remixable - posts tagged 'crowdsourcing'

Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes Author and transmedia creator J.C. Hutchins joins us as we recap ARGFest-o-Con 2011. Hosts: Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media Haley Moore (and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller) Special Guests: J.C. Hutchins, author of Seventh Son and Personal Effects: Dark Art, and keynote speaker at ARGFest. From This Episode: ARGfest Keynote 2011: “Getting To Good” from J.C. Hutchins on Vimeo. JC’s podcast novel Seventh Son, and his transmedia novel Personal Effects: Dark Art with Jordan Weisman. We usually don’t link guests’ twitter feeds, but we’re linking JC’s here since we talked about it quite a bit on the show. The Darkest Puzzle, and Andrea Phillips’ response Awkward Hug’s game The Wisconsin Hustle opened ARGFest for attendees at the opening night cocktail party. JC’s and Violet Blue’s unboxing videos of a handmade scent kit, released earlier this year for Campfire’s experience for Game of Thrones. Our episode featuring Steve Coulson, about the Game of Thrones campaign the Maester’s Path. JC wrote animated videos for Smith and Tinker’s game Nanovor Video games from JC’s rundown include Mass Effect, Dragon Age, God of War, Uncharted, Heavy Rain, and Fable. Rob Jagnow of Lazy 8 Studios, who contributed to the Potato Sack ARG for Portal 2, is in pre-launch for his game Extrasolar Balance of Powers, an extended story from many of the creators of Perplex City, has been funded on Kickstarter. Zombies, Run! by Six to Start and Naomi Alderman, has now raised $50k of its $12k goal, with over a week left open on its campaign. The steampunk comic, theater and film experience Clockwork Watch, created by Yomi Ayeni, is still accepting backers on IndieGoGo. DIY DAYS LA will be held on the UCLA campus on October 28. Tickets are free. Story World Conference will be held in San Diego October 31-November 2.

Transmedia Talk 29: Lost Zombies

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:51:32 GMT

The Power of User Generated Content

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:12:28 GMT

At SXSW I watched Nick Poole (founder of the infamous 4chan) introduce his new project Canvas. This isn’t as edgy as his previous meme factory. Canvas provides basic tools for users to post and alter pictures. Think of it like a message board where users have conversations through constantly evolving images. A long thread starting with a picture of Dos Equis’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World” can end randomly with him as Rebecca Black and the caption: “It’s not always Friday. But when it is…Saturday comes next.”

The success of Canvas hinges on growing a community of people excited to create remixes. With just viewers, there won’t be user generated content to entertain visitors. So, Nick makes sure the collaborative process is fun/easy and doesn’t focus on attracting professional quality design work. Without high standards more lurkers will become contributors.

Now more than ever, everyone from artists to storytellers should learn how to hone the power of UGC to build their internet presence. Facebook is the second most popular site in the world-Twitter, Youtube, Yelp, Fanfiction.net, and many other successful destinations wouldn’t exist without non-professionals.

Here are some different ways to get people to create user generated content:

View more presentations from Peter Katz.

What is your experience with user generated content?

Transmedia Talk 27: Socks, Incorporated

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:46:40 GMT

The Revolution will be Streamed Live… from an iPhone

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:00:07 GMT

Reporters from the major news stations have been blocked from covering a violent protest in a foreign land, but this doesn’t mean an international audience can’t watch the chaos ensue. Rioters armed with the newest smart phones are streaming these events live to the Internet. And this time, CNN is trying to catch up. This is the future of journalism.

Right now, the process of streaming live video via mobile devices is far from perfect: it’s slow, unreliable, and tends to have low picture quality. Once the technology improves, however, endless channels of this footage can reach the masses. Like a TV director, viewers will be able to switch between multiple perspectives from different mobile broadcasts covering one event. Instead of the bulky camcorders of the past, small lightweight Androids and iPhones will be able to stream this content in real time.

Potentially, people will be able to rely more on civilians to deliver news, and less on professional journalists. Image quality from phones are improving, and eventually these bystanders will shoot live video in high definition. Also, TV networks have a limited budget for expensive camcorders and professional crew. On the other hand, hundreds of bystanders equipped with phones typically have the ability to cover more ground. When something newsworthy happens in public, anyone carrying a cell is there before the press.

In addition, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can create communities around the streaming content. Viewers will be able to comment about what’s happening around the world at any moment. This audience can rely on popular web personalities who will act as curators and commentators for the live news. Each unique perspective will attract their own niche audience that CNN or Fox News may ignore.

Eventually, the hunger for instant, live news will not be served by big news corporations with costly equipment and star reporters- but by millions of ordinary people with the newest smart phones. And with this technology, who knows? The next Anderson Cooper just might be you.

Transmedia Talk Podcast – Episode 10

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:52:13 GMT

Welcome to Transmedia Talk a new podcast covering all things story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia and Robert Pratten and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. download Or Subscribe iTunes NB: If you’d like to give us feedback, recommend yourself as a guest or suggest topics to cover – please email us at talk@workbookproject.com or Tweet away with the hashtag #tmediatalk Hosts Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker Robert Pratten from TransmediaStoryteller.com Haley Moore from Culture Hacker Guests Jay Bushman from http://jaybushman.com/ Caitlin Burns from Starlight Runner (and Jurassic Park Slope) Timing 1:00 Transmedia Producers Guild (PGA) 2:10 Twitter in transmedia storytelling 50:36 Transmedia Artists Guild discussion Twitter as a storytelling platform Here are some great links provided by Caitlin for those interested to know more about Twitter for storytelling. Twitter Fiction Cellphone (Mobile) Novels (keitai shosetsu) The Shorty Awards – place to look for Twitter fiction And of course Jay Bushman’s work: The Good Captain The Empire Tweets Back Plus… I thought it might also be nice to include an infographic on how an author or producer might approach using Twitter in transmedia storytelling. Please let me have any comments and I’ll update and improve as necessary. Oh, and here’s a neat little Word macro that’ll chop up your text into 140 character bites and add a hashtag if needed.

