Universe Creation 101

 ep004_TimWright: Download

Another podcast! Yay! At this rate I might even crack three podcasts a year. hehe. Joking aside, I’m excited about our guest today. UK digital writer Tim Wright shares his vast experience with over a decade with online interactive drama and more recently multiplatform storytelling. Below is a time guide showing you topics Tim touches on a certain points. Everything Tim (and I) refer to is in the show notes.

00.00: Online Caroline
11.10: Lonely Girl 15
13.18: closure
15.58: Balancing world creation and fan fiction
19.56: Mount Kristos
25.33: The Search of Oldton
39.32: Multiplatform storytelling
52.09: Scaling
Happiness…

Show notes:

• Jill Walker-Rettberg’s essay: ‘How I was played by Online Caroline’
• Rob Bevan
• MindGym
• Jenny Cam
• Online Caroline
• XPT (fictional company)
• Richardson’s Pamela
• Lonely Girl 15
• Mount Kristos
• Kate Modern
• You Sucjk at Photoshop
• In Search of Oldton
• Writers for the Future
• trAce Online Writing Centre
• Sue Thomas
• Multiplatform Storytelling for Screenwriters @ 01ZERO-ONE
• Ted
• The Lost Ring ‘Running of the Labyrinth’ instructions
• Jane McGonigal’s SXSW presentation: Alternate Realities (PPT at SlideShare)

More info about Tim:

• Tim Wright’s blog
• XPT (Wright & Bevan’s company)

Other interviews conducted at UC101:

• Lance Weiler (video)
• Evan Jones (audio and text transcript)

Postscript:
Sorry about the technical difficulties with the podcast. The video editing software I use doesn’t let me do edits to the second, and I’m still trying to figure out how to get both myself and the interviewer at the same sound level. Tim teases me about being in a black room (it was midnight for me!), and being close to the screen with bad lighting. What can I say, I’m an interactive drama cliche. I’ll have to increase the drama with a call to save the world or something.

Hello everyone! Today we’ll delve into segmentation techniques. By segmentation I refer to the various ways unique content can be continued across different media platforms. This doesn’t mean cutting up content created for a single session (a feature film for instance) and then delivering it in parts (although you can do that!). But here I’m referring specifically writing or designing the production with a certain episodic structure in mind. While the notion of episodics is fairly understood, what isn’t is the variety of episodic techniques available and how these can be utilized in a cross-platform project. So, in this post I’ll outline ways a production can be designed for multi-platform segmentation.

(Read on …)

A few years ago I was lucky to be invited by Gary Hayes to be a mentor for a new laboratory that was being developed by the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Those were the heady days of the Laboratory of Advanced Media Production (LAMP), when this great range of mentors and participants (and onlooking VIPs) spent a week in some exotic location guiding traditional media practitioners into the great new horizon of new media. I was the cross-media person, which, in 2005, was not a common concept. It has only been in the last couple of years (with the help of Henry Jenkins’s book Convergence Culture) that aspects of the area have caught fire in the mainstream). So over those first few LAMPs my talks were ever changing — adopting whatever terminology and approaches seemed to explain the concept best to those new to the area. Well, now you can have a look at those ppts, as some of them are online at SlideShare, and here! OMG!

(Read on …)

Well, not quite ‘death’ but an indefinite hiatus. I’m powering down this blog for a few reasons, one of which is my desire to finish my PhD. I’ve tried for the last year and a half to do PhD writing and work and this blog, but found the mindsets are somewhat incompatable. I’ve decided therefore to close this blog down. I don’t know if I’ll bring it up again and if I do when, or whether I’ll start another one. But I do know that I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging here these past few years. I have especially enjoyed meeting many of you because of the blog, and seeing ‘cross-media’ (etc) projects become ubiquitous. Thankfully, the area has alot more people looking at it now, from alot of different perspectives. Here are some blogs that will keep you informed:

