Written on Sunday, March 23, 2014 by Unknown
Before I finish up my litvestigation (yes, I did just make up an awesome new word) I'd like to play a little game. Well, in a minute.
Right now, I have basically hit a wall. And that's bad. Really bad. Because it is almost the end of the semester which means that this thesis needs to be done. Soon.
I'm not really sure what to do at this point. It's frustrating. And I am verging on disaster mode.
Whoever told you senior year of college is a breeze is a big fat liar. I don't remember who told me this, but I'm certainly not happy with them. It was probably someone who didn't have a required thesis project. Damn those lucky stress-free people.
So here is my problem: Even though my analysis section has been started, I haven't actually analyzed anything.
Which is why I'd like to get back to this fun little game. I'm making it up right now, and it shall be called "Name That Event!" I was thinking about going with "Name that kernel/satellite!" but I didn't like the slash.
Goal: I need to identify some kernels and some satellites.
In a previous post I showed you a timeline that a fan had created. This timeline basically made it clear to me that it will not be easy to identify kernels and satellites because there are far too many pieces of media. But if I had to try, here are a few ways I might name some events. (For a review about what events, kernels, and satellites are, check out this video!)
Name That Event!
Option 1:
KERNEL - Lizzie's Videos
SATELLITE - Everything else
Option 2:
KERNEL - Lizzie's Videos
KERNEL - Certain twitter accounts of major characters
SATELLITE - Everything else
Option 3:
KERNEL - All videos by all characters
SATELLITE - All social media accounts
Option 4:
KERNEL - All videos by all characters
KERNEL - All twitter accounts
KERNEL - Lydia's sex tape website
SATELLITE - Everything else
Option 5:
KERNEL - Certain videos by Lizzie, Lydia, and any other character that explicitly moves the story along
KERNEL - Certain tweets, pinterest boards, or other social media content that explicitly moves the story along
KERNEL - Websites that explicitly move the story along (such as Lydia's sex tape website)
SATELLITE - Videos that do not do much or forward the story and only provide fluff
SATELLITE - Social media that does not do much nor does it forward the story along
SATELLITE - Websites that have no function other than to exist and sometimes re-post information that can be found elsewhere
Option 6:
Some other combination of previous pieces of previous options
Or make something else up on the spot
_______
Yea guys. This is irritating. You with me now?
But in general, if the game continued and someone were to ask me about specific episodes or something, I could play like this...
Name That Event!
Q: Episode 1
A: Kernel!
Q: Collins and Collins + Maria of the Lu videos
A: Satellite!
Q: Episodes 60 and 98
A: Kernels!
Q: The San Francisco Photo/Twitter Adventure
A: Tough one. It could do either way. Leaning more towards satellite?
Get the idea?
And do you also get the problem? How do I know what is significant and what isn't? Would twitter be the main social media kernel in the social media realm, but a satellite in the greater transmedia story? And what does this tell us?
My conclusion is that this tells me that kernels and satellites cannot be the primary form of identification. Even if I were to use the Scene Function Model (which would make this process a lot easier), that is only actually supposed to be used for television. I need a new model. The Transmedia Function Model or something.
And then there are a whole bunch of other questions about fan participation and such that I just don't even know what to call, let alone whether or not they should be considered. I mean is a fan's question canon if Lizzie responds to them on twitter? What is that! I don't know!
This whole transmedia form is entirely different than what narrative theory usually deals with. But that doesn't mean I'm abandoning narrative theory all together. It just means I need to use it in a new way and possibly change some of the rules to suit my project.
How I do that, I have no idea.
-Danny
UPDATE (4/18/14): I found some YouTube playlists that people made. One is called "The Essentials" and I swear to god it's almost like this person found all of the kernels for me. If only I had found it sooner! The other one is called "The Darcy Heavy Episodes" which could also be considered a kernel playlist for those only focused on the romance as the driving force of the show. I don't really think that would be accurate, but whatever.
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Written on Sunday, March 02, 2014 by Unknown
I've ranted a lot about transmedia in previous posts. Mostly in this one and this one. However, neither of those were official thesis posts, so I am going to reiterate a few things for clarity's sake. This post will contain some basic definitions and I will try to be as straightforward as possible.
