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January 21 2012
Transmedia Talk 39: Clockwork Watch
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.
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Yomi Ayeni, creator of Clockwork Watch, talks about how he built his team, developed his vision, and what we can expect to experience in Clockwork Watch, a steampunk transmedia project that was recently named one of IndieGoGo’s top projects of 2011.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Haley Moore
Special Guests:
Yomi Ayeni, creator of Clockwork Watch.
From This Episode:
The Clockwork Watch IndieGoGo page.
The Anachronauts Digest, the blog chronicling the production.
WBP Exclusive: Christopher Rice interviews Yomi Ayeni on “Breathe”
December 14 2011
Transmedia Talk 38: Storyworld Conference 2011
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
Lucas J.W. Johnson joins the Transmedia Talk crew for a review of StoryWorld Conference 2011.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller
Special Guests:
Lucas JW Johnson of Silverstring Media joins us for a recap of the first Storyworld Conference held in San Francisco this Halloween.
From This Episode:
ZoeTrap, an ARG created specifically for StoryWorld Conference
Dr. Henry Jenkins’ Confessions of an Aca-Fan
Intel’s Inside Experience
Carrie Cutforth-Young’s article on Canadian transmedia funding
November 21 2011
Transmedia Talk 36: Alison Norrington at DIY Days
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
Storyworld Conference chair Alison Norrington sits down with us at DIY Days to talk about the conference and what it means for the future of transmedia.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media)
About Our Guest:
Alison Norrington is a novelist, playwright, and journalist. She the founder of storycentralDIGITAL and Conference Chair for StoryWorld Conference.
November 11 2011
Transmedia Talk 35: Henry Jenkins at DIY Days LA
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
USC provost professor Henry Jenkins joins us at DIY Days LA to talk about introducing new creators to transmedia, and the connection between its study and practice.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media)
About Our Guest:
DIY Days speaker Henry Jenkins is a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is also author of several books, including Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. His upcoming book, with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, is Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Society.
He also writes the popular transmedia blog, Confessions of an Aca-Fan.
September 07 2011
CONNECTED with Tiffany Shlain
We caught up with Tiffany Shlain as she prepares to release her newest feature, CONNECTED “An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology.” A DIY pioneer, Tiffany is always at the forefront of utilizing interesting and innovative ways to reach and engage audiences. Starting next week CONNECTED makes its way to screens nation wide after a successful festival run.
What made you decide to make the film CONNECTED?
Fifteen years ago, I founded The Webby Awards because I was fascinated by how the Internet was connecting people all over the world in new and unexpected ways. And being so interested in the ways things are connected, I it always struck me how so many of the conversations about the problems of our day were discussed as separate challenges. Whether the environment, women’s rights, poverty or social justice, it became more apparent to me that that when you perceive everything as connected, it radically shapes your perspective. The concept of interdependence has been around since the dawn of humanity, but the relatively recent component of the internet has added this new layer that connects us in a fresh way, almost giving the world a new type of central nervous system.
I am a filmmaker and so decided to craft a film that would tell the story of being connected in the 21st century. I asked my father, Leonard Shlain, to be a co-writer on the project. My dad was a surgeon, but also a pioneer in writing about connections between science, consciousness, the human brain, art and civilization. His best-selling books included The Alphabet Versus the Goddess; Sex, Time, and Power; and Art & Physics. He was an incredible visionary, had a wonderful knowledge of history and I felt he would make an enormous contribution to the film. Just as we began production on CONNECTED, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. I quickly discovered that here I was writing about all these interrelationships and the one great connection I had overlooked was the emotional connection. That’s when I began the difficult process of rewriting the film to include my personal story of connection interwoven into the the bigger story of connection throughout history and where I think we are heading.
The subtitle of CONNECTED is “An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology.” What does the word “autoblogography” mean?
“Autoblogography” is a word we made up in order to convey that the film is autobiographical, but also has to do with technology. It also conveys the humor which is a major thread in the movie.
Is there a connection between CONNECTED and your last film THE TRIBE?
In my earlier film, THE TRIBE, I explored American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie Doll. I know, it sounds absurd. After all, what can the most successful doll on the planet show about being Jewish in American today? It turns out that Barbie was invented in 1959 by an American Jewish businesswoman named Ruth Handler. A Jewish woman created the ultimate shiksa. With THE TRIBE, I wove together archival footage, graphics, animation, humor, and even slam poetry that took audiences on a ride through the complex history of both Barbie and the Jewish people. By revealing all these unique connections, THE TRIBE explored the question of what it means to be an American Jew in the 21st century. CONNECTED employs much of the same collage visual style but explores what it means to be a human in 21st century.
Do you believe there are positives and negatives to technology?
My father loved quoting Sophocles, “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.” So, from the beginning of time, every new technology and advancement brought with them a complex mix of positive and negative repercussions as well as unintended consequences. CONNECTED addresses the potential of these new 21st century technologies, the importance of harnessing their powers, but also covers the ramifications when these new technologies take over and even overwhelm our personal lives.
I’ve started practicing what I call “technology Shabbats” with my family. Every Friday at sundown, our whole family disconnects until Saturday night. No cell phones, no internet, no television, no Ipads. No multi-tasking. We disconnect completely. Or maybe I should say we connect completely – with ourselves and each other.
I am learning that turning off technology is just as powerful as turning it on and that our society needs both. Technology can be so enticing and overwhelming, but we also need to remember how important it is to be fully present with the people you love and also be alone and quiet. The potential of technology globally and personally is exponential, but we need to know where the off switch is and when to shut it down.
So what is the ultimate goal of your film?
The goal of CONNECTED is to launch a global conversation about what it means to be connected in the 21st century. I hope that the film will be the catalyst for this global conversation. In an effort to expand the power of the film, we’ve created a robust website, facebook page where we constantly add new articles about this topic and have created an educator’s kit including conversation cards, a film guide a curriculum for educators.
In the film you say, “For centuries we have declared our independence, perhaps it’s time we finally declare our interdependence.” What does it mean to declare our interdependence?
It’s time to shift perspective. In many ways we as a species are mirroring the way we each develop as a human on this earth. We come into the world completely dependent on our mother’s and parents. As we grow up, we evolve into independent adults, live on our own and get our own jobs and provide for our own families. But this independence then brings us to a new realization of how we are connected with family, friends and community. I think we, as a species are evolving to the point where we are entering this understanding of our interdependence. Who knows if all these tools we are creating for collaborating in new ways through the internet are leading us to this understanding, or the understanding is driving us to create these tools. Technology is just an extension of ourselves. It is not separate. Regardless of what’s propelling it, these living and thinking interdependently will actually change our consciousness and help make real transformation in the world around us.
So you are optimistic about our future?
When I do Q&A’s after screening CONNECTED, I am frequently asked, “What makes you so optimistic?” I respond by saying that I believe in humans and humanity and in our innate ability to change for the better. Look at the end of slavery and apartheid, the women’s rights and civil rights movements, and other political and social transformative movements in the last few hundred years, and you can see how we are indeed evolving. There are two things that make me optimistic. We as humans are curious and we have a deep desire to connect. These two things will make us move us forward to a better place.
You are also spearheading a new project called “Let it Ripple.” What is this and how does this connect to CONNECTED?
The ‘Let it Ripple’ project will pick up where CONNECTED leaves off. We are creating a series of six short films, all tied together by the general theme of connectedness. The first film is A Declaration of Interdependence. My husband, Ken Goldberg, co-writer Sawyer Steele, and I wrote A Declaration of Interdependence, which is based on the American Declaration of Independence. Our new declaration was then posted online on July 4th and tweeted out via YouTube and we invited people from all over the world to submit video of themselves reading the declaration in their native language from their cell phone, laptop, whatever was handy. We also asked graphic designers and artists to interpret the words creatively and submit artwork. The submissions are blowing me away. It’s interdependence in action. The film will be made up entirely of these submissions, tied together by our animator, Stefan Nadelman, with music by one of my favorite sound artists Moby.
