
experiences that would help them in their work, it would be a truly beautiful thing. So,
without (hopefully) breaching any NDAs, I’ve written some 70-odd posts on these
subjects to date.
So, what’s this publication? Well, a couple of days ago I was reading something
in an article and suddenly realized I had thought and written about the very same
subject in a blog post myself. I went to look for it and had to search for ages (well,
“Internet-ages”, I.e. more than 3 minutes) until I found the paragraph in a post from
December last year. Then it struck me: why not curate my own writings on this
subject so far into one single accessible and hopefully coherent document?
That’s what this is. I’ve divided the texts loosely into eight different subsections
and start each subsection off by introducing it. I’ve also added the original publishing


date for each entry, as I think there is a bit of an evolution to be seen from how I
think and write about transmedia and how it correlates with events and projects I
come in touch with over the year. Also, the examples and links that are prevalent
make more sense if related to a certain date.
As always, if you find something of interest or something useful, that’s great. And
if you want to talk transmedia, formats or fishing, hit me up :). Contacts are included
at the end of the document.

PS. I’ve included some of the comments on some of my posts. All of you, thank
you. You’re linked and all, and I greatly value your input. May the discussions never
end :). DS


THE CORE OF TRANSMEDIA
————————————————————————————————

Key elements: philosophical, “deep thoughts”, “not sure I understand what I’m really
saying either”, “but really I do” “I think”

In this subsection I’ve put the texts and posts that talk about transmedia and
transmedia development on more of a meta-plane; some might be slightly
philosophical, some perhaps less so. What the texts all have in common is that they
try to look at the essence of transmedia and different transmedia genres, and
examine bits and pieces of that essence, many times through things I was working
on at the time of the posts. The posts are divided by their own headline and date of
original publishing, but they do not necessarily appear in a chronological order.

I believe this might be the right place to jot down the expected “My Definition of
Transmedia”. I’m pretty sure there are as many definitions as there are professionals
and scholars in this field, something which became quite clear in the definitions
debate in the spring and summer of 2011. In my book, transmedia is telling stories
over a number of media platforms, stories that are connected to a higher or lesser
degree, but always connected and rooted in a common story world. Simple as that,
really; and as I usually need definitions of transmedia for only one purpose - to keep
my mind straight when developing transmedia - it works well for me.

For a clear and concise post on what transmedia is NOT, I’d suggest you’d read
Jenkins’ post on “Seven transmedia myths debunked”.

The Interviewees

The two people interviewed under this headline are Jeff Gomez and Nick DeMartino.
Jeff is one of the foremost advocates of transmedia that I know, and Nick has a
wealth of experience reaching back decades - I believe between them they’re
covering most of the ground needed!


The Three Facets of Transmedia
21st of February 2011

There has been an interesting discussion going on over at the Storyworld group on
LinkedIn, about transmedia; what should be constituted as transmedia and what
should be filed under ”flimsy cross media marketing”, to quote, and what should be
taken into consideration when transmediating content. Deriving from that, I felt the
need to expand on a couple of points, regarding the three different facets of a
transmedia project:

The telling of a story

Transmedia storytelling is, at its core, simply that. By spreading out over different
media and by creating a greater whole, we move deeper into the realms of
transmedia. What it is, is basically the art and technique of telling a story, or rather
multiple stories, connected directly or indirectly inside a larger story world and/or
narrative superstructure and/or mythology.

As we all know, this can be done in many ways; through characters in blogs, through
exciting and engaging television drama series, through sms, Twitter, Facebook,
apps… The key is create the stories and the world, and use the platforms that comes
naturally to the different parts of the story

Engaging an audience

The second facet is also crucial, that of embracing the audience and bringing them
into the story/stories, to sandboxes or cheese-holes or perhaps even to less
structured, more open areas in the structure of the stories and the story world.

This, of course, as many have discussed, profoundly changes the notion of an
audience. Your audience is your audience, but at the same time they are your co-
creators, investing themselves in your story and inevitably bringing change with
them. It is then up to you, the creator, to choose just how much change you want.
But generally, the more people invest, the closer they will feel to your content. Best
case scenario, you not only have an audience and a horde of co-creators, you also
have advocates that bring your stories to people in a fashion you yourself never
could.


Financing your creations

The third facet is that of building sustainable financial structures, which have to be
re-developed for each case, just as the stories and the worlds are re-developed for
each new project. Transmedia projects have so many variables in play, that they
inevitably become different from each other – more different than, say, television
series or feature films. This leads to the creators needing to re-think the financing for
every project; for sure there is a measure of recycling financing models from
previous transmedia projects, but there will always be new possibilities in the context
of a new project. This – sustainable financial structures – can take many shapes;
from brands financing the lot to crowd sourced funding via IndieGoGo or a similar
service.

Win-win-win

I firmly believe that to transmediate content opens up a whole lot of new possibilities
to turn a project into a win-win-win situation, where you as a content creator win
since you can tell more stories to more people in more ways, and get more and
better (as in more fitting with your project) money in when you can play with a
number of platforms and a number of stories. The brands or financiers win since you
can target their message better, and since there is room for more financiers to
partake - tv, online, books, mobile - the cost is less per participant with more bang for
the buck as the end result. Finally the audience wins, as you have more money to
make better content and make it available on more platforms to be even easier to
obtain, engage and participate with and advocate for the audience.


Transmedia - the story of the story
10th of November, 2010.

I find it exhilarating and exciting to follow the current flow of interesting discussions
and even more interesting projects and examples of transmedia bouncing around the
Internet these past few weeks. Suddenly it seems like everyone is talking
transmedia, from a great number of angles.

So, having read some tweets and comments on current transmedia projects today, I
found myself sitting staring vacantly into space, my mind trying to grasp some
thought that just did not want to be grasped. Irritating in the extreme, as I'm sure you
all agree.

The glimpses I could see of the thought implied that it had something to do with the
core and underlying premises of transmedia. I finally gave up and decided to start
writing instead, hoping it’d show up.

After a while, it did. And with it, and in the sentences before this one that gave the
setting and the background of it’s arrival, it brought the meaning of transmedia. It’s
not the story you’re telling. It’s the story about the story, that gives your story
meaning - that’s transmedia.

In that sense, we actually don’t need media. So, in the most simplified sense, there’s
nothing for the transmedia to trans- around from and to.

OK, so we have no trans- and we have no –media. What’s up with that? I found
myself thinking. Wasn’t it namely transmedia that I’ve been happily embracing for the
past year or so?

Actually, I don’t think it’s transmedia I’ve been embracing. I have not, for instance,
been embracing the production of storylines on three different media, stemming from
the same storyworld but adding to each other rather than copying or duplicating each
other. Or rather, I have, but that has rather been a by-product.

What I’ve been embracing is the thought process and the development process of
creating more than you need, just in case (and there is always the case). The
process of not saying ”this is enough, we don’t need more than this” but rather ”hey
hang on, let’s elaborate on that for a bit”. The process of building the story, and at the


same time the story of the story, to enable new stories and explain and expand on
old ones.

It’s like you’re planting a sapling and nurse it to be a massive tree, trunk and all –
even if audiences just pick the fruit, i.e. your stories, the stories would not be there to
be enjoyed without the work before.

At this point, the elusive thought let out a sigh and went away, mission fulfilled. I will
continue to grow the tree tomorrow, and at lot of other trees as well. See, the telling
of the story, that tells of the story, that's work that's never done.

Comment: Paul Burke said...
Agreed. If you come at a project from a tech perspective things fall apart very
quickly. Story and narrative can **lead** to undiscovered narrative structures and
journeys for the audience. You probably could have a go at doing it the other way
around but you will surely come back to story / narrative in the end.

There is something about story and experience which are subtly different though.
Need to think on that a bit!

To extend your analogy: I really like that you can grow different and super tasty fruit
on the well crafted branches of one transmedia tree;)


Twain on Transmedia
17th of February 2011

Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to
discover his own.
- Mark Twain

Through the wonderful world of Twitter, I was pointed in the direction of a post on
Mark Twain and social media from last summer. Twain had, some 120-odd years
ago, written a piece on how to tell a story. It’s a good and true read, and in many
ways instantly transferrable to any transmedia project being considered or developed
today. In his text Twain refers to the two ways to tell a story – the humorous way and
the witty way. Says Twain –

The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the
comic story and the witty story upon the matter.
The humorous story may be spun out to great length, and may wander around
as much as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular; but the comic and
witty stories must be brief and end with a point. The humorous story bubbles
gently along, the others burst.

The humorous story, Twain argues, needs an artist to tell it right. The witty story, on
the other hand, is a story that could be told by a machine.

