Asia Slated to Become a Transmedia Hub

Our Chinese counterparts estimate that 70% of new TV and film productions are coming from properties developed first in online literature or printed books.

Asia to be a major player in transmedia content | Digital News Asia

Zhang Yimou’s blockbuster movie The Great Wall starring Hollywood A-listers Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe may be just the injection China needed to bridge the creative hemisphere and bring two worlds together. If the epic trailer is any indication, mission accomplished.

Ricky Gervais' Character David Brent Is Transmedia In Action

It all started back at The Office. David Brent was always that character who is accidentally offensive, even though he's trying so hard to be politically correct.

Brent is no longer the manager, but now a sales representative who has cashed in all of his life savings to finally live his dream of becoming a rock star.

David Brent not only stars in a new movie that documents this journey, but he also has created a music album and a songbook. In essence, he has become a transmedia project.

Of course, the character is the brainchild of the comedic genius Ricky Gervais. He is touring the talk show circuit to promote these projects on behalf of David Brent. There has been other swag to complement this venture, such as branded guitar picks, coffee mugs, t-shirts, and staplers. All we need now are McFarlane figures and bobbleheads.

This is one cool example of transmedia in action.

Transmedia Health Intervention

It's been my experience living in Canada, that the health industry still has an old school mentality about communications. Doctors don't email. They won't even give you results of tests over the phone. They still fax or call prescription emergency refills to the pharmacy. Otherwise, you make an appointment, pick up a physical prescription (and hope the waiting room isn't full so it doesn't cost you over an hour), then take the piece of paper to the pharmacy and wait for it to be filled. It may vary doctor to doctor, but this is my Alberta, Canada doctor experience from living in two major cities and with several different physicians.

When I was in Arizona and sought to get a prescription I didn't have time to get in Canada, I was beside myself with glee when the 60+-year-old doctor had emailed the prescription to the pharmacy before I even walked out the door. Doctors with email? Who knew? By the time I walked into the pharmacy, it had already been filled. Bam! Now that's service!

This week, I came across two stories where digital communications can be used as an effective tool for patients. Ya think?

The first one talks about using an app to help patients with low or no literacy skills. Illiteracy is a problem. Imagine if you can't read and won't be able to know what the critical labeling says on your prescription? It's not something an adult likes to admit, so more than likely, when they speak with their doctor or pharmacist, they wing it when he or she points out to the label as to how much and the precautions.

Biology professor John Pollock and his team of Pittsburgh (yes, that is Pennsylvania, America, not Canada) has been on a mission since 2001 to increase the health literacy of patients. He's working on "Bibliotech" e-books to engage children to learn more about science and health.

The other story is about using transmedia storytelling to teach teenagers about sexual health. "East Los High" is a portal for information about health and social services. Oh yea, that one is in the U.S., too.

Getting back to Canada, even MacLean's magazine called out doctors for being digitally absent.

There is so much opportunity left on the floor by the healthcare industry. Doctors may chastise us for checking out WebMD for common symptoms and what they mean, but in today's digital world, do they leave us any choice?

Here is a telling interview with a doctor who sheds light on why so many doctors are still operating in the Dark Ages.

Open-Source Technology versus Private Servers

There are two ways of conducting Internet business: with open-source technology or with the use of private servers.

The protectionists and security-conscious may believe that private servers are the only way to go, but not always. No doubt, there are pros and cons to each. If money is no object and you think you can keep up with the need for continuous upgrades, then maybe a private server is right for your project or business. There are indeed some secure features that make it somewhat fail-safe. But let's face it. Nothing is a sure thing in the digital age. A black hacker's determination and kick-ass computing skills will always run circles over yours.

Open-source technology gives you the world at your fingertips. You have an instant network of resources to collaborate and partner with, and the cost is minimal for unlimited storage. That said, the biggest risk is choosing the wrong network, which could go out of business at any given moment and all your stored information can be lost.

Here is a breakdown of what each computing method brings to the table:

Private Servers

• It's expensive to set up.
• It must be maintained and upgraded.
• If the network goes down (for example Go Daddy), then all of your customers and employees will be frustrated and turned off if you don't have an on-call tech to fix the problem as soon as possible. It can turn into a terrible public relations moment. (See Canadian government payroll system and Obamacare launch.)
• The system can become obsolete very quickly. (Technology based on specific operating systems, such as Windows Vista)
• The door is locked and thus gives you a limited view of the world. (You live in your own technological bubble.)
• You are isolated from other technological advances and the global community.
• There are administration hoops that make the user/friendliness of the system in question.