EVENT: OPEN VIDEO CONFERENCE

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:02:12 GMT

The Open Video Conference returns to NYC with a stop at FIT for two days of conference Oct 1st and 2nd and a special hack day on Oct 3rd. We caught up with Ben Moskowitz who’s pulling the event together to get a better sense of what to expect.

WorkBook Project: What is OVC and what’s new this year?

Ben Moskowitz: OVC is a two-day gathering for anyone who’s interested in the future of web video. The event draws a big and diverse crowd of businesspeople, technologists, lawyers, academics, artists and others. At one level it’s a showcase for creative and technical innovation in online video, especially some of the exciting things happening with HTML5 and open video. But we also grapple with some larger questions—with so much free content out there, how will artists get paid? Who decides what you watch? Who knows what you watch? We are very much about the top-level concerns of this emerging web video medium, the web, and the mass media system generally.

OVC is presented by the Open Video Alliance, which is a coalition of organizations and individuals building open tools, policies, and practices for web video. This is the second time we’ve produced OVC. This year’s event is bigger, featuring a small film festival and hack day. But on a deeper level, what’s new this year is that HTML5 video and open video generally are really picking up industry support, and lightbulbs are beginning to go off in people’s heads. So some of the really advanced stuff that we’ve been forecasting and building toward is becoming tangible. OVC is a great place to get a peek at some of that stuff.

WBP What’s the most pressing issue facing Open Video and why?

BM: At OVC we’re interested in all facets of web video. To have an “open” video ecosystem, we’re going to need to ensure that creativity is compensated; that the software and hardware tools for making and watching video are accessible and widely distributed; that the network for delivering video is open to all producers, big and small; and that public policy supports the ability of mass numbers of people to participate in the video conversation.

We’re discussing all of this at OVC, and it’s all important.

WBP: HTML5 what’s it mean to storytellers and what are some of the exciting things you’ve seen done with it? Any examples you can share?

BM: Mozilla is opening an HTML5 video workshop to show what’s possible when video is woven into web pages. It’s much different than simply “embedding” a video—it’s experimenting with the possibilities of connecting video to the rest of the web, and really embracing new ideas about interactivity and iterability.

There’s the popcorn.js demo floating around, which pulls live-updating data from across the web and displays it along with the video. But that’s early stage stuff. There are lots of cool concepts which show users interacting and manipulating video in real time. It’s not just about augmenting the viewing experience—it’s about creating new experiences which weren’t possible until now. Check out the Arcade Fire HTML5 music video, “The Wilderness Inside.” In fact, do a Google search for “HTML5 video demo” and you’ll see all sorts of possibilities; when you realize that creators will be able to tinker with and build upon these examples in mass experimentation, your head will spin.

Of course, all the tech demos and gadgetry are nothing unless they’re in service of a great story. One of the coolest things to see at OVC is open source developers and creatives putting their heads together to imagine how the web can advance the craft of storytelling. We will have some cool stuff to show, for sure. But I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

But beyond that, the energy at OVC is infectious. It’s a meeting of the minds and people will be pitching new ideas all weekend. We’re delighted to be working with over 15 organizations, including the visionaries at the Workbook Project.

WBP: You’re adding a hack day this year can you explain the reason and what will be taking place?

BM: The hack day is free and open to the public. We’re organizing the hack day so everyone will have a space to start executing on their ideas immediately after the conference.

It’s taking place at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program at 721 Broadway. Though it’s an open space gathering, we have some confirmed activities: a Mozilla WebMadeMovies working group; Kaltura hackathon; a working group with WITNESS on building solutions for human rights video; and a lot more. For the folks working on the fundamental mechanics of web video, we have the highly technical Foundations of Open Media Software Workshop.

But anyone with a project is welcome to come and collaborate—it’s going to be fun.

WBP: What tech do you think is exciting right now?

BM: Beyond the possibilities of HTML5 video, I’m really interested in how video on open knowledge projects like Wikipedia can improve learning, And generally speaking, the expanding universe of tools for making and sharing video—from the capture end all the way up to cloud computing resources—is really amazing to consider.

———–

If you’re interested in new forms of storytelling, technology, policy issues or just want to catch a glimpse of some innovative projects make sure to attend OVC.

Discount available for WorkBook Project community…

Register now— they’re filling up. It’s a great deal, with 60+ sessions, screenings, parties, and more. For readers of WBP use this discount code FILM20

EVENT: OPEN VIDEO CONFERENCE

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:02:12 GMT

WorkBook Project: What is OVC and what’s new this year?

WBP What’s the most pressing issue facing Open Video and why?

We’re discussing all of this at OVC, and it’s all important.

WBP: HTML5 what’s it mean to storytellers and what are some of the exciting things you’ve seen done with it? Any examples you can share?

WBP: You’re adding a hack day this year can you explain the reason and what will be taking place?

BM: The hack day is free and open to the public. We’re organizing the hack day so everyone will have a space to start executing on their ideas immediately after the conference.

But anyone with a project is welcome to come and collaborate—it’s going to be fun.

WBP: What tech do you think is exciting right now?

———–

If you’re interested in new forms of storytelling, technology, policy issues or just want to catch a glimpse of some innovative projects make sure to attend OVC.

Discount available for WorkBook Project community…

Register now— they’re filling up. It’s a great deal, with 60+ sessions, screenings, parties, and more. For readers of WBP use this discount code FILM20

ARGFest’s Artifact Academy Puzzle Trail

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:33:47 GMT

At ARGFest 2010, Michelle Senderhauf and I ran a workshop on game artifacts – how to use them to tell a story, deliver puzzles, and reward players. We invited our workshoppers to create artifacts to continue an ARG scenario I cooked up, and lead the players to the next part of the game using physical objects.

