Put up a couple more transmedia story maps (home.comcast.net/~DOCWHO2000/moreinfo.html )– Harper's Globe (HG) and The Methos Chronicles (TMC)
Two very different and interesting sources. HG was touted as being a fully social TV show and in reading over some of the articles written for the show, lots of buzz words – but the most notable was what CBS pushed as a "new" experience. I did like they provided a FAQ - http://www.harpersglobe.com/faq/ - this is something I think many transmedia stories need. Both for current access and to help preserve link to all parts of the transmedia experience for future access.
TMC was created in 2001 – when Flash Animation was a very "new" thing and a way to "film" an online series cheaply (meaning some of the scenes in TMC could not have been filmed or done cheaply and yet with Flash animation…). As such, some of the audio/animation is a bit rough and only exists on YouTube and fan sites. Another example of how transmedia narratives may be losing pieces of the story. TMC was released in 2001… this is 2009 – only eight years…..
HOWEVER – something interesting about TMC – they only made 8 episodes officially – then fans took over and made a handful of additional episodes (some better made than the official :P - as Henry Jenkins and others have mentioned – this is one aspect of what Transmedia offers (as both a blessing and a curse) – the blurring of lines between the author and the reader/user (user generated content fanfic is another example)
I could not find if the creators of TMC every acknowledged the additional series, but it does show how fully some fans were drawn in and how the story continued.
HG illustrates more fully another of the "principles" of transmedia – drillability and extension of a narrative's universe. By exploring the paper archives, reading the "sanctioned" wiki (similar to what exists with the LG15 and KateModern and their Breenverse) and seeing the web series, a person can go from the general story in the TV show to a deeper understanding of the backstory and certain characters.
It is nice that you can, technically, watch the TV show without ever seeing HG material and still have a full story. This also works toward what has been called world building or overdesign – an adaptational type of transmedia source as opposed to an extensional source.
A couple of other interesting things I stumbled on –
www.tvweek.com/news/2009/02/column_old_new_media_linking_h.php - interesting article - the opening sentence is very telling, especially as shifts are occurring in entertainment
" Can programming producers survive on revenues derived from Web distribution alone? The overwhelming evidence seems to say no."
And as you see the developing transmedia landscape – this does seem to lean towards web distribution being only one avenue and part of larger projects… but who knows… the media landscape is changing…
efficientcreativity.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/transmedia-storytelling.pdf
This is a research paper I stumbled on and it has a number of good points including a review of Henery Jenkins's transmedia/convergence culture ideas and examines some current transmedia sources and looks at the following questions - The Entertainment Revolution: Does Transmedia Storytelling Really Enhance the Audience Experience?
It also has a number of the current vocab words that pop up in these discussions (things like a mothership program/story, rabbit holes/trailheads and others) – and a very nice citation list – which means Oi! More reading hehe
An interesting quote from the paper ties back into what the first article I listed touches on
" Once completed, this study can be used by entertainment companies to help decide the best use of their funding and which means of convergence will be the most effective to their transmedia storytelling."
Again funding rears it's necessary evil head.
This of course is more and more important from a revenue standpoint. I think for the audience, multiple sources have always worked to change and deliver the story in new and deeper ways. But, as a style of thinking? As a model for revenue generation? And as a nuts and bolts, brass tacks cost analysis – is there a trade off between the expense of moving across multiple platforms and the viewership generated.
This of course provokes the next thought – should that matter? Shouldn't the story drive if it is a transmedia delivery or not? Well, one would think, yet it seems the rush to social tv shows and multiple sources and generating revenue may be driven by the oohhh ahhh factor and how we access media, NOT by the story…
Is that what a writer/storyteller wants?
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PS – this closing thought from the research paper has me wondering, how are transmedia narratives tracked and measured?
"In order to conclude if these new matters of transmedia storytelling, in the forms of ARGs and social shows, are effective in creating a larger fan base for the television offering the website traffic before, during, and after television broadcasts must be measured…."
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