Monthly Archives: March 2023

Transmedia Critical Reflection

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To identify whether or not my product is trans-media I took to understanding Jenkins ideologies around what trans media is. Scolari refers to Jenkins as the primary definer of TS. According to Jenkins the act of  trans-media storytelling relies on the process in which ‘important parts of a fiction story get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels, to create a unified and coordinated entertainment experience’ Trans-media texts extend the narrative and avoid schisms as the story must fit together and avoid contraction. I decided to create a multimodal audio-visual letter (teaser) that could act as a bridge between seasons to give some closure to the audience and foreshadow what events/moments could unravel in the next season. It’s an unofficial text, created by a fan as opposed to an offical text that could be used as a part of the company. Normal people started out as a book written by Sally Rooney. It was well received, and made it to the screen to become an Irish romantic psychological drama limited series. It was produced by Element Pictures for BBC three and Hulu. The miniseries follows the relationship between Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal), as they navigate adulthood from their final days in secondary school to their undergraduate years in Trinity College. The series was primarily written by Rooney and Alice Birch and directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald.  My piece uses different media and languages to participate and contribute to the construction of the trans media narrative world. According to Daniel Chandler,  semiotics provides us with a ‘framework and set of methods’ across practices which include gesture, posture, dress, writing, speech, photography, film, television and radio. They unify the text and bring it meaning I decided to use speech and film to convey meaning. The speech is slightly robotic which adds to the semiotics that it has been created by a fan, it isn’t as official. The speech is also in Irish so it remains consistent with the characters voices, so it feels like you are listening to Connell and Marianne talk to one another. 

I found it interesting to think about trans media texts from an economic perspective, as it may govern a producers thoughts on how to gain interest from a wider community and thus gain profit. In the case of economics Jenkins states that “a  good trans-media  franchise  attracts  a  wider  audience by pitching the content differently in the different media. The Matrix can be seen as an example of this. The Matrix universe is entertainment for the age of media convergence, which integrates multiple texts. It creates a narrative so large that is can’t be contained within one medium. The Matrix told stories disconnected from the primary arc, it also filled in the blanks and reinforced the story of the two sequels by adding on media through animated shorts, comics and video games that the Wachowskis made intentionally on other mediums. It also allowed for prosumption as media consumers were able to produce and consume laterally as opposed to unilaterally. Newer forms of prosumption occurred with those associated with web 2.0, through the Mcdonalization of the internet where Ritzer suggests  anyone can consume and produce simultaneously, putting consumers ‘to work’ in creating fan fiction, comics and videos. My work could be considered to be part of web2 2.0 as I have created a work from the perspective of a fan. 

I decided to create an audio-visual letter (teaser) that could act as a bridge between seasons to give some closure to the audience and foreshadow what events/moments could unravel in the next seasonIt allows for participatory media. It adds to the story world by giving the audience something to latch onto, as the season ended with less closure than fans had hoped. In my extension of the story Marianne has moved on and Connell hasn’t, he still wants her in his life. It’s an unofficial text, created by a fan as opposed to an offical text that could be used as a part of the company. It would appear on YouTube as a short video fans could watch. Fans would appeal to the story because it follows the narrative, yet adds closure for the audience as it speaks to change. The fans of Normal People would also like the structure of my piece as it goes between the two characters in the form of a letter. 

The Economist. (n.d.). A faithful, careful adaptation of Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’. [online] Available at: https://www.economist.com/prospero/2020/04/29/a-faithful-careful-adaptation-of-sally-rooneys-normal-people

obo. (n.d.). Transmedia Storytelling. [online] Available at: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0174.xml.

Scolari, C.A. (2009). Transmedia Storytelling: Implicit Consumers, Narrative Worlds, and Branding in Contemporary Media Production. International Journal of Communication, [online] 3(0), p.21. Available at: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/477.

 

 

#1 ASSIGNMENT

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‘SNOWFALL’ 

Snowfall was a very engaging, long form narrative we looked at in class. It also happened to be multimodal, the narrative was broken up with images and videos. This gave the consumer agency over the story, as you could choose to read parts and watch parts. As Henry Jenkins states in ‘Convergence Culture & Trans media storytelling 2009’ The reader/consumer ‘cease control over the media technology’. I felt that I was able to cease some form of control over what I read and watched. I also felt that I was participating with the story, as I’d click to watch a segment of something, or swipe to see a montage of photos, and thus had a level of control over what I consumed and what I chose not to consume. The elements it involved weren’t overly interactive as the story unfolded in one way through the act of scrolling downwards. There was text, images, audio and video included in the story. These elements brought value to the story as the reader/viewer could connect multiple forms of media with the one story, emphasising the impact the avalanche had on peoples lives. It was a beneficial way to tell the story as it ‘drilled’ in the narrative and used different media modes to heighten emotion, it made me feel levels of melancholy. I felt at times the amount of scrolling became overwhelming, and my attention span didn’t last for the entirety of the story. At the time it was released people would have had more time to scroll and read, but in this day and age hyper attention is a dominating factor. It did however stand out more as a story, because there were multiple things to interact with, through the different design options. You could tell it was a multimodal story from the get go, as there was a moving image at the top of the page, displaying snowfall, quite a beautiful sight. This gave the consumer some visuals to keep in mind while reading the piece. The relationship between all the elements used enhanced the story as it was backed up with auditory and visual cues. I found myself relying on my memory as I approached aspects of the story, keeping the visuals and audio pieces in mind while reading the narrative. The ‘Dowling’ article proposed ‘Snow Fall’ as a shift in the paradigm of online journalism. No one had ever seen anything like it before, it was a ‘one block’ narrative that offered different people stories presented through extensive imagery in a contemporary way, video and audio. The reading suggested the promotion of the story was very unusual at the time it was made. It was an ever changing mediascape – ‘new’ forms borrowing from older forms, similar to the notion that there are ‘no new stories to write’.In the article it suggested that Snow Fall ‘Broke the rules’ but still stuck to the journalism rule of ‘following the story’, in order to conceptualise it and get it made. I found that the reading gave me more insight into the story and raised the question whether media makers should break conventions? and are the changes actually beneficial (and for whom), or are they just for the sake of changing the dynamic in telling stories.

