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.

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!

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.

Converting Oral Traditions Into Transmedia

When I was a kid, my dad used to gather us up for a day trip to a field somewhere outside of Edmonton to see a crocus field. They weren't real easy to find. The flowers bloomed just as the snow melt, and you had to time the trip just right because the beauty was short-lived. The petals disappeared after just a couple of weeks. 

My telling you this story makes it an oral tradition, and the story has been passed down the family line.

Every culture has traditions, and there are traditions unique to every family within those cultures. My dad was Ukrainian and my mother was Scottish, so my ancestry is rich with cultural influence. My immediate family didn't necessarily follow them, but we made up some of our own. There are some traditions, that were unique to a district's culture. For example, I'm not sure if kids growing up in the Ukraine, Russia, or even other parts of Canada had the same "monster" in their closets that took the form of the musical instrument: the accordion. This was commonplace in the city where I grew up. We would all cringe when our parents would bring it out and coax us to learn how to play.

Digital media is the perfect environment to preserve family oral traditions. From Instagram to Pinterest, blogs to YouTube, you can individualize a story or turn it into a collection.

The following video is about preserving the oral traditions of the Ifugao people. I hope you can see what I see as your eyes view the first few screens: a multitude of ways to stretch the tradition further through sight and sound via digital media.

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.

The Core of a Story

"... process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience ..."

HenryJenkins.org

There are two sides to developing a story through transmedia: a marketing strategy and crowdsourcing its fans.

Apps, books, social media, music, downloads, merchandising, memes, spinoffs, fan Vines or YouTube videos -- all of these combine to point to the core of the story: the main platform to which the story has been presented. Look at any popular television show (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Mad Men) or movie (Star Wars, Batman, Marvel Avengers) as an example.

The planning to use transmedia should include: what to narrate, how to narrate, genres -- what and how to narrate to different audiences, the story's characters, creating a fictional or real world experience, and structure, to name a few.

Let's take the poem In Flanders Field by John McCrae as an example. It's a story that is in the public domain. 

McCrae was a Canadian surgeon in World War I, who died at the end of the war of pneumonia. Here is the poem:

By only looking at the first stanza, we can expand the story, using YouTube, Vimeo, radio/podcasts, blogs, Pinterest, Instagram, and so much more. The topics that add meat to this story are:

• International politics
• Battlefields, plus surrounding towns
• Death
• History, including honor, sacrifice
• War poems
• Poppies
• Graveyards, gravediggers, the people left behind
• Larks
• Guns and gunnery

Using Transmedia For A Fiction Book

The Scarlet Letter may be a literary classic and even if the author is long dead that doesn't mean the story could not be expanded through using transmedia.

The book was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and the scene is set in Puritan Boston. It is about an extra-marital affair that results in an illegitimate baby, to which the woman is ostracized by society.

By today's standards, the subject is the perfect made-for-television movie or soap opera. There are a number of elements that can be expanded to add to the story to create a further understanding for the audience. 

• What it was like to live in Puritan Boston
• Sin
• Adultery
• Salem, Massachusetts (where the author was from)
• The author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Biblical references
• Adaptations of the story -- there are many
• Hester Prynne, the heroine of the story
• Pearl, Hester's illegitimate daughter
• The letter "A" -- what Hester was sentenced to wear in public to label her an adulterous

In reading the book again for the first time (with fresh eyes), you can add a lot more to this list.

So how do you expand a story like this? Here are just a couple of ideas:

• Post as Pearl in Snapchat or Instagram, perhaps using imagery of how she would view today's world, or what she would have witnessed in her own lifetime.
• Post as Hester on Pinterest, creating boards of items that she would have been interested in.
• Use Pinterest to expand on the elements listed above.
• Spoofs and memes on the story.
• YouTube channel readings, perhaps in different voices.

Any book, fiction or non-fiction, can be expanded by using different media to create unique content. It just takes a bit of creative brainstorming.

Super Bowl: The Biggest Transmedia Party

If you need a clear-cut example of how an entertainment product or a brand can use transmedia, look no further than the Super Bowl. 

Everything leads up to the big game, the final contest between the two teams that finish the National Football League season. Everything. 

Super Bowl 50 landed an estimated 111.9 million eyeballs on the television broadcast alone. This doesn't include how many watched in a bar, on a legal or illegal video stream, or on affiliated networks (such as ESPN Deportes). 

The Super Bowl is transmedia on steroids. 

Think about it. The Twitter conversations alone are enough to make a brand's head spin to try and catch up. During the game, you'll see trending hashtags for any significant play that happens, a commercial that resonates, a comment made during the broadcast, the halftime show. If the trend really resonates, you'll see someone create a new Twitter handle (see @leftshark). 

Then there are the memes -- the blessed memes. These are what make the Internet great. Here are a few examples from Super Bowl 50:

Besides the hundreds of accredited media attending the main event, you have fans and celebrities documenting their journeys and experience of the game. 

There are all the side stories leading up to the game: player profiles, the impact on the community, late night television interviews, product placement, and even a movie.

Then there are the commercials. The game is not just the icing on the NFL season; it is also championship day for advertisers and advertising firms. In the past few years, we're seeing more and more of these commercials receiving their own transmedia treatment, with teasers, contests, and some are also prelaunched the week before the actual game. 

There isn't a social media, media outlet (whether it's sports, news, or entertainment), establishment that has not had some form of discussion about the Super Bowl. That is transmedia on steroids.

Crowdsourcing Engagement

Before you build your transmedia platforms, it's important to know where your audience lives and how many demographics you will be approaching.

In using +Marvel Movies as an example, an audience can stretch over several generations. There is no one size fits all for demographics. Even though they may all come together for their love of Spiderman and Captain America, the interests and platforms of a 10 year old will differ largely from that of a teenager, from a twenty-something mom, to a 40-year-old professional, to a retired tradesman.

Know where your audience "lives" and what they look for (how they want to be approached). Ask them to participate. I don't mean "like my Facebook page." That means dick squat. What milkshake does your Facebook have to bring all the people to your yard? Once they are there, do you ignore them? Also, when you do ask for their participation, don't waste their time. Be brain-dead clear and concise.

Here are a couple of tips from the Australia website www.8ms.com.

1. Most people want advertising to feel like a story or game (see every Super Bowl).
2. Most want brands to treat the real world like a platform.
3. Most feel more compelled to jump in if the activity is in real time.
4. Most of all the media people consume is screen-based.

Managing audience engagement is crucial. Silence begets silence, and it is also important to make your content easy to share. Replies to comments and queries should be timely. If email, sometimes a few days is okay to wait, but in Twitter or Facebook, if you don't respond within a day, people have moved on and it seems like you have disregarded them.

If you make it hard for people to share your content, they won't. Digital currency is based on likes, comments, and shares. There are some traditional media sites that still throw up roadblocks to sharing online content. If your blog or post doesn't have a relevant photograph (we also see some media posts that don't), you won't be able to pin the story to Pinterest and if it just shows up as text in a feed, it may get glossed over.

There are a whole host of platforms one can use to extend their storyline: blogs, videos, podcasts, special Twitter hashtags, email, social media, web series, website, book, music, SMS, location-based games, novellas, comics, memes, the list is endless.

The following Blab offers up a few examples of getting audiences to engage in multiple platforms. You don't have to go very far to find ideas to inspire your own projects. These two creative websites are the ones mentioned in the video: www.conducttr.com and hitrecord.org.