This is, I feel, a kind of crossroads where transmedia is today, as more and more
people are beginning to see the uses of a transmedia approach to telling a story, as
producers and companies can point to increasing revenues from transmedia projects
and as technical and sociological means and practices open up newer, quicker and
deeper ways of telling stories over different media.

Some will be – are, already, actually – going the ”comic/witty” way of developing and
creating transmedia. To, again, quote Twain:

[…] the teller of the comic story does not slur the nub; he shouts it at you--
every time. And when he prints it, in England, France, Germany, and Italy, he
italicizes it, puts some whooping exclamation-points after it, and sometimes
explains it in a parenthesis. All of which is very depressing, and makes one
want to renounce joking and lead a better life.


I see that as a great pointer to what NOT to do with a transmedia story. There is no
magic and no fun – and most of all, nothing to discover – in a story that someone is
banging you over the head with, no matter how the story unfolds over different media
platforms and/or turns out hundreds of different merchandize possibilities. On the
other hand, as the quote on top says, an ideal transmedia story could also have ”no
order to it, and the reader (user) would have to discover his own.” …which is an
approach that tickles the imagination a lot more vigorously.

As Bill Wren, who wrote the post on Twain and social media, translates Twain’s
musings, there are two ways to tell a story; the right way and the wrong way. It all
depends on your ulterior motives:

As Twain describes it, telling stories is manipulative. However, the reason for
the manipulation is what makes it a good or bad thing. Doing it to delight your
audience is good; doing it to bamboozle them into doing something that profits
you, is bad.

So, with the possibility of transmedia as a term being connected to a lot of not-so-
beautiful projects in the near future – and with Steve Peters’ tweet from yesterday,
which I believe was a reaction to the massive transmedia hype at the NY Toys Fair
(which actually was mostly franchising in the traditional sense), in mind – we might
be wanting to take care of the term transmedia a bit more. For me, transmedia has
been - and still is - a term that tells of possibilities and excitement, not necessarily
revenue streams and franchising. If too many projects labels "transmedia" are told in
Twains comic/witty way, we might be looking for a new term in the not so distant
future.

On the other hand, terms are terms, and should not be taken too seriously. It’s what
we create, why we create it, how we create it and how we execute it that matters.
However, to round off with a final quote from the great Mark Twain, I think
transmedia, in all of it’s momentum forward, might want to rein in a bit and reassess:

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can
have some conversation. - Mark Twain


The ”Why” of Transmedia
21st of June 2011

I’m thrilled to see a great many transmedia projects springing up all around the
world, in different settings; from marketing campaigns for blockbusters and tv series
to crowdsourced international mystery-stories, from web based crime fiction projects
to socially engaged documentaries – the powers of transmedia storytelling are being
grasped and acted upon my a steadily increasing number of practitioners. The like-
button is firmly pressed for my part.

One thing I myself have found to be of great importance to keep in mind when
developing stories and content for a transmedia project is the simple question
”why”? It might sound naive, but believe me, it can at times be a hard question to
answer, at least in a way that would satisfy yourself, let alone anyone you would like
to invest in your project.

A simple ”because I (or we) can” just does not cut it. That’s a sure-fire way of
developing something that doesn’t fit together in the seamless and logical way that’s
crucial for any transmedia project. There are just too many pitfalls along the way;
there is no need to go digging them yourself.

”Because it’s cool” or "because it's what everyone is doing nowadays" are hardly
better reasons. Yes, it will be cool, providing you get it right. Chances are you won’t,
and it will not, therefore, be particularly cool. Yes, many others are doing it. This does
not mean that you, necessarily, should be doing it as well.

If it’s a transmedia marketing campaign for a release of some kind, that makes it
infinitely easier. It’s”to raise awareness of this particular property” or ”to make people
engage in the content and get more viewers in through word-of-mouth”. In this sense
you know what you’re aiming for and your results are possible to observe, analyze
and draw conclusions from.

Another reason, especially if we are talking about a transmedia campaign connected
to an existing property (the new Pottermore instalment might be an example) can be
”to extend the storyworld and offer more content to an engaged audience”. This is a
reason that probably could be adapted to most transmedia projects, and in that
sense needs more clarification – is it ”to offer alternative or complementary stories
set in the original storyworld”? Or is it ”to give the audience a playing field, a


sandbox, intended for user generated content”? Is it something else?

It can also be ”to explain the background and the history of the main property in the
story” or ”to expand on the mythology through new stories” or even ”to act as a
behind-the-scenes view of the main property” (especially in the case of transmedia
documentaries).

Whatever reason you have for developing transmedia content (and the answers to
the ”why?” above are probably as many and as diverse as the number of transmedia
projects in existence), ”Why?” remains a good question to ask, at any point of the
development, production and execution phase.

PS. It was swiftly pointed out to me that one - perhaps one of the most central -
reason for transmedia would be "to generate revenue" and in the long run "to
increase the value of the IP". I will concur, although I will add that at the moment I
think most of the transmedia projects we are seeing are pretty happy just to break
even. Thanks Simon Pulman for pointing it out. DS


Interview - Jeff Gomez
Jeff Gomez is the world’s leading producer of transmedia entertainment properties.
He is an expert at incubating new entertainment franchises, strategic planning and
production for cross-platform implementation. As CEO of Starlight Runner
Entertainment, Jeff leverages intellectual properties into global franchises that
successfully navigate an array of media channels. Jeff has worked on such
blockbuster universes as Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, Microsoft's Halo and
James Cameron's Avatar. He sits on the board of the Producers Guild of America
East, as well as on the PGA New Media Council. Jeff has also recently joined the
Advisory Council to Power to the Pixel. Follow him on Twitter at @Jeff_Gomez.

There’s been an at times fairly heated debate on “what is transmedia?”. You’ve
kept a fairly low profile, not arguing for or against any notion. How come?

Not my job, man. I've been working for a very long time to get a lot of people to
understand the basic concept of transmedia narrative, the bits that most of us can
agree on. That task is pretty much done, at least in the entertainment industry, so
Starlight Runner is moving on to joining with our partners and clients do this better
and better.

Many of your projects constitute marketing to some extent; is this a future for
transmedia? In the post of Mark Twain on Transmedia he talks about the witty
story (marketing, shouting from rooftops) in contrast to the humorous story
(which needs an artist to tell it right). Where do you feel transmedia has its’
home and why?

Good transmedia storytelling involves marketing on two fronts:

1. The infrastructure of marketing can actually be leveraged to help tell the story. It
can be used to familiarize people with the story world, and familiarity helps to draw
people in. I so wish that the pre-release marketing of Martin Scorcese's "Hugo" did
more to familiarize young people with that story world, so that the audience held a
stronger stake in seeing how the movie turns out, because it is such a great and
important film and it's underperforming in the United States. Instead the movie was
just sprung on its audience, and odd-looking period fantasy dramas simply haven't
done well without an indoctrination process. Transmedia marketing could have
helped introduce Scorcese's story and direct connect with the audience well in


advance. And,

2. But the true role of marketing in good transmedia storytelling is that it becomes
a flourish of brushstrokes on a much larger canvas. Marketers need to be
empowered by the studio to extend the voice of the storyteller. They need to use
their talent to engage a mass audience, but with the firepower of being able to build
upon the narrative or further explore the story world. But the same holds true for
licensees, social media campaigns, everything.

Above is a post I wrote on the “Why” of transmedia; do you stop and ask
“why?” Is it something you do for every project or not at all? And what is most
often the answer?

Well, first I appreciate that you ask such questions. "Why?" is everything to me.
Asking "why" things need to be the way they are is what got me as far as I've come
in life. Any good storyteller, whether they are communicating through music, through
television or through prose, needs to understand (intuitively or through experience)
what techniques are going to be most effective in their chosen medium. The same
works if you are mixing or combining media. Starlight Runner has turned down work
not because the project was too large or too small, but because the project didn't
lend itself, in our opinion, to transmedia narrative. Sometimes a violin concerto
simply doesn't necessitate the composition of a symphony around it.

You’re probably the best speaker on transmedia I know. One of your
cornerstones is authenticity; there needs to be authentic content, based on
real feelings, real pain, real longing… so, what would your ideal transmedia
project look like?

You just described it. My ideal transmedia project tells a story that is striking and
resonant with its audience, fostering their participation and creative expression within
the context of the story world, but also sparking dialog between us all outside of the
story world. The power of this technique is that it triggers action, whether that is the
action of "liking" something on Facebook or the action of taking an insight from the
story and your dialog with the story world and applying it toward improving your life in
the real world. Think of all the scientists and computer experts inspired to their
careers by Star Trek and Tron; all kids moved to become environmentalists because
of Avatar; the Harry Potter Alliance committed to acts of social good around the
world. Amazing!