A Declaration of Interdependence will premiere on Interdependence Day which is September 12th at a special event near Ground Zero in New York. Every time we get an entry, I get chills watching the videos. It is thrilling to see people from all over the world declare their interdependence. We are going to edit it all down into an inspiring 3 minute movie that will be posted on the web and we are going to provide this film for free and allow different organizations and non-profits to use the film by putting their own call to action at the end. We are open-sourcing the creation of the film and hope to open source how it is used.
By sharing these messages of connectedness and interdependence, I believe there will be a positive ripple effect; sparks that help turn what we’re talking about into action. It’s all about connection.
CONNECTED opens in theaters in major cities beginning in mid-September.
*All dates below start one week runs
SF: Sept 16th SF Landmark Embarcadero
Berkeley Sept 16 Shattuck 10
Marin: Sept 16 Sequoia Theater
Santa Cruz: Sept 23 Nickelodeon
Portland: Sept 23rd Regal Fox Tower 10
LA: Sept 30 premieres at The Pacific Arclight Theater Hollywood
Seattle: Oct 7th Landmark Varsity 3
NYC: Oct 14th Angelika Theater
Denver: Oct 28th Landmark Chez Artiste
Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, artist, founder of The Webby Awards and co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Tiffany’s films and work have received over 40 awards and distinctions. A celebrated thinker, she delivered the commencement address at University of California at Berkeley and is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. www.tiffanyshlain.com
August 25 2011
Transmedia Talk 31: Evan Jones, Suspending Disbelief in Interactive Stories
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
Stitch Media partner Evan Jones talks about the role of the audience in transmedia storytelling, suspension of disbelief, and Stitch’s new project, the Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Evan Jones, partner at Stitch Media
From This Episode:
Jones’s TEDx Halifax talk, “Belief is Not Binary”
The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour
Him, Her and Them, and our episode on the project
The film Catfish
Stitch Media’s web series Moderation Town
August 10 2011
If it doesn’t spread it’s dead – part 2
In part two of the series Henry Jenkins and WorkBook Project founder Lance Weiler sit down for a conversation about participatory culture and how “if it doesn’t spread it’s dead.”
August 01 2011
Transmedia Talk 30: 2011 Half Year in Review with Michael Andersen
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
Michael Andersen, managing editor of ARGNet, joins us to take a look back at the first half of 2011 in the Alternate Reality Game world.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Michael Andersen from ARGN
From This Episode:
Andersen’s article 2011 Year in Review: Puzzling Through Half a Year
Wired.com’s Decode games and puzzles section.
Transmedia Talk host Dee Cook is an associate editor at ARGN.
Ian Bogost’s Cow Clicker ARG
The Awl’s Rick Paulas recounts the conclusion of the Jejune Institute game.
5 Wits in Boston produced the interactive experience Tomb, which is now closed. They currently offer two interactive experiences, 20,000 Leagues and Espionage.
The city-wide experience Accomplice in NYC, Hollywood, and London.
The free-roaming San Francisco experience Message from Z.
The QR code driven game Time Trip LA.
The Jejune Institute spinoff Elsewhere Philatelic Society.
The Toynbee Plaques in Philadelphia.
Kcymaerxthaere, historical markers from another world.
Pittsburgh’s mysterious protractors
Aram Bartholl’s wall-embedded USB project Dead Drops.
Haley Moore’s writeup and Lazy 8 Studios’ Gamasutra article on the Portal 2 Potato Sack ARG.
Note: Ten indie game studios released games in the Potato Sack.
The Game of Thrones extended campaign The Maester’s Path.
The Crash of the Elysium, Punchdrunk’s Doctor Who experience for children.
42 Entertainment’s game Test Subjects Needed for 5 Gum.
Area/Code’s 2007 ARG ‘Primacy’ for the CBS drama Numb3rs centered around a casual puzzle game Chain Factor, which was later developed into the popular iPhone app Drop 7.
Earlier this year, Area/Code was acquired and became Zynga New York.
Patrick Carman’s extended book project Dark Eden launched its App today.
The Australian tv drama SLiDE
The Thomas Dolby game A Map of The Floating City
If it doesn’t spread it’s dead
Henry Jenkins and WorkBook Project founder Lance Weiler sit down for a conversation about participatory culture and how “if it doesn’t spread it’s dead.”
NEW BREED – A Conversation on Transmedia – Part 1 from The Sabi Company on Vimeo.
July 26 2011
Kristi Barnett’s experience with the Twitter production, Karen Barley
Karen Barley is a horror story told on Twitter with tweets linking out to YouTube videos and photos. It’s the creative brainchild of Kristi Barnett and during its three week run in July earned some impressive stats for a low-budget independent production including almost 700 followers on Twitter and over 5000 words in press coverage plus a spot on BBC TV.
In this article Robert Pratten interviews Kristi about the project’s development and delivery.
RP: You’re a “traditional” movie scriptwriter by trade Kristi so what made you want to write a transmedia story?
KB: I wanted to get one of my stories produced. I’d been writing for 3 years with at that time, not even a short made. I just bit the bullet and decided that using social media would be a cheaper and more immediate way to get an audience for a story. I wasn’t actually consciously looking at transmedia itself but rather the idea of using Twitter as a story tool. I knew no one had tried to tell a story over twitter as a character using other media like videos, photos, weblinks etc. I love twitter and am constantly on it so it seemed natural to me that Twitter could be used in this way. And it is a writer’s medium when you think about it; every tweet is a piece of writing.
RP: How many people were involved in the project from crew to cast?
KB: The total number of people directly involved was 10. The actual crew on the shoot days including cast and myself was 5. So it was micro-budget guerilla film making. I had myself as Writer, Director and Producer; I funded almost all of it. I quickly got in contact with Tim Clague whom I’d met at various screenwriting festivals and after looking at his work in different types of media I asked if he’d be a consultant on the project and story. He gave me some great advice on how to proceed and how to gain an audience and gave me the encouragement to continue and use the story I had. He ended up being an Associate Producer. I then moved quickly into looking for an Assistant Director. Someone that I knew would be creative and technically aware and who also loved the idea of different media. I asked Danny Tate of JellyFish Media to jump on board. He also served as Editor and Sound Designer and was instrumental in making the trailer and behind the scenes video diary (coming soon).
At the same time I was looking for my actors. So I got myself a casting assistant and casting co-coordinator; Matthew Turner and Mark Vella respectively. Then over two days I cast for the two main characters. Gemma Giddings and Benjamin O’Mahony were the actors I chose. They were great and could improvise off script and understand the scenes very quickly and were very intuitive with the camera, as they’d be shooting themselves. They loved the idea of what I was trying to achieve and I think and hope that it was a challenge for them; something very different to what they’d ever done in that they were shooting small video vignettes that only made sense if you read the tweets that went with it. The other actor was David McClelland whom I knew from my writers group. He’s also a technology writer and presenter so he loved the idea straight away. He played Bossman. I also had a Sound assistant, Elise Neola May and a Website Consultant in Anton Russell.
RP: Tell us about the timescales for the project in terms of developing & writing the story, implementing the experience (video production, pre-written tweets, photos) and the live execution.
