Matthew Thomas Maloney, "Digital Diegesis: Multi-platform Story-World Development"
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
50 likes•9,717 views
"In fiction, diegesis is that part of an entertainment which is obviously part of the narrative itself. In film and television, something is said to be diegetic when it is experienced by the characters." –Dr. Who's Tardis Datacore We no longer develop content strictly for a television series, a feature film, or a single interactive experience. Today, story content must be developed for multi-platform media systems consumed through a variety of experiences. Although at first glance this may seem to complicate the development process, through deeper exploration of the relationship between story and discourse, we can better understand the nature of transmedia narrative. This talk will explore methods for understanding the development of transmedia story content, how to present this content to clients, and how fluid structuralist thinking can help us create multiple narrative experiences of a focused, singular story-world. Check out the article on Matthew Thomas Maloney: "The future is all about the (transmedia) narrative"
More Related Content
Similar to Matthew Thomas Maloney, "Digital Diegesis: Multi-platform Story-World Development"
Similar to Matthew Thomas Maloney, "Digital Diegesis: Multi-platform Story-World Development" (20)
More from WebVisions
More from WebVisions (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Matthew Thomas Maloney, "Digital Diegesis: Multi-platform Story-World Development"
- 5. {Television Series} {Mobile Application} {Console Game} {Sequential Comic} {Merchandise} {Social Media Experience} {Website} {Live User Experience} {Web-based Secondary Episodic} {Feature Film} {Fan-created Shorts} {Themed Entertainment} {Casual Games} {Sponsorship Initiatives}
- 6. {Console Game} {Mobile Application} {Television Series} {Sequential Comic} {Merchandise} {Social Media Experience} {Website} {Live User Experience} {Web-based Secondary Episodic} {Feature Film} {Fan-created Shorts} {Themed Entertainment} {Casual Games} {Sponsorship Initiatives}
- 7. {Fan-created Shorts} {Mobile Application} {Television Series} {Sequential Comic} {Merchandise} {Social Media Experience} {Website} {Live User Experience} {Web-based Secondary Episodic} {Feature Film} {Console Game} {Themed Entertainment} {Casual Games} {Sponsorship Initiatives}
- 8. {Brand} {Mobile Application} {Television Series} {Sequential Comic} {Merchandise} {Social Media Experience} {Website} {Live User Experience} {Web-based Secondary Episodic} {Feature Film} {Console Game} {Themed Entertainment} {Casual Games} {Sponsorship Initiatives} {Fan-created Shorts}
- 9. {Diegesis} {Mobile Application} {Television Series} {Sequential Comic} {Merchandise} {Social Media Experience} {Website} {Live User Experience} {Web-based Secondary Episodic} {Feature Film} {Console Game} {Themed Entertainment} {Casual Games} {Sponsorship Initiatives} {Fan-created Shorts}
- 10. {Diegesis} : World of the Story or Storyworld.
- 11. {Extra-Diegesis} : World of the Storyteller and audience.
- 13. {Story} lives in the mind.
- 14. Narrative is {any} expression of diegetic content.
- 15. {Little Red Riding Hood}
- 17. Original source material does not matter.
- 18. {WWRD?}
- 19. {WWRD?}
- 20. Story-world. { Characters, places, conflicts. }
- 23. Luke who?
- 24. {Case Study} A character is on his way to a million dollar business deal that will save his home town and flicks a cigarette butt out of his car window.
- 25. {Case Study} It lands on a group of tiny explorers, mortally wounding their captain. They are miles from their home.
- 26. {Case Study} Galactus, meanwhile, prepares to devour the earth.
- 28. Allow the {narrative} to diversify.
- 29. Allow {narrative} to divide itself.
- 31. {Temporal Condensation} Diegesis 2 Hour Film Selected events arranged into discourse.