I’ve heard several voices arguing that transmedia isn’t quite “there” yet and
doesn’t have the ability to evoke the same deep feelings as more traditional
media forms. At the same time, transmedia can encompass all these types of
media forms if they fit the context of the property. Is this a concern for you on
any level? If transmedia is to be an own artistic expression, what steps are
needed to get there?

I look at the things you're talking about here from a completely different perspective.
What ever the entry point to the story world might be—movie, television show,
YouTube video—if the narrative resonates with me and I want more, I'm going to go
after it. So the content has to be evocative and compelling in the first place.

Whether the transmedia implementation was created purposefully or not, Star Wars,
Doctor Who and Star Trek have been generating exciting, emotionally enthralling
stories for years, as have any number of rich fictional worlds from Japanese pop
culture. So what's relatively new here, and what we are doing at Starlight Runner, is
to bring a true and meaningful design sensibility to the unfolding of these story
worlds across these platforms.

By thinking about the best way to tell different aspects of the story in different media
forms in such a way as to increase the level of intimacy and emotional intensity of
the experience, and then to play these aspects out in concert—that's what will make
for transmedia as artistic expression.

Finally, how do you envisage the future of transmedia in, say, 2015?

By 2015, transmedia narrative will have taken root as a form of artistic expression
unto itself.


Interview - Nick DeMartino
Nick DeMartino has a background as Senior VP for Media & Technology at the
American Film Institute for over two decades, creating a range of innovative
programs at the intersection of technology and creativity, leading the AFI into
innovative developments and creating opportunities for thousands of creative
professionals. A visionary pioneer in the development of breakthrough media,
DeMartino provides strategic consulting services for creative businesses, producers,
nonprofits, philanthropists and educators. He is @nickdemartino on Twitter.

How have you seen the transmedia industry evolve during the past couple of
years? Where do you think it will end up? An accepted part swallowed by the
rest of the media industry or something else?

It's interesting that you set "two years" as your marker. In March or April it will be two
years since the formalization of a "transmedia" credit by the Producers Guild, the
specifics of which drew fire from some practitioners, and gained a good deal of
attention from all parts of the industry, as I have written in my series in June, 2011. I
have to confess that until I dug deeply into the issue, I did not understand the various
tribal strands within the transmedia community, even though I knew a lot of the
practitioners and had been championing multi-platform media for nearly 20 years as
the chief digital guy at the American Film Institute.

So, from that I would have to conclude that the emergence of the concept of
"transmedia" and the struggle over its definition has given much greater visibility to
the field than ever before, certainly within mainstream media companies. We see
evidence all around: the emergence of new divisions and partnerships within
mainstream companies, the de rigeur commissioning by many movie, game and
television properties of "transmedia" extensions, the increase (though not enormous)
of investment capital behind various transmedia studios, the experimentation in
multi-platform release of properties by "name" talent, and increased credibility of
independents who aspire to create breakthroughs in transmedia storytelling.

I have also experienced first hand in the last six month a palpable surge of activity
within the "movement" of transmedia activists, by which I mean practitioners who are
true believers in aspects of the storytelling form which are fundamental and not
simply extensions of existing media. Among the most interesting areas, to me at
least, are new platforms for story creation and audience co-creation, new


organizations (like StoryCode.org and the t-m meet-ups overall), the Story World
Conference, and increased attention from academia.

You’ve seen hypes come and go, methods and technical innovations likewise;
is transmedia different? What earlier phase would you most liken it too?

This feels to me like the early 90s independent film community, in terms of
organization-building, in terms of the search for business models, in terms of the
uneasy alliance with mainstream distribution, in terms of the fluidity of the story forms
themselves, and in terms of the openness for access to the means of production.
What is different, of course, is the collapse of many of the existing indie film models
(business, distribution), and the rise of a much more media-savvy audience that is
willing to experiment on a small scale without permission from the mainstream
culture.

Does anyone actually care about "transmedia", except for part of the
practicioners? Is the audience just reaching for great experiences no matter
what label they have?

I have no answer yet for this question. There is a sense, as there was in the early
90s indie film world, that everything is changing and it's an amazing time to be
creative. At the end of the day, of course, this will only be true if the work reaches
and touches audiences. I have written more than once that I've yet to cry from a
transmedia production. Film makers and other artists working with forms that are
decades or hundreds of years old have conventions to rely upon (and react agains)
which generate emotional connection with audiences. If transmedia storytellers are
inventing both the form and the story, they have a harder time making the connection
truly emotional, which is all that really matters in story. I personally don't think that
"faux" stories, genre stories, scavenger hunts, and other examples of transmedia
elements we have seen to date are very significant in the history of storytelling. I'm
not yet sure what is.

What, for you, have been amongst the most exciting transmedia-related things
to happen over the past year? Why?

From the perspective of community-building, I really do think Story World was
important, as are other conclaves that bring the practitioners together. In my world, I
did not encounter a work of art that touched me especially, certainly not like dozens


of movies and television programs and books have. I'm still waiting.

Do you feel confident that there actually WILL be a transmedia project that will
touch you like the television programs, books etc you mentioned? Or are we
looking at a long and winding road to build the same conventions as other art
forms?

I'm not sure that "transmedia" per se is a new art form in itself. Right now, as I see it,
we have an emerging style of story telling that utilizes a series of techniques and
attitudes which are largely enabled by new media capabilities. That sounds like the
definition of a format more than a full blown media form, if the distinction matters.
One might look at "reality television" as an analogous form, as I have written. I began
making videotaped documentaries back in the early 80s that were able to capture
reality in a new way, largely because small-format portable video technology
production and low-cost videotape allowed it to happen. We called it documentary,
not reality TV. Arguably the first mainstream "reality TV" show was Alan and Susan
Raymond's AN AMERICAN FAMILY on PBS, immortalized this year by HBO in
"Cinema Verite". That show was shot on 16mm film, but was influenced by a "let the
camera roll" sensibility of the video movement, certainly as much as the "verite"
pioneers from 16mm filmmaking (Leacock, Pennebaker, Wiseman). It was also
influenced by the emergence of PBS, an outlet that was willing to run many hours
over weeks to the story, unlike earlier films, which hewed to the 90-120minute limit of
theatrical exhibition. I would say that the first "reality television" series was Bunim-
Murray's "Real World" on MTV, which debuted in 1992, just shy of 20 years after "An
American Family." The show was made possible by continuing advances in low-cost
video tools (not just cameras, but desktop video editing) and again, the willingness of
a network to support the concept. In addition, there was a noticeable shift in ethics,
with regards to how much content was "real" and how much was coached. As the
HBO movie brought out, there was a LOT of tension around how much "reality" was
warped by the presence of cameras, as if somehow anyone imagined it wouldn't be.
By the time of REAL WORLD, the whole thing was created artificially FOR the
cameras, and shaped for entertainment value, not as a journalistic or sociological
deep dive into an existing world.

In the intervening period there were certainly many many programs that used verite
documentary techniques in multi-part series. (Scared Straight, etc.). But they didn't
get pegged as "reality television."


I'd say that the '00s have been a decade in which masters of the form have
emerged, people who have stories to tell and have experimented with tools and
techniques as well as assembling resources to do so well. The best examples of
what is possible seem to have come from organizations with resources, LOST,
HEROES, TRUTH ABOUT MARIKA, CONSPIRACY FOR GOOD are examples. In
every case there has been a key visionary (or team) who manage to assemble
resources from a patron (broadcaster, sponsor, public authority). I think some of the
best of the lot have track records in transmedia that can become the basis for wholly
original work. I look forward to seeing that happen. Chances are, the stories that will
be told will take aim at the genre market that seems most willing to be adventurous.

I'm probably not a good arbiter of success in this realm, as I'm so tied to old media
forms and I'm not that keen on some of the genres in question. But I'm certainly
teachable. But the audience will follow the visionaries, of this I'm quite certain. Just
as with indie ﬁlm, or mainstream ﬁlm or television, show-runners or auteurs or
visionaries earn a reputation and a larger and larger fan base with each effort. I think
we'll see this happen with the folks whose keep trying and working. I'm not sure how
many at the indie level will make it, as the resource issue remains considerable. This
is not a solo enterprise, or at least not on a sustainable basis. And that means
people, and money.

Where do you think transmedia as a whole will be in 2015?

Historically, movements are effective when they move the people who matter.
Political movements change major parties and candidates and create public support
for policy changes. In the media, we've seen (and I've been part of) many
movements that sprang up in opposition to a mainstream which has limited
participation, has marginalized voices and forms of content, or which have
centralized control. We are in an era in which technology and consumer tastes favor
decentralization and open access. The problem is not the ability to make stuff. It's
the ability for the stuff to be any good, and to matter.