‘MIND MAZE’

 

Mind Maze is a nonfiction zine displaying the importance of conserving graphic art posters used to promote club events, as they usually end up on the floor of a club and forgotten about. The ring bounded book appears like a school notebook, as the consumer you flick through the quality paper pages, it feels luxurious but juxtaposed is the gritty layout, with etched graphics scanned onto pages and club event posters designed by Maryos Syawish. It is a multimodal piece that carefully combines imagery (drawings) and text. You can see the airbrushed graff style pieces behind the text which is similar to something you’d see scribbled in the bathroom of a club so it fits with the context of the story. It gives insight into the graphic art scene of Melbourne through Maryos Syawish’s stories of club cultures visual identity and the importance of celebrating it. As the reader I felt a sense of nostalgia as I recognised some of the posters from events that had happened in the past. The yellow background of the pages brings the text forward and highlights its importance.

 

 

 

 

MEDIA WORK #1

mealtime 1 final

This is a story of a meal that holds a lot of significance in my family. From as early as I can remember my family have celebrated food and coming together to share meals. I wanted it to seem naive, so I had the text handwritten as though it was coming from my younger self. I was inspired by the yellow background in a zine called ‘Mind Maze’ as it gives contrast to the text and makes it stand out to the reader. It involves itinerative making, as it isn’t a linear story. Instead it gives anecdotes from different times the meal has meant something to myself and my family. It acts as a sort of time capsule that implements photos from the past and photos from the present. The incorporation of video allows the consumer to participate in the unfolding of the story. I used epub to deliver this story as I wanted it to conform with the form of an e book with pictures, hand written text and moving image, through doing this I was able to convey the story of a meal that is significant to me. Next time I think I would incorporate more writing, but I think it’s easy to be immersed in the story when there is less text, sometimes less is more in the telling of a story. I went about it in a route similar to ‘My Grandmothers Lingo’ where I focused on the aesthetic/imagery composed with small amounts of text to lend the story.

 

 

MEDIA WORK #2

 

For this piece I scouted different friends and mutual friends, that had stories they felt comfortable sharing with me. This particular friend would prefer to keep his identity anonymous for the sake of his story, however not taking away from the story he has to share. I decided to use a mixture of audio and still images for this piece along with music I composed and recorded myself.

 

Week 2 blogpost (Entangling Media)

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Week 2: 6th-12th March responses: 

In this weeks class we looked at Trans media storytelling and ‘convergence culture’. According to Henry Jenkins trans media is media that’s dispersed across multiple platforms that has a universe and allows people to share the universe, not in a way thats redundant but rather complementary.

We also looked at the differences between trans media and multimodal storytelling. Trans media story telling is spread across various media modes whereas multimodal storytelling is all present at the same time and connected to the same space. They both play with form, however a single author is present in telling a multimodal story and multiple people are involved in telling a trans media story.

There was discourse around the benefits of multimodal storytelling.There are an array of benefits, to name a few; It can reach a broader range of people and consumers, it has potential to drill a story in more. There is more depth to the storyline which allows people to challenge conventions. When using different media modes in the same space, audiences emotions are heightened, which makes use of media affordances.

 

  • What did you notice about the examples of multimodal stories we looked at in class? What media modes and elements did they contain? What did these components bring to the story? What’s the relationship between the different elements in the pieces?

Snowfall was a very engaging, long form narrative we looked at in class. It also happened to be multimodal, the narrative was broken up with images and videos. This gave the consumer agency over the story, as you could choose to read parts and watch parts. The elements it involved weren’t overly interactive as the story unfolded in one way through the act of scrolling downwards. There was text, images, audio and video included in the story. These elements brought value to the story as the reader/viewer could connect multiple forms of media with the one story, emphasising the impact the avalanche had on peoples lives. We knew it was a multimodal story from the get go, as there was a moving image at the top of the page, displaying snowfall, quite a beautiful sight. This gave the consumer some visuals to keep in mind while reading the piece. The relationship between all the elements used enhanced the story as it was backed up with auditory and visual cues. You rely on your memory as you approach aspects of the story alongside visuals and videos you’ve seen.