The facts were these:

The players had been asked to help a hot brunette recover his grandfather from mysterious kidnappers who have also stolen his uncrackable safe and hidden it in an unknown location. After remotely blowing up a courier car sent to retrieve the safe, and getting the coordinates of its destination from an apparently indestructible GPS unit, the players find themselves in the woods, unearthing the safe. It’s contents may reveal a secret about the hot brunette’s grandfather that he never would have guessed, or they may raise even more questions.

We brought in the tools and materials for a little ARG propmaking jamboree, and what the ARGFesters came up with was truly remarkable. As you can see, we left the prompt wide open for participants of the workshop to create as much or as little content as they desired, and to take the story in any direction they chose.

I never expected that at the end of a frantic hour and a half of crafting, we would have a complete puzzle trail, leading players to the next “live event” in our game.

Let’s rifle through this box of treasures. What you’re about to see is written, conceived, and assembled by the workshoppers. Michelle and I just facilitated.

First, we have a postcard that looks like it was shot in the 1960’s, but the caption on the back says it’s from the 1919 Indy 500 race. Curious.

Michelle found these postcards (front and back) in an antiques store in her native Chesterton, IN, on an artifact shopping trip. Michelle gave herself a $20 budget and was able to procure a good stock of old photographs and other things to modify to tell our story.

Next, we have a compass with no directions on it. Also curious.

I found these toy compasses in the party supply aisle of my local dollar store, with the pirate hats and paper eyepatches. I think they were six to a pack. They did have a direction sticker on the bottom, which was removed for the purposes of the game.

A letter about secret government research into…time travel?

“Dear Adrian,

You were not yet born when it all started, so I do not expect you to predict what will happen should the UNRC’s predictions be incorrect. But despite the agreement I signed and the importance of the information, I feel morally obliged to tell you what our last hope is. If the speculation of our scientists – my coworkers – is correct, we will be able to change history. Time can be changed, and if it cannot then it is already too late for us. I am writing to tell you that despite my distracted behavior recently, your father loves you. Tomorrow I move to the facility constructed in the late Piedmont Park in Atlanta. There everyone is gathering to complete the Algorythm. I only hope we are correct.

God help us.

~ Stefan”

It has a mysterious glyph at the bottom – is it a map?

This letter was hand written at the workshop on some paper that I enoldenated en masse a few months ago. I bought a cheap writing pad from the dollar store and steeped it in tea and coffee at near-boiling temperature.

The scroll unrolls into a nearly unreadable map.

I drew this as a “bonus” at the end of the workshop. The “scroll” is a roll of thermal paper I saved from an old thermal fax machine. Thermal paper is cool in that it “antiques” itself when it is exposed to heat. It is also translucent, like vellum.

There’s also this strange device – is it from the future, or the past? It has a blue monocle on a reel, and a UV LED on the side.

This is cobbled together from a dollar store intrusion detector toy, a UV keychain light from an invisible ink kit, and a real antique monocle that Michelle had picked up (along with a pair of glasses) on her shopping excursion.

And here we have the easiest puzzle of the bunch. Look through the monocle, and you’ll see a US map denoting some ominous and bizarre landmarks.

However, the most interesting thing in the safe is this framed photo – is this the hot brunette’s grandfather as a younger man?

The back of the frame has scuff marks where the backing is held in place. That’s odd. It’s not like you open and close picture frames a whole lot. Or do you?

The image is a real old photo -another of Michelle’s finds. According to her, photos like this usually run a few dollars at antiques stores. The frame is from the dollar store, and was roughed up with a pair of scissors.

Oh-ho! Secrets!

There is a page with letters and holes, and clock drawn on the back of the photo – but it has no hands! However, the shape in the middle looks familiar…

This is the real back of that photo. I love it – its so pretty, and its even more gorgeous with the hand-drawn clock face on it. The letter page was done with stamps for the letters, and hand written numbers. More antiqued paper.

The compass has a notch in it – and it turns out that we can use that to line it up perfectly with the “map” on the letter. We point the compass to the arrow on the letter…

And when we line it up with a similar mark on the clock, we get a time. 6:30. Perhaps this is the time of Stefan’s meeting in Piedmont Park (two blocks from the convention.) But Stefan is a time traveler? What day are we supposed to meet him on?

At this point, we know we’re missing a piece in the puzzle. We have that piece of paper with the holes in it, but the holes don’t line up with anything on the letter, or the clock piece. Where could the missing key to this puzzle be?

Hmm….

Found it! The glue holding the two cards together separates without damaging either, and now we can see that there is a secret star chart inside.

When we stack them, we can see that some of the letters are marked with red dots. From left to right and top to bottom – J, 2, Y, 8, 0, 0, U, 1, L, 1.

I’ll leave that one little puzzle for you to solve. If anyone has spotted time travelers at Piedmont Park, please drop us a line.

The ARGFest workshop was attended by @Ancalime, @DavFlamerock, @egotist, @JimBabb, @TheBruce0, and many others, who made these awesome things. Michelle and I mostly just watched.

Collaborative Music Production

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:38:46 GMT

Launched this week is the latest innovation from Finland – the country that brought us Linux and Wreckamovie – a community-based music production service called AudioDraft.

AudioDraft allows musicians to record and upload music not necessarily as complete pieces but as tracks (or stems as would be the jargon) for each individual instrument or vocal. This means a singer in Finland can work with a guitarist in Germany and a drummer in America. They each record their part, upload to the site and then the three stems can be mixed and saved as would be done with any other digital mixing program: think of AudioDraft as a cloud-based ProTools or Adobe Audition.

