The entertainment business is engaged in nothing less than the reinvention of narrative, and the leading edge is something called transmedia. It's in this corner of storytelling that a next wave of developers, gamers, filmmakers, writers and composers are creating immersive story-telling experiences that employ a variety of media, delivered across platforms. But here, "cross platform" means more than just on your console one minute and your smartphone the next. It means on your phone, your PC, your iPod, your TV, in the theater.
Who's Doing It?
Companies engaged in transmedia can be grouped into three general sectors. First, there are native companies whose focus is original content across mediums. Next are marketing companies who create a wide range of original content around an existing product -- think Game of Thrones or Hunger Games. And finally are the tech businesses who create platforms that other people can use to distribute content across mediums. Most of today's players are in the marketing sector since transmedia tends to end up as extensions of a brand that are meant to keep users engaged, as opposed to generating revenue themselves. One of the most successful companies in this arena is New York City's Campfire. (Its early claim to fame: The founders produced The Blair Witch Project.)Following the Community
Steve Coulson, Campfire’s creative director, says the company thinks more in terms of medium and platforms than technologies. Its goal is to get stories into where fan communities congregate and in ways they’ll consume and participate with them. Sometimes the solution is technological, like an app or a game. “While there are occasions when we require a specific skill-set to execute a certain piece, that really varies dramatically from project to project,” he says. “For our core team, it's more about understanding the constantly shifting communications ecosystem, e.g., where and how Instagram and Pinterest and GetGlue, and whatever other new platform is being used, or not being used, by connected audiences. We move at such a breakneck pace, there's no time to explain ‘what XXXX is’ to a team. They all have to all be up to speed on what's breaking through, and have ideas on how best to leverage it.” Campfire’s needs are so broad that Coulsan could work with a PHP developer or an After Effects specialist, as well as someone who creates custom scents or wooden puzzle boxes, all depending on the project. Given Campfire’s diversity, he says -- jokingly -- that his ideal employee is Leonardo Da Vinci, someone who's both an artist and an engineer. “It helps to have people who know just enough in various technologies to understand what is possible and what isn't. While I don't require my team to be coders, per se, they need to know enough to know what can and can't be done during the ideation phase.”[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PE4N7MaFAo&w=560&h=315]