• Networked Performance: research blog that posts about emerging network-enabled practice;
• You can read and listen to news about alternate reality games and just about any online extension of a film, TV or book property on the ARGNet blog and ARG Netcast (podcast);
• Henry Jenkins personal blog and the Convergence Culture Consortium blog has lots of goodies from a media studies perspective about ‘transmedia storytelling’ and ‘convergence culture’ in general;
• DeMontfort University share their investigations into what they term ’Transliteracy’ at their PART blog;
• Jeff Gomez, the CEO of Starlight Runner and longtime practitioner of ‘trans-media’ projects, is now blogging regularly about his insights and experience over at the Producers Guild of America blog;
• Monique de Haas blogs about ‘crossmedia communication’ occasionally;
• Tony Walsh posts semi-regularly on alternate reality games;
• Valentina Rao blogs about crossmedia games and anything related to that at Games Across Media, and will hopefully be starting her PhD on the subject soon;
• Johnathan Gray, Derek Johnson and Ivan Askwith are blogging about everything around TV and film at The Extratextuals;
• Crossmedia Dialog is a group blog that post regularly on crossmedia in Amsterdam and worldwide;
• Faris Yakob, Adam Crowe blog about ‘transmedia planning’ and other changes to the marketing industry;
• Jak Boumans posts every single day about stuff happening in the Netherlands and worldwide at Buziaulane; 
• Max Giovognoli runs everything to do with cross-media in Italy;
• MobileCrossMedia is a blog that looks at the different ways mobile phones can network with different devices and the real world;
• If you don’t already get it, the Convergence Newsletter has regular interesting newsletters about convergence in journalism and has been my favourite newsletter for the past few years;

I don’t plan to be blogging here about events or publications I’m involved in, instead I’ll pop them on my bio site. But for now, here are some events I’m involved with, in the not-too-distant-future:

• I’ll be on the ‘expert panel’ with Mark McCrindle and Tim Flattery at Mitchell Communications Group ’s launch of ‘While You Weren’t Watching’, a documentary on changes to branded entertainment etc in which I was interviewed. The launch is private but the documentary will be put online I believe in Nov; 
• I have my own panel on ‘Designing, Experiencing and Analysing Games in the Age of Integration’, and I am a panelist in Darren Toft’s panel on ‘What Happened to New Media Art?’ at the Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment in Dec;
• I’ll be on the panel on ‘Cyber-Born Film’ at Megan Spencer’s Destination Festival (or DestFest) in Dec;
• In Jan 08, I’ll be a guest lecturer again for Sue Thomas and Kate Pullinger’s Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media, De Montfort University, UK;
• In Feb 08, my essay on ‘Tiering in Alternate Reality Games’ will be published in the special issue of Convergence edited by Henry Jenkins and Mark Deuze.

For now though, I will continue to be online in a different way. I’ve started a podcast, a podcast where I’ll interview talented people working in this area. My ‘birth’ podcast is a bit awkward, but the second is a great one: an interview with Stitch Media’s Evan Jones. At the site, I also provide sneak preview information about Stitch Media’s latest project.

That is it for me here, thankyou all for sharing this time with me. I’ll see you on the other side of my PhD.

Check it out: www.ChristyDena.com  

Check it out: www.UniverseCreation101.com

As I’ve mentioned before, the upcoming episode (Wed Oct 24th in the US) of CSI:NY will feature and continue in the online virtual world Second Life. A primer has been released on youtube, getting audiences excited and prepared for cross-platform traversal, which is good!:

[youtube 3-ZmjA7GCzQ]

I kept forgeting to post about this but just in case there are some of you that not aware of what Radiohead are doing, here it is. Radiohead’s latest album, In Rainbows, will be released in December but you can preorder at their website. Rather than just offer the CDs for buying, Radiohead have undertaken four very important strategies:

1. Cross-media bundling: When you purchase the album on their website, you get the box set which includes the music on CDs, the music on vinyl and as a digital file. They use the method common in the online pornography industry: order the tangible product, it’ll get posted to you, but while you wait you can download the file immediately. Considering the subject matter of the pornos, I can understand the desire for immediacy. :/ The point about cross-media bunding, however, is that it acknowledges the affordances and in the case of the vinyl, the sentimental and connisseur value of certain media. It also acknowledges the reality of use: people use lots of different media platforms to experience a product. A CD on the stereo for instance, digital files on the iPod and so on. The content is not bound to a particular medium.
2. Staggered release: The digital download is available as of 10th October, about two months before the boxset. This helps build awareness and familiarity with the product, which should translate to sales of the boxset with its added value.
3. Enhanced material: Like the pervasive method of the feature film DVD industry, the product provides extra materials such as new songs on top of the album, photos and artwork (which, I note, has also been used in the music industry as well). The digital download and obviously any pirated files, will not have this added value.
4. Consumer-defined price: The price of the digital download is not pre-defined, instead, the consumer (person!) can name any price they want to pay for the download. They can even put in nothing. Amazing. Obviously this is not something that most bands or creators in general can do. Radiohead are in a financial position to take such giant leaps. But gee it is great. I personally cannot stand the tactic producers use to combat pirating by locking their material and so this free-will counter-balance is endearing to me.

