Transmedia sans fiction

I'm a big fan of @Jeff_Gomez, as you've probably noticed. He really opened my eyes to the powers of transmedia at The Pixel Lab in Cardiff last summer (and he also helped create the Magic The Gathering card game, which I thoroughly enjoyed playing back in the day :) .*

I've enjoyed listening to his visions and his presentations (a great and touching video from the TEDxTransmedia conference can be found here, and a review of his Cinekid presentation last week here) and firmly believe that more and more properties and stories will go the way of transmedia, for the better of all story-interested members of mankind.

One aspect that I'm struggling with at the moment is when a development project strays from the path of fiction, or never originated as fiction to start with. As with the examples Jeff talks about in the links above, well executed transmedia projects in the vein of Avatar or Pirates of the Caribbean have a rich story world to build on, to create stories in, just as it should be. At the same time, this is almost a prerequisite for creating these types of transmedia projects; you need that fictional world, well built and stable, to be able to tell your fictional stories that complement each other and build the world onwards.

The challenge, as I see it, is to figure out what happens when you base these in the real world, omitting or at least limiting the fictional elements. Is it still transmedia? Or are we then reverting back to cross media (if that indeed can be considered reverting?). If it is still transmedia, is it possible to base it in the real world and still create a good transmedia narrative?

My opinion is that this is more than possible. What you need to do is to create the narrative superstructure in as great a detail as when you create your fictional world. Just because what you're creating is based on the real world, doesn't mean you can take it for granted that everyone perceives this world the same way as you do - not even your collaborators on the project. When writing this narrative superstructure, the mythology of your project, you need to explain the essence of, say, London, as represented in your project (if London is a part of your story of course) in as great a detail as the essence of Pandora is explained in the Avatar mythology. You also need to be able to explain this essence, via the descriptions and the mythology, to each and everyone involved in the development and the production. I believe this is the only way to avoid mishaps in the production (such as people not realizing what you want to get out of the narrative, what feelings you want to convey, how you want people to interact etc). One hour spent on the mythology will save you five hours in execution; production and editing.

This will also assist you a lot when bringing new people into the development and/or production team. Finally, I agree with Jeff on one point he has been making; if you feel the need to make some material to explain your project, a graphic novel is a great way to go. And if you base it in the real world, so what? Who wouldn't want to be in a graphic novel??



* see Jeff's comment below; the honor of creating MtG goes to Garfield and WotC.

NILE 2008

Now, if you can't make it to Amsterdam as mentioned below, perhaps you'd like to join up for NILE 2008? I'm not really sure if I'm going yet - if I do I'd like to present some of the stuff we are doing - but as NILE stands for Narrative in Interactive Learning Environments I belive it touches upon the same ground we're working on at the moment. And with things like "Creative Learning by Designing Digital Board Games: Practicing deep-reading skills through game creation process" or "Learning through the Construction and Use of Intelligent Image Narratives" on the agenda, it might just be a bit interesting as well.

Edinburgh, early August (the time of the Edinburgh festival as well, so if the conference doesn't live up to your expectations, you can just go out for a beer or twelve instead :)

Transparency - new interactive cinema

There are a lot of things happening in the world of interactive content and interactive narrative. New devices and new technologies offers opportunities to do loads of stuff previously unimaginable. Some - like me and my colleagues - work with creating interactive tv formats, which have a potential to sell on the national or international market. Others do something else, equally important, but in a different sense.

A friend of mine, Carlos from Portugal, har just finished his cinematographic project, called 'Transparency', as a part of his research into interactive narrative content. It's a storyline that the viewer himself/herself can influence, to create a number of different storylines and outcomes. It's ambitious, it's complicated, it's nice. Go have a look, while I return to my slightly more commercial products :)