Open-Source Technology

• You are using other people's money by tapping into their system.
• Upgrades are included, and usually often.
• The opportunities are endless because you have unlimited and unfettered access to the global community, which means you can just as easily do business with someone in Kazakhstan as you can with someone down the street.
• Everything is within your personal control. Once you learn a platform and how to access it, there are no administration hoops to jump through. You control what you do, say, see, and hear.
• You have endless storage for everything that is digital for free or a nominal fee, once you fill a certain space requirement.
• There is a bevy of technicians and security staff on hand 24/7 so if something does happen, your technology is only down for a small window of time.
• Security is continually updated and enhanced to stay ahead of the hackers.

Yes, the above is a simplified look at the difference between the two, but perhaps it's too simplified? This following video is a great simplified look at how cloud systems work and the difference between private, public, and hybrid.

Digital Literacy and Transmedia

If you Google "digital literacy," you'll see there is a broad perspective as to what it all entails. It's everything from learning to turn on the computer, search the web, create a spreadsheet (really?), learn about operating systems and software, to using social media.

Digital literacy, however, must begin with the basics. This is a tower, monitor, mouse, laptop...this is how you set it up and turn it on for the first time. This is how you access your files ... and of course, all these steps are different on every operating system, and on different computing devices.

Our transmedia marketing strategies are only as good as our audience's digital literacy.

Most marketing plans are geared towards those who already know the drill. The audience ranges from comfortable to expert. Meanwhile, there is a novice demographic that may be interested, but their lack of understanding computers and digital media keeps them off your grid. Find a way to reach them, too, without alienating the core.

If we stop and think about how our message can be understood and received by the digitally-challenged, we can rewrite the words so they can be understood by all. That's when everybody wins.

The Tragically Hip At the Hundredth Meridian

The Tragically Hip concert broadcast live on CBC

There were over 11 million Canadians gathered around a boxed campfire on a Saturday night, otherwise known as a live television broadcast. While it was during an Olympic Games, it wasn't for hockey, which would be the only time an entire country might shut down all of its activity for a single event. No. This time, it was a concert. People were tweeting, posting on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and pretty much every platform they could to connect, share, and witness this historic moment in history.

August 20, 2016 was a big day in Canada. It was the final farewell of The Tragically Hip, aka Canada's band. It's lead singer Gordon Downie was diagnosed with terminal cancer and rather than lay low and convalesce, he and the band embarked on a final 15-concert tour that culminated in Kingston, Ontario. Why Kingston? That was the birthplace of the band.

So Canadians gathered together in body, mind, and spirit to view the band's final concert, which was broadcast commercial-free on CBC. Even Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Kingston to watch it live.

It may not have been as big a deal in other countries, as The Hip sang lyrics about Canada and Canadian culture. With all the buzz they saw in their social feeds from their Canuck friends, maybe the band will finally see some hits in far away lands.

It was fitting that well-known hockey anchor Ron McLean, surrounded by Canadian athletes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil opened and introduced the live stream broadcast. The Hip did not disappoint. There were even three encores. Gord Downie had one moment in the concert where he broke down. It might have been initially overlooked as part of the live performance, but then when it continued, you could see the pain in his facial expressions, and tears in his eyes, as this was the final performance he would ever do. The fans cried, too.

It is doubtful we will ever see another moment like this one. There isn't another Canadian band in past and future sight that would have the impact that The Tragically Hip has. The band IS Canada. It defines the people, tells their stories, and makes no apologies for being all-out Canadian.

In most events, be it sports, a television series, election, or speech -- Twitter will trend, people will tweet, take screenshots for Instagram and Facebook, and carry on conversations with people they don't know and others within their own networks. It's like a gathering around a campfire. Only the logs on this puppy made those flames roar awfully high.

Canada's unofficial poet laureate is dying. He's giving one last concert before he goes.  

Crowds fill Kingston streets to celebrate everything Hip. 

The World Is Inside Your Computer

Ninety-two is a pretty big number. That is the percentage of consumers who trust peer recommendations over advertising. Because we are all interconnected worldwide by our computing devices, someone in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina can network with someone just as easily in Hammerfest, Norway as they can in their own backyard.

I have four projects underway that hone this point. One is in the same Canadian province, who I first met through a local network group. Two is in Arizona with someone I met through a close friend I've known for years. Three is in New York, who I met through a social network. Four is in Sweden, who I met through a social webhosting site. Then there is my webcasting partner, who I met on a webhosting site through another person I met in LinkedIn.