KB: I came up with the concept of using twitter with a live character about middle of 2010. I finally pulled out my finger and started writing the script in Dec 2010 and finished the final draft in about March 2011; (86 pages). At the same time I was already organising pre production with Tim and Danny. As soon as I was happy with the story and how we were going to roll it out, I started auditioning in April. I cast it in May and we started the 2.5 day shoot in the middle of June. Danny immediately started on converting the files, editing them and then spontaneously and brilliantly made a pre story trailer. I spent two days with him telling him what I wanted but left him to his own devices and so I’d say he worked on all the videos and trailer (and most of the video diary) in 3 weeks. The story went live at the end of June and rolled out for 3 weeks as live finishing on July 16th 2011. So all in all and between me and everyone else having other jobs and working odd hours, the project took 7 months.
RP: How many tweets, videos and tweets did you have per day (or per week) and for how long did the whole story take to unfold?
KB: I kind of just wrote the script as individual tweets. You can see an excerpt of what the script looked like here: SCRIPT EXCERPT As you can see it wasn’t quite like a normal script. I just guessed that each line would be 140 characters (I decided to not use Tweetdeck’s Deck.ly system because I wanted the experience to be as direct as possible; with as little navigation away from the immediate twitter app). I think the total amount of tweets over the 3 week period was approximately between 500 and 600 tweets. That’s not counting the mentions and retweets she did. There were originally 32 videos planned at an allowance of about 1-2mins in length. The length was important because no one tweets long videos; I didn’t want to take up people’s time. They would want to quickly click on the link and watch a short clip to get the plot then move on. We actually ended up adding a few extra videos that I shot myself and some of the videos ended up being less than a minute. All in all the running time of all the videos combined was about 25 minutes. These videos mainly came out during the weekends which are the bulk of where the story plot points take place. You can see that not every day had a video or even a photo. I actually got very aware that I should’ve had a few more bits of media to make up for it and ended up improvising with some of my own personal photos! But I think the tweets themselves were engaging enough, which is where my writing skills come in (hopefully)!
RP: How did you decide which platforms to tell the story across? For example, how did you develop the story and decide which content would be presented textually on Twitter and which content would be a photo or video.
KB: Because the main concept was a character on twitter that people would follow, the idea that her tweets tell the bulk of the story was already part and parcel of how twitter works. I actually don’t think people utilize twitter as much as they can. As such, most people follow someone specifically to read a tweet. Anything else that gets tweeted; e.g. a photo or video or link is a bonus and perhaps not always clicked on. So straight away I decided to market Karen Barley as a movie over twitter rather than trying to get people to believe she actually existed as a real person. That way most people who started following her would know that they are supposed to read the tweets. At the same time as I was writing the script I knew that people would be expecting a certain level of videos to come out but as I didn’t have much money or time or special effects; I had to choose moments in the script that were easier to film and also pushed the story forward. So a lot of the videos at the beginning were character development videos; to get you used to what these two people are like. They were easy to film but essential if people were to form their own opinions on Darren and Karen and hopefully to empathise. The weekends in the story were where most of the videos occurred. They started off as character building videos then gradually they started providing essential plot points and the necessary creepiness. I built the tweets so you knew that each weekend she was supposed to go into the woods and people knew that something may happen to her then. So I was essentially trying to hold people’s attention over these weeks by alluding to the things to come. I would give out her birthday in the tweets in a way that told people they should be around on that date (16th July). But one of my hardest challenges as a writer was to rationalize to the audience why on earth she’d be filming and then actually tweeting this stuff in the first place. I had to give each video a hint of rationalization. So you would have Darren question why she’s filming; you would have Karen’s sense of loneliness play out in the tweets so people knew that she was using twitter for emotional support. And of course her eventual paranoia into what her boyfriend was doing made her want to film as evidence. The actors were great in improvising in the scenes; they would pretend that they were unaware the camera was still on e.g. they did it in a believable way.
I developed the story knowing that hopefully; people on twitter would be using 3rd party apps like Tweetdeck or Twitter mobile on their phones etc. There’s so many. So I was very conscious of how the sound comes out of a PC speaker and a phone as opposed to headphones; (although please do listen to the videos on headphones because it rocks). I wanted the videos to pop out from the apps so chose YouTube which most 3rd party clients had inbuilt players for and Yfrog which I tested on various apps and saw the photos loaded within the app and was more stable than other photo clients for loading times.
I just didn’t want to give any excuse for people to navigate away from their twitter client, because once that happens you may lose your audience due to slow internet browsers and loading times.
In terms of photos; there was about 37 of them in the end and they were the sort of photos most people would tweet; seemingly mundane stuff like eating a pizza or Darren dancing in his underwear. In the forest there were quite a few location establishing shots of Croham Hurst. Part of the story was that her boss had told her document evidence of the history of the area so it gave me a good excuse to have her want to tweet that she’d found bones for example. They were there to provide a visual to a tweet that I assumed the audience would be interested in. So if she tweets, Darren has scratches all over him then I used a photo cos you’d want to see that. I think I should’ve taken a few more than I did for the days that were just tweets.
RP: Before you went live, what was your biggest worry?
KB: From a purely personal level I was afraid I’d not have enough gumption to finish what I’d started. Or something would happen where I wouldn’t be able to continue with the shoot. I have a lot of anxiety in general so this just amplified everything. But I forced myself to continue. I was also worried that my story might not be interesting enough to hold people’s attention as tweets; but Tim gave me great confidence to stick with it. Just before we went live I started to worry that I wouldn’t be able to actually garner any interest in the project publicity wise. I saw that more people (initially) were joining her Facebook profile than the twitter profile and I worried they wouldn’t understand what was going on, because let’s face it; the Facebook audience is different to Twitter. I worried that her profile would be deleted by Facebook for being a character so quickly started an actual fanpage for her which in hindsight is what I should’ve done all along for Facebook. On Twitter there was the concern that people would miss most of the tweets and would they want to go back and look at the older tweets and videos? But at the end of the day I just told myself that this hasn’t been done before so I’m learning too and it’s an experiment to see how people follow a story on these social networks as much as anything else. I just did the best I could to make things easy for the audience.
RP: What was the most challenging aspect of the project in terms of its live delivery?
KB: This is the part where I want to tell everyone it was easy and fun to get the story out but in reality it was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. If I had to pinpoint THE most challenging aspect, it was in fact the part that I and my website consultant believed would be the easiest: An archive website with all her tweets that was supposed to be updated. I wanted a landing page so people could go there instead of scrolling through her twitter page (and I knew not many people would actually watch the story from the actual twitter website) but we quickly realised there are no widgets that show every single tweet. They only show a few and there’s no scroll feature to keep showing more. The closest we got was Blender which in fact turned out to be very helpful in using the cut and pastes from that. So I dismissed that and decided to create a webpage that I would personally update every day by cutting and pasting her tweets. Well we chose Wordpress to do this and unfortunately it just did not like the formatting that Twitter had. No matter how hard we tried it would publish the site and overwrite the way we set it out. It looked awful. I went to Tripod and found a nice template that allowed for multimedia and best of all it took all the cut and pastes perfectly and kept the formatting. Then suddenly their servers crashed, got slow and stopped saving the pages correctly. I spent up to 2 hours doing a job that should’ve taken 10mins, every night. Even now the saved page is not the same as the final published site you see but it was honestly the best website amongst many free website builders for this job. http://karenbarley.tripod.com/tweets/
Followed very closely in the “I’m going to rip my hair out” stakes was the scheduling of the tweets. I have a full time job where I can’t have my phone on or use a PC (in a TV studio). So there was no way I could tweet live for Karen. I decided to use Tweetdeck as they have a “Set location” feature (even if you’re not there!) and the tweets come out in minutes rather than 5 minute chunks like others. This was essential because she tweets like a normal person, i.e. a burst of tweets to get across what she’s trying to say. So I couldn’t wait for 5 minutes for her next tweet to come out. At the most I scheduled them in 2 minute gaps. Of course you could have two different twitter accounts in Tweetdeck so I could schedule from my own @Pale_Jewel and Karen’s. Well all I’m going to say is for this particular project, Tweetdeck let me down and it’s such a shame as I really do believe their scheduler is the best for transmedia style projects involving Twitter. I can’t even say what went wrong other than the fact that they released a new Adobe Air update overnight and co-incidentally, I lost all my scheduled tweets for the penultimate day of the story and her account was temporarily “lost”. There was also a loss of ability to recreate her Tweetdeck account. Well that was the moment I almost stopped the story as a live event. I was saved though as I did end up using Hootsuite for the last 2 days in conjunction with Conductrr – which was actually pivotal in releasing the videos from unlisted to public to YouTube automatically (and which no other scheduler can do as far as I know). On a minor point, the Twitter-to-Facebook profile app also failed and I used Smart Tweets in the end. I keep telling myself that such big problems are a result of sort of being a pioneer in this level of story release. But actually, these few websites and Twitter-specific applications stated all along they could do these things and when I used them to their utmost limit they appeared to have failed. Having said that… there are so many different ways to use Twitter to tell a story, it doesn’t have to be a live event with a live character. But fair enough it still came out and no one was any wiser to the problems and they still enjoyed it which I’m very proud of.
