{"id":483,"date":"2013-04-25T14:43:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T13:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/?p=483"},"modified":"2013-04-30T09:08:56","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T08:08:56","slug":"transmedia-the-future-of-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/transmedia-the-future-of-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Transmedia – the future of storytelling?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Defiance\"
\n<\/a>In an age where we have many channels through which we can digest entertainment it is perhaps inevitable that storytelling keeps getting more engaging. The edges between platform, media and gameplay are blurring. Fiction and reality are combining to form a new hybrid. A form of storytelling that impacts directly on your life.<\/p>\n

Actors of your favourite action show performing a scene right in front\u00a0of your eyes on the streets of London like a flashmob, to supplement a plot point in the show. Playing a video\u00a0game of your favourite sci-fi show so that you can feel what it is like\u00a0to be the main character. Interacting with your favourite soap opera\u00a0drama to help determine what the plot outcome will be. These are all possible\u00a0examples of transmedia.<\/p>\n

It’s nothing new. The phrase was first coined in 1991 but variations of the technique were being\u00a0used earlier. The 8-bit computer game Elite<\/a>\u00a0in 1984 came bundled with a novella called\u00a0The Dark Wheel which immersed you in the world of the game before you played it (very clever as the game was only depicted using wireframe graphics). Small examples like this are\u00a0quite prevalent, but it has become more and more intricate over the years.<\/p>\n

The Blair Witch Project<\/a> in 1999 is a famous example which could be classed as transmedia where they placed spoof ‘missing’ posters on billboards to raise awareness of the characters which they pretended were real. They\u00a0also published a dossier of one of the main characters that people could\u00a0read to learn more. This helped paint a richer world and made what was a\u00a0low budget film seem to be something bigger than what it actually was.<\/p>\n

Transmedia seems to be a hot topic right now, perhaps as the public has a much\u00a0greater appetite for multi channel consumption helped in no small part by\u00a0the second screen phenomenon. The biggest hyped transmedia project\u00a0right now is the brand new TV show\/game\u00a0Defiance<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0which aired last week. This is\u00a0being made concurrently as a TV show and a video game which allows you\u00a0to explore the world depicted in the TV show.<\/p>\n

The reboot of Hawaii 5-0<\/strong> also recently did a Choose Your Own Adventure style venture where they allowed the audience to determine the final ending by voting on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0it doesn’t all have to be the latest social media techniques. Doctor Who\u00a0<\/strong>recently aired an episode where one of the characters was reading a book\u00a0and this book held clues to part of the storyline. The BBC has now\u00a0published this book as an eBook<\/a> for viewers to read and help understand\u00a0some of the backstory to that episode.<\/p>\n

Transmedia is spreading.\u00a0The balance, however, has to be struck.\u00a0The more channels you use or the\u00a0more tactile or interactive you make these channels then the more real\u00a0and immersive your world becomes.\u00a0Too many channels and you risk spreading the story too thin, and at the end of the day you still have to have a great story otherwise no-one will keep tuning in. But if done well it can bring the story to life and immerse your audience ever more into your fictional world.<\/p>\n

I’m excited to see what other storytelling methods will be used and what new technologies will help to enhance these even more.<\/p>\n

(This blog was also posted on LEWIS 360 –\u00a0http:\/\/blog.lewispr.com\/2013\/04\/transmedia-the-future-of-storytelling.html<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Image source - http:\/\/www.defiance.com\/<\/em><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an age where we have many channels through which we can digest entertainment it is perhaps inevitable that storytelling keeps getting more engaging. The edges between platform, media and gameplay are blurring. Fiction and reality are combining to form … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,12,26,4],"tags":[28,27],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming","category-lewis-pr","category-movies","category-random","tag-defiance","tag-transmedia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3c0TL-7N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelhay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}