To the extent that the story forms and engagement modes have value, they will have
certainly been assimilated into mainstream media by 2015. Television and digital
distribution of cinema will almost certainly include as a matter of course various
alternate story scenarios, engagement opportunities, and even co-creation
opportunities for audiences. If audiences tire of this stuff, it will go away, to me the
real question remains: will there be breakthroughs in content and form from the


outliers that capture attention and allegiance, not just from audiences, but as a flash
in the zeitgeist. Today's zeitgeist seems almost entirely dominated by rapid turnover
of functions and fads. Even huge digital incumbents like Facebook and Twitter are
constantly innovating. This takes resources, which clearly the indies don't have.


DEVELOPING TRANSMEDIA
————————————————————————————————

Key elements: development, design, “hey, I didn’t think of that!”-moments

Developing transmedia takes on so many shapes and forms that it’s near impossible
to cover them all. You can be appointed by a big studio with millions to burn on
marketing or you could be chipping away at a transmedia art project all on your own
in a university somewhere, or just about anything in between. Still, there are a
number of things these all have in common; the use of multiple platforms and the
challenges that come with such an approach, the need to tell a story (or several
stories) that are branched out but still connect logically and effectively and engaging,
the urge to reach an audience (and perhaps foster co-creation), the need to pay for it
all… Developing transmedia - it’s the best headache you’ll ever have :).

In this chapter I’ve compiled some texts that I’ve written while heavily engaged in
developing content, formats, stories, characters, audience engagement etc and so
on. Sometimes I feel I just think to many thoughts and need to write them down to
get the train of though straightened out, or I will never be able to remember how I
ended up where you ended up in the first place…

The Interviewee
The interview is with Andrea Phillips, as I believe she, with her diverse track record
of developing transmedia projects of many different varieties, is the right person to
voice an opinion on the subject.


Musings on transmedia development
26th of October 2010

We (i.e. I and my colleagues at MediaCity Finland) started out as developers of
interactive television-formats some five-six years ago. These were based on
television as the core of the content, with interactivity included either via mobile
phones or via digital set-top-boxes. We realized very early on that if you want to
develop something that should accompany a traditional piece of content - like a tv
show - you needed to develop the two (or more) together from the start. Thus you
avoided the awkward feeling of added content being slapped onto existing content,
without any form of seamless and enjoyable experience.

As time has gone by, we have thankfully been able to let go of the limited MHP
interactivity for set-top-boxes and have happily embraced the cross media /
transmedia approach to telling stories, be they music shows, kids shows, game
shows or just about any kind of content. Now, some things are always good to keep
in mind while starting up or being in the development phase of a transmedia project:

First off, make sure you're developing and creating compelling content - you need a
great story to function as the framework, with enough holes in it for the audience to
be able to fill in stuff themselves and become engaged in the story (Jeff Gomez's
"Swiss Cheese-model"). Don't forget the narrative superstructure - build it solid
enough to serve as a vehicle for this particular story, but also as a bed for future
stories (from past, present and future in the story universe) to spring from.

Secondly (but developed at the same time so it all fits together nicely without any
last-minute panic solutions, thank you very much) - logical ways for the audience/
users to connect to the story, from platforms that are themselves logical ways into
the story. I.e., do not make an iPad app just 'cause everyone else has one. If it's not
essential for how you experience the story, leave it out.

Thirdly, get out there and get some traction for your content. Lots of stuff gets
developed and produced and perhaps gets a blog mention or three, topping out at
452 users over a three month period. Don't do that. Get those people interested that
can tip your little thing over the edge and into the abyss of a global phenomena. Get
everyone to step over that invisible "WTF"-threshold (the threshold where you
KNOW you should be doing something else but you're seeing thousands of people
(who also should be doing something else) involving themselves in the story and


having the time of their lives, so you think "Oh hell, WTF" and you jump right in).
How? Read up on Propagation Planning. As they say - plan not for the people you
reach, but the people they reach. Find your spokespersons. Be inclusive, not
exclusive. Which nicely builds over to...

Be interactive. Listen. Communicate. You're probably not right every time, and others
may have better ideas for your story and it's development. Face it - it is no longer
yours only. Embrace that fact and take it onwards - it's all a good thing.

Lastly, don't leave people hanging. There's nothing worse than getting peoples
expectations up and then letting them down. They have invested in your creation.
Make sure they get full value for their investment. If you do, they'll be back.


Creating a Transmedia Symphony
16th of November 2010

I re-read the article in Wired on transmedia today, and found it as good a read as the
first time. Coming to the last paragraph I read Jeff Gomez’s comment about
transmedia and the birth of a new Mozart, ”We are going to see visionaries who
understand the value of each media platform as if it’s a separate musical instrument,
who’ll create symphonic narratives which leverage each of these multimedia
platforms in a way that will create something we haven’t encountered yet.”

This rings true for me as an analogy of what many of us are trying to create. The
question that popped up in my head was, however, “but hey, how do you create a
“normal” symphony?”. Lo and behold, a Google search later I found this wikihow on,
yes, how to create a symphony. After reading it, the analogy rings truer still. So, to
translate the creation of a “normal” symphony to the creation of a transmedia
symphony, these would/could be the steps to take:

1. Before considering creating a transmedia symphony, you most know a lot of
the theory behind the storytelling and the structure, as well as the analysis of
audiences and the different media platforms. If you have done this, follow the next
steps.

2. Be inspired. Take some time, relax, bring som inspirational material with you
somewhere and create. Wherever you are, when the ideas suddenly pop up in your
mind, write them down, no matter how small. Keep letting life inspire you until you
have a bunch of these ideas. Try to make your ideas connect with people on an
emotional level.

3. You’re going to need some good writing and scheduling software. Set up
your project thoroughly, with all the different elements in place from the beginning. In
this way you can see how they fit together, and where strengthening is needed. The
base of the project is the story and a couple of platforms. Unless you’re taking on a
massive Hollywood project you shouldn’t need to worry about every possible
platform and outlet. It’s all up to you, what you want your project to look like and how
you want it to be perceived.

4. When you’ve selected the platforms you want to work on, go back to your
ideas. Expand on them, build the world around them, put them in the middle of some


context and think about how you would like to introduce them, and how you will
digress from them as the narrative rolls on. Which ideas would be best at the
beginning, or in the middle of the narrative? What should be the grand finale? Slowly
add onto these ideas and interlink them. Make sure to stay within logical boundaries
and watch for errors that would throw an audience off. This is of course unless you
really feel you want some of these. Many creators throughout history have sought
out theoretical guidelines, but if you encounter an opportunity to do something which
breaks the rules but really feels right to you in the context of the piece, you might
want to leave it in.

5. Eventually you will have a number of different, fleshed-out ideas going on.
Try to get them all work in the same context, yet have their own unique style. You will
use this to develop the different movements of your work. Keep expanding on these
ideas, adding subplots, side characters, and so on. Watch and study other great
transmedia projects to hear, see and feel how they progress, to help give you ideas
of your own.

6. Eventually each idea will become a decently long plot. Do a walkthrough of all
the different parts of your project. Does it flow right? Change and fix anything that
does not feel right. Remember the interlinking of the different parts and how they
should exist in the same story world and fit logically in the same context. Keep
refining your project until it is complete.

7. This creative process may take a while, but by this step you should have a
fully developed transmedia project down on paper. Take it to a group of people
you know closely, or perhaps a group of students, and narrate the project to them, or
ask them to partake of any material you have produced so far, like written text,
graphic novels, online portals etc. Observe them partake of your idea. Did they
experience it like you expected? Were their reactions the desired ones? Make sure
you have the possibility to write down comments and reactions on the spot.

8. Go back to your transmedia mess and make a second draft with the comments
and reactions taken in. Repeat these two steps until you are satisfied.

9. Take it to someone in the industry. It depends on your idea, but could be
anything from a broadcaster to a production company, from a publisher to a telecom
operator, depending on your idea and the platforms you’re concentrating on.
Rehearse your pitch well, and reel them in with your great story and magnificent


execution.

10. If you get traction and commissioning (or at least adequate funding) - Voila!
Time to unleash your transmedia symphony on the world!

...and after writing this down, the analogy still rings true. Granted, there might be a
lot more involvement from different sources from the beginning - brands, partners,
tech etc - but if I start developing a new transmedia idea, this could work pretty well!
There is also other aspects, like the need for a viable business plan etc, but we're
talking symphonies now, so I omitted those :)

(Credits go to the Wikihow users who wrote the original post: BoldStepFixer, Gewg,
Johnny, Nicole Willson, Maluniu, BR, Sarah Eliza and KP, wikiHow user(s) Isabelle
C, Getmoreatp, Geena04, J424, Tryme2 and Anonymous.)