RP: What kinds of reaction have you had from the audience? I’m thinking in terms of the ease with which they could follow the story, whether there were too many or not enough tweets, whether they wanted more or fewer videos and so on.
KB: I think the level of tweets were about right. I tried to make it like any person would tweet. I tweet quite a lot myself but even then when I look at my tweeting behavior it would be a few in the morning and little bit in the afternoon and most of them in the evening. Karen had a fulltime job. She didn’t like the people in her workplace but she worked hard and probably wouldn’t have been constantly tweeting throughout the day. I just hoped that people would understand although she’s a character, she’s being played as live hence the lack of tweets during her working day.
I think I should have had at least one video per day as well as photos. There were a few days with no media just tweets, which I kind of became very aware of, but budget and hence time did not allow me to shoot more footage. Having said that, I never got anyone tweeting saying “this is boring” or “where’s the videos”. But 3 weeks was long enough as a story to develop the characters and get the audience feeling for them. Any longer than 3 or 4 weeks and I think this format would’ve suffered as people would definitely be asking what the hell’s happening?
I had to build up the tension as any movie would but in a slow burning way. I chose to do this in order for story/character development to take place and to quite frankly give us more time to build the audience. I’m not a marketing/PR guru and didn’t have over a year to plant posters and make fake websites and fake news reports building up interest for Karen. I had about 2 months at the most to get her that audience and even while the last week was happening she still had people following. So to have this style of story happen any quicker than 3 weeks would’ve not felt right for the audience members. In fact between Facebook and Twitter she ended up having just over 1000 people. Those were the people that stayed with her throughout the 3 weeks. That’s 1000 people who at some point engaged and watched the clips and some of the tweets. More audience than I’ve ever had as a writer. She had loads more follow but they dropped off, probably because they didn’t realise she was a character and wondered why her tweets were just a tad strange. I have to say just while we’re here that the comments I got and reactions I got to the story after it finished was fantastic. You can see some of them here.
RP: Do you have any feeling for the demographics of the people that followed the experience? I’m wondering if you found there were more men than women or more younger people than older?
KB: I really don’t know how to gauge the statistics of the audience at this stage other than to physically go through each Twitter follower and Facebook friend and make assumptions. I felt as though gender wise there was an even balance. I had females and males interacting and replying to her and loving the story. I thought that horror was a male genre so perhaps the transmedia attracted some of the female audience. Once again I’d be guessing but the Twitter followers seemed to be mid 20’s upwards. The Facebook friends, well many of them were word of mouth friends from my own friends and were a wide range of ages. They did not interact as much as twitter followers. But I knew some were reading the tweets at least because I’d get a few “likes” etc. The audience for Facebook as I explained is a different dynamic and that’s mainly because of Facebook’s tendency to siphon out news and information from your friends. Basically, you won’t see everything a friend posts on their wall because there’s a setting in Facebook that stops that from happening and not everyone knows how to turn it off. I knew that but I feel that each transmedia project should try and incorporate every platform in the hope it will reach an audience.
RP: Would you have liked to have built in more opportunities for audience participation?
KB: Yes. I actually thought of ways to make the interaction better but it would’ve taken so much more planning, time and money. I wanted to shoot alternative scenes with the actors and alternative endings. Then guide the audience into choosing what Karen and Darren should do via the tweets. Then based on the majority I would choose a scene. Like one of those “Pick a Path” books. I also thought about running another Twitter account from the perspective of Darren or even the Other Darren at the same time. My God, I don’t want to think how I would’ve made that happen, lol. Maybe someone else can have a go. J
RP: What advice would you give other writers about writing for Twitter?
KB: As I mentioned Twitter is a great writer’s medium – more so than any other social networking site just because we are always writing our tweets. And we tend to add a bit of flourish to the tweets so whether intentional or not we are being creative on Twitter. I wanted to incorporate the multimedia aspect by using the video and photo uploading features as well as ability to post links. I think if you can find something to write about on Twitter that will capture people’s imagination then people will follow – even if it’s just a blog or diary. Why not make a documentary-style blog using Twitter? “Diarize” what’s happening to your character and post videos as well. Can you imagine Borat being a Twitter character first of all? I can. These are some of the ways that Twitter can work creatively. If you want to market and promote a 60min story that is just one video and you’re bypassing distributers to get your audience, you can do that too. It does take a lot of promotional work but as I said to the BBC, there is an audience online waiting to be entertained so why not use it.
RP: What’s next for you?
As always I’m writing and trying to finish a sci-fi feature screenplay (with elements of horror of course) 
. That was put on hold for Karen Barley.
And I’ve just had my first ever piece of writing produced by someone else. It was a short for Virgin Media Shorts called Superheroes Anonymous. We’re hoping that it will make it through to the finals so that we can get funding and get CuckoO produced – a short I won an award for and we have a great team really passionate about getting it made. I’m also slugging away at promoting my writing and trying to sell my work. I’d love to repackage Karen Barley in a way that will appeal to distributers and producers so I may look into putting a kit together with the media on it and perhaps rewrite the script as a feature for a “found footage” type film. It’s all in my head these ideas and I’m just so glad and happy that Karen Barley and transmedia gave me my first opportunity to get one of these ideas out of my mind.
July 19 2011
The 9th Dot
The following is a guest post by Kim Lessing.
Just about five years ago, Glen Trotiner, a filmmaker who’s had every job from p.a. to producer, and his buddy, Jeff Hephner, a television actor, were in bar in the East Village drunk talking about two of their favorite subjects: conspiracy theories, and fixing the world’s problems.
Somehow, that night, the two discussions became linked and a story that needed to be told began to unfold:
It began with one of their favorite conspiracy theories. Just before he died, in 1943, the 87 year-old reclusive inventor, Nikola Tesla, who had given the world alternating current, radio, radar, and x-rays, claimed to have invented a device that could produce energy from a free and unlimited source, and distribute it without wires or cables.
The device was never publicly demonstrated.
The conspiracy theory claims the device was removed from the inventor’s lab by Government Agents on the night the inventor died, and has been suppressed by the authorities for all these years.
Their story would begin almost seventy years later as two roommates, Jeff, a conspiracy theorist, and Sam, a debunker, go out in search of the one remaining surviving witness to the events of the night of Tesla’s death.
