Simplifying Transmedia

Taking a startup approach to Transmedia

By Maya Zuckerman | July 07, 2013 By Maya Zuckerman Edited by Juliana Loh Over the years, I have been immersed in numerous talks and discussions centered on the question of How can we streamline and simplify the concept of transmedia so that it is easy to understand? My response to that question is: YOU CANT - how can you simplify a concept that by definition represents not a description, but a complex construct; a model in fact? My first approach was to describe the term Transmedia as the perfect ecosystem of a storyworld. But having said this, you almost need to be a systems person or at least be familiar with what an ecosystem is in order to fully appreciate the definition as a description of a story construct. Most of us understand the concept of transmedia albeit abstractly and while we do appreciate that there is more detail, the truth is we want things to be simple. As a resident of San Francisco, I am accustomed to the many concepts that have defined the startup and silicon valley ecosystems and have to agree 100% that Simplicity is INDEED the ultimate sophistication

Startup Concepts: Lean Startups Agile and scrum MVP (minimum viable product)

My experience and knowledge has given me insight into offering you what I consider a simple yet perfect formula and recipe for understanding transmedia: Note: Please remember that each concept sits on a mountain of complexity. Understanding that there is complexity underneath the simple concepts will help you to see the bigger picture: The Transmedia Formula: My concepts are based upon the experiences of my friend, a veteran of the startup community. Over the years, he observed that projects especially in app development that begin minimally (the Minimal Viable Product Stage) offer the audience the greatest opportunity to affect in which direction actual products could possibly evolve.

Why? Because the products themselves begin as mockups - the most basic examples of what the potential product could be. These mockups are given life through the interaction that occurs between developers and users as feedback and discourse facilitate ideas. My friend compared the process of developing startup projects to that of how transmedia is created. He observed that transmedia is not only defined by content and audience, but also includes the same all-important notion of audience interaction. ex. Pilots of shows like Arrested Development whereby content is evaluated by the public offers the same opportunity for Film Producers to tweak their craft. Simply put, Transmedia cannot only be defined by content and audience - but must also include audience or user Interaction. With this understanding in mind, I have reduced the concept of transmedia into 3 elements.

A brief expansion on the formula:

Content - refers to all content: From books, films, blogs, images, live performances, UGC, etc. Platforms - Where do we interact with them, where do they consume the content, how do we market it, etc. Audience - Beyond who they are, how they interact, and how do we engage with them.

The Transmedia Recipe: (how-to run a successful project versus what makes a great Transmedia story or experience)

As a life cook I believe that great projects should be cooked like a great meal: Think about what ingredients must make a great meal, get them, use the correct tools for the job, use your own skills and imagination and voila - bon appetite! I chose the recipe metaphor to aid with the concept of explaining how ideas can move from concept to execution albeit (with a certain flow and elegance + blood, sweat and tears.)

I. Story - can also refer to storyworld or brand narrative. What is the why of the story, the heros journey, the origin story, why should it be told on the many platforms, screens,treatment with attention to plot, logline, user centric scenarios, etc. . II. Content - what are you producing for the multiplatforms? Film, webisodes, book, game,

ARG, play, experience, social film, social tv, etc. III. Team - once you established the above - who do you need in your team to make this a success? Each piece of content needs to have the correct team member in order to accomplish it. IV. Audience - Who is your audience? why would they want to interact with your project? whats their personas? what is your audience journey ? how do you engage, interact, attract and retain them? V. Tools - what tools are you going to use for the job? - your cameras, software, authoring tools, apps, etc. VI. User Experience - once you know your audience you will need a great user experience designer on your team - the reason I created UX as a sub-category is because of its importance - you have to have great ux in order for your audience to interact with your project - whether its a game, film or any other piece of content - the user needs to be moving seamlessly in between the different platforms, screens, experiences. VII. Platforms - which online platforms is the content going to interact with - social media, new platforms. Could also refer to the multi-screens we are using, real live events including breaking the fourth wall. VIII. Business Model: Most important ingredient: How will you make money? how will you raise money first and then make money from your project so it can become sustainable, what's your distrubution models? The biggest next step is how to organize all of this now into a working project. This is definitely the place of another blog or several on developing a great project, writing a great Transmedia bible and then making it happen. Transmedia and Crossmedia Convergence in a Connected World