There is so much I could say but no need to delay you any longer.

Check it out: http://www.radiohead.com

A couple of years ago Scott Donaton, the editor of Advertising Age, published a book called Madison & Vine: Why the Entertainment and Marketing Industries Must Converge to Survive. Scott revisited ‘branded entertainment’ in a talk he gave recently, which has been published at the Madison & Vine section of Advertising Age. In the article he quickly explains what Madison & Vine is:

At its simplest, there were two primary factors that drove the entertainment and marketing businesses reluctantly into each other’s arms. For marketers, as I mentioned earlier, there was fear. New devices such as digital video recorders were giving audiences the ability to bypass traditional forms of media advertising. These devices let consumers decide when, how and whether they were going to interact with all forms of content. So some in the ad community decided that if they were going to avoid commercials, one valid reaction to that would be to embed products, logos and commercial messages into those entertainment vehicles viewers were choosing to spend time with.

Across the continent from Madison Avenue, those in Hollywood found their own business models and bottom lines under enormous pressure, partly from the same factors. There were other pressures felt all over Hollywood. For film studios, the costs of producing and marketing films became a huge burden just as some traditional sources of funding dried up. And the movie-business, too, was threatened by the same technologies disrupting the TV and music industries.

The result was that these two sides, the ad business and the entertainment business, which decades ago established outposts on separate coasts of the U.S. and mostly operated independently of each other since then were suddenly compelled towards each other. They realized that they had the potential to help each other out. If nothing else, the advertisers had the money and the entertainment companies had the creativity and the attention of audiences.

And covers some notable examples:

• Paramount Pictures, Hasbro and General Motors: Transformers feature film
• BMW: The Hire film series, comics and game
• Virgin America: Virgin Americans animated series
• Dove: Evolution video, part of Campaign for Real Beauty
• Sundance Channel and Grey Goose Vodka: Iconoclasts interview series
• Burger King: games
• Volvo and MSN: Mr Robinson’s Driving School
• Axe and MTV: The Game Killers

Check it out: http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article.php?article_id=121042

A few posts ago I mentioned the new blog, The Extratextuals, and an (at the time) upcoming event . The session was put together by Jeff Gomez:

 Jeff Gomez (Moderator), CEO Starlight Runner Entertainment
As the host of the seminar, PGA member Jeff will familiarize producers with the history, criteria and relevance of trans-media storytelling. An expert in the field of trans-media development and creator and producer of highly successful fictional worlds, Jeff exponentially increases the value of intellectual properties by preparing them at early phase to be extended across a wide variety of entertainment platforms. Jeff has written and produced elaborate trans-media universes (including content such as feature and episodic animation, video games, comic books, novels and web portals) for 20th Century Fox, The Coca-Cola Company, The Walt Disney Company, Acclaim Entertainment, Mattel, Hasbro and Scholastic. (bio from The Extratextuals)

Check out Starlight’s company description:

Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc. is a leading creator of highly successful fictional worlds, maximizing the value of intellectual properties by preparing them for extension across multiple media platforms.

Starlight Runner produces animated and live-action feature films, as well as advanced media content. The company also packages books, comics and graphic novels, and develops video games and alternate reality experiences with world-renowned partners and clients.

The Producers Guild of America blog reports on Jeff Gomez’s insights at the ‘Creating Blockbuster Worlds’ event:

The 8 defining characteristics of a transmedia production:

1. Content is originated by one or a very few visionaries
2. Cross-media rollout is planned early in the life of the franchise
3. Content is distributed to three or more media platforms
4. Content is unique, adheres to platform-specific strengths, and is not repurposed from one platform to the next
5. Content is based on a single vision for the story world
6. Concerted effort is made to avoid fractures and schisms
7. Effort is vertical across company, third parties and licensees
8. Rollout features audience participatory elements, including:
   - Web portal
   - Social networking
   - Story-guided user-generated content

Examples of contemporary trans-media properties include: The Blair Witch Project, The Matrix, Hot Wheels: World Race / Acceleracers, Bionicle, Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, James Cameron’s AVATAR, many Disney projects including High School Musical, Pirates of theCaribbean, Fairies, Hannah Montana.

