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Transmedia Lab

Transmedia – it’s about the story, not the tools | FLOW MEDIA ::: multimedia I photography I motion I’m on a early flight this morning what made me skip to publish another series of pictures from Iceland but instead use the time and share with you some thoughts on the concept of transmedia I got pretty obsessed about recently after hearing about it . The concept is simple, actually that simple that it barely feels as new information. But I think it is something what we often forget about. One of the basic concepts always has been cross-media , what more or less means to take your produced material, let’s say pictures and publish it in as many channels as possible, for instance a book, magazine, newspaper, web, you name it. The concept of transmedia is exactly about that. When we do multimedia this is inside of the concept where we decide how to tell the story. I personally think that times couldn’t be more exciting right now when it comes to things like that.

Secret Location Combines Gaming, Interactivity, and Telephony With Mysterious Film "The Sevens" When visiting the website of a creative company, the expectation is to find some contact information and selections of work and/or a demonstration of just how desperately social-media-savvy the proprietors are. When you visit the site of Secret Location and a phone starts ringing, however, you know something altogether different is going on. Clicking on the persistently ringing phone initiates a multi-layered narrative experience that seamless combines short film, interactivity, and gaming. Dubbed The Sevens, the experience is the centerpiece of Toronto-based interactive agency Secret Location’s relaunched website and is designed to surprise and entertain while showcasing the extent of the company’s skills. The Sevens begins and ends with a phone call and contains three puzzles for viewers to solve. James Milward, Secret Location founder and executive producer, says that the idea for The Sevens was born four years ago in the company’s first portfolio site.

Transmedia tales and the future of storytelling If you could choose how to receive your favourite novel, how would you? Many of us have been programmed from childhood to accept that stories come on a page, as a book or on a screen, as a TV show or a movie. However new technologies are disrupting the publishing business as stories are downloaded to be consumed on e-readers, mobile devices and computer screens. The entertainment industries are no stranger to buzzwords. Henry Jenkins, a former MIT Professor, defined transmedia storytelling as “a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels.” Publishers are excited about delivering stories in new ways, but there is also some caution and resistance to change from both publishers and readers, as moving the action from one device to another mid-story raises the risk of distraction. It's not only publishers that are excited about transmedia.

How to Choose Learning Games That Don't Bore Kids Student voices shape the way we rate and review on Graphite. Common Sense Media intern Sophia Dalal recently interviewed her 14-year-old brother, Kavi, about what makes a game great for learning. She also ran focus groups with more than 20 teens to understand how they evaluate learning games. Here's what some of these savvy kids had to say. Q. What makes a game great for learning? Kavi, 9th grade: There are textbooks that try to teach you things like history or algebra just with the facts. Maya, 7th grade: It's important to have a balance between learning elements and how fun a game is. Joby, 8th grade: You need to have some influence over what happens in a game. Q. Kavi: What's really engaging for me is the story. Tess, 8th grade: Creativity is what I love in games because I like to make things. Katherine, 8th grade: I think humor makes games really engaging. Q. Lionel, 8th grade: Competition is important. Joby: The goal of a game should change over time. Q. Q.

Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins Games: A Textbook for Digital Best Practices shared from The Huffington Post by Michael Levine | Written with Alan Gershenfeld, Founder and President of E-Line Media The White House recently announced two major initiatives in learning and technology -- these "digital seed capital" efforts are "down-payments" to jumpstart innovation and break a two decade long cycle of snail-like reform. The first is a digital textbook initiative; the second is a new games and learning effort. There is an important link between these two developments: in the migration from paper-based 20th century textbooks to 21st century digital "textbooks" there is a great deal the education sector can learn from the game industry. While at first glance this might seem like an odd connection, we believe that there is a unique alignment between the core elements that make video games deeply engaging and the potential for new, research-based, digital textbooks that are adaptive, relevant, engaging and capital efficient. New evidence from the U.S. Michael H.

Seven Myths About Transmedia Storytelling Debunked Over the past few years, transmedia storytelling has become a hot buzzword in Hollywood and Madison Avenue alike--"the next big thing" or "the last big thing" depending on whom you ask. Last year, the Producer's Guild announced a new job title, Transmedia Producer, a decision that has more or less established the term as an industry standard. More and more companies are laying claim to expertise in producing transmedia content. But many using the term don't really understand what they are saying. Myth 1: Transmedia Storytelling refers to any strategy involving more than one media platform. The entertainment industry has long developed licensed products, reproducing the same stories across multiple channels (for example, novelizations). Myth 2: Transmedia is basically a new promotional strategy. Yes, many early transmedia experiments were funded through marketing budgets. Myth 3: Transmedia means games. Myth 4: Transmedia is for geeks. Myth 5: Transmedia requires a large budget.

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