Every day, my net(work) is cast wider. These are not just passive followers. When I follow someone, it is because they bring value to my feeds. If I didn't already know them, they provide me with education, laughs, inspiration, and friendship.

Networking online isn't just using the Net to connect your name to their profile. The "working" part has to be engaged in order to make those connections meaningful.

My nearly 4,000 Twitter followers in @bookpublish101

Even as time constrains your ability to manage your posts, take your top two or three networks, the ones you see the most interactions from, and pick two to three random people a day to a) respond to something they posted that caught your attention b) tell them something to make their day and/or c) share one of their posts with your followers. It will take you five minutes. If you do that consistently each day, you become a good digital citizen and people will start paying attention to you. In addition to that, make sure you post interesting, entertaining, and inspiring stuff, too.

The number one thing you need to consider is a universal truth: everyone wants to feel like they matter. That's it. If you can make someone feel respected and seen in one moment, that will go around the globe in less time than a paid advertising campaign and with better results. But this isn't about ROI or any of that market speaking buzzword bullshit. It's about people. It's about real connections. Even if you've never met any of them in real life or face-to-face in a webcam, you can still make an impact globally, just by being kind, being respectful, being thoughtful, and being there. Mean what you say. Don't just say it for the sake of making clickbait.

Don't just post and run. Stay and play.

hitRECord and Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Crowdsourcing Talent

He’s come a long way since the 3rd Rock From the Sun. You might notice he is everywhere: in every movie, TV appearances, the Internet. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the “it” man of the hour.

Gordon-Levitt came into my radar, no, not just because he’s Robin (see The Dark Knight Rises) but because of a Wrap post that reminded us he once had a lull in his career. Yea, I didn’t believe it at first, either. Especially when there is a dedicated fan page calling him the coolest actor of 2014.

When you read the Wrap article, it shows what he did to get out of his funk. There is a good lesson in this man’s career for all of us.

We don’t have to be an A-list actor or Internet star to do some of the things he’s done. All of the tools and creativity are at our own fingertips. Just click on a new link and put in the right search tools and — whola! Your future is now.

Pay close attention to Gordon-Levitt’s hitRECord. It is a crowd-sourced production company he founded. Think of it as a free business plan to marketing and engagement and you don’t need a big budget, or any budget, to initiate it. He has produced an Internet TV show that utilizes on-stage material, pulls the audience into the production, culls his following for content creation, and every element distributes the end result at the same time it is live. That is interaction at its best. The Huffington Post calls it The Art of Collaboration.

It's genius. Get the audience invested in your project by pulling them in as storytellers. And yes, they do get paid.

You have to admit, that’s as cool as Batman.

The Creatures of Yes

Brooklyn's Puppeteer Jacob Graham has come up with a brilliant video series called The Creatures of Yes. It's a show about puppets discovering things for the first time and learning to interact. No, it's not a knockoff from Sesame Street. It's a 1970's flavored puppet show brought to a streaming video platform. It's simple, vintage, and delightful. This Vice review offers a good overview.

Besides its YouTube channel, there is a website: creaturesofyes.com that gives you that 1970s vintage feel. (Oh my God, is 1970s considered vintage?!)

On the Instagram channel, you can see how Graham has carved a niche for himself using liquid lights, lasers, and analog synthesizers.

So as we look at the collective platforms The Creatures of Yes appear on, each intertwine with each other, but many of the posts tell a different story, and collectively, they make up the sum of the whole. That's transmedia in action.

How to Use a Podcast as a Transmedia Platform

You have a story that centers around a screenplay. That script may turn into a movie, a play, or even a podcast.

Maybe the story is a movie, that can be turned into a book, that can be turned into Vine vignettes or YouTube clips. The podcast may flush out the story even further, but how?

First, let's visit the concept of a podcast. The Wikipedia definition is this, "A podcast is a form of digital media that consists of an episodic series of audio, video, digital radio, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded automatically through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device."

There are numerous host sites where you can house your podcast. The best thing to do is research them and find out which format you like the most. SoundCloud, Podomatic, and PodBean are just a handful of venues. I've used both SoundCloud and Podomatic free versions. Podomatic can also be used as an aggregate site to get your podcast onto iTunes. 

