Universe Creation 101

I am very much behind the times, because I was unaware of a viral campaign that has been out for a few months. I do recall a “secret” but who knows what teaser or ARG I could be thinking of?? This viral campaign is designed to gather interest in two things: The upcoming worldwide broadcast of a movie called “The Secret” and what “the secret” is. There is a main website, www.whatisthesecret.tv and a blog. There are two short films, which each provide more information: clue 1 and clue 2.

In its launch week, (the third week of October) the website was ranked 12,627 of all sites on the web by Alexa [source: blog]. They have worked to facilitate its viral status by :

• providing the movies through iTunes and on the web for watching via your iPod;
• they have put picture clues in Flickr;
• they have put quick links for easy virability (my word):

• Furl it
• Blogmark it
• Email it
• Delicious it
• Direct link to them
• Bookmark it
• Recommend it
• Refer to it

It is basically, a dummies guide to using the Net. You can also receive email updates and for those with bad internet connections, you can watch a slideshow version. There are people who claim to know what the secret is, and the weirdest thing is they’ve left what appears to be the solution in the comments on the blog. I’ll let you search that, if you want to. There is also a blog post by one of the people who are in the movie. There is also a forum that discusses the project, along with stats supplied by those involved. I’ll let you find that too. But what is weirder, for me, is that the production company, Prime Time Productions, is actually in Australia, in Melbourne.

The movie is to be aired on Feb 15th then a Tv series meant to be following, along with a DVD. It is apparently in the ilk of What the Bleep, but more accessible. You can see, here, how subscribers to site has grown.

This is the second post in a series of posts about new cross-media researchers. Introducing…

Andrew McKenzie, PhD candidate, Creative Media, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Here is his description, from a listserv conversation:

My research is into areas of narrative structure and content creation. For my PHD I’m going to be devising theories surrounding the way that narrative and content must adapt for 3g Mobile Video technology. I’m using my thesis screenplay from my MA in Creative Writing as a foundation and template to producing content for Mobile Video.

As a case study I intend to examine Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series in various forms including radio plays, novel, computer games, stage play, television series, and feature film and devise theories surrounding the relationship of character to narrative and exposition.

Andrew will be changing his website to be a blog soon. I look forward to catching up with him when he’s in Melbourne, and discussing narrative & cross-media. Yay!

Many blogs have posts about predictions for this year (including me!), and some have round-ups of the previous year. This post is the beginning of a round-up of last year. Not a round-up of cross-media projects, cross-media in the news or the cross-media industry; instead, over the next few posts I’ll be doing a round-up of academics I’ve discovered are researching cross-media (in no particular order).

Anja Bechmann Petersen, PhD candidate, Dep. of Information and Media Studies, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Anja is investigating “flermedialitet”, which I’ve just found out is cross-media in Danish! Her PhD is titled Cross-media – interplay between media and is described as follows:

The aim of my project is to make a theoretical conceptualisation of cross-media through different theories of media and production analyses at Nordjyske Medier in Aalborg and DR in Oerestaden. [...]

Methodically and theoretically the project uses theories of singular media to describe the media characteristics of newspaper, radio, TV, internet and mobile phones (the media types present at Nordjyske and DR) and the satellite terms (discourses) of convergence, divergence, resonance, transmediality, remediation and intermediality to coin a theory of cross-media and the possibilities of interplay between media types.

To supplement this conceptualisation the project will make empirical studies at Nordjyske Medier and DR to see how cross-media are understood (what are their understandings of possibilities as to interplay) and executed both organizationally and physically.

Lucky for me, Anja is coming over to Sydney, Australia for a few months to do some study here. I look forward to chatting more then.

News from MocoNews: Channel 4 is running a website called FourDocs. FourDocs is the “place to upload, watch and learn about documentary“. It is addressing the desire for audiences to create their own shows, learn about filmmaking, share their view of the world, and their stories. Audiences have been jumping on uploading video clips, viral videos, vlogs, machinima and now Movies for a while. Some traditional media antecendants include TV shows like Funniest Home Videos, in which audiences send in video tapes of their friends and relatives making fools of themselves or narrowly missing a violent death. So this site is fitting in nicely with an audience desire. But it is doing something else too, docs created by the audiences are available for viewing online and also for download on the street…

FourDocs are being “bluecast” in from underground train stations and cinemasa cross the UK. Through specially created posters advertising the show people can download through their mobile phone using bluetooth 8 different FourDocs. The online ’show’ started 2 weeks before the Viacom Outdoors Bluetooth campaign. The campaign was “planned by OMD UK and Michaelides & Bednash”. [Brand Republic] Channel 4 is the first to sign up for the bluetooth poster sites using bluetooth technology.

