blog salon
User Experience Design and Transmedia Storytelling
I really appreciated Lina’s post dealing with definitions oftransmedia. I think she is quite right that her original definition still holds:
"Transmedia storytelling, a concept identified by Henry Jenkins, is storytelling by a number of decentralized authors who share assets and create content for distribution across multiple forms of media. Transmedia immerses an audience in a story’s universe through a number of dispersed entry points, providing a comprehensive and coordinated experience of a complex story."
The Creative's Dilemma
I’ve been inspired by the blog posts of Ingrid, Lina, and Nedra—here's my follow-up.
The audience should be at the centre of what we create. With many of us seeking ways for the audience to participate, we should stop to think not what the audience can do for us, but what we can do for the audience.
Know Your Premise
The section of Robert's post entitled "Know your premise" is one I appreciated, and important for particular attention from nonprofits and grassroots filmmakers, and particularly for media creators using their narrative and content to lead to people to social action. As Robert says, "if your story is to be coherent across multiple platforms then it’s important that each supports the same premise.
A Rose By Any Other Name
Responding directly to Ingrid's post, it strikes me again that we in this field are still playing with the definition of transmedia.
Games and Interactive Storytelling
Both Lina and Nedra have touched on the transformative potential of transmedia storytelling. I’ve been thinking about all the different ways this transformation can take place.
It’s the Audience, Stupid!
In reading my co-bloggers’ initial posts, I was struck by a common theme that can best be summed up by slightly altering Bill Clinton’s old campaign mantra: “It’s the audience, stupid!”
Or as Ingrid said more eloquently, "The trick is to start with the audience and really design an experience for them."
For Transmedia Storytellers, What Constitutes Success?
For a commercially produced transmedia story, success may be relatively easy to define. How many people saw or interacted with it, and how much money did it bring in through ticket sales, downloads or product purchases? From the audience's point of view, simply being entertained may be an end in itself.
When it comes to transmedia stories created by nonprofits or independent producers with a larger social goal in mind, success may be much more elusive.
Transmedia Tips for Grassroots Creatives and Organizations
Here are my top five tips for creative people starting out in transmedia:
1. leverage what you do best
2. know your premise
3. start small and build it bigger
4. decide how the audience will participate (and clearly communicate it)
5. differentiate yourself from the bigger players
Technology and Anxiety
This past weekend I gave a talk about interactive documentaries at MoMA and the central premise of my presentation is that the anxiety we often feel about this new space has a strong precedent.
What Makes a Successful Transmedia Story?
I just returned from the Berlin Film Festival this past week, where I attended the Berlinale Talent Campus/Power to the Pixel cross-media forums.
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