how to approach transmedia narratives
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given to the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) Producer's Institute, San Francisco http://bavc.org/ A recording of the presentation is available here: http://transmedia.podomatic.com/ The title of presentation was "How to Approach Transmedia Narratives" so it's generally applicable to fiction entertainment too but has a specific slant towards social cause because of people attending the Producer's InstituteTRANSCRIPT
How to Approach Transmedia Narratives
BAVC, San Francisco Oct 2012
Robert Pratten CEO & Founder, Transmedia Storyteller Ltd
@robpratten
Conducttr brings your story to life
What is Transmedia Storytelling?
Storyworld
4
Storyworld
5
Your cause
Your cause
Audience at the heart
Transmedia’s Top 5 Best Practice
Discoverability
Retention Participation
ignite the Core all Appetites
How do you express your premise?
Audience participation opportunities
What will the audience do? How will they be engaged?
Companion Actor
Outsider Observer
THINK
FEEL
DO
Moral dilemmas, meaningful choices
Role-play, provide building blocks
Reflection, consideration Exploring, discovering
Incit
Incitement Bristol,UK 2012; by splash & ripple
Be surprising, playful and live?
Participatory Learning
Client’s objectives:
• Teach ethics and financial responsibility
• Self-guided problem solving
• Collaborative working
• New media comprehension
Solution:
• Simulation of real-life scenario
Students love to role-play
Fictional environmental activist
Traces of hope
Starting to Write
Scoping the project
Story development
Example
Appi Citi for TransbayFest
• Background – Something fun & “transmedia” for Transbay Fest – Theme of “Connectedness” and “Resilient Cities”
• Premise – connectedness = happiness
• Goal – Everyone to have a fun time (by connecting) – Connect people to theme of connectedness
• Participation – Casual: tweet your mood - “@MCU02 #happy4” – Deeper: find node pieces – head, heart, soul and ego
Story & Characters
• HarryHackster – protagonist
• MCU02 – Harry’s computer
• WingmanSF – Harry’s (comic) friend
• GhostSh3ll – Hackbot (villian)
Story Harry is local hipster/coder working on a tech start-up called Appi Citi Appi Citi measures the mood of the city and responds to increase the connectedness The heart of Appi Citi is a computer called @MCU02
Appi Citi
Closing night party
Opening night party
Social media participation
Characters and Platforms
• Tumblr – long form content (Story), discovery
• Twitter - discovery #transbayfest, ease-of-use
• SMS – immediacy
• Flyers - discovery
• Optional: Mobile app – discovery + stickiness
Appi Citi – initial sketch
Tweet me your mood! #happy1 thru #happy5 or if you're sad #sad1 thru #sad5 where 5 is the strongest feeling. #TransBayFest #AppiCiti
Collect 4 node pieces from around SF to become a node: Heart, Head, Soul, Ego. Tweet the codeword you find on flyers at #TransBayFest
Appi Citi - overview
Appi Citi on Mobile app
Key points
• Know your premise
• Know your audience
• Write for participation