Another has jumped on the bluetooth service already though: Trans World Entertainment Partners (a music store franchise) & WideRay are creating “Download & Go” mobile entertainment stations. Upon entering the store, people with a bluetooth or infrared-enabled phone will be sent an offer to download: “music, video, games, ringtones and wallpapers from EMI Music, Twentieth Century Fox, Digital Chocolate” for free or as “try-and-buy applications”. Also on offer will be full-length games that can be paid for in-store. [WideRay press release]

This is great for mobile phones, but also for users and content creators. It also opens the door for wireless advertising. I really like the idea of getting good content, good stories from an advertisement in a bus shelter. The breaking down of the boundaries between advertising and storytelling, between story space and real-life space, between story technology and real life technology will have an interesting effect on people me thinks…

Here are some CFPs that are relevant to cross-media researchers:

Trans –: Negotiations and Resistance, 19th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference, Association of English Graduate Students

***Abstract Deadline: January 20th, 2006***

University of Southern California, Los Angeles
April 7 - 8, 2006

***CFP***

Trans- is a prefix circulating with increasing frequency, not only in the titles and subject matter of our intellectual and creative work, but also in the terms we use to define academic and creative selves. Trans- articulates projects that intersect with, but also work across multiple disciplinary affiliations. This conference does not seek to reductively unify the reach and potential of trans- work. The work of trans-, irrespective of specific invocations, might be viewed as a unified movement of transition, a movement between, or a movement across, and therefore beyond the terms that trans- operates within. This movement between, across, beyond is not necessarily an easy process. Trans- work is only able to map alternate spaces through negotiation and resistance. What does trans- negotiate and resist? What resists and negotiates trans-? Why should and do we care about the work of trans-, the movement of trans-, and the creation of alternate spaces that trans- implies?

This conference poses trans- as a question to be explored from a multiplicity of positions, politics, and performances, utilizing multiple mediums, methods, and genres. Participants may be inclined to invoke the prefix and terms directly, or prefer to perform trans- work without directly referencing the prefix. Both proposals, and a combination / revision of the two, are welcome.

Some examples of terms and questions that potential conference papers may want to consider are:

transnational, transgender, transdisciplinary: What kinds of spaces, institutions, constellations, or new possibilities do we seek to create when we attempt to negotiate between and resist given identificatory categories such as gender, race, or nationality? To what degree are the discreet categories that we seek to challenge also held in place by the efforts of trans-?

What are the benefits or drawbacks of employing transhistorical, transfeminist, or transnational methods in our work? Why do employ these approaches and what are their goals?

translation, transfiction, transgenre: How can we imagine negotiations and resistance as emerging at the level of the text, and discourse in general? What are the politics of translation and how do we negotiate and use them? How are generic categories—film, poetry, performance, fiction, memoir, etc.—affected / resisted when we identify work as transgeneric or when we create transgenre work?

transcribe, transfix, transact, transcend(ence), transcription, transfigure, transmission: What trans-es seem out of fashion, less “of the moment,â€? and why? Has trans- ever been in fashion?

transgressions, transformations: What does it mean to negotiate between or across disciplinary boundaries? Must work that effectively transcends or transgresses other types of boundaries also necessarily be transdisciplinary?

What are the differences between trans– and interdisciplinary work and what are the political stakes of that distinction?

Of course, the above terms and questions will transcend the temporary boundaries we’ve given them. In fact, we encourage critical and / or creative work that translates, transforms, transgresses, or works at answering some of the aforementioned questions. We seek proposals that will contribute to a truly transdisciplinary conference, including projects that attempt to transcend creative and critical boundaries.