What could be amazing about the service is that bands are able to allow fans to mix their own tracks. Don’t like that damn bass? Think the sax solo should be louder and the drums drop out? Mix it yourself. It could be a fantastic way to build community around music artists with each fan able to tweek the original work to suit their taste.

There’s little reason why AudioDraft could not be used for film production with sound effects designers and composers uploading their work from different parts of the world. Right now this isn’t possible because there’s no picture sync but it doesn’t take much imagination to see it working in the future.

Of particular interest to indie filmmakers and others is the other service offered by AudioDraft – the work-for-hire competition model that allows musicians to submit work for payment: think 99Designs for audio work. Three competitions are running at the time of writing with prize money between $1000 and $400. One of which is a competition to create the theme music for webseries part of my Lowlifes transmedia project

Definitely worth checking out.

Collaborative Music Production

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:01:44 GMT

Launched this week is the latest innovation from Finland – the country that brought us Linux and Wreckamovie – a community-based music production service called AudioDraft.

Definitely worth checking out.

Hard Knocks of Crowdsourcing: Don’t Throttle Participation

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:02:32 GMT

Today, I am going to share a parable of net-native design for those interested in learning from the mistakes of others.

A few weeks ago, I launched the site and resources for my distributed object project, Sew By Numbers. Basically, I made a template that anyone could print out on a sheet of inkjet fabric, and if you followed the instructions on the sheet, you’d end up with a little doll. Because the whole thing is printed on the fabric, the doll’s and features can be easily customized without changing the template. It is basically papercraft, for fabric.

I had always planned to include a crowdsourcing element in Sew By Numbers, but since this was something I did in my spare time, I didn’t think I would get anyone interested customizing dolls without talking to them one on one.

And so, I published a blank template, with the half-hearted suggestion that people could design on them if they wanted to. The blank template had some flaws. The parts weren’t clearly labeled, and because constructing the doll involved flipping pieces over, it was almost assured that an arm or a foot would be backward if you didn’t know exactly where to place your graphics. The blank was really designed for testing, and to make “sketch dolls” that artists could draw on after assembling them.

There was also an artist template, with all of these flaws fixed, but at the time I was simply passing it around by email to a small group of artists, and had held off making it publically available, so I could tweak it if I felt like it.

Turns out I was wrong. About an hour after the project was mentioned to Aaron, an excellent character artist I’d never met, he finished a really excellent doll design on the publically available template – the one with all the design flaws. The result was usable, but needed hours of tweaking to add bleeds and fix one of those upside-down legs.

To fix it, I did three things – first, I made the proper template available at a short URL on our web site. Second, I emailed it to Aaron directly. Third, after talking to him a bit, I did all the necessary testing and tweaking for his design myself. I didn’t want the miscommunication to discourage an interested and talented person from making more designs in the future. The result looks great:

The lesson we can take from this snafu is – if you are going to get content from the crowd, make as many of your own resources as possible available to everyone. Don’t limit the average participant to working with substandard tools. This is doubly important for early adopters, who are more skilled, focused, and passionate about contributing than later participants.

It should also be mentioned that Aaron was a friend of a friend, not a complete stranger. It makes me think that crowdsourcing strategies might be useful even in smaller groups – basically, for anyone who you don’t speak to personally, your public presence is going to be your connection to them.

Luckily, this is not a post-mortem of my project. SBN looks to be proceeding apace – even in the early stages, it’s gotten the nod from Thingiverse, and Andrea demoed it at foo camp. I was even filmed putting together one of the alpha dolls for a documentary short about the Dallas Makerspace. So far, the process of making internet dolls has been fun and rewarding – as long as it’s done with the right tools.

Hard Knocks of Crowdsourcing: Don’t Throttle Participation

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:47:20 GMT

Today, I am going to share a parable of net-native design for those interested in learning from the mistakes of others.

Comic Con Tip Box

Thu, 27 May 2010 08:14:25 GMT

San Diego Comic Con is a massive gathering of smart, tech savvy, nerdy folks. Every year, there are tie-ins there to all sorts of transmedia campaigns, and this summer Culture Hacker will be there, rounding them up.

We will be scouring the conference, but you can make it easier for us to find the good stuff. If you know where a great transmedia project can be found at Comic Con, and you want to see it here on WBP, please drop a line to our tip box.

All tips are treated as anonymous. Be sure to let us know where to go (booth number or room name), and when. Spoilers not necessary.

Lead photo courtesy Gary Scott.

Comic Con Tip Box

Mon, 24 May 2010 16:23:05 GMT

All tips are treated as anonymous. Be sure to let us know where to go (booth number or room name), and when. Spoilers not necessary.

Lead photo courtesy Gary Scott.

One from the archive: Filmmakers That Think Outside the Film

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:29:52 GMT

The following article is one from the WBP archives.

In the 1940’s filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (known as “The Archers”) championed a multi-artform cinema. They created films that represented music, dance, painting, literature and photography; for they believed that ‘all art is one’. Now, with the proliferation of media platforms, the palette for filmmakers is stupendous. Not only is it impossible to encompass all artforms in a single film, but there are aesthetic and economic reasons for maintaining their integrity. All art is not one within the film, but in its relationships with artforms around it. Filmmakers are now thinking beyond cinema and DVD to include the web, theatre, books and mobile technology in their canvas.

In this article I’ll take you through a whirlwind tour of some of the ways filmmakers are thinking beyond the film. Our first stop is a look at how the assets of a film are repurposed. This is not a discussion about distribution methods or how the medium of delivery influences the experience. Instead it is an exploration of the ways assets can be reused to create new works. The first example is that of filmmakers offering components of their film in digital format for anyone to ‘remix’. Remixing is rife with fans, but it is only in the last few years that filmmakers have begun to offer their content for remixing.

