Category Archives: Week 9

Audience Participation In Storytelling

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When discussing audience this week, I couldn’t help but think about media that actively asks for the audiences participation in order for the narrative to unfold. “Vote for what you want to happen next” experiments give the audience agency. They feel as if they are in control, even within the strict options set by the writer. One of the most memorable acts of audience participation for me would have to be Batman’s; A Death in the Family. Where readers were asked to call in to decide the fate of sidekick Robin.
What I’m reflecting on today is how we can use Audience Participation in Game Narratives. The idea of the audience being able to take control of the way a story unfolds without flipping back the page is something in interested in. Although games like ‘The Walking Dead’ are popular and use audience participation affectively, users still have the chance to replay the game whenever they want or watch other endings through youtube. I am looking into the idea of an absolute the ideas that audience participation actively shapes the rest of the liner story.

With todays use of kickstarting and crowd funding it’s not unrealistic to suggest that audience participation could be used with the main writers able to shape and form the main ideas. However is the idea of the choice being in our hands put us at direct fault when something eventually goes wrong? Is the wonder of what would have happened if I had voted the other way something to conflicting for fiction?

Overall I think this is where the problem lies, we don’t want to actively be responsible for drawing out the end of something we love but maybe there is something to audience being able to voice there ideas within the brainstorming stage because writers can see what’s at stake and whats interesting but it’s only something time will tell.
I’m also attaching a game I’ve played on  new-grounds game: ‘One Chance’ I think it employees an interesting mechanic when it comes to audience participation and story telling.

Play ‘One Chance’ here.

Fandom

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“fan cultures are a problem for legitimate culture because they muddy it, demanding attention to there culture. “

Taken from todays lecture, when shown I couldn’t help but think about the fandom that forms around children tv show: My Little Pony. 

Cartoons are often a mixed audience of the children the show is intended for and the adults who are also avid viewers. However the a lot of the adult male fandom of My Little Pony, wanted a distinction from the rest of the shows audience and coined the term. “Bronys” 

Bronys not only needed to establish that they were in fact a male audience (evidence by the name it’s self a mixture of Bro and Pony but their insistent to call older female fans, Pegasisters.) enjoying a “girls” cartoon, but also they’re “real fans of the show.”Although it’s been suggested that theres nothing wrong with adults enjoying media originally targeted at children, the idea of Bronys are less about enjoying a show, but the act of a like minded audience trying to reassure themselves that it’s okay to like a show target towards little girls and when that failed they tried to make the show theres. 

The fact that most conventions panels start with, if there are any little ones in the audience can we please allow them to the front. This example shows that rather than being welcomed little girls are pushed out of a space that had every intention of belonging to them. 

BrainStorming Artefacts

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In todays tutorial we were able to get together and share our research.  For my articles I found that the programming of LBGT festivals to be a interesting because it showed how the organisation of the festivals could inform and define the collective “we” within in the audience. The article which can be found here  also includes missions statements an information about the film festivals, which is not only informative but provides us with an idea of how to start our research. Georgina also suggested how it was interesting to see if film festivals should be seen as a business or  something for the community which I feel also fits when looking at programming.

When braining storming for our artefact, Emily suggested doing a snappy news reel, that talks current film festivals about how programming is being used to capture each audience. We continued our brain storming coming up with ideas such as; podcasts of interviews, vlogs of our film festival experiences, a feature article, a program of the festival involving the same tongue and cheek tactics involved in the news reel.  We also considered establishing a hashtag on twitter where people can share there experience attending certain festivals exploring why they went and how they enjoyed it.

Overall we all really enjoyed the news reel idea and have decided to pursue it by Tuesday next week we are all expected to come up with a script and ideas surrounding a film festivals program and how their trying to capture audiences.