The benefit of a podcast is that you don't have to have a regimented schedule like you would need for a radio broadcast. It can be whatever you want it to be. Here are some examples for that screenplay:

• The mechanics of writing a screenplay.
• A stream of consciousness from one of the characters from the screenplay.
• The writer interviews various people about different topics that are related to the screenplay.
• A day in the life of a movie producer.
• Behind the scenes.
• Do's and don't's as an actor.
• Narrating scenes in the script.

You can find more podcast ideas here and some unique ideas here.

Turning Your Book Into a Transmedia Project

The publishing industry. It still creates the dream of having a book in hand, but we can also just do it ourselves. Even so, a book isn't going to miraculously make you famous or rich just because it's done. Ask any author, even a bestselling one.

Nope. A book is only the beginning. Now that you're published, what are YOU going to do to get eyeballs inside the covers?

Face it. Nobody collects books because of who published them (unless they're Whitman Publishing vault books; those are works of art). They collect books for a) subject matter and b) who authored them. Can anyone really recall without looking who published Stephen King's last book? Yea, me neither.

Even if a publisher forks out the dough to design, print, and distribute your book, the onus is still on the author to sell it. The publisher's marketing efforts are pretty limited, so an author has to be invested in his or her book.

Today, the transmedia tools are at your fingertips. Don't look at the book. Look at the STORY. Look at the topics, the characters, the things that make the words worthwhile to read.

Even if you don't have a proper video camera, if you have a smartphone, tablet, or a webcam on your computer, create your own trailer. YouTube is full of book trailers. Just search out some that seem feasible for your skill set.

Do you have a compelling lead character? Maybe a female Captain America? Bam! Facebook page and write your posts as if they are being written by that character. Or maybe your book is non-fiction and helps people use alternative methods to fight tooth decay. Boom! Facebook page on How to Fight Tooth Decay Without Seeing a Dentist.

Is your topic, character visual? Start an Instagram and/or Pinterest account. Blog about the tooth decay tips that are in your book and take it further with more up to date information. Use Blogger, like this one you are reading. It's free. You can dress it up and customize it, and it is linked to Google, the largest search engine in the world. So make sure you also do a kick ass bio with links.

There are many things you can do to move your characters and book message around the web. The key is to make sure the storytelling is unique to each of the platforms you use.

How to turn a book into an entertainment franchise. 

Transmedia Incubators

There is nothing like a group of creatives sitting together hatching ideas. One person can be very astute on how to discover ways to push out stories and products, but when you add another equally ingenious mind, you've got what a friend of mine calls popcorn happening. The flow of clever concepts come in faster than you can write them down.

Transmedia incubators are becoming a thing, even though the term transmedia is still a puzzlement for even the more savvy social media advocates.

Schools, creative agencies, and entertainment projects are developing dedicated spaces to bring people together to kick storytelling into high gear. A hackathon for storytelling, if you will.

Finding the right cocktail of platforms, ideas, branches, and media to create a transmedia campaign doesn't just happen. It takes a great deal of thought, imagination, and boldness to step beyond what might constitute as normal to push the envelope and find the ingredients to fully enthrall and excite an audience to come to, support, and share a film, book, idea, or concept.

The incubator could be a room, a virtual studio, a Google Hangout, a Skype call, conference call, or any medium that brings more than one person together physically, verbally, or virtually.

Great minds don't just think alike, they brainstorm works of transmedia art.

 

Virtual Reality Theater

It may not look pretty from the outside, but on the inside, it freaking rocks.

Virtual reality isn't a trend. It's here to stay, so entertainment companies better get used to the idea of retooling some of their storytelling to fit the VR cinemas that are popping up all over the world.

Some of you may have thought 3-D was cool, however, 360-D is much cooler. It is like experiencing the story from the inside.

While VR may change the way cinemas are built, it likely won't replace the movie theater as we know it. Retrofitting a room for this type of viewing won't be too expensive, but it's still not that cheap to convert the movies. But what this technology has done is opened up the creative playing field to stretch the boundaries of storytelling, to make the audience a part of the story first-hand.

Vivid VR is scheduled to open on July 16. It is going to be the first virtual reality theater in North America.

The entertainment industry is slowly adapting and creating VR content, but it will be some time before a VR full-length feature film is considered mainstream.

I predict that we will see this platform evolve a lot more by then. Eventually, there won't be a need for those dumb-looking glasses.

King Bach Proves You Can Pluck a Career off the Vine

This guy.

Forget that he was ranked one of the top 15 high jumpers in the NCAA. Wait? Is that a thing? It is his video media that really warrants a second look, or a third or fourth.

He has over 15.6 followers on Vine and over 840,000 followers on YouTube.

