I like making presentations. I like getting everyone to wear matching outfits, I like smoke machines & glitter cannons, and I like props. I like very much the sound of my own voice. But I respect that not everybody is as enthusiastic about those things as I am (and I’m saving it all for the end-of-semester presentation).

So, aside from my unavoidable disappointment that I couldn’t incorporate that into our pitch, I believe we went well. I’m glad we chose to discuss Pocket Museum through the lens of each of its components; I think it gave the panel and audience a thorough understanding of how each element would work on its own and together to create an overarching, transmedia experience. In hindsight, we could have been more explicit about the potential tripping-up points and how we would work to avoid them, although I think between our speeches and the question time those issues were covered. I regret that our powerpoint wasn’t as amazing / ridiculous (wholeheartedly and 100% a compliment) as the cult group, but I think it was clear and appropriate for our topic. Also: I noticed about halfway through that we were all bunched up along the wall instead of in front of the room, which is a little thing that’s deeply annoying to me since it’s such an easy fix and makes such a big difference.

More than anything else, I’m so excited by what everyone else is doing! I want to play everything and I can’t wait to get involved.

Take-aways:

• The trailer definitely does need a hook. It’s a beautiful thing but it lacks that call to action
• The idea of a little sprite to inject some life into the experience is a really good one. As I mentioned, I’m a little concerned about the topics becoming a little dry — which would be a huge shame since JMC is thoroughly absurd and wonderful. Having a little comic relief to nudge the story along and keep it in that bizarre place is a wonderful thing. Now: how do we incorporate him?
• Giving people a reason to get out into the real world beyond “let’s go because we love history and participating” is also hugely important. After the pitch, we toyed around a little with the idea of earning badges that unlocked extra content when all collected (so many questions about how this is enforced but we’ll wriggle an answer out of it, we’re all very clever) (once we know that, it shouldn’t be terribly hard for the participant since we plan on containing all of our visitable historical sites to the Melbourne CBD)
• And of course, keeping those historical sites accessible. There’s a lot to think about regarding the business of the place, available seating, historical relevance (should we take them to sites that have been since demolished? should we take them to places where it can be sort of assumed that something happened even though we don’t have proof? how much liberty can we take?)
• The filming is going to be a huge undertaking. I have endless faith in Jen but I’m a little intimidated by the scale of what we’re aiming to do. Where do you get 19th century costumes? Is this going to be inescapably camp, like Murdoch Mysteries? Should we lean into that? Is season 9 out yet?

• Actually, striking a balance between silly and informative is going to be really difficult. Also, do you think the guy who plays Murdoch wears mascara? Because I do (and good for him)
• A small but very important note: it’s such a shame that the audio will have to be in mono. I understand why (keeping one earbud out so you don’t get run over in traffic) but it’s really going to affect the soundscapes. Oh well

And now: to actually get stuck into it.

In spite of my best efforts, I couldn’t find the Cannell video

Staffans — Transmedia Pitching 101!

• • Meet the brief
    • Don’t try and force an idea you already had into a brief that doesn’t fit it
    • Following a brief’s specifics can actually open up a lot of new possibilities and lead you down new and exciting paths – be flexible
  • Wise up on your target
    • What do they need from you? Are they a niche web streaming service? Are they North Korea? Is this a scam to harvest your organs and give them to world elites down at Bohemian Grove? Anything is possible
  • Connect everything
    • Your various media should have grown together from the ground up and be carefully examined to ensure that the enrich the story and encourage the audience to explore it
    • And if it doesn’t actually enrich your universe but just sounds cool? Ditch it. There’s plenty of time to sound cool and say things that mean nothing but this is not the place
  • Find your twist
    • This seems more specific to the requirements of the Russian panel, but who doesn’t love a twist?
  • Crush it
    • It’s all in the delivery. You’re storytellers for goodness sake – it’s your craft!

• This could end up meaning something to someone; they’ll remember it as if it were real. Be aware of that, honour it, and give everything you can to make the experience as thorough as possible
• People take things to heart

• Beware of your (wonderful, wonderful) community: they are too smart for their own good and you have to be prepared to be surprised by them
• Know how to improvise. In other words, personally, dredge up all the lessons you learnt in that after-school children’s drama program and “yes, and” the shit out of your participants
• Snow peas are not a subtle snack. Everybody can hear you chew them
• A good ARG changes and grows with audience participation. Something might not work, or really work, or work in an entirely different way to what was expected. Pay attention to this
• People love prizes. Give them crap to take home
• In spite of my flippant language (it’s the only way I can take notes and is terrible) and limited notes, I learnt a lot and was really glad we got a chance to hear from Ben

I loved High Maintenance. Can I say that, or will it demonstrate an unhelpful bias? It had a cameo from my second-least-favourite host of my third-favourite podcast and that I can get behind. It isn’t relevant but I’m here for it.

From a transmedia point of view, I think it has a lot of potential. The character vignettes are so wonderfully painted to give the audience a wealth of knowledge about them without saying very much at all.

