The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of Cross-Media

The Who, What, when, Where, why and How of Cross-Media A special presentation by Christy Dena for www.DIYDays.com July 2008

I had planned a really interesting and clever video presentation for you…

… but the technology gremlins have pinned me down, and are now cackling in my ear…

… so, you have this silent, conversational text instead 

… let’s start then:

What is cross-media?

… you may know ‘cross-media’ from terms such as transmedia storytelling, synergistic storytelling, multi-platform storytelling, alternate reality games, pervasive games, networked narrative environments…

… and a few others…

360 Content | 360 Experience | Alternate Reality Experiences | Alternate Reality Games | Augmented Reality Games | Big Games | Chaotic Fiction | Convergent Storytelling | Cross-Media Entertainment | Cross-Media Games | Cross-Media Storytelling | Cross-Platform Storytelling | Cross-Sited Narratives | Distributed Interactive Narratives | Distributed Narratives | Enhanced TV | Expanded Cinema | Extended Entertainment Experiences | Extended Reality Game | GPS Games | Immersive Games | Interactive Television | Intermedia Storytelling | Intermedial Storytelling | IPTV | iTV | Live Action Role-Playing Games (LARP) | Location-Based Games | Locative Arts | Locative Media | Location-Based Media | Mixed Reality Games | Mobile Narratives | Multimedia Stories | Multimedial Storytelling | Multi-Platform Entertainment | Multi-Platform Storytelling | Networked Narrative Environments | Networked Performance | Pervasive Games | Polymorphic Fictions | Telematic Arts | Telepresence Art | Transfiction | Transmedia Entertainment | Transmedia Storytelling | Transreality Games | Situated Narratives | Superfictions | Synergistic Storyscapes | Synergistic Storytelling | Ubicomp Games | Ubiquitous Games | Unfiction | Very Distributed Media Stories | Very Distributed Storytelling | XME | XMedia | XMedia Entertainment

… hehe…

Who is doing it?

Film Makers

TV Makers

Novelists

Playwrights

Producers

Marketers

Educators

Game Designers

Activists

Independents

Corporations

Researchers

Students

How long have people been doing it?

… well a lot of people know about this one…

The Matrix (1999)

… and perhaps some of you know about this one…

Twin Peaks (1990)

… and maybe this one…

Tron (1982)

… but what about this one?…

… it is a hard one…

… It’s called ‘The World in 24 Hours’…

At 12 noon on September 27 1982, artists — in Amsterdam, Athens, Bath, Frankfurt, Honolulu, Istanbul, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna and Wellfleet — participated in a 24-hour telecommunications artwork. The artists participated through a variety of telecommunications technologies such as slow-scan television, fax, computer mailbox and telephone sound…

It was organized by Robert Adrian for Ars Electronic and is a form of what Roy Ascott calls ‘Telematic Art’…

These are the artworks that were being delivered via the ‘network’

… but cross-media goes back further, to artists like Dick Higgins, who championed ‘intermedia’…

… ’ Intermediality’ (imagine Higgins voice) is not distinct to the 1960s, but has ‘always been a possibility since the most ancient times’ and will remain ‘a possibility wherever the desire to fuse two or more existing media exists’…

… ah, “the desire to fuse two or more existing media”…that is part of the cross-media philosophy…

… but if you really think about it, cross-media dates back to a long time ago…

… ok, maybe not that far, but a while ago…

40,000 years ago, all stories (law) were communicated through multiple cultural channels…never one in isolation… … and one core concept, an essence that remained constant…

… that was in Australia  …

Where is it being done?

… the USA isn’t the only place…

Australia Fat Cow Motel Jupiter Green PS Trixi

… to name a few…

Why are people doing it?

… good question…

… some do it to because they think it will make them money…

… some for activism…

… some for fun…

… some for research…

… some for art…

… and some because their producer or teacher told them to…

How do I do it?

… ah, that is the million dollar question…

… that is actually only something you can answer…

… but I’ll give you some hints…based on what other great pioneers have been doing…

… first: look around…

… what is a potential storytelling device?...

… there are more than you think….I’ll show you what others have been playing with…

… Internet, email…yeah, you knew that…

… what about Google Maps?…

Six to Start is behind this one…

… chatbots?…

This is the ‘Ari Gold Interview’, by Deep Focus

… Photoshop?…

… My Damn Channel’s ‘You Sucjk at Photoshop’ is so funny…

… how about QR codes?…

… that is the ‘Integral’ music video by the Pet Shop Boys…

… SMS of course…

This is a SMS from Hoodlum’s ‘PS Trixi’ for Yahoo!7

… what about GPS?…

This is Jeff Knowlton, Naomi Spellman, Brandon Stow and Jeremy Hight’s ‘34 North 118 West ’

… and how about Blast Theory’s ‘Can You See Me Now?’

