How do you construct a transmedia narrative? Does it differ from stories told in film, books, TV shows, computer games, etc. until today? Yes and no, in my opinion. As a media consumers myself, and having observed and researched several successful and lasting story worlds such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Buffy, various mangas/animes, and, of course, classics such as The Illiad and The Odysee, I noticed several important elements that allowed these respective universes to live on for decades (or millenia, in the case of the latter two) and to inspire not only
Tag Archives: Star Wars
Tonight it was time for another ad-hoc Transmedia LA Meetup. This time the guest was Prof. Henry Jenkins, one of the earliest thought-leaders on transmedia and convergence culture. I am basing the following paragraphs solely on the notes I took during Henry’s talk, so they are no word-for-word transcription. As a matter of fact, I will be paraphrasing most of the time. If you see phrases or sentences in quotation marks, they denote a word-for-word citation, but everything else is just summing up Henry’s words.
Why transmedia? (Note: This is the first part of my ‘Why Transmedia?’ series. Please click to access Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.) Well, first of all, because it’s FUN. Depending on the type and intricacies of a transmedia universe, it can be one of the best puzzles you’ll ever solve. In a good story universe, you have an immense number of stories and characters inviting you to learn about them, and in a good transmedia universe, this learning happens on many different media platforms where the unique properties of each platform are deliberately used to allow the consumer