All citations for books and academic articles can be found in my bibliography.
What is transmedia?
I've used this definition before, and I'm going to use it again. This is from Henry Jenkins' blog:
"Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story."
Jenkins' definition is actually much longer than that, and goes on to highlight 7 points in total. But this piece is a good starting point.
And while we're at it, why don't I explain what transmedia is not.
These definitions have been taken directly from Andrea Phillips' book A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling (p. 18-19). Why did I quote her word-for-word? Because if someone else says it clearly, then I will let them say it. No need to butcher it by trying to paraphrase. So here are some definitions for things that people often confuse with transmedia:
Multimedia: On the surface, multimedia sounds like it describes exactly what transmedia is meant to be: multiple media. Unfortunately, in the 1990s, the term took on a very specific connotation: text, video, audio, and images delivered together through computer. Multimedia CD-ROMs of atlases and encyclopedias were common and profitable for a few years. They vanished when the new king of multimedia experience arose: the World Wide Web.
Interactive fiction: You might think a story that you can interact with is interactive fiction. But this phrase has been taken for decades to mean a very specific kind of computer game: the text adventure, as in games like Zork or Moonmist. These were the particular specialty of a Massachusetts company named Infocom, which was taken over by Activision in 1986.
But there's another reason why transmedia storytelling can't be called interactive fiction, and that's the growing interest in transmedia documentaries and serious games. The same tools you can use for telling a story that isn't true can just as easily be used to call attention to real-world information,
Cross-Media: Until very recently, cross-media was the top contender to mean the same thing as transmedia. Now, a consensus is growing that cross-media refers to releasing the same content (like, say, a TV show) over multiple platforms. So cross-media is what lets you see the same episode of Yo Gabba Gabba on TV, on your phone, and on a DVD.
Alternate Reality Game (ARG): An alternate reality game is a social media narrative that plays out in real time, using real communications media to make it seem as though the story were really happening. Sounds a lot like transmedia, right? And in fact the ARG is a subset of transmedia – Perplex City was an ARG. But the accepted formula for an ARG requires elements that a transmedia project doesn't always have, such as direct communication with characters or puzzles for the players to solve.
Thanks Andrea. She also talks more about it on her blog.
Need a little more info? No problem.
Examples of transmedia storytelling:
- The Beast - An ARG tie-in game to go along with Stephen Spielberg's film A.I. It was one of the first to be labeled a transmedia project.
- The Blair Witch Project - A feature film with a website, books, comic books, and computer games.
- Assassin's Creed - An extremely
successful transmedia franchise that originated with a video game, and
now includes more games, comic books, short films, and websites.
- Why So Serious? - An viral marketing ARG tie-in game to go along with the release of The Dark Knight film.
- Year Zero - An ARG and concept album combo by Nine Inch Nails.
- Defiance - A television show and video game by the SyFy network and Trion Worlds.
- MyMusic - A YouTube scripted sitcom by the Fine Brothers, in many ways similar to LBD.
- Cathy's Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233 - A YA novel and ARG with an online following.
- Star Wars - Surprised by this one? This franchise is gigantic, and I wont be able to name everything, but the films, TV shows, books, comic books, games, theme park rides and so on all contribute to the greater Star Wars universe. It is transmedia on a massive scale.
- (and finally) The Lizzie Bennet Diaries - A webseries with a wide array of social media accounts/content.
Now this is just a small sampling of the variety of transmedia stories out there. I didn't go into much detail here because they are not my focus, but if you want to learn more I highly suggest you check some of them out.
You also may have notice that a lot of them involve ARGs, and why not? It is a fantastic way to get an audience involved and have them participate in the narrative. Unfortunately, ARGs can have some negative connotations attached to them, but really they aren't all guild with quests that only geeks like to play.
Sometimes they can be much more than that. For example, in Why So Serious? was very much a scavenger hunt with players searching and finding clues that provided the background for the opening sequence, which were able to see prior to the release of the film. One rabbit hole, for example, involved people finding an address and the name Robin Banks, who apparently had a "very special treat" waiting for him. Another participant(s) would go to that address which turned out to be a bakery. They asked for an order under said name and were given a cake which told them in icing to call a number, which they did and the cake started to ring. They cut the cake and discovered a phone and instructions to call another number which triggered a text message response. With the phone was also a Joker playing card. Participants were now bank robbers for the Joker. So the game went on and findings were always shared with the community. Some people played in real life, like those who traveled to the bakeries, and some simply played online (and of course there were probably many that did both). The game was very successful as was the film.