Just as the premise for The 9th Dot was hatching, Jake Wasserman, an ambitious and talented high school student, came to work for Glen as a production assistant. Jake is one of those kids born with a camera in his hands. Glen recognized his potential and immediately took Jake under his wing.
With Jake’s input on the script, The 9th Dot began to take shape (the title comes from the nine dot puzzle, developed by Disney, that tests for thinking outside the box).
The search for an actor to play Sam ended during a difficult film shoot in Maine. Ariel Shafir, who was coincidently, (or not so coincidently) playing conspiracy theorist in that very movie, read an early draft of the 9th Dot and came aboard to play Sam.
It seemed then that the project was ready for take off. Unfortunately shooting was put on hold when Glen went off to Romania to work on the movie Blood Creek.
Luckily, right after Glen returned, he learned Titan-TV, was looking for web content that could be launched into episodic material. Titian, read and loved the script and suggested it be conceived as a web-blog. Each episode would be a short segment of the investigation. The audience would be participating in real time, blogging along with Sam.
Just as the scripts were finished, however, Titan-TV stopped making original content. A disappointing blow, but like any good story, it didn’t end there.
The gang went ahead with shooting. They shot at locations all over New York City, including the New Yorker Hotel, where Tesla had died, Bryant Park, where Samuel Morse had once first shown the world the dots and dashes of Morse code at the very first New York Worlds Fair, and The Engineers Club, where Tesla had once belonged.
Soon, Jake took on the daunting task on editing, and furthered his role as a valuable collaborator. He singlehandedly created a unique look for the episodes, alternating between the handheld investigative footage with carefully crafted animations.
The finished product looks and feels like nothing ever done before; a true demonstration to the powerful content that can be created when passion meets craft.
CBS interactive saw the first three episodes and offered to pick up the series.
But then CBS Interactive was folded into CNET, so the series lacked an outlet once again.
At that point it became clear that if the project would never meet it’s full potential waiting around for the networks.
Five years after the bar stool meeting, the show is finally ready to launch, on August 1st, on it’s very own homegrown website (www.the9thdot.com).
A preview of the investigation is already up on the site, ready to watch. Self-made and self-promoted, it’s been a labor of love for all concerned and its birth is testament to power of interactive story telling in every sense of the world.
In the same way the character Jeff distrusts corporations, the 9th Dot’s creative team Glen, Jake, Jeff and Ariel want The 9th Dot and its followers to speak for themselves,
The cost of energy is still a global problem. The price of gas is still too high. And Tesla’s invention is still missing. There is much to be considered, and discussed and there is problem solving to be done. The 9th Dot is the place to listen and be heard. Above all else, we want to hear from you.
http://twitter.com/#!/the9thdot
http://www.arch-entertainment.com
June 16 2011
Transmedia Talk 28 – Game of Thrones and the Maester’s Path
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
Steve Coulson of Campfire talks with us about The Maester’s Path, a sensory storytelling campaign for the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Steve Coulson from Campfire
From This Episode:
The Maester’s Path, Campfire’s sensory and puzzle experience for the show.
The comprehensive making-of campaign Making Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones armor designer Simon Brindle showcases his workin a short video for Game of Thrones: The Artisans.
Fans attempt to fix Adrianne Palicki’s costume for her role in the new Wonder Woman series.
Michael Andersen walks readers through the Maester’s Path experience at ARGNet
Writer JC Hutchins opens his Maesters Path scent box with care and irrepressible enthusiasm.
Campfire partner GetGlue
The binaural experience of the Inn at the Crossroads
Campfire partner Luxurious Animals
The virtual environment The Wall
June 01 2011
Transmedia Talk 27: Socks, Incorporated
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 iTunes
Jim Babb of Awkward Hug joins us to talk about his new game Socks, Incorporated.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Jim Babb from Awkward Hug
From This Episode:
Babb and Tanner Ringerud’s 2009 project Must Love Robots.
Socks, Incorporated on Kickstarter.
Last week’s podcast, Transmedia Talk 26: Dave Szulborski Memorial Show
Email Babb at jim GNAT awkwardhug.com.
May 25 2011
Transmedia Talk 26 – Dave Szulborski Memorial Show
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 iTunes
Mike Monello, Brian Clark, Michelle Senderhauf, and longtime ARG player Roxanne (Enaxor) join us to honor the life and games of indie ARG creator Dave Szulborski.
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guests:
Mike Monello, Founder and CEO of Campfire
Brian Clark, CEO of GMD Studios
Michelle Senderhauf of Dog Tale Media
Roxanne, also known as Enaxor
From This Episode:
Dave Szulborski’s personal site with his biography, game descriptions and puzzles.
Dave Szulborski’s book This is Not a Game
Varin’s guide to Chasing the Wish
Dee’s guide to Dread House
EA’s game Majestic
Art of the Heist cube word search puzzle, aka The Evil Cube
The Strange Creatures video from Monster Hunter Club, currently at over 4,700,000 views on YouTube.
Cryptid Love, a video from Monster Hunter Club.
Dave’s character stringsends at Top Secret Dance Off
May 17 2011
Building the Ideal Transmedia Music Doc Team – A Top 5 List
Where do you go to find the right team of collaborators for something that’s never exactly been done before? Who’s your Dream Team for the Unseen? What are their roles and responsibilities? Here’s the situation: I’m a writer/director/producer of a transmedia documentary called “Get It All Out” that is now in its 4th year of development, with a goal of a feature-length film, an eBook for iPad and Android devices, a new 12+ member orchestra (playing and recording songs that haven’t been heard in nearly 30 years – this summer in NYC), and a remix contest – as just 4 of the elements of my project. After much reading and thought, here’s a list of both people I’m currently working with, and people I’m looking to collaborate with, and why (not necessarily in order of importance):
1) Interaction Designer
2) Art Director
3) Editorial Director
4) Music Director
5) Director of Photography
While we have located 4 and 5, the first three roles remain to be filled. To fill these “vacancies” in the team, I will attempt to describe the who and why of these titles.
1) Interaction Designer – With a background in information architecture (IA) and user experience (UX) design – the Interaction Designer is responsible for engaging and placing the audience in the story, regardless of interface. I would define the person in this role as a deep, yet motivated thinker – someone who breaks down the director/producers assertions of what the storyworld is thought to be, and puts them back together in elegant and compelling ways. I think this role will only increase in importance to producers as the workflows and processes of cross/ transmedia continue to be defined.
2) Art Director – In 1992, I had the privilege of seeing 2 designers set the direction, logo and tone of the design of what would become Wired Magazine. John Plunkett and Barbara Kuhr of Plunkett+Kuhr were the team behind the look of a magazine that generated strong reactions in most everyone who saw it (both positive and negative). Art Directors should bring a powerful toolkit, language and sensibility to a project worthy of their time, and my hope is to frame my story in a way to attract that caliber of individual. Part of their role is authentically conveying the story behind the documentary’s “brand” – but it so much more than just branding. A holistic mental model of how navigation, print, online, apps, signage, merch and more all play a role in the meaning-making process.
3) Editorial Director – Is your narrative a 360° experience? I’m not simply talking about the devices it appears on, but the way in which it unfolds, reveals itself, hangs together – complementing each manifestation with integrity and thematic resonance. Here’s where the curation responsibility gets real. Right now, we’re looking for an Editorial Director to take a collection of poems, papers, photos, lyrics, video clips, illustrations mp3’s and sheet music into a suite of artifacts for the creation of an eBook to compliment our documentary. In fact, it’s an essential part of the documentary – and the creation of the eBook will be referenced in the film and be published before the film debuts at a festival. It’s a skill-set that blurs disciplines and boundaries – and we’re looking for an exceptional generalist – someone who knows the value of richly textured multimedia object, but wants to keep Story (capital “S”) at the heart of the experience, wherever and however it’s told.