… mobile dramas and webisodes are a favourite…

… and books…

… ah yes, and graphic novels…

… the Scratch n’ Sniff was funny…

… oh yeah, and voting for an ending with stamps was an inspired move for Singapore Post’s interactive drama ‘Yours Always’ …

… other wacky storytelling devices were used in 42 Entertainment’s ARG for the Halo storyworld: ‘I Love Bees’…

… and the payphones…

… what about the Graveyard?!!…

42 Entertainment’s ‘Last Call Poker’ for Activision’s GUN Image from Jane McGonigal’s NEXT presentation

… and the phones buried inside the cakes for The Dark Knight…

… and the playing cards too…

… ah, and t-shirts, in many ARGs, including the clues embedded in Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Year Zero’…

… and billboards…like the ones used for ‘Find 815’ by Hoodlum for ABC’s ‘Lost’…

… and stencils, like the ones distributed across streets for ‘She Loves the Moon’ by the Strangers…

… and the sticker novel distributed all over the world…

Nick Montfort and Scott Rettberg’s ‘Implementation’

… and skywriting in 42 Entertainment’s ‘Vanishing Point’…

… how about a car?…

Campfire, GMD Studios, McKinney-Silver’s ‘Art of the Heist’

… and the helicopter!…

Mind Candy’s ‘Perplex City’

… lets try some normal stuff again eh?...how about online flash games…

http://www.gorillaz.com/DirtyHarry/DirtyHarry.html

… that is the game version of the ‘Dirty Harry’ music video by Gorillaz…cool…

… here’s another…

… the ‘Chain Factor’ casual game that is part of an ARG created by area/code for a special episode of CBS’ ‘Numb3rs’…

… and there is the good ol’ favourite for those with the big bucks…

… but this one is out there…

… it hasn’t happened yet…but I’m crossing my fingers…

What do I do on these media?

… ok, you’re probably getting impatient…there are three key approaches:

replicate

… you replicate when you repurpose your content across different media channels…

… some do this as an artistic statement…

… some to reach fragmented audiences…

www.forgettherules.com ‘ Forget the Rules’ by Global Dilemma, was distributed through TV, mobile & the web simultaneously

… and some bundle digital and tangible media together for each person, for one fee…

transform

… you can transform your story or game…do your own adaptations in different media to explore the different ways your story can be expressed and experienced…like…

… and Peter Greenaway VJing his ‘Tulse Luper Project’…

… and what about our own Lance Weiler, and his online interactive comic version of ‘Head Trauma’…

Lance wielr

expand

… you can expand your story or game across media, spreading the narrative and challenges…

… but there is a bit more to it than that…

… you can do a multi-platform series…

… which means you deliver self-contained episodes over television, comics, webisodes and films, like Joss Whedon did with Firefly/Serenity…

… or you can do a multi-platform serial…

… which means not making each episode self-contained, but creating compelling cliff-hangers to drive people from television to the web…

… like Mitsubishi did with their clever advertisement during the 2004 Super Bowl:

… or, you can do a mix of a serial and series…a technique that TV theorist Robin Nelson identified in 1997, a flexi-narrative:

“ The blurring of distinction between the series and serial affords schedulers the joint advantage of an unresolved narrative strand — a cliff-hanger to draw the audience to watch the next episode — and a new group of characters and self-contained stories in each episode.”

(Nelson, 1997)

… which means you could have a storyline, that moves from a graphic novel, to computer game, to feature film whilst making each one of stories self-contained too…like the well-known example from the Wachowski Brothers’ ‘The Matrix’:

Continuing narrative thread: “ the message” Self-contained stories

… but what many forget about is…

… yeah, that’s right, connecting the dots…connecting the media…because people don’t know there is more in another media channel and won’t be compelled enough to act if you don’t connect it all…

… but hey, there are things you can do…in fact, quality cross-media interaction experiences usually address these three things:

Call to Action Cycle

Primer

Referral

Reward

… that was pretty official…but seriously:

1. Primer : prepare and motivate your audience to act

… and do that within your story, don’t just rely on some quick competition to compel someone after your great story is over…

2. Referral : provide the means and instructions on how and when to act

… URLs are a common and effective method…

… but these are all prompts outside of the film, TV show or podiobook…

… a great way is to embed the call to action within the film or show…

… like this one from NBC’s Heroes…

… or the running joke with the fan phone on Fox’s 24…

… or the email glimpsed for a second during a ‘Prison Break’ episode…

3. Reward : acknowledge and recompense their action

… give some response to their actions!...and if you give them some reward…they’re more likely to keep traversing media…

When do I do this?

… Oh! You’re keen…good…

… most cross-media expansions are released before the release of a film or DVD, because they’re trying to promote cinema ticket or DVD sales…

… that is fine, it can be a great primer…

… but what many don’t think about is what the audience would want, and what could be done…

… If people love your film, they immediately want to spend more time with it, they want to go further…

… why not honour and leverage that?...

… hey, and some filmmakers are also experimenting with simultaneous media experiences…

… like Lance Weiler’s ‘cinema ARG’ for Head Trauma…

… but in terms of when to do cross-media during production, many start them after the film, and some during the production of the film…

… but, as with all crafts, the creative outcome is far superior when all the elements are integrated from the beginning…

… indeed, some creators have got to the point where they don’t see the cross-media project as an addition…it is the project… they’re no longer creating a film, they’re creating a cross-media project that includes a film…

… and that is the moment when you reach a kind of cross-media zen:

… when all media, when all artforms, are one…

…  …

… I’d like to end with a quote…

… it is a bit hardcore, but I like the sentiment…

“ A composer is a dead man unless he composes for all the media and for his world.”

Dick Higgins, 1966

Well, I had fun! I hope you did, and I hope your audiences do too…

This presentation at: http://www.slideshare.net/christydena/ My bio site at: http://www.ChristyDena.com/ My podcast (when I get time) is at: http://www.UniverseCreation101.com