Sometimes the offering is driven by a desire to create ‘citizen marketers’, such as New Line Cinema’s release of footage and music so that people could create a new trailer of Liz Friedlander’s Take the Lead (2006). They also specifically commissioned ‘official’ remixes (see Addictive). The logic behind New Line Cinema’s approach is best understood with this quote in the New York Times (6th April) by Russell Schwartz, president for domestic marketing for New Line Cinema: “Our assets become their assets, and that’s how they become fans of the movie.” For Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006), assets – video, stills, audio – are provided so that audiences can create a music video at The Fountain Remixed . In this case, the offering is explained as giving audiences who want to contemplate eternal life the “chance to delve deeper” (from website). Peter Greenaway has made finding fragments, of a movie that is part of a large storyworld The Tulse Luper Project, a game. The Tulse Luper Journey involves players collaborating to complete 92 puzzles. On completion of each puzzle, a 1 minute film fragment is released to the player. It is then their task to compile the 92 minute film of Tulse Luper. The logic behind these offerings are manifold, from facilitating ‘citizen marketing’ to a highly personalized exploration of a storyworld. It should be noted too, that some filmmakers are experimenting with creating films specifically designed for remixing, such as Michelle Hughes’ Stray Cinema (2006), Aryan Kaganof’s SMS Sugarman (2007) and Michela Ledwidge’s (in-development) Sanctuary.

Filmmakers also engage in remixes of their own films. For the past year Peter Greenaway has been performing live VJing sessions of assets of his cross-media project The Tulse Luper Project . Workbook Project’s own Lance Weiler is currently touring the USA and Europe with his – ‘cinema ARG‘ of Head Trauma (2006). Weiler’s cinema event includes a remix, live music, theatrics and mobile phones. It is a unique experience of the film’s storyworld carefully curated by the filmmaker. His cinema theatrics are helping to revive the notion of cinema as event.

[Peter Greenaway VJing]

As well as remixing their own work, and offering their assets up for others to do with what they will, filmmakers are also commissioning artists to create interactive works out of the assets. On the main website of Head Trauma, for instance, Lance Weiler has included an interactive graphic novel that includes footage, stills and audio of the film. The website for David Slade’s Hard Candy (2005) has an – experience, and so too with Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain Experience . Indeed Peter Greenaway has also commissioned Digiscreen to create what they call a “webler” of The Tulse Luper Suitcases:

“Website constructed entirely from a film’s visual and aural elements that can be navigated and interacted with by a general audience. A webler should offer both an experience of the actual film as with a film trailer and an alternative expression of that experience.” (Digiscreen)

There are also non-web creative constructions of a film’s assets is ‘Blossoms and Blood’, a 12 minute montage of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love (2002). The short film is on the DVD and is constructed with deleted scenes. Since most of the shots included are of different points of view than those in the film, the work moves from vignette to being a kind of parallel universe. Poetic explorations of a theme are also rendered in print. Peter Greenaway has art books that accompany The Tulse Luper Suitcases (that he created), the Wachowski Brothers commissioned two volumes of graphic novels for The Matrix and Darren Aronofsky has written a graphic novel adaptation of The Fountain with painter Kent Williams. Aronofsky describes his entire project as “[a] story so grand, one medium couldn’t contain it” (source).

All of these works augment the film, providing a poetic rendition, but they also stand on their own as a work of art. They are at times a specifically designed prologue and epilogue. Indeed, some filmmakers push administrative detail to the side and instead prefer the films website to be a meditation on the theme. Examples are the websites for Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000); Christopher Nolan’s Momento (2000); Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001); Darren Lynn Bousman’s Saw II (2005) and more recently Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2007).

[Screenshot from Momento website]

This treatment of the web as an expressive medium extends even further. Some filmmakers are populating their storyworld on the web shoulder to shoulder with real world sites. Sites for fictional companies and characters in films are emerging across cyberspace, almost indistinguishable from their real world counterparts… if not for their outlandish nature. For instance, the company that erases Joel Barish’s memory in Michael Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004) has its own corporate site: Lacuna Inc. The company that provided the cloned child in Nick Hamm’s Godsend (2004) is likewise online: Godsend Institute. Companies mentioned in the Enter the Matrix digital game (2003), such as Omega Hardware Solutions were also online. The company that produces the NS-5 in Alex Proyas’ I, Robot (2004) has a site dedicated to the robot: NS-5. The company has even issued a press release detailing how the “NS-5″ will play several major roles in the film. Indeed, Count Olaf, the evil character in Brad Silberling’s Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) has his own website and blog, a place where he relishes in his starring role in the film.

In all of these examples it is clear that the storyworld is not married to the primary medium, to film, anymore. For some, this multi-medium existence has an immersive effect. Just like real life, it is present in all communication channels. Of course, this can be encouraged with websites that are set within the universe of the film. Early examples of this are seen with Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast website in 1996 and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s The Blair Witch Project website in 1998. The later went on to also broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel a mockumentary, Curse of the Blair Witch, of the mockumentary and published a dossier of the “evidence” in 1999. Over the past few years, it is has been these practices – representing the world of the film as being real – that have emerged as a primary aesthetic for many audiences and creators. Four months before the screening of Takashi Shimizu’s The Grudge 2 (2006) a blog by Jason C was launched. Jason C is postgraduate student who is covering the making of the film as part of his research. So, the site works as both a making-of and fictional prologue. Why fiction? Jason C is a fictional character who, over the next few months, witnesses mysterious events on the set. Slowly, all of the cast and crew are affected by the strange events. In the end, Jason C disappears and his roommate takes over the blog in an effort to get help to find him.