Keeping story at the center - Music as DNA
4) Music Director – Another translator, the role of the Music Director in this instance is more about orchestrating the live instantiations of the song story DNA, and less the traditional soundtrack music supervisor of feature films. David Terhune wears that hat in the SAS Orchestra, and I chose him for his many years of helping re-animate the songbooks of a host of pop and rock icons during his night job of helping lead the Loser’s Lounge in NYC. For some cross/transmedia producers, it’s likely that there is nothing more central to their narratives than getting the game mechanics right. For me, it the expression of the musical DNA that is at the core of Get It All Out. I’ve used the word “re-hydration” to describe our process, and it’s truly apropos – as music is like water – fluid, connecting and giving life to the spirit of the tale. These songs were basically desiccated and orphaned, and their ongoing recapitulation is both a meaning-making process and a music-revivifying process to find them new homes.
5) Director of Photography – When I started down this path in 2008, not knowing anyone in my immediate circle of friends who was either A) a documentary filmmaker with time on their hands, or B) crazy enough to believe that this particular story was worth a multi-year journey for – I did what anyone in my position would do: I placed the obligatory ad on Craigslist. One persistent person who saw (and evidently liked) my ad kept emailing me, and it’s a good thing. My DP and co-director Chris Schuessler produces news and documentaries for ARTE TV of France, and teaches young people how to tell their own personal narratives with video for NYC’s City Parks Productions. His role has been traditional in a doc filmmaking sense, but invaluable in consistently getting the best possible interviews on camera.
Each of these team members come from different production cultures and exercise varied production models. “Mono-medium production cultures” (Dena) exist because individuals rightly want to master their chosen creative fields and that takes time (maybe not Gladwell’s “10,000 hours” – but years of work). My role as a producer is to both translate the different languages/dialects they all excel at into a common tongue and to orchestrate their work to align with the vision of the story.
That said – nothing can be orchestrated without collaboration. The efficacy of which may in fact be proportional to the producer’s level of transparency and quality of articulation re: the subjective merits (artistic/cultural/political) of the work/storyworld. The Catch 22 resides in the writer/producer’s vision needing a development team constituency from across disciplines to make it concrete – to give all the envisioned connected manifestations of the story life – and given the nature of the wrangling and coordination of talent that must take place, improvisational management and leadership becomes both the catalyst and the glue for progress. So, in some ways – this dispatch (like the music when it was first created) is also an improvisation. And in the spirit of transparency, I hope to improvise further updates here as our team grows and our story develops.
More about the documentary Get It All Out can be found here at getitalloutmovie.com. More about the SAS Orchestra can be found here
May 05 2011
Seven Things I Learned from the Portal 2 ARG
So, Portal 2 is out. You may have heard.
You may have also heard there was an ARG associated with it – or maybe you didn’t. While the game received some media attention right before the launch of Portal 2, it slid past ARG communities without making much of a wave.
The Portal 2 ARG project was a collaboration between several indie studios and Valve. Most of the game was rolled out through hidden content in 13 indie games sold together as “The Potato Sack” on Steam. Playing those games led you to hidden levels and messages from the Portal’s antagonist GLaDOS, and ended up being the key to getting Portal 2 several hours ahead of its official release time.
This game tried a lot of things that are outside the normal scope of ARGs, and I feel like there are valuable design lessons to be learned here.
1) Partnerships are Awesome
Because the ARG was created as a partnership between a large group of video game designers, they were able to deliver the game as a series of easter eggs in video game that were already fully developed and polished. That’s something indie ARG creators wish they could do, but very rarely can.
The additional content inside the games was polished, and the sort of content you could only get from putting quality designers on the project. The GLaDOS levels in Rush and Toki Tori were designed to have the same feel as Portal – they challenged you to be creative with the game’s existing teleportation mechanics. I felt like I was getting a little taste of Portal 2 as I was playing them.
After the game came to its conclusion, we learned that these indie designers were principally involved in designing the entire experience. They created everything from tweets to puzzles to youtube videos and music. The total budget? $100.
The ARG was a labor of indie love designed by Portal fans, who were given free reign to work with the Portal characters and access to Valve resources. I wish I had known this from the beginning because it would have made a big difference in my second point:
2) Don’t Build Your Pay Wall Too High
The primary content for the ARG was distributed through the Potato Sack – 13 indie games that sold in a package on Steam for $38.72. For someone with very limited entertainment cash, that is quite a lot of money.
However, about four days before the release of Portal 2, a little birdie let me know who was responsible for the ARG, and my attitude toward the pay wall shifted completely. Over the course of the next 3 days, I bought Cogs, Rush, Toki Tori, and The Wonderful End of the World for a grand total of $15.
The pre-sale for Portal 2 was priced at $45, so the Potato Sack cost almost as much as the game it was promoting. By contrast, $15 felt like a pretty natural stopping point. (This is pretty comparable to other experiences behind pay walls – the print version of Cathy’s Book retails for $17.95.) That $15 was doled out in four purchases of $5 or less. The option to buy the games individually was the only reason I didn’t just smack into the pay wall face first.
The only thing I can conclude here is:
3) Screw the Curtain
If there’s something cool about the way your project was established, there is no reason to keep it a secret. Valve partnering with indie game designers to create a Portal ARG is cool, and worth supporting. The desire to keep coy and quiet about the history behind this ARG may have kept it from ubiquity.
There’s also a fundamental sales pitch difference. The idea of paying $39 to be advertised to is ridiculous, but it’s reasonable to spend that money to support an indie ARG team.
4) Countdowns Can be Compelling
As the endgame approached for the ARG, a page with a countdown timer was revealed. When that timer ran out, it led to another countdown timer. It sounds like a parody of ARG design, but it worked – and very well – because player interaction drove changes in the final countdown.
Participants had to play the games in the Potato Sack, and earn the secret challenge badges in them, to release Portal 2 ahead of the release time given on Steam. The countdown was a measure of player progress and a call to action, which made it far more interesting than a countdown alone could be. This was another area where the video game roots of the ARG really made for something great.
It didn’t hurt that it was counting down to a much-anticipated event, either.
5) Exclusivity is a Design Flaw
I’m not going to lie. Several times, especially near the end of the game, I was earned my potato badges by replicating cheat videos on YouTube. The extra levels in each of the games were more than challenging; they were hard – and as the clock ticked down, I realized I didn’t have time to beat them by my wits alone.
The previous Portal 2 extended reality campaign, which released last year with the free release of Portal, also had this issue. I had no idea that the extra content in Portal was extra, because I was playing the game for the first time. The content was also a challenge to get to, and in many later levels required a lot of experimentation and gaming skill. It seemed as though the experience was designed to reward veteran players who had mastered the game years ago. That seemed odd, considering the point of giving Portal away was to bring in new players.
This may be a fundamental philosophical difference between video game design and pervasive fiction design. As a storyteller, I seek to create intimacy with the audience. Making players struggle to reach content is one way to make an interaction seem meaningful and personal, but it is far from the only way.
More importantly, it is a bad way to do things if you want to make an experience that will engage a lot of people. To experience the Potato Sack ARG in its entirety, you not only had to buy all of the games, but master them and beat their most challenging levels. That’s quite a lot of work to get to the meat of an experience.
We usually design ARG experiences with late rabbitholes, and mechanisms that allow trailblazers to unlock content for everyone. If you treat every new player as though you expect them to be a trailblazer, only the trailblazers actually play the game. That’s not such a terrible thing if your goal is to create buzz – but when you want people to cross a pay wall, things get a little different.