THE MATRIX

AN INTRODUCTION The Matrix is a science fiction action film that was initially created by Larry and Andy Wachowski in 1999. The narrative starts with the actor Keanu Reves, a man whos living two different types of lives. He works as an computer programmer during day time in the actual world and at night, he transform to another person, a malevolent hacker in another world which, is the Matrix.The first film turn out to be very successful that later on, the Wachowski brothers decided to produced another two films continuing from the first one. The following films The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded also turns out to be successful as well. Both films were released in the same year, 2003 but in different month. LONG LIVING The Matrix manage to continue develop from the first film in 1999, it has gone extremely popular and from there, they release a matrix series of films, comic books, video games and animation. Matrix series is also a franchise that was created by the same people. The products was released in the years between 1999 to 2003 and it was distributed by Warner Bros.Pictures. The series started out with the first film The Matrix and later on extend into another two sequels which, was The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. The settings and the characters of the Matrix fictional universe (a different world that is not exist in the real world created by the humans imagination) are being further explore in other media forms including animation, comic books and video games. EXPANDABILITY The platform of the Matrix is designed to be transmedia because of the fantasy genres, the creation of a storyworld that is different from the actual world and how it brings the audiences in and be a part of the fantasy world.

Anime

One of the very successful media platform in The Matrix was the animatrix. Animatrix is direct-to-video anthology film based on The Matrix trilogy. Its a combination of nine different animated short films that was released in 2003. The animatrix is a convergence that is created for a new chapter for the Matrix by the

films directors collaborating with some of the Japans anime films creators that influences them. The animatrix was originated and overseen by the Watchowski Brothers but they only wrote four of the segments by themselves. They didnt do any of the direction in fact, most of the projects technical side was overseen by notable figures from the world of Japanese animation. The fans gets to seek for a new different experience in Animatrix in relation to The Matrix films.

Games o From the Matrix films series, they develop the series further by creating the very first video game, Enter the Matrix. It was developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by Atari and WB Interactive. They release the platforms in GameCube, PS2, Windows and Xbox. The game was designed similar to the Animatrix, to be an essential part of the Matrix series. Numerous previous films have been adapted as games but in Matrix case, the game expands upon the the story told in the films. The martial arts moves and in-engine cutscenes of the game feature actions captured directly from the films actors and stunt doubles to recreate their unique fighting styles while suspended from wires under the supervision of the series fight scene choreographer Yuen Wo, Ping. o The Matrix: Path of Neo is also another video game that was developed by the same company and it was released in November 2005. This is the third video game base on the Matrix series. The games works in a similar method like the previous games but it provides new options and in the game, the player may choose to participate in many different actions scenes at one time. Books

After the first Matrix film got released, there were books written about The Matrix started being published. The Art of the Matrix was the first book that were released a year after the Matrix film. It was written by both Wachoski brothers together with another author, Spencer Lamm. The book gives the readers an insight of the first Matrix films progress providing details such as conceptual drawings, storyboards, interviews with the people like the artists and participants that were a part of the film as well. Apart from that, the other books that were published later on were The Matrix: The Shooting Script, Like a Splinter in Your Mind: The Philosophy Behind the Matrix Trilogy, Philosophers Explore The Matrix and many more.

Comics

Apart from the books, Matrix also produced a series collection of comics. In 2003, the Wachowski brothers collaborate with Geof Darrow (comic artist) and produce two comic books which was The Matrix Comics Vol.1 and The Matrix Comics Vol.2. The first comic book was released in Nov, 2003 and the second book was a year later after that. Besides the books itself, Matrix also use another way to interact with the

audiences by creating webcomics. So the webcomics is like a normal comic books but only published online. It allows the fans and readers to get access through Internet easily everywhere without needing to buy the books. In total together, the produce 3 series of webcomics base on the Matrixs stories. SELF CONTAINED The Matrix has various of branches and it has been branch out successfully in its own way however, not every branch is related to the original content. The content for each branch has its own narrative and uniqueness. Hence, the branches are not self contained. The audiences can't really proceed to other films or games without going through to the original narrative first. AUDIENCE RECEPTION The Matrix films still remains popular up till now and what makes the audiences enjoys watching the films so much besides the narrative was the special effects. They were so successful that the fans started to create their own videos by making a short film and dedicate it to the Matrixs films. There are websites that features short films or videos that were made by the fans and this is one of them, http://www.fanfilms.net/c/matrix. ECONOMICS All three Matrix films has done exceptionally well and in the economics. Each film manages to successfully gross more than the budget that was given in domestically and internationally. CONCLUSION The Matrix has been successfully adapted into the transmedia storytelling. The media platforms that were created was able to extend the contents from the films and Matrix series.