Despite many diegetic web to film references, there are not many instances of references to fictional sites within films. Movie Poop Shoot, was in Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) and the character Paul Duncan in Godsend does search the Net for the Godsend Institute website mentioned earlier. But the only explicit referral by a character I’ve seen is Professor Bedlam’s mention of his website in Ivan Reitman’s My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006): ProfessorBedlam.com. The cross-platform traversal was not well executed however, as the website featured content that was set in the plot at the beginning of the film, not the end. These traversals need to make sense in terms of the flow of the narrative, which means creative control over them. Despite this flaw, the explicit referral of another element of the storyworld in another medium is a sign that the craft of multi-platform expression is maturing. Each component is not divorced of the others, in other words, it is a carefully constructed experience.

The majority of examples I have given thus far are adaptations of some kind. There are examples emerging of a storyline being extended. For instance, at the end of the Donnie Darko website (which requires moving through various levels by solving puzzles) the viewer/player is rewarded with press clippings that detail what happened to some of the characters after the events of the film. The Grudge 2 blog I cited previously is also an example of a metafictional prologue. A different approach to the extension of a storyworld is found in the DVD of Brad Bird’s animated film The Incredibles (2004). Near the end of the film, the mother (Elastigirl) listens to messages left by the babysitter of her child Jack-Jack on her mobile phone/cell. As we progress through the messages it is clear the babysitter is getting more and more frantic. The film ends, however, without us knowing what happened with the babysitter and the son Jack-Jack. We find out what happened, though, in the short animated film in the DVD: “Jack-Jack Attack”. Here we have a change of POV and an elaboration of narrative point in the film. Filmmakers are also starting their narrative in books. Unlike the adaptation model that has dominated, these books are designed to start the plot, which will then continue in the film. Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2007) begins with three novels, and Chair Entertainment has begun their Empire story with a specifically written novel by Orson Scott Card. Chair Entertainment describe their approach as follows:

Chair’s unique value proposition is that we (1) create compelling original stories, (2) own and maintain creative control of our IP, and (3) create marketing synergy around that IP in 5 core franchise areas: video games, books, movies, comics, and merchandise. Each product we develop offers a unique perspective of the story and works together to expand the franchise. [source]

A similar multi-platform approach to addressing unexplored elements in a film is seen in EA Game’s The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth II (2006). It is set during events that coincide with the events in Peter Jackson’s films, but take place in areas of Middle-Earth not covered in it. They are, of course, known from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. With massively multiplayer online games, we have the Matrix Online (2005) as a good example of the continuation of a storyworld into a game. The gameworld is set after the events of the last film and although there have been mixed reviews, there are interesting plot developments such as the death of Morpheus. Due to the popularity of the genre, there will be many more integrated game and film projects over the next few years. Of note is the project Titantic director James Cameron has been working on for the past few years: Project 880. Once it comes out (a year or so apparently), it will be the first project that will begin as a multiplayer game and then continue in a feature film. But before looking too far into the future, lets return to the innovative transmedia expansions that are happening now and in the not-too-distant past.

[Screenshot from EA's Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II]

The most referred to past project is the Wachoswki Brother’s The Matrix universe. Their storyworld existed in films, anime, comics and games. But unlike tie-ins and franchises of the past, the Wachowski Bros. creatively controlled each element and designed a continuous narrative across them. A highly cited example is the narrative thread of “the message”. In the short anime, “The Last Flight of Osiris” (2003), the character Jue and her crew discover the machines are boring to Zion. Their aim is to warn Zion of the impending danger by sending a message to the Nebuchadnezzar crew. At the end of the story Jue just manages to post the letter (thus ending a narrative thread), but we do not know what happens to the letter (a continuing thread). What happens to the letter is addressed in the digital game, Enter the Matrix (2003). The first mission for the player is to retrieve the letter from the post office. The player succeeds in continuing the narrative but we still do not know of the consequences of our actions. It is at the beginning of the second film, The Matrix Reloaded (2003), when Niobe (who is one of two characters in the game) reports on the ‘last transmissions of the Osiris’. The transmissions posted in the anime and retrieved by players in the digital game.

The Wachowski Brothers weren’t the only ones to persist their storyworld across media platforms though. In 2003 a group of fans conceived and implemented a unique project. Fan production is nothing new, but the form of this continuation of the Matrix storyworld was with a creative type that was only two years old. This group created an ‘alternate reality game’ (ARG): a storyworld that requires players all over the world to collaborate to find it and solve. Stories are distributed across numerous websites, emails, faxes, phone calls and real life events. Characters have blogs and chat to players via email, fax and phone. Fictional companies have sites that players have to ‘hack’ into and retrieve information from. The entire narrative is played out in real time, 24 hours a day and requires players to work together to solve very difficult puzzles to access information. The outcome is never fixed, for the creators always alter the world in real time according to the actions of the players. The ARG for The Matrix, MetaCortechs, is one of the most successful ARGs, with over 125,000 players from 115,000 countries. An invaluable book for those considering creating an ARG is the Project Mu Archives, for it documents The Matrix ARG from the player’s perspective. It is also available online. An ARG design book is also available: ARG designer Dave Szulborski’s This is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming.

Other films augmented by fans in the Jim Miller’s web-only Exocog in 2002. He chose the then forthcoming Minority Report as his storyworld and produced a 5-week project played in the build up to the film’s release. In 2004, VirtuQuest created an ARG set in the universe of George Lucas’ first feature film: THX 1138 (1971). SEN 5241 continued the narrative after the events of the film and was created to coincide with the launch of the DVD.