6) We Can Still Pull Players “Behind the Scenes”
Several players who had been active on the game’s wiki were “kidnapped” during the course of the game. At first, I wondered if Valve had planted fake players – an unpopular but unfortunately common practice.
As it turns out, those players were brought behind the scenes and invited to Portal 2’s launch party as a reward for being active in the ARG. This is something Dave Szulborski did in Chasing the Wish, and it adds a nice layer of audience collaboration to the mix.
7) April Fool’s is a Bad Launch Date
The Portal 2 ARG launched on April 1, which might be aptly called “International Online Fiction Day.” The internet is flooded with interactive and pervasive fiction pieces on April Fool’s, most of which don’t go any deeper than a few web pages and only last one day, as our yearly ritual prescribes. This game got lost in the static, especially after it picked up the name “Potato Fools Day” – which implied that the game was a joke.
BONUS: Music Keeps the Experience Alive
This one is more of a protip than a serious lesson. The popularity of Portal spread in part thanks to Jonathan Coulton and his catchy end credits tune. “Still Alive” has become such a gaming anthem that children’s choirs are performing it, and Portal 2 is continuing that tradition two key songs for the new game. The ARG creators took cues from that, and (along with several remakes of Still Alive) released some original music for with experience.
Audiosurf featured a techno track built on quotes from Portal, called The Device Has Been Modified. 1… 2… 3.. KICK IT included a chill out track called Searching. Emergence. Discovery., and The Wonderful End of the World contains a melodious folk song by Dejobaan Games developer Dan Brainerd called “Hole in the Ground.” This song, with it’s haunting lyrics (“I took up a job that was all absentee”), was stuck in my head for nearly two weeks after Portal 2 launched.
Even though I jumped into the game fairly late, the music cemented my connection with the game and made it memorable. This is something I might be trying for myself in the future.
May 03 2011
Tech/Stories:An Interview With Henrik Werdelin
At SXSW I attended the Scandinavia Tech Summit, a panel covering technology and media. Henrik Werdelin (@werdelin) was one panelist who stood out with his unique understanding of tech startups.
As disruptive technology is forcing the entertainment industry to either evolve or die, more creators should talk to smart people like Henrik.
Below is our interview.
Please introduce yourself.
My name is Henrik Werdelin. I am the managing partner at Prehype. We are a group of product developers who bridge the world between entrepreneurship and corporations by spinning new digital startups out of big companies and then selling them back to them. My background has always been around experience design and innovation; from running the product development for MTV International over startups like Joost and Hotpotato to working in venture capital.
What were your highlights from SXSW?
One big moment was the when I experienced first hand the power of social promotion as I stood next to Gary Vaynerchuk when he announced the location of his yearly SXSW wine flashmob. It was incredible to see a room filling from 5 people to over 300 in under 20 minutes. It made me think about how much impact our new social tools have. Normally when we do products and get e.g. 10.000 signups, we feel its only a marginal win. However, seeing 300 people poring into a room within such a short time was quite humbling.
Based on your background in experience design and innovation, how would you tell a transmedia story?
I know it might sound like a bad answer, but I think it very much depends on what the story is. New media are just tools that you can use to tell stories in a new – and often more engaging way. I feel too many media companies try to add new media components to their storytelling just to add those tools – and not because they add value to the story. They also often forget to fully understand how a users daily flow is – and then mold their use of technology around peoples behavior – instead of assuming that they can move people across different new mediums.
Who do feel are the most innovative storytellers and what can creators learn from them?
I think good storytellers – are good storytellers. Most of the more innovative ones uses new technology too add impact to their narrative. That can be from clever use of social media to establish suspense (like the blairwitch project), to simple game shows that adds user participation via sms (think American Idol), over CNN’s way to include their viewers via iReporter and finally people who use digital tools to tell a story. (like the guys who did http://pleaserobme.com/). However, clearly the game developers have managed to engage users in self-made storytelling and that is where I think we will see the most innovation come from.
Favorite books and blogs?
- The Singularity is Near
- Hellohenrik.com 
- Influences
- The Paradox of Choice
- A mind of its own
How would you make social games more social?
Move more of the gameplay outside the web and into real life.
Can film studios learn anything from startups?
I think everyone can learn from startups. A few lessons;
- Its hard to judge your own ideas in a board room. Therefore, find methods where you can produce components cheap enough to test it against real users and then build on it if it turns out to be successful.
- Identify if your incentive structure is aligned with your objectives. E.g. if you dont think your teams take enough risk, you probably have a structure where only playing it safe is compensated
- Think less – do more…
Will Netflix keep winning in an increasingly competitive market?
Yes. By being restrictive in their deal structures – studios have up to now prevented a healthy industry of innovative distribution partners
What are going to be the next major trends in the entertainment industry?
Gaming seems to be one of those industries that keep taking market share from the traditional entertainment industry. I think we will see more innovation from the game world. The last sprint was social gaming – but I think this form of entertainment that engage users will see more growth. Finally I think the user generated trend will continue also. As the barrier to entry into the entertainment industry goes down you will see a raise of independent overnight sensations.
April 26 2011
Find Out How To Monetize Transmedia Storytelling And ARG On Hollywood 2.0!
My co-host Rich Silverman (Emmy-winner writer) and I (producer/neurocinema innovator) will tell you how…Welcome to Hollywood 2.0, a new podcast that covers innovation in the entertainment industry.
Subscribe to Hollywood 2.0. Follow Rich and Peter.
April 20 2011
Documentary + Game = Independent Transmedia Project called “THE GREAT WORK”
“The Greak Work” is a documentary by two Swedish filmmakers, Oskar Östergren & Fredrik Oskarsson (details at the end) about 30-year-old Christer Böke from Malmö, Sweden. He has taken one year off from his well-paid job as an IT-salesman to become a full-time Alchemist. The film concerns mankind’s eternal ambition of wealth and immortality and one mans dedicated struggle to solve “The secret of all secrets”. This struggle is known at The Great Work.
What’s particularly interesting about this project is that the filmmakers have teamed up with an independent game designer, Niflas, to create a game to complement the movie.
The Great Work will be screened on SVT (Swedish Television) as a 58 minute version, winter 2011. So don’t forget you heard about it here first!
Here’s the movie trailer…
About the Documentary
The documentary follows Christer from the day he leaves the city to the first day back at work the next year. During this year he moves to the island of Gotland on the Swedish countryside where he builds a laboratory in his dead grandfather’s garage, he lives three months in France to study the language and exchange ideas with French alchemists. Christer gets contacted by a strange international organisation called Ars regia that says “-We have been watching you…”. He keeps a blogg and start writing a book. He has a big argument with his best buddy and fellow alchemist since 15 year (they later reunite). He uses his “detective skills”, makes lots of experiments and gets closer and closer to his interpretation of the “recipes” of how to make The Philosophers Stone.
The Idea for The Game
Rob: How did the idea for a game come about?
Early in the process, we discussed that it would have been nice to make a game for the film because the topic of alchemy itself invites such thoughts. We had spent hours with our friend and the main character Christer Böke where we tried to solve “word puzzles” in old alchemical manuscripts and quotes that could lead you to the right subject which the great alchemist Fulcanelli was talking about.
At the same time I read an article about “Nifflas” and his game, Saira. We thought that a collaboration with him would be exciting and he lived in the same town and we had some common friends.
Together, we concluded that the game should stand on its own but our main goal was off course to use it as advertising for the documentary film. We had never really heard about a collaboration between a documentary and a indie-gamemaker. We have a strong interest in games and its form of narrative, and we thought the theme of alchemy would be suitable for Nifflas as a game developer. And, after our first meeting we felt that it could work out very well!
