Tracey Swedlow, the lady behind the ultra informative [itvt] is holding an industry conference, TV of Tomorrow Show. I have mentioned this before, but thought a reminder post was due since it is being held on March 13-14th in San Francisco, California. The event will include the announcement of the winners of the inaugural Awards for Corporate Achievement in Interactive and Multiplatform Television. I am interested to see who receives an award, hopefully it will be a work that is truly innovative and is quality. Interesting sessions include:
Recently I gave a talk for the Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University, Leicester. It is “designed for writers interested in experimenting with new formats and exploring the potential of new technologies in their writing” and run by “Professor Sue Thomas, writer and former Artistic Director of the trAce Online Writing Centre, … Read moreMy Talk at De Montfort University
I completely missed this one when it was happening (my defence is that I was travelling at the time), but you really should know about this if you don’t already. In July last year an audio drama began, Shadow Falls. It is a scary tale with high production standards, nice careful attention to the writing, and anagram clues that are issued in the audio fan forum…and so gathered alot of fans very quickly. The season one finale was in early November and fans were hanging out for more tales. And so, the writer Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, got together with some experts of another artform and added something new on the 22nd of November. On that day they launched “The Shadow Falls Experience“.
What they did was create the fictional world of Shadow Falls in the online virtual world Second Life. And then, over the next few weeks, released audio clues in the podcast. The listeners then logged into SL and sought out the information, based on the clues. Just like the ARG I Love Bees, the players had to solve a puzzle and go to a (virtual) place to retrieve an audio component of the story. The players do this, but for those who do not participate in the experience, the total story is podcast at the end. This story is the season two prologue, a podnovel/audio novel. Here is what Mark said about the experience in the “interactive fan forum”, companion #5 podcast (17/11/06) prior to it commencing:
To augment the popular NBC TV series, Heroes, The Heroes 360 Experience was launched on Jan 22 this year. The official press release from NBC says:
Beginning on January 22nd, viewers will be invited to experience Heroes in a whole new way. As they investigate on-air clues and learn new truths about the characters, their involvement will lead them to new platforms, including interaction with unique mobile content; a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) site that one of the characters gives them access to; a special “two screen” application which provides a real-time experience; access to the fictional Primatech Paper company’s phone system; and significantly increased original content on NBC.com including secret files, hidden sites and original commentary from cast members added to each streaming episode.
I mentioned The Venice Project here early last month, a mysterious online TV platform that is in beta. Well, now they’ve changed their name and have announced a major partnership with Viacom: Today we’re announcing a major partnership with Viacom. Which will bring programming and lots of channels from Viacom’s key brands and properties available … Read moreJoost: "world's first online global tv distribution platform"
Dean Keep, a Masters student at RMIT University, has started a research blog on “micro-narratives”. That term, btw Dean, is not new. 😉 I personally like nano-narratives too, for the alliteration and how it makes me smile when I say it. But seriously, the study of micro-narratives, and micro-narratives created for the small screen (or for small and others … Read more"Poetics of Mobile Media"
Because there are so many different terms out there describing the same thing, and many that don’t but are employed by others to do so anyway, I decided to bundle the greatest hits together in this one title: cross/trans/multi-platform/media storytelling/entertainment Although they each mean different things to different people, the fact is they share a common … Read moreHow about that title?
TransISTor is a training initiative organised by CIANT – International Centre for Art and New Technologies in cooperation with FAMU – Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague supported by the MEDIA Training Programme of the European Union. TransISTor focuses on computer games technologies while opening up their creative potential … Read moreTransISTor 2007: cross-media gaming courses
The wonderful Penguin UK and DeMontfort University have teamed up to create a massive wiki novel project. For the month of Feb (and beyond hopefully), anyone (including spammers you darn…!) can co-write a novel on a wiki. Here is their goal: Can a collective create a believable fictional voice? How does a plot find any … Read moreMassive wiki novel