When Andrew Bachelor, aka King Bach, appeared as a guest on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he created his own media because he wasn't getting the parts he wanted as an actor.

Art Just Got Serious

It all started with posting a few pictures of graffiti-painted trains on Instagram. Soon I was seeing likes from profiles that embraced "moving galleries," "graffiti art," and "street art." Upon closer look at these other profiles, I discovered there is a large community of folks who have shown me that what some may call graffiti is really remarkable artwork.

Instagram, Flickr, Google+, and other photo-sharing networks have made it easy for people to showcase their art. These platforms have also helped us rethink our knowledge of what art is. It no longer has to hang in a gallery to be appreciated. The world is a much bigger showcase. 

The following are a few samplings of the wonderful street art available on Instagram. This is transmedia in action.

Instagram as a Transmedia Tool

For those of you who are still figuring out the digital platforms, Instagram is a picture- and video-sharing network for people with mobile devices. It is also a social network, where you can meet and chat with fellow Instagramers in their feeds, or like and share their images.

The platform grew to 400 million in September 2015, to which over 75 million use it daily. Instagram reaches approximately 34 percent of the United States population.

When it comes to storytelling, using Instagram as a transmedia tool can be powerful.

Dave Amirault shows how to use it for an event. From there, there you can use your Instagram settings to automatically share your photographs in other networks or use other network-sharing platforms, such as Buffer, IFTTT (IF This Then That), and Hootsuite.

So how would it work as a transmedia tool? Let’s take the movie The Imitation Game. It is the story about the man behind what is considered the birthplace of the computer as we know it today. 

Of course, there is the obvious: setting up the Instagram account as The Imitation Game, and then posting imagery surrounding the still shots from the movie, behind the scenes, or the actors involved. This kind of account may have a limited shelf life. While movies do live on and become classics after so many years, the appeal of the website or social media pages tend to wane because after it has been relegated to the DVD, the social content for that particular film runs dry. The production company has already moved onto the next film.

There is another way to keep the content going, while keeping the film “out there” for the long-term, as long as there is a community manager posting to it regularly.

Turn it into a fan site. Start posting fan art related to the movie. Maybe even find a fan you can trust to manage the community.

Instead of the movie title, you could make-up a creative version of IBM’s Watson Computer. This link (about some of the innovations computers have generated) is an example of some of the content that could be shared via photographs, but with your own spin, using the movie stills or solid backgrounds.

Your mind is only as limited as your creativity. 

Originally published October 29, 2015 freelancepublishing.net, Debbie Elicksen

Using a Hashtag to Create a Movement

Twitter is a formidable platform. When it is used for good, there is no greater viral. 

The most powerful symbol on the Internet is this #, the Twitter hashtag. It represents relevant keywords or phrases that anyone can search, then jump into the conversation. 

Using the search tool or by viewing the hashtag list of what is trending right at this moment, you can find breaking news, tips, opinions, election results, popular conversations, or just random stuff any second of any day. 

There are hashtags created to inject some fun, such as #AdviceFromMyPet #MomQuotes #TwoThingsThatDontMix #DisneyPickUpLines or #UnlikelySequel.

There are hashtags that will show up and trend during a high profile event, such as the Super Bowl #leftshark.

People (and companies) try to use hashtags all the time to create followers, such as #FF (Follow Friday), #tbt (Throwback Thursday), or just #love.

#JeSuisCharlie created a worldwide movement after the 2015 shooting at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris. In English, it means I Am Charlie, and it represents standing up to those who want to silence freedom of speech. It was a hashtag used to mobilize citizen journalists and to honor the integrity of the written word.

#BlackLivesMatter became a household phrase and has been used outside of Twitter as much as on the platform. It is a term that grew out of the disturbing trend of black men dying at the hands of police across the United States. It morphed into a civil rights movement to engage the conversation of how black citizens are being marginalized and oppressed through economic and systematic targeting.

We also witnessed back in 2011 during Egypt's revolution to oust President Hosni Mubarak where Twitter was used to mobilize protesters and as a witness to the events.

However, it was the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests that put Twitter at the top for creating a movement. In a country where Internet was banned, where the only source of news was state-run media, virtual private networks and Twitter were how protesters were able to inform the rest of the world about their plight. But it was #Neda that put the protest into every search engine and every North American news channel. Despite how the Iranian government denied it was brutalizing its citizens, when the image of Neda Agha-Soltan being shot and dying in the street was posted to YouTube, the outrage could be heard around the globe.