When we contacted Nicklas the first time he was skeptical about cooperating with us. He had expected the documentary would be about a major political topic and could not see the similarities with his own narrative, often based on a specific mystery and a character-driven portrait. Once we met everything fell into place and our collaboration has been great.
Nifflas never had any problems understanding our characters who defied science in search of “the philosopher’s stone”. Many of our financiers from the world of television and film were very doubtful about whether the story was real and at the same time are provoked by a person who claims to believe that he will be able to solve this amazing riddle. People think our documentary character must be a crazy guy or else we’re trying to fool them with a mocumentary. In the game world, however, these kinds of stories are not so strange and Nifflas could directly relate to our character and never doubt our way of telling his story.
Game Trailer
The Relationship Between the Documentary & Game
Rob: How would you describe the relationship between the documentary and the game – in terms of story, marketing, possible revenue model?
Our main story in the game is very similar to the film’s alchemical elements, that through the characters and manuscripts find different things that will lead you to new discoveries that will then guide you through the story of the great goal of making the Philosopher’s Stone.
All these characters are people from the alchemical history or allude to contemporary alchemists from the documentary and their aliases used on various internet forums. For example, you will meet our main character (Christer) who in the game is called “Spintheros”. Google that name and you will find a number of posts and articles written on various forums of our man Christer Böke.
From the beginning, we had much bigger ambitions for the game. We tried to make a budget so that Nifflas could work full time for a long time. We were sitting with Nifflas and Christer and brainstormed ideas that later turned out to be too advanced for an average gamer to understand. We had some intense discussions with Christer about this. He knows so incredibly much about the subject and couldn’t really see why some things were too advanced. For example we had a long discussion about whether people know the Periodic Table and all the latin names and planet/gods related to these.
Together with that and a much smaller budget we developed a simpler and much shorter game. We found 50% of 30 000 skr (4500 dollar) to pay Nifflas to program our idea. We got this money from Filmarc (www.filmarc.net) and he started to develop environments and how the puzzles could be adapted in the game. Then we discussed the characters and which different material we would use in the game. Material like Stibnit, Galen etc. It was very important that this material was familiar to alchemists. when people play the game they should know that this is not just some random stuff – it’s the real thing. You will get a very good idea how to start your own alchemical experiments by playing the game if you want…and some grand secrets too.
Marketing & Business Model
Already at the first meeting we decided that the game would be free and marketed freely from both our site www.grtwrk.com and Nifflas website. We were aware of Nifflas position among indie gamers and wanted them to recognize his style. To access the gamer audience, we have made a menu in the beginning of the the game that includes the trailer for the film, we will also add a direct link to the film that allows players to download the movie via the game. This could get us in some trouble with the Swedish Televison but I think they will understand our idea when we release it – they tend not to like it when you put stuff from the film on internet before you have screened it on TV. (www.studioparallell.com who made the menu for both the movie and game ensured that they’re the same style).
Last but not least, we will use open-source code so people can make their own puzzles and characters – perhaps based from the discussions in the film or from discussion that will come after you seen the movie. Alchemists always debate “the true matter”.
We have also discussed posting the script ahead of the movie release. The script contains the high-end solutions based on Christers hardcore alchemy puzzle. Some of the puzzles in this game will certainly also be discussed on alchemy forums and then it will be interesting to see if you are able to influence the game. For example, if it should be Stibnit or any other topic and then the player can change this can do their own version of the game.
We see the game as an interesting model to distribute the film in larger circuits because we think some relevant audiences might otherwise never discover our film. Even after several days, Nifflas’ game trailer 10 000 hits on youtube. All these people also visited our website to learn about the film. Similarly, Nifflas will get people who never played his game to visit his site and maybe even play more of his game. It’s a great cross-collateralization of audiences.
Partnering with a game is also a way to get the film’s story to survive and develop. Our main character and our film will hopefully create a movement on the internet which questions the scientific truths and interests people to go deeper into the subject. It is obvious that Christer has become very well-educated when he read and researched about alchemy. And, imagine if you in a playful way, can get people to understand that learning can be presented in different ways than through ordinary books or teachers that is rarely questioned. So we hope this cooperation will both promote our film and the game as entertainment but also educate and raise ideas that can live on after the premiere of the movie, and become more than a DVD and a game on your PC.
We must look at how the gaming industry markets itself. The film industry is hopelessly behind and the music industry has begun to learn with Spotify, itunes, etc.. To survive as a documentary filmmaker, we need to think outside the box to survive. This may be one way?
Additional Marketing?
In order to spread among gamers we focus on blogs and forums. To get them to see the film, we understand that we need to make it as easy as we can for them to download the movie as well. We hope to find a solution to this by uploading the movie on iTunes or similar channels and then place a link to this page in the game. We also run a facebook group and website and through these we hope to communicate with our audience. Then we will try to get som material published in traditional media like newspapers and say, culturalnews on TV. But, above all, we hope that the movie and the game spread itself through short clips on youtube, blogs, forums, Twitter, etc.
Example Puzzle & Initial Game Meeting Video
Mineral Stibnit + Mars (Iron) + owen – regulus of antimon + Caput mortuum
Give the Regulus av antimon to character ”Newton” – he will then give you a glove, that you can climb with.
Give Caput Mortuum to ”Spintheros” – and he will give you the second glove and now you can climb the roofs.
This video is from one of the first meeting together with Nifflas and our main character Chriter. They discuss ideas about the developing of the game (it’s in Swedish, naturally!).
Timescales
We hope that both the film and the game is fully completed in June but we still have not decided whether we will be releasing the game a bit earlier.
We will soon have a meeting and try to find a good strategy for this. Anyway, the documentary has been scheduled for a television premiere in October in Sweden.
We would also like to show the movie at some film festivals abroad and try to do a screening in which the visitors before and after have the opportunity to test the game at the cinema. One could also imagine an exclusive screening where our main character performs a simple experiment with the audience. We try to think that we should give the people who come to watch the movie something beyond the expected.
About The Filmmakers: Oskar Östergren & Fredrik Oskarsson (oskar&oskarsson)
Oskar Östergren (born 1976) and Fredrik Oskarsson (born 1979), both born and raised in Swedish Lapland. We are educated at ”Nordens Documentary Film School, Biskops-Arnö” (2002-2004) and, since 2003, we run the film production company oskar&oskarsson based in Umeå, specialising in documentaries. Our productions have been co-produced with SVT Dokumentär and Film i Västerbotten and besides directing and producing films we teach documentary film making at The Academy of Fine Arts in Umeå and work as photographers and editors for other productions and TV-shows. Our last SVT Co-production “The Police and Lapland” has been seen by more than one million viewers on SVT.
Contact: +46 70-555 13 17 (Oskar) or +46 70-640 23 67 (Fredrik); Email: oskar at oskarochoskarsson.se or fredrik at oskarochoskarsson.se
April 18 2011
Transmedia Talk 25 – Mark Harris
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 iTunes
Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)
Special Guest:
Mark Harris, creator of THE LOST CHILDREN.
Mark Harris talks about attacking transmedia from the technical side, his project THE LOST CHILDREN, and the
From This Episode:
Video featuring some of the technology Mark developed for Pandemic 1.0’s Mission Control center at Sundance.
Workbook Project contributor Zack Forsman
Mark’s piece at Filmmaker Magazine
Mark shared his experience using Wordpress to manage a storyworld with Wordpress at New Breed. Part 1 – Part 2
The found footage docudrama Lake Mungo
Power to the Pixel’s Cross Media Forum NYC on April 19.
To avoid spoilers, we won’t mention the name of the books Dee brought up in the podcast, but you can find the book and its companion piece on Amazon.
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