Potential papers should run 15-20 minutes. Please e-mail an electronic one-page abstract (250-words, double-spaced), including your name, affiliation, address, phone number, and e-mail address to: uscaegs@gmail.com

Internet Research 7.0: Internet Convergences, Association of Internet Researchers

*** Abstract Deadline: February 7, 2006 ***

The Internet works as an arena of convergence. Physically dispersed and marginalized people (re)find themselves online for the sake of sustaining and extending community. International and interdisciplinary
teams now collaborate in new ways. Diverse cultures engage one another via CMC. These technologies relocate and refocus capital, labor and immigration, and they open up new possibilities for political,
potentially democratizing, forms of discourse. Moreover, these technologies themselves converge in multiple ways, e.g. in Internet-enabled mobile phones, in Internet-based telephony, and in computers themselves as “digital appliances” that conjoin communication and multiple media forms. These technologies also facilitate fragmentations with greater disparities between the information-haves and have-nots, between winners and losers in the shifting labor and capital markets, and between individuals and communities. Additionally these technologies facilitate information filtering that reinforces, rather than dialogically challenges,’narrow and extreme views.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Our conference theme invites papers and presentations based on empirical research, theoretical analysis and everything in between that explore the multiple ways the Internet acts in both conve/rging and fragmenting
ways - physical, cultural, technological, political, social - on local, regional, and global scales.

Without limiting possible proposals, topics of interest include:

- Theoretical and practical models of the Internet
- Internet convergence, divergence and fragmentation
- Networked flows of information, capital, labor, etc.
- Migrations and diasporas online
- Identity, community and global communication
- Regulation and control (national and global)
- Internet-based development and other economic issues
- Digital art and aesthetics
- Games and gaming on the Internet
- The Net generation
- E-Sectors, e.g. e-health, e-education, e-business

Abstract Deadline: February 7, 2006

Creative Translation: Film Adaptation, (dis)junctions: lost in translation

April 7-8, 2006
University of California, Riverside

*** Abstract Deadline: February 10, 2006 ***

This panel will consist of papers discussing various concerns of film adaptations. What problems arise when adapting a work of literature to a screenplay? How do various adaptations of the same work use the primary text differently in their adaptations? What role does fidelity play in screenplay adaptation? What problems in auteur/authorship arise in screenplay adaptation? Etc.

Papers addressing alternative forms of media and literature (i.e. video games, television shows, comic books) which have been adapted to film are also welcome, as are papers which address issues of “remakes.â€?

Please send 250-300 word abstracts to maggie.gover@yahoo.com by February 10, 2006. Please include your department affiliation and specify any a/v needs.

NARRATIVE KNOWLEDGE/NARRATIVE ACTION, 2006 Thomas R. Watson Conference

October 5-7, 2006

*** Abstract Deadline: MARCH 1, 2006 ***

The sixth biennial Thomas R. Watson Conference in Rhetoric and Composition will address the multiple ways narrative informs theory, research, and teaching in rhetoric and composition.

Plenary Panels:

Narrative Knowledge: Arthur Danto. Michael Ruse. Ruth Behar.

Narrative and Literacy: Jonathon Rose. Thomas Newkirk. Deborah Brandt.

Narrative and Identity: Kathleen Stewart. Nedra Reynolds. Glynda Hull.

Narrative and Multmodality: Gunther Kress. James Gee. Cynthia Selfe.

Narrative Action: Victor Villanueva. Beverly Moss. Nancy Sommers. Sondra Perl.

Comix 101: Art Spiegelman. Author of Maus, Maus II, and In the Shadow of No Towers.

Proposals:

We invite proposals for 20-minute individual presentations or 75-minute panels that consider some aspect of the conference theme, including

–Narrative as a way of knowing and making meaning. Narrative as social action.
–Narrative and key disciplinary concepts, e.g., identity, agency,literacy, culture, process, reflection, genre.
–The role of narrative in writing courses.
–The ways narrative shapes practice, theory, and rhetorics of research.
–The historical narratives we construct about disciplinary development.
–The influence of interdisciplinary narrative theory and research on our teaching and research practices.
–New narrative genres and the relation of narrative to multi-modal literacies

For information concerning proposals, please visit the conference
website: www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/watson/

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: MARCH 1, 2006

Inquires: 502-852-6801 or Watson@louisville.edu

Debra Journet, Director, 2006 Watson Conference. Cynthia Britt and Alana Frost, Assistant Directors, 2006 Watson Conference

Television and Film Narratives, SSNL Session at the 2006 MLA Convention in Philadelphia

***Abstract Deadline: March 6, 2006***

The panel aims to attract a range of papers by scholars working in narrative and/or media studies. Proposals are specifically invited for topics within the following fields of interest, but other papers foregrounding the concept of narrative in television or film texts are also very welcome.