Twitter is a powerful instrument for the transmedia toolbox, if it's used right. There is no sure-fire recipe, except that each project has to be evaluated on its own in order to create a strategy. Perhaps the best advice the Internet can give us is to think through the what-could-go-wrong possibilities before pushing it live.

Emmy-Winning Documentary Filmmaker Stephanie J. Castillo, Transmedia, and Jazz

When +Stephanie J. Castillo read a newspaper obituary about her brother-in-law after he died of leukemia at age 40, she had no idea of the impact he had made in this world. She knew Thomas Chapin was a jazz musician, but the story of his life would compel her to tell his story the only way she knew how: through a documentary called Thomas Chapin, Night Bird Song: An Incandescent Life of a Jazz Great.

At first, Castillo interviewed a number of people in the jazz industry just to see if such a documentary was warranted. Would anybody care? Their passionate response about the man and his music fueled what came next.

As a jazz musician, Chapin was on the cusp of greatness. He was well-known in Europe, but his music was just being mainstream-recognized in North America. He gained attention from his performance at the 1995 Newport Jazz Festival with his eclectic sound.

Thomas Chapin at the Newport Jazz Festival

He was called, "a virtuoso, one of the more exuberant saxophonists and band leaders in jazz" by the New York Times. "A typical solo of his moved easily between traditional jazz and the sonic explorations of the avant-garde."

A normal documentary takes about five years to assemble. Castillo worked her magic to do this script in a self-imposed deadline of just eight months. It began with a Kickstarter campaign and the blessing of the family, including Chapin himself, who asked his family to make sure his music would live on.

Because he was such an improvisational artist, the script was also somewhat improvised. Thomas Chapin's music was the main character in his story but it is this filmmaker's gift toward storytelling that has allowed the right blend of interviews, life history, anecdotes, and music to culminate into an unexampled work of art, much like the music.

This isn't just a story about jazz or creating a legacy for the man himself. This is everyone's story. This really became clear when Castillo traveled to see first-hand how young musicians have been inspired by Chapin since his death. Night Bird Song as a story that shows creativity, passion, spirit, love, and what some consider “the divine art of jazz.” The film shares the lessons from Chapin's life that teach us about living: how to live with passion, how to go to the edge of fear with boldness, how to find courage, how to dream, to dance and to be free.

The media that uniquely tells the story about Thomas Chapin can be found through newspaper and magazine links, YouTube, CDs, the documentary, musician bios that credit his influence, and a whole lot more.

The documentary has begun with a director's cut, which is four hours long. That has been whittled down to 150 minutes, and eventually to 90 minutes and a seven-minute trailer. Each version will have its own audience appeal. From there the film has been booked for screenings at well-known jazz establishments. There are interviews, Facebook, websites, blogs, film festivals, and fan-driven content -- each telling a new and unique part of the story, the story of his music.

Castillo won an Emmy for her first documentary, Simple Courage, which examined the history behind Hawaii's leprosy epidemic and the compassionate intervention of Belgium missionary priest Father Damien. The Thomas Chapin project is her 10th documentary.

The Three Little Pigs

This is an example that was posted several years ago by Dr. Pamela Rutledge. It is still the most simple and effective explanation about transmedia.

Everything centers around the main story: the English fairy tale book by Joseph Jacobs.

The image shows just a sampling of how this story can be stretched out into digital media. Today you might add Vine videos, an Instagram photo blog, and perhaps a Pinterest board of house building ideas and cooking recipes.

Any story can become a transmedia project with just a little creativity and imagination.

 

Old School Transmedia

From my personal box of Monkees treasures.

According to this Wikipedia post, spreadable storytelling (transmedia) stems back to the 1960s and may even go back to the beginning of literature.

Modern day storytellers tend to think of transmedia as a purely digital invention, but cross narratives have been well in play for decades.

I was thinking about this when I opened my box of Monkees paraphernalia. In it was a transmedia treasure trove: a Tiger Beat Monkees magazine, paperback and hardcover books, trading cards, a letter from the David Jones fan club, picture coins that came in a box of cereal, and plastic finger rings with faces of each of the Monkees. This went hand in hand with a television show I used to watch and the albums I collected.

The following are a handful of physical transmedia items from other projects:

A small full-color picture pocket book derived from the television show Desperate Housewives.

The DVD set from the television series based on the book trilogy by John Jakes.

Something that wasn't a part of the North & South series, but could have been used to market it. This is a cassette tape of narratives from the Civil War.