So what are you thinking about ARGs now?
That was a bit of an off topic rant. But still interesting stuff.
Information about Why So Serious? came from Frank Rose's book The Art of Immersion (p. 9-15). If you want to find out more about this particular ARG experience, check out this link.
More to come on transmedia. It's about time to start analyzing.
-Danny
Update: I just want to say, that regardless of all of the above, transmedia is still a tricky things to define as it is constantly changing and evolving. Not everyone's definition will be the same. But I need to stick with something in order to analyze, so this is what I've got. And in a non-thesis capacity, I am always open to other interpretations.
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Written on Friday, December 20, 2013 by Unknown
Today I spoke with my thesis advisor via the telephone. She's also my regular advisor. And maybe also my irregular advisor? Hmm...
We spoke about how we need to find a way to approach the transmedia aspect of my thesis. And guess what! We got nowhere. Surprise, surprise. All we discovered is that we need to figure it out. Which is something we both already knew. So maybe the phone call was a tad redundant? But still, it was necessary.
Here are some thoughts so far...
1. Blog
I've already preemptively started that part just in case. This may end up being totally useless, or a very important aspect of my thesis. Who knows. Her thoughts were "Well you don't want to blog about how you're sitting in the library writing and annotated bibliography and then linking it in." But actually, if I can manage to do that in an interesting manner, then I don't see why not? Although, I see her point. That's not really a help to my (currently lacking) argument.
2. Video Essay
This one is both too easy and too difficult. Yes, I can do what a friend of mine did and make my history chapter into a video essay or something, but that's too easy. And also too hard, because it is incredibly time consuming. And would it really help me or just add some possibly unnecessary flashiness? That is yet to be seen.
3. Web Show
Even more difficult. Because I need so many things. 1. An idea for the show; 2. Possible cast and crew because I can't do it all by myself; 3. Lots of time to write, direct, edit, etc.; 4. Actual skill and preferably some experience too; 5. A way for it to tie into the thesis in a this-supports-my-argument kind of way rather than a this-was-really-cool-and-also-useless-but-I-did-it-because-I-like-web-series kind of way.
4. Game
Haha, no.
5. Something Else?
Like what? Help me out here! I have no ideas.
And then after I make a decision on what to do, we need to set a schedule. This needs to be done by this time and so on. I'm not very good about doing tons of homework in general, so if I divide it up into small pieces and then meet with my advisor every week for her to check on it then I'll actually do it and do it well. Yes, I know I'm in college but sometimes you need to be treated like a 5th grader in order to get things done properly. It will help, is all I'm saying.
After the phone call I also looked into some other thesis online. They look very long (as mine will also be) so that will take some time to go though. I also found a blog by another person who did a transmedia-esque thesis so that was promising. I'll go through it and see what kinds of things they did that might work for me too. Don't worry, I won't steal their ideas. And I'll cite them if I need to.
Finally we discussed the almighty transmedia god Henry Jenkins. He is a fantastic writer and professor (well I've never had him, but it would be cool if I did!) who is well-known in the world of academia and on le interwebs as the ultimate transmedia guru. Ok, he's probably not as fabulous as I'm making him out to be, but he will be SUPER useful for my thesis so I'm going to exaggerate a bit. I have one of his books and am about to order another, I've perused his blog a bit, and most importantly he published his class syllabus in an academic journal which was very, very useful to me. He discussed some assignments that he had his students do that look very promising. More on that later. Or you can just look it up yourself (maybe? it is in a journal and I needed to use my magical school website to get access to it. but he tends to put a lot of this stuff on his blog "Confessions of an Aca-Fan" too.).
Time to go, but I once again accept any and all suggestions from the world. Reading suggestions too. I have a handful of books and articles already but I can always use more.
Oh, side-note, one of my main artifacts (if I chose to go this route) will likely be my favorite webseries The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. It is a prime example of transmedia in action. I highly recommend it to everyone.
-Danny
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