- 37. “This is hard! There is often a tension between our need for creative control and the desire to create a feedback loop with the audience, or to allow them to be shared authors of a project.” -Ingrid Kopp
- 38. {Let it go}
- 39. {Extra-Diegesis}
- 40. {Story Content} {Episodics, films, games, UX, etc.} {Fan-created work. Ekphrastic, Haptic work.} {Feedback} Content arranged into narrative forms Narrative forms interpreted by audience {Extra-Diegesis}{Diegesis}
- 41. {Story Content} {Episodics, films, games, UX, etc.} {Fan-created work. Ekphrastic, Haptic work.} {Feedback} {Extra-Diegesis}{Diegesis} Content arranged into narrative forms Narrative forms interpreted by audience
- 42. {Extra-Diegesis} the Audience has an Audience.
- 43. The {web} is a massive live studio audience. And they can all heckle.
- 44. {Too shocking, too dangerous.}
- 48. {Creators become part of the meta-narrative.}
- 50. {Development} • Brand. • Characters. • Places. • Conflicts. • A broad plan. • Visual examples.
- 54. {Whitebox}
- 56. {Style Frames}
- 57. {Style Frames}
- 58. {Case Study}
- 59. {Case Study}
- 60. {Case Study}
- 62. {Takeaways} • Content is perfect. A story cannot be good, bad, boring, engaging, long or short. • Brand is narrative. It is not “story.” The story is in there somewhere, but it is formless. • Narrative is in everything. It has nothing to do with orthodox ‘telling’ and nothing to do with time. • Be like water.
Editor's Notes
- Introduction. There are things we don’t need to talk about- things we can all agree on.
- And while it may not be the delineation of terms like “Trans-media” vs “Multi-platform” or, forgive me: “New Media” to describe what is happening in narrative….. We should be able to agree that multiplatform narrative is not a recent phenomenon. There are countless examples spanning many decades and genres.
- We can also agree that narrative content that can cross diegetic boundaries and pluralize modes of audience experience is something that people want and expect. They’ll call it second screen, they’ll call it meta, they’ll call it simply interactive, but the bottom line is that companies, studios, agencies, and even individual clients expect more from their media.
- For example, one does not simply create a television series. This is not fully-formed narrative.
- One now creates a system of experience around a property. Themed entertainment, casual games, secondary episodics, and a number of other outlets all pulling from the same source content. And many creators might think this narrative web would look something like this. But this is completely inaccurate, because depending on your audience demographic and how well certain aspects of a property are promoted……..
- It might just as well look like this. And this too, is totally transitive. A slight fluxuation, a moment of inspiration, a generous round of retweeting, and it may look like this……
- And this is where creators have been struggling. This kind of fluidity is problematic for traditionalists and causes obvious problems for development strategies, not to mention sponsorship and sales. But we’ll get back to this. The fundamental reason that creators are struggling with this so-called multiplatform narrative is that this nebulous web of storytelling and content distribution actually looks like this……
- So, to solve this problem, we might visualize that content development should look like this. However this falsely assumes that BRAND is a content source and not a narrative itself. We will get back to this. Brand may influence all of these outlets and connect the dots, but it does not exist in and of itself as a source, no matter how much we might feel it should. It’s much more complicated.
- And this is as traditional as it gets . In fact, it’s been around since Plato. The fact that so many creators struggle with this as a general concept is that they actually don’t understand what narrative actually is. They’ll throw around words like “storytelling” “story” “narrative” and “discourse” – without understanding the structure of narrative itself.
- So let’s correct our definitions of some of those words by learning the definition of another: Diegesis. Consisting of characters, places, and dynamics (conflicts.)
- These two terms will lay the framework for understanding the fluid nature of narrative. Essentially we have the world of story, or content- this needn’t be attributed to just traditional stories with characters and places. It can be a DEVELOPED into a brand. A system of core values and/or messages. Extra-diegesis, then, is everything outside of that world INCLUDING the form of expression. These two levels represent two separate aspects of trans-media storytelling. The idea of content which can be distributed through multiple channels of experience and the concept of the audience interpretation, social media backchatter, and ekphrastic work being part of the narrative itself.
- We can first understand that diegesis is without narrative form. It lives in the mind. As soon as it is TOLD or EXPRESSED in any way, it takes FORM and becomes NARRATIVE.