Great! I love reading how other people describe the form. I’ve described it in so many different ways according to my audience. I agree with all that he says though I’m wondering why he says three or more platforms rather than just two? I guess that fits in the franchise approach that he is working in. But of course, the continuation of a property across media platforms is not the exclusive domain of conglomerates.

Last November, the MIT Comparative Media Studies Department and Convergence Culture Consortium ran the Futures of Entertainment conference. Details of last years conference with podcasts are online. Registration for the next one, to be held on the 16-17th November at Cambridge, has opened. The event is described as follows:

The logics of convergence culture are quickly becoming ubiquitous within the media world. Audiences are being encouraged to participate in a wider range of sites. Transmedia principles are being adopted by content producers in a broad range of fields. ‘Engagement’ is being discussed as crucial to measurements of success. Futures of Entertainment 2 brings together key industry players who are shaping these new directions in our culture with academics exploring their implications. This year’s conference will consider developments in advertising, cult media, metrics, measurement, and accounting for audiences, cultural labor and audience relations, and mobile platform development.

Sessions and speakers include:

Mobile Media: Marc Davis, Yahoo!; Bob Schukai, Turner Broadcasting; Francesco Cara, Nokia

Metrics and Measurement: Bruce Leichtman, Leichtman Research Group; Stacey Lynn Schulman, HI: Human Insight; and Maury Giles, GSD&M Idea City

Fan Labor: Mark Deuze, Indiana University; Catherine Tosenberger, University of Florida; Jordan Greenhall, DivX; Elizabeth Osder, Buzznet; Raph Koster, Areae Inc.

Advertising and Convergence Culture: Mike Rubenstein, The Barbarian Group; Baba Shetty, Hill/Holliday; Tina Wells, Buzz Marketing Group; Faris Yakob, Naked Communications; Bill Fox, Fidelity Investments

Cult Media: Danny Bilson, transmedia creator; Jeff Gomez, Starlight Runner; Jesse Alexander, Heroes; and Gordon Tichell, Walden Media

Opening Remarks by Henry Jenkins, MIT; Joshua Green, MIT; Jonathan Gray, Fordham University; Lee Harrington, Miami University; and Jason Mittell, Middlebury College

Check it out

During a discussion about game to film adaptations at a talk I gave recently at the Film and Television Institute in Perth, Graeme Watson commented that part of the success of Tomb Raider could be the prevalence of the character Lara Croft. I think Graeme is dead right, and here is a post by Jessie Jess, a student, that explains some of the attraction:

After reading this definition [Jenkins 'transmedia storytelling'] I automatically thought about Lara Croft: Tomb Raider as an example of transmedia storytelling. Lara Croft is in multiple media platforms, such as video games, comic books, novels, movies, animation and through modeling (yes people are hired to be Lara at conventions and other events!). There have been 2 Tomb Raider movies to date and the third is being rumored to be in production and Angelina Jolie has placed Lara on the map. The movies as a medium for Lara is incredible, it provides a life like stunning image of how Lara would look in the real world. Video games as a medium in the Tomb Raider series have the record for being the highest selling video game series of all time. Lara as a video game character is even in the Guinness World Book of Records as “The Most Successful Video Game Heroine.” In the novels, they take off from where the video games end. [...]

I am really into having access to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in many different media outlets. I have the opportunity to keep up with Lara in different ways, I can play the game one day, watch the movie, read the book, and even see her in “person”. [...]

No matter what form of media Lara is distributed in, the story is easy to follow, she is on a mission, and the viewers are along for the adventure. [...]

A second reason for Lara’s success can be compared to Indiana Jones success, “When Indiana Jones went to television, for example, it exploited the medium’s potential for extended storytelling and character development: The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992) showed the character take shape against the backdrop of various historic events and exotic environments (106).” There was potential in expanding the character development of Lara Croft and extended storytelling. She was able to take shape against other forms of mediums. Hence how Indiana Jones is still around and is currently in production of a new film. This is a perfect example showing how Tomb Raider is able to be successful. Characters in the Matrix have no room for development because they are following specific guidelines for all the different forms of mediums that have been predetermined.

Indeed, as I’ve mentioned before, Chris Dahlen has spoken about the specific appeal of characters in his blog:

In fact, the characters in these worlds are the thing that interest me the most: we’re flooded with characters nowadays, and the ones that stick start to engage us on many platforms. Where do they come from? Why are we drawn to them? […] But here’s the catch: the characters and worlds we’re talking about aren’t just getting richer and more interactive; we’re also scaling ourselves down to live in them. [from this post]

Good thoughts Jessie and Chris.