AVATAR
AN INTRODUCTION Avatars first appearance was in a form of film that was produced and directed by one of the famous filmmaker, James Cameron. Avatar is a science fiction film and the narrative was situated in the mid 22nd century. Its a story about the battle between the United States armies and the Navis avatars from another planet called Pandora. They both have different mission in the war against each other, the United States main intention was to seek out for a type of precious mineral that was called Unobtanium whereas the avatars was the opposition, they were trying to protect and prevent them from getting it. Starring withSam Worthington, a paraplegic marine was given the order to go on a unique mission, who travels to Pandaro and had to blend in as an avatar, trying to convince the avatars and gains their trust. But later on the incident became an obstacle between following his orders and protecting the world and the girl that he felt in love with throughout the story.

In the early years when James Cameron was producing other films such as Titanic, at the same time, he begins the development of Avatar by written up around 80 pages of scriptment. On August 1996, he announced that after completing the Titanic film, he would start working on the Avatars film but he then realise and stated that it wasnt really the right time to do yet because the technology that he wanted to use in the films hasnt been developed and so, he decided to postpone the films production further till the necessary technology was invented. He waited for 15 years for the arrival of technology and only then he put himself back on the films production. LONG LIVING The film was released in December, 2009 and was first premiered in London followed by United States later on. Avatar was the first film that was made in 3D format, described as one of the absolute striving, most breathe taking film in the films history using the latest technology that modernize the film making. During the filmings process, James decided to developed a new generation of stereoscopic cameras. Its basically two cameras strapped together with each providing a slightly different perception on the scene, impersonating the way how we as humans observe the world in three dimensions way. EXPANDABILITY Avatar is still a recent film production and because it's still a quite new and recent film production, there wasn't much and it may have the possibility of working on extending the contents and making it transmedia.

Books

Before the film was released, a number of books was published and one of the books were written by Maria Wilheim and Dirk Mathison, it features a confidential report on the biological and social history of Pandora. It contains 224 pages, providing the readers an insight of the form of a field guide to the films fictional setting of the planet of Pandora and its illustrated as a collection of data collected by the humans about Pandora and the life on it. The book was released on November, 2009 by Harper Entertainment. The other books that were found on the website that relates to Avatar were The Art of Avatar: James Camerons Epic Adventure, James Camerons Avatar: The Navi Quest, The Making of Avatar, and many more.

Games

In the process of making the film, Ubisoft Montreal (Game Company) created a third person action video game and it was launched on December 2009, same time around when the film was released as well. The game was first launched with devices such as PS 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii and Nintendo and later on they released a PSP version. Ubisoft also announced that they will be using the same technology that was shown in stereoscopic 3D cameras for a better entertaining purpose. According to James Cameron, Avatar was created for a world rich in characters, detail, conflict and cultural depth. It has the raw materials for a game that the more

demanding gamers of today will want to get their hands on, one that is rich in visuals and ideas and challenging in play. As a result, the game were successfully sold nearly 2.7 million copies on May, 2010. Merchandise

On December 2009, Mattel Toys made an announcement that they will introduce a line of action figures for Avatar itself. Each action figure will be made with a 3D web tag, called an iTAG. What it does is that the consumers get to scan it using through a web cam, revealing its own unique content that is made specially for each of the action figure. Besides that, a sequence of six different toys of different characters from the film were distributed in McHappy Meals in McDonalds fast food chains in many different countries including in United States itself. On the same month, France Post (France Mail Services) released a special limited edition stamps based on Avatar. Apart from that, there are also some websites found on the Internet that sells Avatars merchandise such as T-shirts, collection of toys and action figures from the film and many more. SELF CONTAINED Avatar is still reasonably still quite new and there hasn't really been any branch being build up or further extend. Therefore, there is no answer whether Avatar is self contained or not. AUDIENCE RECEPTION In terms of the audience reception in the Avatars film, audiences were impressed with mostly the 3D effects but not the narrative itself. Apparently Avatar wasnt as successful as it was expected to be, some people love the film and some people dislike it. According to one of the film reviews, No doubt that Avatar has the most spectacular 3D and visual effects that draws millions of people to find the adventure in it. But it nevertheless feels unsatisfying and somehow lacks the pulse of a truly alive film. Another review that was written by Andrew Pulver from guardian.co.uk, he stated that The Titanic directors monstrously-hyped creation does look fantastic but, in trying to cover all the bases with militarist sci-fi, vacuous eco-waffle and an intra-species love story, its too baggy. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34378459/ns/today-entertainment/t/effectswow-story-avatar-unsatisfying/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/dec/11/avatar-james-cameron-film-review ECONOMICS Although the Avatar did not gain a massive popularity from the audiences but the film certainly has gross more than its expected. The given budget in making the film was 237 million dollars and as a result, the total of gross revenue in United States was around 760 million dollars and the world has a total of 2.7 billion dollars. CONCLUSION Avatar hasnt been successfully or well adapted in the transmedia storytelling. The

other media platforms such as books and games wasnt that successful either. Due to its success in the film, James Cameron is thinking of the extending the content by making Avatar 2. With the film and other media platforms that has been created, Avatar might not work in the transmedia world.