The NOT of Transmedia

Late yesterday evening, as I sat writing on a transmedia mystery/horror novel I like to
keep at hand as my own personal pet project – a combination of jet lag and a full
moon helps no end when you want to work nights, see – I had a small revelation.

I had written a couple of pages and felt pretty good about myself, so I started looking
over the mindmap of all extensions from and to the novel and from and to the story
world the novel is based in (and trust me, as with all transmedia projects, these are
legio) and a pattern suddenly emerged before me. It had a big fat headline as well,
that pattern – a headline that said ”NOT!”.

You see, as I gazed at the arrows and the dots and the squares and the texts, I
realized that transmedia is as much about what you decide NOT to use, as what
you eventually end up actually USING. As was stated at the Storyworld conference –
all stories can be developed in a transmedia direction; not nearly all need or deserve
it. If your project does need and deserve to have transmedia methods applied to
them, it is very important to evaluate your project from the angle of ”what makes
sense”. I.e., even though you’ve already registered the YouTube channel and you
really want to produce them awesome webisodes and put them out there – if all your
project needs is a blog, an automated e-mail response system and a novel, then
that’s what your project should use.

The same goes for interaction with the audience. I know many who argue that an
inherent trait of transmedia storytelling is the activating and incorporating of the
audience, inviting them to take an active part in the storytelling. I would disagree, as I
believe you can deliver fullfledged transmedia content without the audience doing
much more than choosing what to consume on which platform. I.e., use UGC or
user interaction when it makes sense, NOT when it doesn’t!

The list goes on, but I’m sure you get my point. Your transmedia project will be
defined as much by what you did NOT utilize within the scope of it as by what you
DID utilize.


Transmedia, Time and Context
3rd of June, 2011

A couple of posts have gotten my mind working overtime these past couple of days.
Andrea Phillips wrote an excellent post on Time and Transmedia, highlighting the
challenges facing anyone working in different time periods within a story, in a real
world where viewers can start experiencing that story from just about any point
possible. In the comments, Scott Walker pointed me to a post of his that I’d missed
last year, on the challenges and possibilities of collaborative transmedia storytelling.
Many good points, and with so many people moving into the field of transmedia from
numerous different angles, these posts are simply required reading.

My point of view on these matters come from the field of creating a transmedia
experience from scratch, without any previous brand or franchise to fall back on. It is
an experience that is unfolding in real time, which at the same time will live and
prosper drawing on the power of the long tail. In this context, context is, as we have
found, crucial. There will be many people entering the story from many different
angles, and the story might have unfolded to just about any point. As I see it, there
are some points that need to be taken into consideration:

- The foundation needs to be solid. In order to attain this, you must have a grasp
of the time line of the project, and a general notion of the story archs and the
schedules involved. At the same time, you cannot lock everything into place (at least
not with a project like ours, that is expected to run and run) or you will be stifled.

- The foundation needs to be communicated clearly and without any
discrepancies. This goes for communicating outside the team producing the content
as well as within the team. In this matter, the task of simplifying is crucial. Test and
try and test again; if the story world and the basis for the stories you are about to
create and tell people is blurry, press the ”sharpen” button immediately. This is not to
say that everything needs to be told from the start – quite the contrary – but
everyone involved, be it a viewer, a user, a programmer, a writer… everyone needs
to see the same thing when they look at your story world and your story.

- Once this is achieved, you need to drop the reins, but give some clear options on
how to interact, how to create within your world etc. This goes when it comes to
letting an audience interact and create, but also when it comes to not locking down
people on the project, but instead give them the right tools and the motivation to,


themselves, create and interact within your project. It is nigh impossible to put all this
on one person’s shoulders – much better (and much more true!) to give key people
the mandate to interact with each other and with the audience, within the context of
your story and story world. You’d be amazed at what springs up.

- Finally – don’t panic! With most projects you’ll be involved in that are of a more
documentary type – like ours – there will be humans involved. Everyone will also
know that there are humans involved. Everyone also knows that humans make
mistakes. Mistakes can even be beneficial, as long as you handle them in a way that
makes sense within the context of your story and your story world. In a life-affirming,
warm story and world, you laugh it off and the audience laughs with you. In a dark
and brooding and violent story arc, you behead someone on the team with a vicious
snarl towards the audience, and the audience winces in terror but nods knowingly
(and this is purely fictional then, of course. If you really behead someone on your
team and refers to this post in your defense, I will not be held responsible).


The Value of Truth in Transmedia
31st of December, 2010

There are many important aspects to consider when starting out creating a
transmedia property. There is creating the mythology, the narrative superstructure,
as deep and rich as possible. There is timing all different releases, and making sure
the right things get released on the right platforms. There is securing a sound
financial basis to stand on – i.e., where’s the money going to come from?

Every aspect is vital, some to the core of the story being told, some to the framework
around the story that lets it find its’ audience and gives its’ creators and producers
funds to work with to take the story in the direction it is supposed to go. But since
everything about a transmedia project, in my opinion, goes back to the need to
engage an audience and give them the best experience possible, I’ve found truth to
be the most important aspect.

”Truth” in transmedia, as I see it, is the simple fact that everything needs to fit. The
things that do not fit must also fit, as non-fitting parts (carefully planned, naturally) or
be re-developed or omitted. We as human beings can tell when things are not as
they should be, when they are not true. We might have been conditioned to set aside
our beliefs, or willingly believe in certain things, but if we just let our instincts guide
us, we mostly have the gut feeling of what’s wrong and what’s right, what’s ”True”
and what’s false.

”Truth” in transmedia is keeping in mind that platforms do not matter, OS or
programming languages do not matter. What matters is the story and that the users
experience it the way you as the creator/producer planned for it to be experienced.

”Truth” in transmedia is a fragile thing. It can be shattered by a wrongly worded tweet
from a character in a series. It contains a lot of pitfalls – and I know from my own
experience that you, as a developer, will fall into many of them. The trick is to
recognize when you’re in a pit and quickly get your ass out of there before anyone
notices. You might need help to climb out of the pit. You might experience resistance,
in the form of partners, sponsors, financiers, directors. But you know what ”truth”
means in your creation. Stick to that.


Interview - Andrea Phillips

Andrea Phillips is an award-winning transmedia writer, game designer and author.
Her work includes a variety of educational and commercial projects, including
Floating City with Thomas Dolby, The Maester's Path for HBO's Game of Thrones,
America 2049 with human rights nonprofit Breakthrough, Routes Game for Channel
4 Education, the independent commercial ARGPerplex City, and The 2012
Experience for Sony Pictures. She is also working on Balance of Powers, an
independent, crowdfunded experiment in serial storytelling using a freemium
business model. Her book, A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling, will be
published by McGraw-Hill in the spring of 2012. Find her on Twitter - @andrhia.

Or, alternatively, her description could read “She was raised by witches and invented
the paper clip. She lives in a hovel on chicken legs in the woods."

You choose.

How do you ideally approach a transmedia project?

When I start a project, the first thing I try to figure out is what my goal is. Sometimes,
as in a marketing project, it's something like "get people to subscribe to an email
list," or "persuade people to seethis film." Sometimes it's "Let's see what kind of a
story you can tell using this weird tool." And sometimes it starts from a more
narrative point of view; in that case, the goal is "How do I explore this theme?" or
"How can I best convey this piece of story?"

No one of these goals is superior -- they're all valid purposes for building a
transmedia story. But the first and most important step is acknowledging what you're
after, because it has a ripple effect on every other decision you make.

Can you identify rookie mistakes to be avoided when starting out developing
transmedia?

So many! One of the biggest mistakes is being ignorant of prior art. There is so much
great work out there, going back years and years, and a lot of creators come into
transmedia thinking they've invented it. Everyone would benefit if we could just stop
reinventing the wheel, and if we could just learn from one another's mistakes.


There's no shame in not being the first person to have an idea.

It's also common not to promote your work. There's a myth that cream rises to the
top, that a really great project will get attention even if you don't actively send out
press releases and Tweets telling everyone it's there. But it is a myth, and
unfortunately the internet is not an attention meritocracy. You have to promote a
transmedia property precisely the same way you'd promote a single-medium story.

In the context of promoting a transmedia property, is there any way you have
found especially effective? Social media? Approaching bloggers (as with
Game of Thrones)? Billboards?

The methods that work are going to depend on the project, basically, and what
resources you have available. There's nothing about a transmedia narrative that
renders it unfit for traditional marketing and publicity techniques -- trailers, billboards,
posters, reaching out to journalists and to your natural fan communities. And as with
other entertainment marketing, the more you have to spend, the more people you
can reach. The place where transmedia has a leg-up is in making each of those
contacts a rabbithole into the fictional experience -- a call to action to participate.

