Explanation of the Lowlifes transmedia project from concept through to execution

1. Transmedia Storytelling

2. About this presentation
• Part I Intro & Overview
• Part II Transmedia Development
• Part III Business Model
• Part IV Shooting the Web Series
• Part V Game & Technology
• Part VI Next Steps

3. Part I
Intro & Overview

4. Lowlifes' synopsis
• Larry Hayes is San Francisco
homicide detective with a drug
addiction.
• He has a dead informant, an ex-
wife fighting for custody of
their daughter and a private eye
hired to spy on him.

5. High Concept
One story, three
perspectives.
Told over three
platforms: novella,
web series, blog.
detective
LARRY HAYES EX-Wife
(JEN HAYES)
PRIVATE EYE
(LAUREN ORTEGA)

6. Core team
WRITER PRODUCER
Simon Wood is an ex-racecar driver, a licensed Robert Pratten is an award-winning feature
pilot and an occasional private investigator. filmmaker and transmedia consultant. He first
His crime fiction has garnered him an Anthony met Simon in 2004 at the World Horror
Award and a Crime Writers Association Dagger Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. His movies
nomination. He's had over 150 stories and include London Voodoo and Mindflesh.
articles published. His short fiction has Robert spends far too much time playing
appeared in a variety of magazines anthologies, computer games can often be discovered
such as Seattle Noir and Thriller 2. He's a wondering the post-apocalyptic wilderness of
frequent contributor to Writer's Digest. He's New Vegas around the year 2218.
the author of Working Stiffs, Accidents Waiting He is founder of TransmediaStoryteller.com an
to Happen, Paying the Piper, We All Fall online service for audience engagement.
Down and Terminated. As Simon Janus, he's the
author of The Scrubs and Road Rash. Curious
people can learn more at www.simonwood.net.

7. Project objectives
• Possible to consume each media
independently of any other
• Enhanced satisfaction with each
additional media consumption
• Micro-budget
• Freemium distribution model
• Creative Commons licensing to allow
audience collaboration
• Simple, commercial, transmedia story

8. What’s unique about lowlifes?
• Franchise transmedia with
concurrent narrative timelines
• Engagement rewarded with advance-
release or exclusive content
• Revenue model dependent on advocacy
and free digital distribution (i.e.
“piracy”)
• Subscription and on-demand content
distribution
• First project to use the Conducttr
pervasive entertainment platform

9. Part II
Transmedia Development

10. Aim: Whole is greater than sum of parts
Movie Game Book Media Franchise
Whole is less than the sum of the parts:
dissatisfying conclusion to consuming all media
Movie Game Book Transmedia
Whole is more satisfying than the sum of the parts:
euphoria of collecting and connecting the pieces

11. Each character is hero of their own media

12. Double impact!

13. TRANSMEDIA Project development

14. Lowlifes summary
• Story: crime mystery
• Audience: author’s existing readers;
predominantly older women; crime readers;
transmedia fans
• Platforms: novella, web series, blog and
casual game
• Business model: paid book & video options
(Amazon DVD, on-demand, Kindle & other
eBooks, e-Junkie downloads); free online
• Execution: Released for free over 15 days
in Jan 2011. Paid content available for 1
week before free content. Casual game run
ahead of release for 3 weeks. Online
viewing biased towards mobile devices.

15. Thinking through the Experience
Story Real-world fact)
(pervasive, built around
(strength, depth &
authorial control)
Participation Gaming
(contribute, change, co-create) (goals, puzzles, challenges,
trophies)
Story = importance of narrative, depth of world & degree of authorial control
Real-world = extent to which story-experience pervades real locations & times, real people & events
Participation = ability of audience to change or contribute to the story-experience
Gaming = audience has goal, use of puzzles, game mechanics (trophies, levels, leader boards etc.)

16. The Lowlifes transmedia experience
• Lowlifes.tv initially conceived as a
book, video series and blog
Story Real-world • Interactive game added later when
technology permitted (runs on
Conducttr platform)
• Authorial control is the dominant
feature
• Experience has strong link to San
Francisco with exploratory content
coming from real-world sources such as
Wikipedia, SF crime map etc.
• There’s a forum to influence future
stories and the development of the
Participation Gaming character but this experience is “on
rails”
• QR codes & mobile used to provide
additional narrative content (sub-plot
in video, audio, images) that enriches
ownership of paid content (book &
ebook) and exploratory content
(Wikipedia, coalition on homelessness
in SF)

17. Designed for mobile viewing
Website, not an app:
• Device-independent
• Cheaper to implement
• More flexible on
timescales and
content development

18. Simple navigation

19. Part III
Business Model

20. Content released over 15 day period

21. Qr codes unlock additional story

22. Two primary PAID options
BOOK DVD

23. Plus paid digital equivalents
eBOOK H.264

24. Part IV
Shooting the Web Series

25. Webisode Shooting process
• Narrative outline for all webisodes
• Gather shots from real places and
real events around San Francisco:
nothing is staged or “acted” except
the voice-over
• Some footage taken earlier in the
year in anticipation
• Revise voice-over to suit collected
footage
• Add motion graphics to assist
storytelling and increase production
value

26. Set in SAN FRANCISCO’s UNDERBELLY:
the TENDERLOIN DISTRICT

27. Cinéma vérité –type approach

28. Graphics sometimes added to real
scene

29. Part V
Game and Technology

30. Game accessed via blogs – uses real and
custom websites to set challenges
http://ortegapi.posterous.com/
http://a-cops-wife-life.blogspot.com/

31. Technology assistance
Scheduled events:
• Blog posts
• Tweets
• Video publishing
• Notification to subscribers
Interactive events
• Casual game
• Subscriptions

32. Interaction without programming
fictional
character
responding
to trigger
“trigger” =
expected
event
email reply
in response
to trigger
possible
email
responses

33. Content structured and tracked
external links documented and
click-thrus tracked using
bit.ly

34. “fetch from YouTube” avoids re-work

35. Part VI
Next Steps

36. Lowlifes evolutioN...
• New novel with Larry Hayes to
be written in 2011
• New video and game
implementations dependent on
demand and budget
• Audience encouraged to
contribute to storyworld

37. Contact details
Robert Pratten
robert@zenfilms.com
twitter.com/zenfilms
www.transmediastoryteller.com
lowlifes.tv