TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING: A DYNAMIC MULTI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCE

Definitely worth a quick read:  Indiewire’s Q&A interview with Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment and a leading figure in the emerging field of transmedia storytelling. Among his transmedia credits are major projects, such as "Avatar," "Pirates of the Caribbean," and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." 

What is transmedia? In Gomez’s words, transmedia is about delivering a big story across various media platforms so that the totality provides a richer, more dynamic and multi-channel viewer experience. 

There’s one central story in the form of a film or a TV or web series, but it is enhanced through supplemental side stories told via a mix of channels, possibly including an interactive book, a video site, video game, blog, Facebook community, Twitter news feeds, Instagram and Pinterest galleries, mobile apps, and more.  

The challenge with transmedia lies in funding, planning, producing and then choreographing the release of all this extra content.  But for popular, high profile franchises it may be possible to monetize each story stream with media and commercial partnerships and in some cases subscription access to exclusive material. 

On a smaller scale, could brands use transmedia for marketing? It's an intriguing idea. Stay tuned. 

Cable cutters lead the charge toward web TV

Web television should be huge, right?  It isn’t, at least not yet. But a growing number of folks disenchanted with commercial TV are cutting the (cable) cord - opting to search the web for better (and often free) programming. I myself recently cancelled my cable service (as an experiment) and frankly I am astonished by the wealth of online video I'd happily view on my TV screen. 

There’s Hulu and iTunes for standard TV fare, but lesser known sources for news, interviews, documentaries, concerts and lectures abound. Among my favorites are TED, Link TV, Factual TV, Flora TV and PBS. Another great find is Academic Earth, which aggregates university lectures (including courses taught at Ivy League institutions). I’m now enjoying Yale’s semester course on the History of Roman Architecture and it's absolutely free. I'm also following overseas news outlets like RT Russian TV, Mosaic World News and Al Jezeera. 

Finding quality programs online is much easier thanks to Clicker.com, a search engine that combs the web for free and fee-based video. Clicker.com recently launched an integration app with Facebook that even suggests programs based on your profile and friend “likes.” 

Web-based TV is still pretty raw, of course. There are big industry hurdles to clear before platforms like Google TV can deliver programs of prime-time caliber; networks and cable operators still have a lock on big-time shows, after all. 

But who's to say that indie talent won't popularize entirely new forms of TV devised just for the web? 

Right now there's growing interest in transmedia - richly integrated entertainment delivered across multiple channels. Early executions have aired on NBC, Disney, Nat Geo Channel and MTV. Tablet computers fit neatly into this trend by making it easy to converge web streams onto one screen. 

For sure the way we watch television will dramatically change. A must-read on this subject is Jessi Hempel's story "What the hell is going on with TV?" in Fortune magazine. 

U.S. Department of Education Awards HITN $30 Million for Ready to Learn Initiative using Transmedia Storytelling

The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has announced that the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, Inc. (HITN), in partnership with Callaway Digital Arts and the Michael Cohen Group LLC (MCG), was awarded a $30 million Ready to Learn grant for Project LAMP (Learning Apps Media Partnership). The project is an early childhood media-based education initiative targeting next-generation learners including children from low-income groups.

The content will be largely available as an open educational resource and use a transmedia storytelling approach through books, iPAD/Touch Screen applications, mobile device and phone applications, console and hand held gaming applications, sing along DVDs and CDs, an interactive Website, and television. The USDE, in 2010, expanded the Ready to Learn grant program to include transmedia storytelling.