But you shouldn't try to get too cute and provide that rabbithole with no context
regarding who you are and what they should expect if they follow through. It's nice to
try to evoke an air of mystery, but if you can't establish credibility and a reason for
your audience to care, hardly anyone is going to pay half a second's attention to your
lovingly crafted and utterly non-informational item or website or email.

What single part of your transmedia developer career makes you the most
proud to have achieved?

Gosh, I'm just proud to still be alive, you know? There are precious few people who
get to make a full-time living doing this stuff. The fact that I'm still working and
blogging after all these years -- that I haven't had to give it up and get a real job at an
office in the city -- that's a bigger victory for me than any one project or award or talk.

If you’d be playing an instrument in the transmedia symphony orchestra,
which and why?

Oh, a tricky one! I assume you're comparing a transmedia project to a symphony,
and not the whole transmedia community -- that would be quite a bit different.

For the symphony of my projects, though, I'd fancy myself the composer who wrote


the music. Failing that, I'd say percussion. I'm the inexorable drumbeat that keeps
each section on time and coordinated as the symphony plays out. With no beat, the
rest of it kind of falls apart, doesn't it? And even in places where there is no
drumming, the section is still an invisible presence as the rhythm keeping time in
your head. That's me!

Above is a post on “Truth in Transmedia” - what does “Truth” mean to you in
the context of transmedia?

From your post, I think you're talking about 'truth' in the way that I talk about
'authenticity.' You want your story to feel genuine to your audience. Anything that isn't
true to your characters and motivations, or true to your theme and vision, will pull an
audience out of your story and injure the experience they're having.

That's not to say that everything should be completely realistic -- that's another
rookie mistake, thinking realism is worthwhile for its own sake. And sometimes there
are good reasons for not being realistic, if there is an ethical question, for example,
or even if it's just more boring that way.

Finally, if you’d gaze into a crystal ball - where will transmedia be in 2015?

A prediction! I think we're going to see tremendous shifts happening in television. It's
the medium best-suited to anchor an interactive transmedia narrative right now. It's
episodic, very often entire communities consume the work at the same time, and it's
fairly nimble compared to feature films and print publishing. I think we'll see -- not
even innovation over the next few years, but such a volume of work that the
transmedia element of a TV show will become a no-brainer. It won't be special; it'll be
expected, and a show that doesn't do anything will feel like it's missing a beat.

But I also foresee the rise of more tightly integrated Star Wars-style transmedia
franchises -- stories where something seeded in one platform has a payoff in
another. Stories where each medium plays out a different subplot, and sheds new
light on the whole. So far we've seen a lot of sequential franchising, but I think the
guys with the big bucks are going to see the value in intertwining the stories so that
each subsequent piece drives traffic to everything that's gone before. Transmedia
isn't just good art, it's good business, too.


THE TRANSMEDIA FORMAT
————————————————————————————————

Key elements: formats, development, television, multiplatform

Developing formats is what I’ve been doing for the past six-seven years, along with
selling them, negotiating etc. I.e., I know quite a bit about formats. I want to bring
transmedia storytelling methods to the niche of entertainment that is formats… this,
however, is easier said than done. In this chapter you’ll find some posts on precisely
that - the challenges of integrating transmedia and formats.

The Interviewee

For this chapter I’ve talked to Nicoletta Iacobacci, as she is a person who knows the
television industry intimately. She is also the head of cross media and multiplatform
at the EBU and is right now overseeing the development of a very interesting
multinational transmedia project, with more projects in the pipeline.


What makes good transmedia?
19th of December 2010

It is very encouraging to see how quickly transmedia has become a trend that not
only is a buzzword or a hype, but rather a phenomenon that seems to grab peoples’
attention and imagination and spur them on to think in new ways, create new things
and talk to new people.

There are still probably as many definitions of transmedia as there are people talking
about transmedia. These are not necessarily differing all that much from each other,
but rather in a nuance here or a nuance there. It’s all good though; we should all fear
the day when we have the definite definition of what transmedia is. That’s the day
when it’s time to start doing something else.

It’s not just talk either. A growing number of people are starting to venture into the
field of transmedia to tell their stories. These range from major multi-million dollar
ventures to small dramas or documentaries with next to no financial power behind
them. Some will fail, even amongst the colossal ones, but some will succeed
magnificently, even amongst the small ones – such is the way of the storytelling
business.

As more and more projects are being developed, there seems to be a need to look
beyond the ”what is transmedia?” or ”why transmedia?” to the much harder ”should I
and this project go into transmedia?”.

From my personal point of view, I know that some of the projects I work on lend
themselves nicely to transmedia development. Building the mythology, developing a
canon, working on different storylines to be told via different platforms – even if it is a
documentary, a music show or even a game show, it is quite possible. On the other
hand, I know that some other projects – good projects, in and of themselves! – would
not benefit from a transmedia treatment. They are stories that either would not be
enhanced by expanding the universe they exist in, or stories that would carry a much
too hefty price tag, should a transmedia development and implementation take
place.

Some people in the transmedia field were kind enough to give me their opinion on
the matter, and there is a pattern, at least so far. Tyler Weaver – do check out Whiz!
Bam!Pow!, a project I’m looking forward to seeing more of – was of the opinion that


the story was the most important feature. As he said:

- The most important thing - a good story. I just want a good story well told. If I want
to welcome the characters into my home (good or bad), it's a good story that I want
to revisit.

We all probably agree with this. It has to be a good story, for there to be anything to
build around. It also needs to be a story that can have a mythology, a universe of its
own (even if it is our own, real universe we’re talking about). If it’s a thin story, or
unengaging, or linear withour the possibility of other storylines touching it, there’s just
no way it would ever make a good transmedia entity. (I do, btw, love that definition of
a character in a story – ”if I would want to welcome them into my home” – and will
happily start using it to gauge the characters in my stories).

Sparrow Hall, of Nightworks and Two Blue Wolves fame, shared his beliefs:

- What attracts me to transmedia: the ability to inhabit the environment/vibe of a
story, to see deeper into characters. What engages me with transmedia: seeing how
consistent art direction and tonality is achieved over multiple mediums. Subtlety.
High production value even with little to no budget. Authenticity of feeling/language.
Also the multiplatform aspect needs to feel compelling/enriching, not just a device to
continue.

Many things to agree with. Also, naturally, the possibility to offer many entrypoints, as
well as exit points, to and from your story universe, to let the users/viewers/audience
participate, either freely or via the Swiss cheese model and to, through all these
actions, find new stories where you thought there were no more stories to be told.

So, to apply this on what one should do when assessing a development project; if
there is a reason for there to be more than one platform involved, and the content on
these platforms are unique but can be and is being developed together, that is a
good sign for a transmedia property. If you can see how the audience can
participate, and to what degree, and if you can see this ”spread” of the story
happening even without big bucks behind it, you’re even further on the road to a
transmedia winner (or at least a doable project :-)

I’ll leave the last word of this post to Stephen Dinehart, who commented on the
current hype around transmedia:


- I think perhaps the best way to see through the hype is not to listen to it. Just
create.

So, let’s go out there (or, stay in here for that matter) and create. I'm really looking
forward to the next few years.


The mixing of Real and Not Real in
Transmedia
29th of October, 2010

Transmedia formats always have been and always will be a bit of a different kind of
beast. One particular challenge that I face while developing transmedia, is the thin
line between being just about enough fictional, but not too fictional. I don’t work – or,
should I say, I do not at the moment work – with drama-based transmedia projects;
instead, the ones we’re working on now are music projects, game shows, kids
formats, etc.

As I see it, one key element of any transmedia venture is the classical ”willful
suspension of disbelief” (love the phrase, btw). You know that you have your
narrative superstructure in place, it’s solid and will be a fine, nurturing growth bed.
You have some – three, then, to go by PGA’s rules for a transmedia producer –
different media platforms utilized. The different pieces of content support each other,
either directly or indirectly, but are not duplicates of each other. What you need now
is for the consumer / participant (the ”consupant”? sounds a bit constipated...) to go
into your story, your narrative superstructure, and embrace the willful suspension of
disbelief and engage him-/herself.

This is a bit easier when building a drama-based transmedia setting, as anyone
connecting to the mythology of the story knows and has accepted that it is a story.
When blending ”real” stuff with a narrative that contains fictional elements, the cracks
are a lot easier to spot.

What I’ve found out so far is one fairly simple thing, yet hard to stick to while
developing, writing and scripting. Simply – be as true as possible. If you embark on
the mission to include real stuff – be it persons, objects, physical landmarks or
whatever – in your transmedia project, these different kinds of stuff will be a lot more
credible if they, to as large an extent as possible, base themselves and present
themselves as their real selves. What you don't want is for these characters and stuff
to show any light shining through them. They need to be as solid as possible - which
is only possible if they are, for the main part, grounded in who or what they really
actually are. The only thing you need to add are the small fictional things that lets
these real persons and real places function within your transmedia venture.