Fans are the not the only who have created ARGs though. Indeed, the first ARG (as it known now) was actually a commissioned by Microsoft and Dreamworks to publicize Stephen Spielberg’s A.I: Artificial Intelligence (2001) but ended up being described by Internet Life magazine as the ‘Citizen Kane of online entertainment’. The Beast was played by over 3 million people all over the world and created the new form of entertainment. Players who followed 150 characters across hundreds of websites, emails, faxes, files and puzzles for months and generated over 300 million impressions for the film through mainstream press such as Time, CNN, and USA Today, as well as niche outlets such as Wired, Slashdot, and Ain’t it Cool News, and won numerous awards including best idea (New York Times Magazine) and best web site (Entertainment Weekly). [4orty 2wo Entertainment]

[Screenshot of the Monster Hunt Club website for The Host]

In 2007, Magnolia Films commissioned ARG Studios to create an ARG for Bong Joon Ho’s The Host (2007). The ARG, Monster Hunt Club, helped market the release of the Korean film in the US. It was, I believe, the first ‘horror’ ARG (and Lance Weiler’s ‘cinema ARG’ the first of its kind, for scary movies too). More recently, an ARG-like campaign has started for the upcoming Batman film by Christopher Nolan: The Dark Knight. So far there have been fictional sites, such as the political campaign site for the character Harvey Dent (who becomes ‘Two-Face’) and clues left on playing cards left in comic book stores. One of the techniques that ARGs use is to remove all cues to fictionality: fictional sites almost indistinguishable from real ones. But as we have seen with the various projects mentioned in this article, this trope is not unique to ARGs. Indeed, making a fictional world seem as real as possible, extending it across media platforms, playing with it and enabling audiences to share and participate in its construction are just some of the key drives for filmmakers now.

In a keynote speech delivered at the Cinema Militans in September 2003, Peter Greenaway described the Tulse Luper Suitcases (a work that includes 3 feature films, a TV series, 92 DVDs and CD Roms, books and numerous websites) as: “an attempt to make a gathering together of today’s languages, to place them alongside one another and get them to converse.” Creators of film, print, TV, radio, theatre, games, new media and painting are all moving into this new paradigm of creation. Indeed, the future will not be the domain of artists who adapt or extend from their primary medium, but the domain of people who are transmedia artists from the beginning. Filmmakers don’t create films anymore, they create worlds.

One from the archive: Filmmakers That Think Outside the Film

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:29:52 GMT

The following article is one from the WBP archives.

[Peter Greenaway VJing]

“Website constructed entirely from a film’s visual and aural elements that can be navigated and interacted with by a general audience. A webler should offer both an experience of the actual film as with a film trailer and an alternative expression of that experience.” (Digiscreen)

[Screenshot from Momento website]

Chair’s unique value proposition is that we (1) create compelling original stories, (2) own and maintain creative control of our IP, and (3) create marketing synergy around that IP in 5 core franchise areas: video games, books, movies, comics, and merchandise. Each product we develop offers a unique perspective of the story and works together to expand the franchise. [source]

[Screenshot from EA's Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II]

[Screenshot of the Monster Hunt Club website for The Host]

Creative extensions to the stories I tell

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:54:47 GMT

I find myself baffled at times by the lack of willingness to experiment. Where is the innovation? We find ourselves at an amazing time, one in which storytelling has vast possibilities thanks in part to advancements in technology. Yet many confuse this opportunity with what they literally see others doing or what bubbles up in various press coverage. Social media hype clouds the true creative potential. In fact in many ways the types of transmedia I find myself drawn to are all about story and have little to do with promotion and marketing. Now some of that becomes a natural byproduct but it isn’t what’s driving the story I’m telling. If I can build an audience along the way – why wouldn’t I? In fact they’re more than an audience to me they’re collaborators. Of course some will be passive viewers but others will be active participants.

The technology that we use to design, delivery and tell engaging stories with; is more than just a twitter, blog or facebook account for a character. It isn’t just about documenting the behind the scenes of a film or TV project that we’re making. Not that there’s anything wrong with documentation of a process in many ways that’s what makes the WorkBook Project possible. But for me It’s about creative choices that effect a vast world where the characters and stories we tell live. Where a scene can play through time and space. It can resolve itself on a mobile device, in a dark theater or in someone’s living room. The technology that we use is merely another creative tool no different than a lens or a camera.

There are some amazing projects that embrace technology and data sets. Data is something that touches all of our lives and it is a language that we all will find ourselves learning whether we like it or not. In many ways data is boring but it can also become a beautiful moving piece of art. For instance We Feel Fine jumps to mind. The project is emotional and tells a collective story that connects people all over the world. I could argue that it is as beautiful as some of the foreign films I love. It is an amazing piece of art yet informative and touching all at the same time.

Now Transmedia isn’t for all stories. In fact for some it could be considered a distraction especially if you try to shoehorn it into a project. But that’s because the language for telling stories across multiple devices and screens is relatively a new form. Like writing a good script it takes time to develop a rich storyworld one where you feel a connection to the characters, engage in the story and escape into the world that surrounds you.

One area that I’ve been focusing over the last year is within the mobile app space. The following column from Filmmaker Mag explains some of the reasons why.

It’s a known fact that the film industry has no shortage of middlemen. The path between filmmaker and audience is littered with them – some good, some bad. But the promise of a direct connection to an audience has become the currency of the future. These days it seems as if everyone is trying to find a way to capitalize on fostering stronger relationships with audiences. Much of these efforts are focused after the film is finished when it comes time to promote and market the work. Although some filmmakers are including audience development in their initial business plans, many are still only working to build awareness around traditional elements such as theatrical, DVD and VOD.

Are we missing a window of opportunity by limiting ourselves to formats, running times and traditional markets?

Consider the Following:

* To date, Apple has shipped more than 70 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices and it’s projected that within the next two years they’ll have more than 200 million in the market.

* More than 140,000 applications have been created for the iPhone and iPod.

* Each day, 60,000 Android devices ship.

* The fledging Android Market has more than 10,000 apps.

