Transmedia – Are We There Yet?

Transmedia

The Matrix, Sorority Girls.  Storyline carried through a variety of different media.

Warner Brothers – Terminator salvation: interested in transmedia and want to incorporate throughout new properties.

District 9

Not a static thing anymore.  Transmediamatrix.com

Big business of all kinds is doing it:  random house, NBC, Warner brothers, etc.

Juan Garcia – convergent media producer, University of Texas

Transmedia – the wizarding world of harry potter.

LOST – ABC and Disney working on a LOST theme ride

Take you out of the show and into the series.

Glee:  actors from the show will sing songs from the show on a tour.

Can transmedia storytelling extend into nonfiction?  Yes.  Biggest success in this area is the Obama Campaign.  An unknown person with soaring popularity after taking advantage of fan fiction (obama girl, obama mccain dance off, remix), images, Social etworks and using social media to further the character and the brand.  Images and video spread to great results and contributions were welcomed and added to the whole perception of Obama as a person.

Larger first transmedia person was Jesus Christ.  If you were not literate in the middle ages, you found out about jesus through story, song, stained glass, etc, all adding to the vision of the person, another piece of the puzzle.  (Gomez and Jenkins)

We are born story-tellers, so we can incorporate transmedia into reality and non-fiction easily.

Gowalla – location based application service a big part of how we’re telling stories.  As we get more mobile, etc. and add more information to our patterns, we will be able to incorporate video etc, which is important in terms of the idea of video graffiti.  Being able to drop your info and leave it in a location so it becomes a part of the location’s and the person’s history.  Generations to come will be able to associate with this history and information.  Another platform being used and adding transmedia into reality.

Also important for history capture and perspective. You can see something from many different angles, dropping video graffiti allows people to interact.  Augmented reality meets transmedia.

Reality is already cross platform, complex enough for us to allow characters and stories across platforms.  Humans have been experiencing transmedia in our lives forever.

If I Can Dream project.  Ificandream.com:  more than 50 high def cameras set up in a house in LA.  Interact wot people thru twitter, facebook ,etc.  And this is only one piece.  Exclusive deal with hulu for a weekly show, radio broadcasts, etc.  Each of the 5 people are aspiring artists and you’re catching them before their careers are launched and yu become part of their success.  You can submit your own audition, but unlike Big Brother, there’s no voting system, just mean to to capture individual’s lives and see their interactions, daily video blogs and each piece adds to their  character and your sense of them as people.  You can interact with them.

Are we there yet?  Yes with Hollywood, investment, and yes with basic human ability to absorb and create social good.

In the non-fiction space, transmedia story-telling can empower consumers and raise media literacy.