Transmedia sans fiction
2nd of November, 2010

One aspect that I'm struggling with at the moment is when a development project
strays from the path of fiction, or never originated as fiction to start with. As with the
examples Jeff talks about in the links above, well executed transmedia projects in
the vein of Avatar or Pirates of the Caribbean have a rich story world to build on, to
create stories in, just as it should be. At the same time, this is almost a prerequisite
for creating these types of transmedia projects; you need that fictional world, well
built and stable, to be able to tell your fictional stories that complement each other
and build the world onwards.

The challenge, as I see it, is to figure out what happens when you base these in the
real world, omitting or at least limiting the fictional elements. Is it still transmedia? Or
are we then reverting back to cross media (if that indeed can be considered
reverting?). If it is still transmedia, is it possible to base it in the real world and still
create a good transmedia narrative?

My opinion is that this is more than possible. What you need to do is to create the
narrative superstructure in as great a detail as when you create your fictional world.
Just because what you're creating is based on the real world, doesn't mean you can
take it for granted that everyone perceives this world the same way as you do - not
even your collaborators on the project. When writing this narrative superstructure,
the mythology of your project, you need to explain the essence of, say, London, as
represented in your project (if London is a part of your story of course) in as great a
detail as the essence of Pandora is explained in the Avatar mythology.

You also need to be able to explain this essence, via the descriptions and the
mythology, to each and everyone involved in the development and the production. I
believe this is the only way to avoid mishaps in the production (such as people not
realizing what you want to get out of the narrative, what feelings you want to convey,
how you want people to interact etc). One hour spent on the mythology will save you
five hours in execution; production and editing.

This will also assist you a lot when bringing new people into the development and/or
production team. Finally, I agree with Jeff on one point he has been making; if you
feel the need to make some material to explain your project, a graphic novel is a
great way to go. And if you base it in the real world, so what? Who wouldn't want to


be in a graphic novel?


The Transmedia Format
8th of September 2011

I recently stumbled (again) upon this good post by Jason from The Connected Set
on why television is an integral part of a transmedia format. Coming from a television
background much as Jason, I guess it is no surprise that I agree with him on most of
his points.

Television is still very much a powerful player with it comes to getting viewers and
audiences engaged in your content. That engagement in turn will generate traction
for other parts of your transmedia property – or the other way around, as, for
instance, HBO’s Game of Thrones showed this last spring. I wrote a piece for
MIPBlog at around the same time, wondering if there was going to exist such a thing
as a transmedia format. I wrote at the time:
”The one thing that will be sure to stem the rise of the transmedia format at this
year’s MIPFormats and MIPTV is simply the fact that very few formats are
transmedia at this point. As more and more projects are initiated, more and more
tools are made available and more and more success stories unearthed, however,
expect this to change, as transmedia simply offers so many logical and compelling
ways to engage consumers more fully into your content.”
Since then I have become more and more acutely aware of the need that transmedia
can have of television. TV still boasts impressive revenue. TV has tried and tested
(and admittedly sometimes a bit outdated) business models. TV knows (again, a bit
outdatedly) how to calculate success. TV has a broad reach.

Now, show me the transmedia project that would say no to impressive revenue
stemming from tried and tested business models, with calculateable success
founded on a broad reach.

So, as much as television needs to be looking in the direction of transmedia to be
able to offer an audience the multiplatform approach many take for granted today (”if
this show doesn’t invite me to do something on a 2nd screen (that ties logically and
seamlessly into the show itself or the world the show depicts) I’ll just use that 2nd
screen to bitch about it on Twitter. Or play Empires & Allies on Facebook”)
transmedia needs to be looking at television as an integral part of many transmedia
projects. And not as an add-on either, like a reversal of the state of affairs when tv
shows should have interactivity at all cost, leading to slap-on, underdeveloped and
seriously underwhelming interactive content being published regularly. Nope; just as


much as multiplatform or transmedia content need to be developed at the same time
as a television show, so must a television show be developed at the same time as
the multiplatform and transmedia content.


Interview - Nicoletta Iacobacci
Nicoletta is a PhD candidate & researcher and responsible for Crossmedia and
Multiplatform activities at the European Broadcasting Union. She coordinates and
supports the most interesting and innovative TV professionals of European Public
Service Media. Her background is as a producer and reporter for television,
computer graphics and digital television. She initiated the RAI TV interactive/digital
content factory in Italy and has been teaching Interactive storytelling. She is
@nicoletta_iaco on Twitter.

I think we agree that transmedia can play an important role when it comes to
the evolution of television. How about the other way around – do you see that
television can impact the way we view, create and produce transmedia?

First we should ask, what is “television” today? Is it a genre, is it a medium, or is it
only a size? We have small, medium, large and extra large screens. Transmedia
should be a method that is able to spread a story seamlessly on all these screens in
order to reach more, if not all users. We are in a transitional phase where TV is
increasingly considered to be just a bigger screen. Those able to use space and lay-
out (and by space I mean the “living room” and the power of family aggregation, and
for layout, the user experience of Smart TV) will win the game in the coming months.
I agree that Transmedia is impacting TV, but TV needs to become one of the screens
in a multiplatform ecosystem. Today TV is still mainstream and is the aggregator that
allows you, at the production level, to involve the broadcasters, who do not risk to
involve funding in “just” online/mobile experiences. In my opinion though, TV had its
day and its predominance won’t last for long.

How do you see that television can make that impact?

I can give you an example: I am currently facilitating and coordinating the first
international transmedial co-production, which involves, in its development phase at
least 3 broadcasters. In its original plan the project focused on the web as the main
distribution platform, and TV was considered one of the narrative’s entry point. At the
beginning has not been easy to involve broadcasters, since they are not yet ready to
risk on a project that doesn’t come with all the proper monitoring methods (like in a
television environment.) or on a project that it may fail. The, we changed strategy
and gave TV the predominant role and the reaction was very positive for the same,
identical project. If we want to seamlessly leverage Transmedia from being a trend to


become a normal narrative method, we still have to give TV the leading role.

How about non-fiction transmedia, as a lot of television is reality or
documentary or game shows etc... and fiction and transmedia have a pretty
tight bond. Is there room for non-fiction transmedia, what does it and will it
look like?

I believe in transmedia applied to non-fiction projects. Borders are fading, genres are
fading, rules are changing. Transmedia gives you the opportunity to face the
challenge of audience fragmentation, creating content that can please many. It is still
difficult to apply it to news broadcasts but Transmedia has infected the narrative of
documentaries and soon will do the same with current affairs and investigative
reporting projects.

I am working on enforcing a pure entertainment Saturday-prime time TV program
with some transmedia elements and we will see if we will be able to do it.

Transmedia is a switch of mind-set that can be applied to everyday life, not only
entertainment. Focus on your daily routines: don’t you apply some transmedia
methods in telling your stories or proposing your new project? For example, from my
point of view, if I need to engage a broadcaster in a new production, and the story
involves more than a platform, I build the proposal specifically for each stakeholder,
with a different entry point for each partner. Therefore Transmedia is not only the
narrative strategy, it’s also the selling one.

You’re with the EBU and hence on the public service broadcaster side of
affairs. Still, with so much talk going on about how to finance transmedia;
what's your view on this? Will transmedia in itself become a viable business
model, or is it already? Or will the marketing budget be a transmedia
producer's best friend?

It’s very difficult to predict because in my role of Head of multiplatform at the
European Broadcasting Union, which is the organization of a the majority of PSM in
Europe and worldwide, I currently struggle to facilitate transmedia co-productions.
There is a big discussion going on regarding “financing multiplatform projects” where
of course transmedia is one of them. Pay-by-the-audience, pre rolls, product
placement, sponsorships; but most of these opportunities are not viable for public
service broadcasters therefore we should be creative, think-out-of-the-box.


Media, besides strengthening relationships and transforming working habits, can
boost the entertainment experience and specifically, for the public service
broadcasters, can re-invent the audience experience. Television is still the most-used
media device although enjoyed differently than before. The VUP today (viewer/user/
player, a term invented by Stephen Dinehart) mainly consume content digitally, in a
non-linear environment; content that can be fragmented, shared, or played back
starting at any point.

Yet the PSMs face a demographic threat. I read that around half of their viewers are
over 65 years old, while only 5 percent are under 30. If the PSBs are to safeguard
their future, they must attract younger audiences and it’s a big challenge because
the youth market is demanding and quite elusive.

Having at their disposal a multitude of media choices, young people, if the TV
content is not integrated in a well conceived multiplatform strategy, prefer the
Internet, mobile and game console over TV.