CONCLUSION
So what can we, as media practitioners learn from the success's and failures of The Matrix and Avatar?

Creating a content or narrative using the idea of Science collaborating with action film.

The Matrix can be use as a very good example and future reference in creating new types of transmedia storytelling because the films were extremely successful and the other media platforms were able to be further explored and extend. It's important to keep that creativity up so that we can fulfil the audiences's needs and keep it running.

Don't put all the focus on the technology, concentrate on the narrative as well.

Although Avatar is very successful when it comes to technology, there's no doubt that it has one of the greatest 3D's and special effects in the history but don't forget, narrative is as important as the technology. Without a good narrative or content, there won't be many audiences and without the audiences, you will fail to be in the transmedia storytelling world. http://convergenceishere.weebly.com/the-matrix-and-avatar.html

First 5 things that brought me closer to transmedia guru Jeff Gomez

1 Votes

The shortest distance between two people is a story This is a two-part post written by Mitesh Solanki the last five things (that brought me closer to Jeff Gomez) will feature in part two.

(Image courtesy of Brad Trent, NY) Not so recently, in August of 2011, I attended X Media Labs Jeff Gomez Transmedia Masterclass. Megan Elliot was kind enough to invite me as a guest (thank you Megan!). I think he should tour again next year and I hope this post will help to make that happen. The low down on Jeffs transmedia credits include: Avatar, Tron, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hotwheels and Coca Colas The Happiness Factory. Links to: XML Masterclass XML Jeff Gomez Transmedia Master Class 2011, and Jeffs profile Jeff Gomez CEO Starlight Runner Entertainment. I was fortunate to learn from the number one transmedia guru, who begun his class with an ancient proverb The shortest distance between two people is a story. Key take-outs from the day were underpinned by this notion, and the truth of this proverb rang loud and clear by the days end. The first of its kind in the world, this one-day masterclass promised to deliver practical, howto, hands-on training to help ramp up your income with transmedia storytelling. The session promised you would learn how to: 1. Take titles/stories/films/media/brands across multiple platforms 2. Evolve them into high quality persistent narratives 3. Which in turn generate multiple revenue streams for you

This promise attracted a few dozen transmedia consultants in Sydney, who were all keen to learn how to crack the IP and revenue issues. The masterclass delivered on this promise (plus more) and I want to share the headlines with you as I am intent to spread the word and help secure a 2012 tour with a larger and wider audience. However, it is tricky to write this post as I am treading a fine-line: I do not want to give too much away and risk compromising Jeff and XML, yet I think I need to share some of it to give you a taste. So, without giving too much away, I hope Jeff and X Media Labs dont mind if I share with you, some of the headlines from my key take-outs. The first 5 things that brought me closer to Jeff Gomez, are: 1.0 Threshold assessment

Take Out: Learn how close you are to someone and map out the threshold outline. Then learn how to cross the threshold (with good intentions). Why: Not only can it help to win over a bully (as it did for Jeff), but this assessment can help a brand to get closer to its audience.

2.0 Story telling with campfires and firewalls

Take Out: We all want to be heard. And we all like it when we know that something or someone can hear us. Naturally, when this happens, our mentality says Lets all join in. This then creates a longer lifespan for stories and drives loyalty and engagement. Why: As humans, when we became self aware, we drew on cave walls to express ourselves and tell our story. Then we sat around campfires to tell stories, however in the beginning we were appalling at it (as speaking was a relatively new skill). To help us out, the shaman would pull stories from tribe leaders, or from the audience voice, and they would tell our story to us. Nowadays, technology allows us to create our own feedback loop, just like the shaman did in the campfire days when we were learning how to talk.

3.0 Transmedia is not (common stereotypes)

Cross dressing Scavenger hunting Rocket science TV on the internet A game or alternate reality (with points, winners and leader boards)

4.0 Transmedia is

Unfolding a narrative Extending the narrative Placing the narrative IP in the middle of all touchpoints Three or more narrative storylines existing within the same fictional universe on any of the given transmedia platforms Appealing to and validating the torchbearers Allowing for co-creation and co-ownership Allowing the audience to make a small phsysic leap between each layer (so the experience feels more like reality than a contrived and fake experience)

5.0 The audience

Needs to be cultivated, validated and celebrated Will always have something to say (especially youth) are used to being acknowledged Take everything as fact (especially if growing up with technology) Needs a dialogue Needs a theme

The last 5 things that brought me closer to Jeff Gomez will feature in part two and will include: success criteria, the grand narrative, a characters aspirational drivers, distant mountains, and the story canon.