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Transmedia Storytelling

I believe that the webseries projects we will be working on in the next few years will be based on transmedia and synergic storytelling: Stories so large that they cannot be squeezed within a single medium or platform. The experience spreads across as many media as possible and every single medium makes exclusive and distinctive contributions to the story. A story will probably start with a short webisode. However, for users to understand it, will have to follow the characters of the story on Twitter, join a group on Facebook or Flickr, visit a channel on Youtube or Vimeo, participate in a forum, play a game or an ARG, or attend an event. We will need to create as many point of entry into the content as possible and offer a transmedia experience that gives users resources to shape their own stories.

Tags: storytelling, transmedia, webisodes

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Permalink Reply by Rich Mbariket on September 17, 2009 at 9:16am: I'm with you on this.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bernardo G. Reinfeld on September 25, 2009 at 2:08pm: I'm agree with your vision ;); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brent Friedman on October 15, 2009 at 12:54am: You're absolutely right, Massimo. The reason VALEMONT is now a high budget webseries premiering on MTV is because my company, Electric Farm Entertainment, pitched the show specifically as a transmedia project. When we pitched the project, we had already worked out many of the story layers and deployment platforms, which appealed directly to MTV's demographic and offered one of their key advertisers, Verizon, multiple points of engagement with the audience. Although the show is still in its "pre-launch" phase, the initial metrics have been very positive, highlighting the emerging value of transmedia storytelling.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Robert King on October 15, 2009 at 8:38am: Absolutely. It's about immersing your audience in the universe you've created. Sometimes there are little side stories, peripheral visions that flesh out characters or the world they live in that cannot hold attention as a full fledged episode or feature. A comic, a short, or a narrative that takes place through Twitter or a Facebook page that gives your audience that little extra "ooo, so that's what happened to that guy!".; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by sarah cornelius on October 15, 2009 at 9:04am: Agreed. its not just a 3 dimensional world, but possibly 8 or 9. And with this branded alternate universe comes extremely loyal consumers ready to commit to included products. Smart CMO's should be latching onto these projects. The ROI per person is exponential in comparison to old school tv campaigns.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ray Welt on October 15, 2009 at 6:00pm: The problem with this is both the manpower needed to make it work, and the time/effort investment of potential viewers. You'd need to make each aspect (the webisodes, the Twitter followings, the games, the forums, etc.) worthwhile and entertaining in and of itself. Each aspect would need to be able to attract viewers/users, and hook provide a worthwhile experience that, while maybe enhanced by the other mediums, does not require anything more from the audience.
There is a level of fandom out there that would support such a venture in all its forms, but I don't think it's large enough to support the infrastructure needed. That is supposing, of course, that each realm is not independent of the others to some degree. If I have to put forth real effort into following the storyline, I might decide I'd rather split my attention to three or four other projects that don't require as much from me.
I like the concept of what you write about here, but I think this is much further away than "the next few years."; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brent Friedman on October 15, 2009 at 6:17pm: Ray, as I mention above, it's happening right now with "Valemont" on MTV. And it doesn't take nearly as much manpower as you might think. But what it does take A LOT of is thinking. The planning and scheduling that it took to pull of this type of transmedia storytelling was very time-consuming. But the results speak for themselves -- the show is performing above expectations. And the critics even like it!

http://newteevee.com/2009/10/15/mtvs-valemont-doesnt-pander-to-the-...

Ray Welt said:
The problem with this is both the manpower needed to make it work, and the time/effort investment of potential viewers. You'd need to make each aspect (the webisodes, the Twitter followings, the games, the forums, etc.) worthwhile and entertaining in and of itself. Each aspect would need to be able to attract viewers/users, and hook provide a worthwhile experience that, while maybe enhanced by the other mediums, does not require anything more from the audience.
There is a level of fandom out there that would support such a venture in all its forms, but I don't think it's large enough to support the infrastructure needed. That is supposing, of course, that each realm is not independent of the others to some degree. If I have to put forth real effort into following the storyline, I might decide I'd rather split my attention to three or four other projects that don't require as much from me.
I like the concept of what you write about here, but I think this is much further away than "the next few years."; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Massimo Martinotti on October 17, 2009 at 7:23am: When we work on a transmedia project, we proceed in 5 basic steps.
1) Define the world in which we want to insert our transmedia storytelling according to a specific target.
2) Draw a map the available platforms in a specific territory that are relevant for our target.
3) Define what every platform can add to the story and the correlations between the the platforms.
4) Establish the timetable and the sequence of the release of the different pieces of content on the selected platforms.
5) Allocate the resources. Since we have 4 offices in 4 different countries (US, Mexico, Argentina and Costa Rica) plus associated offices in Italy, Spain and Portugal, we are usually able to divide the project into pieces and give each one of them to the office of ours that offers the appropriate technical and human resources as well as the best costs. For instance, we can write the scripts in Miami, do the development in Costa Rica, design in Barcelona, shoot in Argentina with actors from LA, post-produce in Mexico, and so forth; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Walter Gottlieb on October 19, 2009 at 8:28pm: Good points. We haven't really done that with "The Videomakers" yet, but we've been thinking about how to get there. Thanks for posting.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by docwho 2100 on November 17, 2009 at 11:36am: Just joining this discussion as I have just found my way to this site and also this topic - I am very interested in the concept of transmedia and how web series fit and like the discussion as it has been progressing - may I offer another example that is just now developing - Riese the Series - http://riesetheseries.com/ - created by Ryan Copple and Kaleena Kiff

here is a good article describing the different pieces - www.argn.com/2009/09/riese_the_series_delivering_transmedia_with_a_...

Here is a great example of using multiple mediums to create a whole universe.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by docwho 2100 on November 17, 2009 at 11:47am: In regards to what Ray, and in reply Brent mentioned, I am very fascinated with transmedia and how accessible it is... look at the millions of viewers that barely have time and focus to tune in once a week to a single hour or half hour show on TV, or even more so, trying to catch a single movie. In a true transmedia universe, the balance between NEEDING all pieces of the transmedia and simply EXPERIENCING all of the sources is something I am not sure has been found (I liked the mention of making sure to map all the resources/platforms and the connections by Massimo). I am curious to see how the ability to use multiple mediums, yet not alienate/lose any viewer develops.

The concept of transmedia story-telling has been around for awhile (all the way back, and maybe before, to certain serial radio shows reaching out in other mediums), although with the addition of digital means of delivery, it has exploded.

I am trying to develop a transmedia necessity rating (for lack of finding a term out there yet) as a way to see how tightly woven a certain source (I am most interested in the web series avenue) is to the overall story. If I never see that web series, do I suffer? Or can I have an equal (but of course different) viewing experience without it....

Does anyone know if anything like this exists and can point me in a direction or sources to read/view?; ▶ Reply to This