— Recent film adaptations of novels: for example the plethora of recent Jane Austen adaptations in the form of both movies and television series across world entertainment media in Britain, the USA, and India. — Papers analysing the construction of television news narratives — both in television news reports and in politicians’ spin-doctoring (i.e. re-narrating) of news events in their attempt to achieve media advantage or damage limitation. This process has become particularly intense in news reporting both in the USA and in Britain during the war in Iraq. — Narratological considerations of the representation of reversed story sequences in the medium of film (this topic was the focus of a recent lively discussion of the film _Memento_ and related texts on the online Narrative list).

Please send a 1-page abstract and brief vita to Hilary Dannenberg at hilary.dannenberg@uni-bayreuth.de by March 6, 2006.

Panel Title: Film Genre and Criticism, Midwest Modern Language Association

*** Abstract Deadline: March 31, 2006***

This panel will consider film’s capacity to revisit and revise genre in a critical fashion. How do genre forms and conventions inhibit or enhance a film’s critical potential? What does a film gain by combining and redefining genres and subgenres? Abstracts for this panel should explore the interconnections between film genre and criticism through analyses that perform critical redefinitions themselves.

Some possible topics to consider include:

-the connections between genre formations and questions of nationality, culture, class, race, and gender

-the relative capacity for cultural transformation through “high culture” genres and “low culture” genres

-the criticism implicit within and about certain genres

-the critical function of synthesizing or questioning genres

-the ways in which film adapts and reconstructs genre from literary works

-filmmakers who have defined or revitalized genres: Akira Kurosawa, James Whale, Fritz Lang, etc.

-filmmakers who have redefined or challenged genre work: FranE7ois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, etc.

-filmmakers who have combined disparate genres within their work: the Coen brothers, Pedro AlmodF3var, Quentin Tarantino, etc.

Please send 150-300 word abstracts to Greg Wright at wrightg2@msu.edu. The deadline for abstracts is March 31, 2006.

The M/MLA conference will be held November 9-12, 2006, in Chicago, IL, at the Palmer House Hilton. Please visit the M/MLA website for more information about the 2006 conference.

I usually get my videos of games (trailers & developer interviews) through GameSpot and watch ControlFreaksTV for some of the buzz; but I just rediscovered (I’ve been plenty of times but haven’t actually utilised it) the Internet Archive. They have a section on game videos, which includes valuable stuff from “old” games:

The Internet Archive’s Game Videos Archive was set up to archive all kinds of rare or difficult to source, legally downloadable video files relating to videogames.

Whether it be EPKs (electronic press kits), speed runs, machinima, and a multitude of other replay and gameplay files, the Internet Archive is delighted to present this collection for archival posterity.

Any suggestions of other places for video documentation about games (I’m interested in gameplay, narrative & cross-media elements and not technology), old and current?

A new mobisode is out that looks like it was created using Hollywood production standards, as well as Hollywood stars. Flatland, a Ruddy Morgan Organization Production (the fellows who brought us Million Dollar Baby and The Godfather), was created for worldwide distribution through mobile and broadband. The mobile design & producer is Timothy Shey, who came by and alerted me about this show but the comment seems to have disappeared! Tim started a company, Proteus, in 1996, and has been working on wireless applications for a while, including mobisode versions of The Sopranos and Sex & the City. Tim’s latest creation, the Flatland mobisode, is described as “the first original action series produced for broadband, hand-held, PSP and mobile phonesâ€?.

The overall story is described as follows:

The year is 2010. The place is Shanghai. Three young Americans — Quentin Mitchell (PHYLLIP RHYS), JT Dunnit (BUMPER ROBINSON) and Amy Li (FRANCOISE YIP) — find themselves trapped in the mysterious web of a man known only by the name of Smith (DENNIS HOPPER). Smith’s world “Flatland” is terrifying, a place where the past and present exist at the same time, intersecting with deadly consequences. Where reality changes in a heartbeat. Where life and death hang on the blink of an eye.

It is Dennis Hopper’s first mobisode appearance. Previews of the series are available, as well as downloads for PSP and iPod.