- Therefore story only exists without discourse in the mind. Like a memory. As soon as it is told, drawn, written, danced, painted, or otherwise expressed, it becomes narrative and takes on properties of narrative like subjectivity, tense, filtering, temporal alteration, and so forth.
- Therefore story only exists without discourse in the mind. Like a memory. As soon as it is told, drawn, written, danced, painted, or otherwise expressed, it becomes narrative and takes on properties of narrative like subjectivity, tense, filtering, temporal alteration, and so forth.
- And while we’re aware of diegesis in its pure form, we cannot experience it without some form of narrative. For example, we all know Little Red Riding Hood, but we may consume it in a variety of different media.
- A user playing a casual game, another watching a webisode, and a third writing a piece of fan-fiction are technically creating and experiencing narrative of the same story. The mistake often made by creators is that they believe the content or storyworld is somehow connected to the narrative, or form of expression or that content inherently exists in a ‘master form.’ This is obviously not the case.
- There is also a public awareness of diegetic space, often times without ever having seen, read, or otherwise experienced any source material or so-called “official” narrative channels. This would indicate that diegesis exists without these narrative channels.
- We are even able, with some degree of accuracy, to predict character choices from diegetic space we have not directly experienced, or at least have no memory of experiencing. Would Ronald McDonald steal hamburgers from an orphanage?
- We can do this because a story-world consists only of characters, places, dynamics (conflicts) and events. Creators still develop this. But these characters exist in a sort of parallel reality with individual lives. There are no main characters, there are no heroes and no villians. This distinction depends on “point of view,” which diegesis doesn’t have.
- Because diegesis is objective. The distinction between what might be an important event and what is an insignificant one depends on focalization, or character viewpoint, which doesn’t enter into the equation until the diegesis is formed into some form of narrative.
- Our own predilections will cause a tendency to create story-worlds with protagonist and antagonist traits in the character set, but we must remember that the nature of diegesis is to be totally neutral. Therefore a narrative might be constructed that centers on any existent character, placing them in a protagonist role.
- Or a so-called “side” character might end up being a fan favorite and a protagonist in secondary narratives generated through fan-art or licensed derivative work. We can even tell the same story over and over again using different character or narrative viewpoints.
- Diegesis also does not distinguish between events in terms of narrative importance. Any event can be important, depending on the viewpoint.
- At which level do we place our narrative? There is drama on every level provided the character viewpoint is synchronized to the event. Galactus probably does not care about the tiny explorers. Perhaps it is not our job to select merely one viewpoint or a single event.
- This allows multiple access points to the same story from a variety of character viewpoints, servicing a wider demographic who may not identify with a single, select protagonist.
- Content can be developed, presented, then retired or promoted depending on how users respond. One cannot necessarily predict what will be successful.
- Selected story-events may also be experienced from multiple viewpoints simultaneously through asynchronous narrative. This only requires us to let our precious intended protagonists or “story-line” go and allow users to investigate their own narratives, their own access points to our story world.
- Because while our narrative or arrangement of story-world is fluid, condensed, disconnected, and rearranged to suit our viewpoint, diegesis is purely linear and uninterrupted.
- We distort this pure, linear time by arranging events into narrative. Leaving out moments, skipping over things, flashing back, flashing forward, etc. Even freezing time to play a minigame.
- All alterations to time happen at the point of expression. Not only is Diegetic space linear and uninterrupted, but it extends forever in both directions. While creators might develop enough content to span, say, nearly 5000 years, one can always ask “what happened the day before that?”
- If phenomena exist at a certain point in time, it must have existed (or at least its causes) existed the moment prior. Adding this to the idea of countless potential viewpoints and the idea that we can always subdivide diegetic time to identify additional significant events…..
- …and we’re left with the fact that although George RR Martin might develop 12,500 years of history within the Game of Thrones diegesis, he can’t account for every unit of measureable time within that 12,500 year history, nor every point of view from potentially billions of characters….nor can he account for what might have happened “the day before” or “the day after.”
- This freaks creators out because it means that they can’t control their stories, and that’s absolutely true. We can control the individual narratives we create from story-world content, however we cannot control the story-world itself (anymore than we can control the real one.)