The first jumping off point in my mind — and the most hilarious — is the Qasim guru. There’s a wealth of opportunity for bizarre, green-screened and Papyrus’d pep talks. Unlock your cosmic potential. It’s all there. However, it does lean towards a similar format to High Maintenance. Different, but clicking over to an associated video through Vimeo feels a little lame on its own.

Since so many of the guy’s clientele seem to be so glib, there’s got to be potential for a chatty, vapid podcast in there somewhere. The trails of hosting for AirBnb, for example.

I’d also be curious to see a fashion blog curated by the assholes.

The guy’s a character we never get to see much of, but I think part of the charm of High Maintenance is his anonymity. It would be fascinating to explore his private world, but on the other hand it would spoil a lot of the charm of this universe.

There seems like so much accidental crossover already (the reappearance of thoroughly delightful asexual magician, for example) that further connections could be revealed through various mediums. Maybe Heidi shows us how to create the perfect capsule wardrobe on the blog, or the couple with the terrible guest discuss that on the AirBnb podcast (they weren’t even paid for it!).

Day – Web Series: Four things to ask yourself before starting

• How is my project unique to the web?
  • Online storytelling is not the same as television
  • The internet affords the opportunity to tell stories about people who networks would never consider interesting
    • A note: this was written in 2009 and before the fascinating convergence of television and online storytelling better known as Netflix
  • Break with traditional narrative. You can do whatever you like on the internet. Be whoever you want to be. Live the life you’ve always dreamt of.
• How is my web series unique to me?
  • No matter how bizarre and niche you are, on the internet you will find people in that niche and who appreciate the authenticity of what you’re producing
• Who is my audience and how will I reach them?
  • Know them. Know what they like and where they go to find it
  • Online audiences crave convenience
• Do I know what I’m getting into?
  • You’re gonna be broke
  • No-one’s going to watch what you make anyway
  • Womp womp

Keck, King – Give the people what they want: niche web series as sustainable filmmaking

• You can make it, but you still need to get an audience from someplace
  • You’re looking for them, but are they looking for you?
• Know exactly who your audience is and cater to them. They’ll respect your integrity and tell their pals all aboutcha
• Influencers: less of a joke than we can comfortably admit
• There’s a void left by the networks’ ‘lowest common denominator’ approach that web series have stepped up to fill

I’m not into Marvel. I don’t get it. I mean, I’ll go and see them all because I know I’m going to get my $11.50’s worth through explosions and little gems of pure cleverness, like Captain America’s region-specific to-do list.

I think my disinterest / confusion / alienation from the Marvel universe gives me some of that precious outsider’s perspective when it comes to the transmedia element of that universe. I’m the unwilling participant that’s dragged into this superhero juggernaut through peer and advertising pressure. I will never willingly wander through this transmedia experience. So, I’ll ask myself: what’s transmedia like when you don’t care?

In the case of Marvel, at least, the answer is simple: it’s impossible to avoid. I watched the first season of Daredevil because Netflix refused to stop recommending it and I got sick of seeing it pop up. I know fan theories and fan community drama because the guy that I caught the train with in high school won’t stop posting about it on Facebook. I engage with criticism because I’m a slave to the A.V. Club. All of this is fascinating because it really blurs the lines between transmedia and marketing and fan engagement. I wouldn’t call an Onion article transmedia in the slightest, but it’s things like that which are almost – almost – hooks that propel me into the Marvel universe. I like knowing about things. I like having opinions. Hearing other people and organisations discuss Marvel, or anything really, makes me more curious about it than those god-awful sneak-peaks at the end of the movies ever do.

What have I learnt from myself about engaging an apathetic audience? Try something new, I think. Get ‘em where they live. Team up with that snarky asshole that runs the CinemaSins YouTube. I suppose this is really, wholeheartedly becoming a love letter to PR but if fan discussion is counted as a transmedia element – and I would argue very passionately that it is, because fans are terrifying and fanfiction is thorough – then those bodies that channel fans are important, too. The line between transmedia and marketing is blurred and confusing, but it should be embraced absolutely instead of dismissed. I want to engage with my media; traditional advertising and pure transmedia aren’t going to work on people like me.

Whitehouse – Media Marketing and the Evolution of Narrative Structure

• Audiences were prepped for the Avengers from the very first Iron Man film
• Films are clever but comic books and have “explored – and exploited – narrative structure” better than the rest
• Team-ups and crossovers
  • “The Fantastic Four think I’m trapped! But they don’t suspect my real power!” is hilarious
    • But actually a smart way to introduce a new character: by having your most popular bunch swing by and hopefully bring their fans with them
  • Why would Spiderman ever fight Superman though
  • Meeting past iterations of themselves, buying their own comic books and other cheekiness

• Expanding the narrative form
  • Multiple vignettes per comic book to single-issue story arcs to multi-issue cliffhanger nonsense to event series to parallel universes and all kinds of things to a definitive that streamlined it all and compacted several universes into one
  • I wonder: do comic book readers feel much of anything at all if their fave dies when multiple universes / returns from the dead / hooliganism are canon?
  • So many different characters lead to an enormous amount of information to sift through. Different characters observe the same events so it’s possible to follow one and experience the same train of events, but if you’re really interested you can dive off and experience it through another