But again, in my opinion we can’t predict. We have to try, make mistakes and keep
going in experimenting. As I said think creatively, out-of-the-box and the business
model will define along the way.

Where do you see transmedia in, say, the year 2015?

I think in 2015 we won’t talk much about transmedia; it will be a current method of
communication, and we already use it. If you know how to manage all the available
communication tools, it’s common to tell a story that is enhanced, and deployed in a
multiplatform environment. Different angles of your tale designed for your personal
audience, from your grandmother to your children, in circumstances where you can’t
use the same medium for everyone any longer. In 2015 transmedia will be a norm,
a necessity. In order to make it happen, we should probably make more and maybe
talk less.


TRANSMEDIA AND THE AUDIENCE
————————————————————————————————

Key elements: audiences, engagement, research, implementation

There are several reasons for people to dive into the world of transmedia storytelling.
Some are passionate storytellers with an affection for tech and new ways of
communicating, some want to better the world through their message, while some
others simply want to make money. All are good reasons in my book, but they’re all
dependent on one thing - having and audience. In this chapters I’ve collected some
of my posts and some interesting links regarding how to relate to and communicate
with the audience in the context of transmedia storytelling.

The Interviewee

Interviewed for this chapter is Yomi Ayeni. He has a very diverse background, always
connected to the audience. With his latest project - Clockwork Watch - he
successfully crowdfunded the first installment via IndieGoGo and has a bunch of
exciting stuff in the pipeline for 2012.


Transmedia - Story, Experience and Needs

When Paul Burke commented on a post of mine a week ago he mentioned that there
is a subtle difference between the story and the experience. That thought has been
nagging away at the back of my head for a bit, so I decided to elaborate slightly on
the matter.

At MediaCity, we have a number of very competent people working at our UX
laboratory, doing research into user experience. Looking at stuff they put out is
always enlightening, even when it doesn’t touch on your project directly. They’ve
been talking a lot about the Needs of people and these Needs connection to User
Experience. In my mind it feels very true, that taking these Needs into account while
developing transmedia will result in a better User Experience in the end.

The Needs in question are six different ones (out of ten, developed by Sheldon et al);
Autonomy, Relatedness, Competence, Stimulation, Influence and Security. My
colleagues did a study last year,available here, that looks into these different Needs
with regards to using interactive products and media. It’s a good read!

So, to look at these Needs and how to apply them to a transmedia development
process,:

- Autonomy. This is a Need closely related to ”being real”, being oneself. Also to the
flexibility of the product – can I use it anywhere, as it suits me? One good example
right now is the as-of-yet only available in Finland iPhone social game Shadow
Cities; I can play it anywhere at anytime over my iPhone, connected to the real world
via OpenMaps, and it really enhances my Autonomy IMHO.

- Relatedness. The Need to feel connected to a bigger whole, a group of friends, the
place where you grew up… basically, your place in the world and in the story (and in
the story world, of course!)

- Competence. The Need to master stuff, to feel that you can handle what’s thrown
at you. No matter if it’s cracking a code on a website or just finding the website in the
first place; it’s the feeling of being competent and up to the task. (I.e. don’t make it
too hard for people to master your challenges!)


- Stimulation. The Need that is most closely connected to creativity – the interaction
with others or with media (or with the challenges you pose them in your transmedia
narrative) spurs people on and stimulates them. Given the opportunity to express
oneself brings out the creativity in people. (Leave sandboxes for people to express
themselves in!)

- Influence. The Need that is about reaching out to others, to communicate, to feel
connected. Your users will want to be part of a whole, but also be able to influence
that whole in some way.

- Security. This last Need is closely connected with experiencing that things work
the way they should. A coffeemaker fills this Need, as it always works. It also fills the
need in a different way, as it is a familiar machine, thereby strengthening the feeling
of Security. The feeling that everything is as it should be. Conclusion: you might very
well include things that don’t work, or hoax people, or make things be NOT as they
should be – but plan for that and be aware of this need, Perhaps your users need a
sanctuary somewhere?


What Motivates a Transmedia Audience
28th of February 2011

This must be one of the things that creators of just about anything wonder about the
most – will people, my intended audience, feel motivated enough to partake of what I
have to offer? Will they participate like I would want them to participate? Will they
stick around? Will they advocate my content to their friends? Or will they just turn
their back and go do something else that they think is better?

This goes for blockbuster movies, for television series, for indie graphic novels and
yes, for transmedia projects as well. To try to get to grips with this challenge, big-
enough companies do target group research, polls etc, while smaller producers and
creators poll their friends and family but mostly trust their gut feeling.

I struggle with this as well, naturally. I am in the quite luxurious position of having
access to a laboratory and researchers focused on media and user experience, with
whom we at the format development department work closely to get to know as
much as possible about the experiences people derive from what we have to offer.
Granted, many times the bulk of work goes to getting the testing itself focused to
such a degree that it actually helps us in the development work. But as we work on
it, we refine it and become better, naturally.

Something I’ll be bringing to the development work, and to the testing, is something I
just saw. This very interesting video from RSA.org, featuring a talk by Dan Pink, is
about what motivates people in the workplace. Do have a look, it’s (as all RSA-
videos are) very good indeed. Basically what is said is that research shows that
motivating people to work better with more money as the sole reward works fine as
long as we’re talking only about manual labor. As soon as we go into any kind of task
that would call for creative work, the people who received more money worked
worse and failed more often. On the other hand, ventures like Wikipedia, Linux and
Apache show that people – highly educated, motivated people at that – will work and
give of their knowledge and skill, for free. So, what is the reward? Autonomy,
mastery and purpose, according to Dan Pink.

We’re big on doing stuff that we want to do ourselves, not things that someone tells
us to do. We’re also big on the feeling of mastering something, knowing that we
know this thing and we are competent in precisely this regard. Finally, we’re big on
having a purpose; of knowing that today is a step along the way towards a goal,


whatever that might be – from ”making the world a better place” to ”teaching people”,
for instance.

This was the workplace, mind you. I am quite convinced that this goes for a
transmedia project as well, where you would want people to interact, to participate,
to become a part of your story world. To put it into the categories of Autonomy,
Mastery and Purpose, if you want the audience to immerse, engage and participate:

- You must not guide them too much, or the feeling of autonomy will be lost. It's a
tricky task, to leave enough openness for everyone to find something "new", and to
be able to make their own way through your story and your world, and make their
own stuff there; too much and you have no control (which might be what you desire),
too little and you will have obedient people following your instructions (if there are
any people left for you to instruct, that is)
- You must not make mysterious content that no one will ever master, or they will
never get the feeling of being competent in your story world. Instead, perhaps, leave
areas where audience members can become masters; masters of what they
themselves have created within the ramifications of your story, or masters at guiding
other audience members in understanding the intricate fabric of the story and the
world.
- Finally, you must not build a story where the participation of the audience has no
meaning for anything, where their actions or lack of actions has no impact and it
simply does not matter what they do or not. Neither can you build a story world that
has no purpose in itself, or there will be no reason for anyone to engage in it.


Users, meet Story. Story, meet Users.
2nd of December 2010

(Disclaimer: some of my posts are down-to-earth stuff from a developers point of
view. Others, like this one, are more of the rambling-philosophically-late-at-night kind
of stuff.)

There are two levels to it. On one level the stories are made up. But they're made up
for a reason, and the reason has to do with a different kind of truth. It has to do with
emotional and spiritual truths. It is a way of trying to use a lie, which is the story, to
approach some deeper, more spiritual sense of truth. I don't mean truth with a capital
T; I just mean small kinds of truth.
-Tim O'Brien

When creating a transmedia property, no matter what kind – be it drama, be it a
documentary, be it a music property or just about anything else – producers (me
included) tend to think of their target group. What will they like? What will excite
them? What will turn them on, engage them and make them jump into the story? We
perhaps even conduct research into the target groups to glean more information on
what they really really think, what they’d like and which solution they’d prefer over all
other solutions.

Then we tweak our stories, our worlds, our properties, so that they fit, thus creating a
transmedia property in the same way as people in the industry have been doing
traditional media for decades.

What strikes me as a transmedia truth of sorts, is that we are not only talking of the
Users meeting the Story. In a transmedia setting, it’s as much, or more, about the
Story meeting the Users.

Now, this can be very stressful for a newly–launched, young and insecure Story. As I
think we all know from school, Stories don’t reach their full size until well into the
third season. Until then, they easily fall prey to larger Stories or succumb to over-
hyping, low ratings or the No-Hit Syndrome that has been plaguing many of the
latest herds of Story-younglings.

Attenboroughisms aside, and again as in so many of my posts relating back to what
I’m working on myself, I feel many transmedia projects forget this. The Story needs

One year in transmedia

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