An interview with Tim, conducted by Keren Flavell, is available for podcast. In the interview, Tim talks about writing and filming for the various devices. They re-edited the series for each media channel, according to their affordances. They have done short-form versions for the mobisodes: 2-3 minute episodes that focus on certain elements in the episodes, and long-form for iPods & broadband. The shots were tight, with some even cropped further for the mobisode. The content was created as a non-linear storyline, to be told from alot of different perspectives, and to work cross-culturally.The mobisode series is dialogue-driven whereas the major action scenes are in the broadband and downloadable versions. Now, this sounds like Tim knows what he is doing. Indeed, rather than repurposing exactly the same content, Tim is altering the work according to each device. This requires knowing each device, each audience for each device and then altering the story (what is told) & discourse (how it is told).

There aren’t that many resources for writing & shooting mobisodes. Here are some:

Holson, L.M. (2005) ‘Pocket-size screen’s new rules‘, International Herald Tribune

Mobile Filmmaking: Lessons

Nielsen, J. (1998) ‘Microcontent: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines’, Useit.com

Tim plans to simultaneously release, like Forget the Rules, sometime this year worldwide. I’ll add it my list of mobisodes.

I’ve found 2 references to my research into the narrative aspects of cross-media entertainment (beyond paper & book citations), for teaching. One is for a subject run Dr Ismail S. Talib at the Department of English Language & Literature of the National University of Singapore: Narrative Connections. The subject explores:

The connections of narrative to various disciplines are extensive. The following list represents only a selection of what can be freely found on the Internet. The GEK1049 module, of course, will not be exploring any of the following inter-disciplinary connections in great detail. You will also notice that each discipline (with some individual and sub-disciplinary variations), explore their connections to narrative in different ways. Some connect narrative to the content of their disciplines, while others use it to structure the writing and exposition done within their disciplines. Some of the connections below may be quite peripheral, while others may be quite substantial, requiring at least some knowledge of the theoretical considerations that we will be discussing in this course.

As you can see, my theory on “polymorphic narrative” is listed under Media Studies, alongside Marie-Laure Ryan (my favourite Narratologist). I’m a lucky girl! Ismail has also put a resource on narrative online that is quite comprehensive.

The other citation is in the Online MA in Creative Writing & New Media guide. It is delivered at De Montfort University and “is designed for writers interested in exploring the potential of new technologies in their writing via a combination of online study with a week-long workshop in the UK.” It is designed by Sue Thomas and Kate Pullinger. It is on their listserv that we recently that Sue asked me what the obstacles to CME were. You can read the transcript here.

ARGs are one of the most developed forms of CME, interactive narrative and participatory design. The video of the ARG Fest that I’ve mentioned before is available for free via Bitorrent, through Grey Lodge. The contents include:

1) Perplex City by Mind Candy Ltd with Michael Smith and Adrian Hon

2) The Art of the Heist by the PM team with Mike Monello, Brian Cain, Brian Clark, Matt Fischvogt, Jim Gunshanan, Gabriel Georgeian, and Dave Szulborski

3) MetaCortechs by the PM team with Steve Peters, Krystyn Wells, Brooke Thompson, and Sean Stacey

4) There is No Such Thing as an ARG by special guest speaker
Jane McGonigal

5) Pictures from ARG Fest NYC 2005 featuring pictures submitted by the attendees

I bought the DVD and find the video interesting. There isn’t much about ARG design, but it gives a nice insight into the behind-the-scenes events and goals of well-known ARGs. And is a good introduction for those who no nothing about the genre. A genre you should know about.

Interesting post by Corvus Elrod, describing his approach to story/game creation: Interactive Storyscape.

I refer to the Drachurae Cycle as an Interactive Storyscape, as not only is it a narration built for interaction, but of interaction. Rather than craft linear plot lines and usher players through them, I create, characters, environments, and situations, which I invite players to explore, effect the outcomes of, and add their own ideas to the mix. This atmosphere of co-creation is at the heart of my storytelling and the digital incarnation of my work will incorporate it as much as conceivably possible.

Now, this seems on the face of it to be a description of a virtual world/MMOPG and the like — where players make the world come alive in many ways. But what Corvus is burrowing deeply into is the peculiar experience of writing for interaction. In such circumstances, one needs to create a world with characters and events that people want to be a part of, persistently; but also, one needs to consider what sort of events and characters and environment encourages co-creation. It is one thing for someone to like the space and the skin they’re in, it is another for them to want to (and feel they can) build upon it. How does this change a story? Well, I don’t have a quick list for you right now. For now, consider the following questions:

• What sort of stories would you like to watch?
• What sort of stories would you like to be in?
• What sort of stories would you like to co-create?
• What sort of stories would you like to create?

Can you say yes to all of them for the same story?