During the first ten minutes of class, memorialize your reading of the Transmedia Storytelling chapter from Miller, and copy-and-paste your summary into a comment to this blog post. We will discuss the chapter and take a look at some of the examples that she mentions immediately afterwards before turning our attention back to Project 3.
3 thoughts on “Beginning of Class Writing: Miller, Chapter 10, Transmedia Storytelling”
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To: Professor Ellis
From: Mariah Rajah
Date: 03/14/2016
Re: Chapter 10 Summary
Miller’s Chapter 10, offers a great deal of insight into the concept of ‘transmedia’ storytelling. After chapter 9’s exploration into social media and storytelling I grasped the concept of transmedia storytelling quite quickly in the sense that like social media storytelling, transmedia storytelling is designed to be told across a variety of mediums. They each however relate to one another through various aspects of the entire story. This chapter gives a variety of examples such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ which was one of the very first and successful forms of transmedia storytelling. Since then, many movies have capitalized on the idea of giving its audience many rabbit holes to fall into. This experience creates a larger storyworld in which the user can take part in the favorite aspect, play a game as their favorite character, or read
expansive literature about a certain theory. Disney is an example of storyteller who use transmedia storytelling in almost every story they create. From games, to book, to online an entire world dedicate to the immersiveness of of the storyworld. Transmedia storytelling however can be difficult to accomplish if not executed correctly it can be disconnected and open more questions than answers for the user. Transmedia is an affordance and can enable the connection through various channels a I mentioned before, but what I failed to mention was that the affordance of having portable devices which allows transmedia stories to become even more a part of a user’s world. Transmedia storytelling is an adaptive aspect of digital storytelling. It allows for creators to unravel the story on a multitude of media platforms that can reach larger audiences faster.
Key terms/concepts to remember:
The rabbit hole – pg 163
The cheese holes – pg 163
Storyworld/diagesis – pg 163
Pratten’s diagram – pg 167
LivePlanet’s diagram – pg 171
TO: Professor Ellis
FROM: Samantha
DATE: 3/14
SUBJECT: Ch 10
Transmedia storytelling is totally different from the other concepts we’ve learned. Up until this point we’ve covered the fact that stories aren’t just used for one purpose or aren’t intended to be. “The street finds its own use for things.” In this chapter however she talks about stories that are created with ONE intended purpose and any other purpose coming much later and without previous thought or planning. This is interesting because she talks about the Blair witch project and how the original content was taken into use for something else but that’s not what the creator envisioned. Regardless that new aspect of use made It that much more of a success. The concept of Rabbit and Cheeseholes at first sounded ridiculous to me but after reading their definition it makes sense in the text. A rabbit hole is one public entry point and a cheesehole encourages users to contribute content. I relate this most to a video game or online story that has multiple players and facets. I think cheeseholes are most useful because it creates avenues within the game or as she says “finding opportunities in the game” to encourage and facilitate user involvement and contribution. Later In the chapter she talks about Matel and their “monster high” dolls which is something my daughter is very fond of however I’d never thought of them as transmedia or even a digital story, they were just dolls. Though Ava has several I never opened the little book that came with each doll. In it there are directions to go online and have your doll join the monster world. There she can do so much for her doll, navigate school, change clothes or make friends. Thus for adding a whole new element to a simple doll. I think its important to look more closely at the things around us and see just how many elements they really have in the world of story telling, non digital things included.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Pamela Drake
Subject: Digital Storytelling – Summary of Chapter 10
Transmedia Storytelling
Date: March 14, 2016
Chapter ten of Digital Storytelling by Carolyn Handler Miller describes transmedia as an approach to storytelling that is designed to transcend across different mediums.It is a narrative that goes beyond the limits of one medium and crosses the paths of different mediums co-existing together. Miller cites The Blair Witch Project as an example of movie that encompasses a movie and a website. What is described as unusual is that the focused on the realness of the story and not a continuation of the movie. This gave the viewers a sense that the events were real and that in turn, promoted the movie.
One of the main things that Miller points out is that transmedia is known by several different names which are:
Multi-platforming
Cross-media producing
Networked entertainment
Integrated media
Distributed narrative (when used for a project with a strong story component)
Pervasive gaming or trans-media gaming (gaming projects)
Alternate reality gaming or an ARG (games that blur reality)
Transmedia entertainment and transmedia storytelling
The characteristics are that the project must:
Exist over more than one medium
Partially interactive
Have components that expand the core narrative
Have components that are closely integrated
Contain at least one public point of entry
Contain spaces which are designed to encourage members of the audience to contribute content
Often contain some gaming elements and a playful sensibility
Miller also points out that transmedia is typically traditionally media and digital media. The challenge is finding the best platforms to use. For example, a movie and a game may be based upon the same story but interacted with in different ways. Viewers may participate in both the game and the movie independently or jointly.
Miller concludes by saying that although not all transmedia endeavors are successful, without creators accepting the challenge of creating new ways of storytelling, there would not be the exciting and interactive projects that we have today.