The mixing of Real and Not Real in Transmedia

(the musings continue, now with something I'm struggling with right now)

One particular challenge that I face while developing transmedia, is the thin line between being just about enough fictional, but not too fictional. I don’t work – or, should I say, I do not at the moment work – with drama-based transmedia projects; instead, the ones we’re working on now are music projects, game shows, kids formats, etc.

As I see it, one key element of any transmedia venture is the classical ”willful suspension of disbelief” (love the phrase, btw). You know that you have your narrative superstructure in place, it’s solid and will be a fine, nurturing growth bed. You have some – three, then, to go by PGA’s rules for a transmedia producer – different media platforms utilized. The different pieces of content support each other, either directly or indirectly, but are not duplicates of each other. What you need now is for the consumer / participant (the ”consupant”? sounds a bit constipated...) to go into your story, your narrative superstructure, and embrace the willful suspension of disbelief and engage him-/herself.

This is a bit easier when building a drama-based transmedia setting, as anyone connecting to the mythology of the story knows and has accepted that it is a story. When blending ”real” stuff with a narrative that contains fictional elements, the cracks are a lot easier to spot.

What I’ve found out so far is one fairly simple thing, yet hard to stick to while developing, writing and scripting. Simply – be as true as possible. If you embark on the mission to include real stuff – be it persons, objects, physical landmarks or whatever – in your transmedia project, these different kinds of stuff will be a lot more credible if they, to as large an extent as possible, base themselves and present themselves as their real selves. What you don't want is for these characters and stuff to show any light shining through them. They need to be as solid as possible - which is only possible if they are, for the main part, grounded in who or what they really actually are.

The only thing you need to add are the small fictional things that lets these real persons and real places function within your transmedia venture.

I’ll update with an example of ours as soon as we’ve got stuff to show ☺

Economy busting up, storytelling not

It is a new world order we're experiencing right now. It might not be 100% obvious to everyone, but in 10-20 years time the books (or iPads) will be filled with comments and analyzing articles about the years 2008-2012; the "Destruction of the Global Economy"-era, as it will be called.

The EU bailout of Greece the other day is just another nudge in the completely wrong direction. If someone has taken all their money and spent it on fancy clothes and toys for their chihuahua, then come complaining to you that they can't afford food, do you lend them the biggest bank loan in history? Or do you say "tough luck, go hungry 'til your next pay day and try to save up some money next time"?

I feel it is simply silly and naive to hope to contain the economical mess in this or similar "Quantitative Easing"-ways. I believe the PIIGS will go tits-up, the euro will lose at least half its value compared to the dollar, one or more countries will vote to leave the euro and we will all be in a big big heap of trouble before long.

On the other hand, with the iPad notching up 1 million sales so far, I see storytelling entering a new era. Back in the old days, a storyteller sat by the fire and told stories to a whole village; essentially he was gifting them the gift of imagination, of entertainment, of morals, of culture. He also got instant feedback; the roars of approval, the laughters, the sighs of his audience.

With the iPad as a first vehicle, we're nearing that same storyteller-setting as described above, only on a global scale. Where ever we are we can bring our own branch of the campfire, we can listen to the stories being told, choose which one to partake of, interact with our fellow listeners and give instant feedback to the storyteller. Moreover, I see the listener being given more and more power to create their own content within or outside the story that engages them.

It's a whole new storytelling world, and I'm simply thrilled to be telling stories in it.

Interactive storytelling... in a slightly different way

Well, now there is a saviour for all the pople who can't make it home in time for their kids bedtime.

Microsoft and literary agents Chorion have teamed up to create "an online interactive storytelling application on Windows Live Messenger" as reported by C21 Media.

It's basically storybooks that the kids can play around with, touch the pictures etc, while their parents read the book to them over the Internet. There is also, naturally, a live cam feed so parent and child can see each other.

Dear me.

Next up, the virtual hug, and a easily programmed bot that tells your chidlren you really really love them. If it's not programmed in Vista of course, then it will get stuck and ask you for permission to continue.