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.

Video Platforms, the Essential Storytelling Tool, Are Ever Evolving

Blab

Spreecast sent a notice to all of its users that it is closing its doors this month of July, and Blab's most avid users are leaving the platform. These are two interactive live-stream video platforms set up for talk TV. Both similar in that you could have four people on the broadcast in one screen. Both shareable through Facebook and Twitter before, during, and after from inside a broadcast. Both great at building interactive communities, where users meet up on other platforms to engage.

The fate of these and other platforms that have gone before them represent the one true thing about the Internet: everything is evolving and few things are a sure thing.

That said, the video platform is an essential storytelling tool and a must-have for the transmedia toolbox. A webcam is all that is required, whether it is an external or from a laptop, desktop, or mobile device. Point and shoot or get a bit more productive with annotations and creative editing. Make movie and book trailers, let your characters take the audience deep inside the story, interview people who work behind the scenes. Video is where it is at. People tend to be more inclined to consume a video over sifting through a website or reading a blog. No matter what your project or business is, chances are you can use video to your advantage.

The big enchilada and the queen of all queens is YouTube. While it is indelibly linked to Google Hangouts and Google+, there have been many changes that I'm still trying to figure out, but setting up a YouTube Live Stream event cuts out the middleman Google Hangouts on Air, even though they still connect with each other.

The best way to figure out a platform is to just do it. Play around with it and worst-case scenario you can always delete the video if you hate it that much.

Besides YouTube, there are several other platforms for video that can be used in lieu of, in conjunction, or mirrored.

No matter what platform you decide to try, download the MP4 of your content so you have a backup of it, just in case. I have downloaded some Periscope, Facebook Live, and Blab videos and posted them to YouTube. Personally, I now choose only to use video platforms that allow me to download and be able to keep my own content.

The following are some of the many choices for video platforms. They each have their own audience, so you can never assume a video can be one size fits all.

Maker TV requires a minimum monthly viewership before you can be accepted to the site, but once you are, there is an opportunity to grow your YouTube channel.

Vimeo is used by a lot of filmmakers and music artists. The platform only allows original material that you played a role in creating and hold the copyright to.

Facebook Live is a live streaming option from your Facebook page. In Canada, so far you can't use it from your personal page. There is an icon that shows up in the post options that allows you to post instant videos.

Dailymotion has a copyright filtering system that will flag anything you try to upload that isn't your own.

Vine videos are six-second shorts that can only be posted from a compatible mobile device.

Instagram videos can be a minute or less, and must also be posted from a compatible mobile device.

UStream is one of the first interactive live-streaming video platforms on the market and is still kicking.

Twitch is a popular live streaming platform for the gaming community.

Periscope is a live streaming mobile app owned by Twitter.

YouNow is a live streaming video chat platform that has a younger participating membership.

Now get filming and have fun!

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. 

Tell A Story With Photographs On SlideShare

If you’re like me, you have a gazillion pictures you’ve taken over the years. Some of them may be quite good. Even if they’re not, chances are they tell a story.

While you may have shoe boxes full of physical prints and negatives that haven’t quite made it to the scanner, if you are now using a digital camera and have amassed a gallery, here is a way to make a cool presentation and show off your talents, for free.

So how about showcasing your photographs on SlideShare?

Open up a blank PowerPoint presentation. If you don’t have Office software on your computer or device, just go to Google Drive and open up a blank presentation. Start playing.

After much gerrymandering of text boxes and blank space, I figured out that if you want a picture to take up the whole slide, upload the picture when you format the slide’s background (right-click on a blank slide and click the format background option). Then you can insert a text box.

Then after you save your completed presentation in PowerPoint (keep it in that format if you should ever want to go back and revise), save it again as a PDF.

Go to SlideShare.net and upload the PDF. Fill out the title, description, and tags. Go back to edit it if you want to add any videos you might have shot that fit the presentation.

Here are some examples of photograph presentations I added to SlideShare.

Inside the NHL Dream from Debbie Elicksen

What You See On Public Transit from Debbie Elicksen

A Walk Around the Neighborhood from Debbie Elicksen

Things You Miss When You Hurry from A to B from Debbie Elicksen

Originally published (edited photograph) on freelancepublishing.net

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.

The Streaming Lawyer: How to Use Transmedia for Business

This guy. +Mitch Jackson is fast becoming one of the most talked about Internet thought leaders. 

If you've spent any time on Periscope, Blab, Google +, Facebook, Spreecast, Twitter, Snapchat, Slideshare, LinkedIn, and just about every digital platform, chances are someone has either shared a link or mentioned his name.

I met Mitch on Spreecast, when I was doing regular weekly webcasts on SocialChats with +Tonya Scholz, +Susy Rosado, and +Cynthia K Seymour. He is living proof that you can develop deep and lasting friendships online.

Even though I've sang his praises many times (seriously, Mitch, I'm not stalking you!) I would be remiss not to include him in a blog about transmedia.

If there is one thing Mitch Jackson knows how to do it's to leverage transmedia for business.

He is a lawyer by trade, and a good one at that. Here are just a handful of his professional accolades:

• Orange County Trial Lawyer of the Year (2009)
• 2013 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY Award for Litigation)
• Southern California Super Lawyer (annually)
• “AV” Rated by Martindale-Hubbell (top rating in ethics and ability)
• Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (less than 5% of all firms)
• AVVO “Superb” 10.0/10 rating
• Recently selected at one of the “Top Lawyers in California”
• Nominated: Consumer Attorneys of California for the “CAOC Street Fighter of the Year” award (2011)
• Nominated: California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (CLAY) Award (2012)

Seriously, the list goes on and on. But it is his marketing efforts that are starting to get other lawyers stand up and pay attention. Mitch uses digital platforms to get you to see who he is as a man, not just for law advice. He is a human lawyer, if you will, and he is resonating with all the big names in Internet Media.

Mitch branded the phrase Human Social and uses the website to feature the human side of his interview subjects. Because of his propensity for webcasts, he also dubbed himself as the Streaming Lawyer. Besides regularly scheduling interviews, it seems any time he's between clients, taking a run on a beach, or sitting at a football game with his kids, he is streaming.

The message he sends is motivational and inspirational. He has helped a lot of people become better at communicating online. This is how he has branded his law firm. You see his office, you see his family, you see the person who is fighting for your rights in court, and he is sharing unique content across all mediums. Marketing doesn't get much better than that.