These stats are just one part of a growing mobile device market, which is currently expanding due to a new generation of tablets. Apple’s iPad and a slew of other computer and handset manufacturers have tablets entering the market over the next few months. Larger screens, faster processors, wireless connectivity and the ability to run various browser and mobile-based applications will all be here soon. We don’t know yet if this generation of tablets will resonate with consumers but, as we have seen in the past, devices do have the ability to influence user behavior and consumption. The iPod revitalized the value of a music track and now the publishing industry is hoping the iPad can do the same for books and zines.

READ MORE

Followers

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:56:35 GMT

Here is my interview with Scott Kirsner, who is the author of Friend, Fans & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. Scott spoke on various panels at SXSW.

What did you take away from SXSW this year?

SXSW is always great. I tell filmmakers that it’s the best annual event for figuring out how film and technology work together, and how new online dynamics are changing the way people will consume video. As far as what I took away, I did sessions at SXSW with the videoblogger/Internet artist Ze Frank and Gary Hustwit, who makes documentaries like “Helvetica” and “Objectified.” Both of them really underscored for me that if you do something you’re interested in (or even obsessed about), do it well, and let people get involved (giving them ways to participate and support you), there really is a viable way to be an independent artist in these digital times…without being a shameless self-promoter.

How should film schools adapt to a new media landscape?

I think they ought to be encouraging students to think about making new forms of content that take advantage of technological possibilities: short-form stuff that’s linked in new ways, that connects to location, that engages the viewer in different ways than feature-length, cinematically-exhibited films do. What can you make that lives in Facebook, that spreads via Twitter? Does there need to be a boundary between film and games? I’d like to see more film schools encouraging students to ask those kinds of questions.

When you wrote Fans, Friends And Followers what information did you find surprising?

Mostly, how experimental you have to be to figure out a strategy that works for you to build an audience. A remix contest may work for someone, but not someone else. You need to let a thousand flowers bloom.

Will creators have to spend more money on marketing as the web becomes crowded with new entertainment?

Well, spending lots of money on marketing, whether it’s billboards along every major highway or a Super Bowl ad, is a pretty time-tested way to get people to be aware of your product. But I actually think the online world gives creators more opportunities to organically build word-of-mouth about what they’re doing, rather than buying awareness. And when you do buy stuff, like ads on Facebook or Google, you can do it in a targeted, inexpensive way, without needing to hire an ad agency. That’s really revolutionary for individual creators.

How can artists do more to recognize fans who actually buy their content?

Well, crediting or thanking them is one way. Integrating them into the content somehow is another. M dot Strange incorporated images of some of his fans into his debut feature, “We Are the Strange,” and Jill Sobule sings about some of the donors who made her 2009 album “California Years” possible.

Is content still king or have aggregators taken its crown?

I am a believer in democracy, not monarchy. I think great work will always be recognized, will always find an audience, and that there will be ways for its creators to earn a living. People vote with their dollars, and they are still purchasing books, CDs, movie tickets, movie downloads, videogames, etc. And I’m hopeful that content and aggregators can coexist peacefully.

If you were going to be a financier in the entertainment industry what would be the best investment and why?

Well, I’m really interested in companies like JibJab Media or Next New Networks that have been trying to create new kinds of studio models… What would the next Disney or Paramount look like? What would the production costs be? What kinds of stories would you be telling, and how can the audience be involved in new ways? That said, there have been some failures already in that arena— but I also believe we’ll eventually see some successes.

Producers VS Aggregators

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:08:20 GMT

I attended the “Make vs. Gather? Successful Content Business Models” at SXSW. Here’s a description of this panel from sxsw.com:

You make content. Good stuff. But it takes time, and money. Now you’re thinking – maybe I’ll aggregate content and be a trusted filter. Well, here’s your chance to grill the emerging aggregators. We’ll bring together folks from Web Publishing, Media, Indie Media, and content aggregation platforms to show what’s working and where it’s going.

The speaker was Steve Rosenbaum, founder of Spotify.com-a start up that creates platforms to aggregate/curate videos for websites. A heated debate between Joe and Mike about the ethics of aggregation sprang up in the audience after Steve’s panel. (fake names) Joe is the co-founder of an ad network for tech blogs. He sells their ad space to advertisers. Mike is a product manager at a company that owns some of the biggest free porn tube sites with millions of visitors a day. Porn tube sites aggregate thousands of videos from adult film companies, while making a profit from affiliate marketing and advertising.

“The tubes are making money off the studios’ investment of time and money, while the studios are forced to spend ever larger chunks of change to police the tubes and send endless takedown notices.”- Kathee Brewer, an editor at AVN, which covers the adult film industry

Argument highlights: Mike said bloggers are easily replaced like sweatshop workers because there is an overabundance of new blogs ready to fill their space. Joe responded that writers with respected brands and a large following are not created overnight. They eventually would agree to disagree.

I understand both of their views:

Mike thinks there is way too much content on the web, so one way to add value is to organize it and be paid for being a curator.

Joe wants producers to be rewarded for all their money, time, and energy it took to create content that people value.

Steve commented on this struggle in a blog:

We’re in the early days of content curration and monetization. So, if you asked the Wright Brothers if they’d have seats in First Class and Coach, they would have been hard pressed to answer standing in the back of their bicycle shop.

I agree with Steve. Technology will make this work-eventually.

Content producers can also become great curators. Imagine your favorite musicians and filmmakers filtering Internet clutter to showcase new artists. Joseph Gordon Levitt (actor from 500 days of Summer) has made a small step in the right direction with hitrecord.com: a site where creative people upload their videos, art, and music on the site to collaborate with other folks. If any content makes money hitrecord.com splits 50% with its contributors after all the costs.

What are your thoughts on producers and aggregators?