- And a better question is ‘why would we want to?’ Our content is open-source. If we create compelling characters, worlds, and conflicts, we might compel others to participate in creating narrative.
- Ingrid Kopp, Director of Digital Initiatives at the Tribeca Film Institute laid it out in a recent Indiewire article and acknowledged this challenge. In my own discussions with development staff for Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and Floyd County Productions as well as companies like Disney Interactive, Sony, and Nickelodeon, this seems to be a universal mantra. You have to let go. A story isn’t so much “created” as it is “revealed.”
- The mistake is to become overly rigid and to not plan for alternative narratives to be created. It’s a losing battle. Grasping at a single narrative or believing that the story-world and the narrative are intrinsically connected might lead to missed opportunities to capitalize on diegetic material becoming “viral.”
- Because diegetic space exists with Extra-Diegetic space. The big scary world of the storyteller where there is a real audience who, hopefully, is consuming our media. They are part of the narrative equation. Not only from a business-sense, but in the sense that it is necessary to perceive that there is an audience level in order for many experiences to feel complete.
- Why add a laugh-track into a television program, why provide a hit-counter on a website, why list “likes” on a managed facebook page? Because these are forms of extra-diegetic engagement. Without extra-diegesis, it isn’t narrative. And while most healthy multichannel narrative might look like this…….
- It would be even better if it looked like this. One-way media is a 20th century phenomenon.
- Because as Kevin Slavin and Kenyatta Cheese (Founders of Everybody at Once) put it, the audience has an audience. People are watching and using what they see others watch and use, but moreover they are consuming the actual feedback from these experiences. Not just critics, but anyone with engaging means to provide feedback on content.
- And it’s real. We’re not using laugh-tracks, we’re not using propaganda.
- But we can learn a lot from 20th century single-channel narratives in terms of steering the interpretive level of the narrative.
- But none of this is real and in the 21st century, things are more transparent.
- We can still attempt to sway perception, but we’re working inside of a glass house.
- And while we don’t own the story, we certainly create the denotations and consumers know this. There’s no anonymity in social media and you want it that way. In some respects, the creators become characters themselves. Creators as individuals or as agencies or studios might become a sort of mimetic device within the narrative.
- This isn’t the case with all forms of media, of course. But in many forms, the creator or creators become part of the larger narrative. You can’t strip authorial presence from the narrative picture.
- And this should be embraced. It’s part of the narrative.
- So given that we’re not tasked with developing formless story content into narrative form, what do we do? What can be done to anchor something this fluid in documentation that investors can understand? Just because we realize that discourse is separate from content doesn’t mean we don’ t need to present a concrete vision for what that story might be.
- Eric Robles and the development team at Nickelodeon have anchored this in character development. Ultimately, characters and their dynamics are what drive the formation of narrative in whatever form it may take.
- Robles will then “whitebox” his characters. Putting the characters into a void context and allowing them to ‘improv.’ This is his litmus test. It doesn’t provide an external document, but it helps development push the dynamics between characters.
- It also demonstrates that the character dynamics are not stuck or fused to a specific context.
- Once characters are developed and dynamics are created, we still need to place them in context. Developing diegetic space doesn’t mean we don’t have a strategy for user experience.
- Create as many mockups of as many different narrative experiences as you can.
- Apple does not sell computers……..Apple does not sell anything. Apple is not to be found in, amongst, or underneath any products. Apple doesn’t even exist in and of itself, or from it’s own point of view. There is no inherent APPLE that must be sold to people. There is no self-existent APPLE BRAND.
- Apple’s brand is recognizeable, of course, but it does not self-generate. It is PROJECTED because of an assemblage of apple-like things.
- Remember this campaign? Who has appleness?
- This is only the tip of the iceberg. There is so much thinking, so much criticism along stucturalist and post-structuralist lines. One of the most universal takeaways from understanding split level narrative is this: Content is indifferent. There are no good stories, no bad stories. Content is indifferent. Diegesis is perfect and cannot be qualified. There is only quality in the form of expression. It’s on you.
- Let it simmer, think about how this changes the implications of what you do everyday. And start with these takeaways..