 

  • What were some of the similarities and differences in the two multimodal pieces you made? Did one work better than the other? Why do you think this is?

The similarity between the two multimodal pieces I made is that they both follow a similar topic, that being ‘the importance of Carbonara in my family’. However, one is a retrospective video with text and the other is a less linear ‘diary entry’ style pdf that gives background on my family and the significance of pasta for us. I feel as though the video stuck to the brief we were given more, as it included text and moving image to tell the story and it felt more multimodal.

  • What was one idea or concept from this week’s reading that you found interesting in some way, or confusing? Tease it out a bit in your blog post – what do you think it means and how does it apply to the way we’re exploring making work in this studio?

The article proposed ‘Snow Fall’ was a shift in the paradigm of online journalism. No one had ever seen anything like it before, it was a ‘one block’ narrative that offers different peoples stories presented through image, video and audio. The reading suggested the promotion of the story was very unusual at the time it was made. It was an ever changing mediascape – ‘new’ forms borrowing from older forms, similar to the notion that there are ‘no new stories to write’.In the article it suggested that Snow Fall ‘Broke the rules’ but still stuck to the journalism rule of ‘following the story’, in order to conceptualise it and get it made. I found that the reading gave me more insight into the story and raised the question whether media makers should break conventions? and are the changes actually beneficial (and for whom), or are they just for the sake of changing the dynamic in telling stories.

Week 1 blogpost (Entangling Media)

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Week 1: 27th-5th March responses: 

  • What is your early understanding of the word ‘multimodal’ and how you might approach making such a work as a media maker? 

Multimodal storytelling strategically mixes storytelling and multimodality. It relies on different ways to present a story by integrating different modes. These might include, gestures, audio, videos, images, labels, words, or textures to produce meaning in the story. As a media creator you may decide to have still images along with some text and voiceovers to deliver your non-fiction story that is based on a true/factual story or phenomenon about a particular subject(s).  

 

  • What is your understanding of creative nonfiction and how we might use characteristics of this literary genre in media making? 

Creative non-fiction implements true stories based on real-world experience/, it’s a genre that allows humans to communicate information, foster empathy and change culture in the world. It’s a genre that uses literary/artistic styles and techniques to tell factual stories. In media making you could use the characteristics of this genre to tell a story succinctly, and accurately. You could have a narrate a story based on real life events or interview a subject about a particular event they’ve experienced first handedly. A nonfiction story told well is one rich in ideas, context and narrative. 

  • What stood out to you about how the stories were constructed in some of the examples we looked at in class?

‘Notes of Blindness’ was a story constructed in a peculiar way. The structure was retrospective and non-linear, a lot of the time the storyline was interrupted by conversation and dialogue. This factor made me feel immersed in the story, it made it more moving as I was able to connect further with the subject. What stood out to me most was the way the director played with time. The voices were in past tense but the visuals were captured in the present tense. This is an example of how the director may have been limited by the facts, which often occurs in writing a non-fiction story, he had a framework to work within. As a viewer disorientated by the storyline. This feeling allowed me to connect with the subject, going blind would be a very confusing feeling. The audience is put in the shoes of the subject, we are trying to gather information from both the present and the past, as the subject also tries to recollect his memories through recording his story in the form of voice memos. He recalls that his journey became ‘an absolute business’ implying he had a network of people assisting him to gather his thoughts and make sense of his world through alternate senses.

  • What components of those stories did you notice? 

Components of the story that I took notice of was the lighting and specific shot selection.There was an abundance of shadow and contrast throughout the story. It was a visual that appeared to reflect on the subjects blindness progressing. It felt melancholy and isolating, it represented the reliability of memory when one loses such an integral sense in their life, losing you you sight would be debilitating but also enabling of unlocking vast memories.

  • What impact did these have for you on the way you understood and felt about the story being told? 

As the viewer it made me empathise with the subject, it made me want to really concentrate on what was being said and shown.

  • What are some ideas you have for nonfiction stories to explore this semester? 

This semester I’m looking forward to delving into telling stories that are non-fiction. I want to explore different concepts and employ various subjects to bring stories to fruition. I am interested in telling a few different stories:

  1. The rise in at home tattoo parlours, how covid assisted in the rise of ‘DIY’ tattooing.
  2. Asking artists how they live off their artistry
  3. investigating the impact of childhood injuries, getting told stories by someone with monocular vision (vision in one eye)
  4. Asking a young man from Kuwait Syria how he navigated a life amongst archaic ideologies and practices, and how his life has altered in good ways and bad since moving abroad.
  • What are your early ideas about how you might make these into multimodal stories? 

I am very interested in documenting stories through film, audio and memoir. I thoroughly enjoyed watching ‘Abstract, the art of design’ concerning Olafur Eliasson. Throughout the docuseries he expressed how his work is dependent on the spectator and creates immersive spaces and experiences, I’d like my stories to do the same. I’d turn the stories from modal to multimodal by going about it in a multi-faceted approach eg. filming, imbedding text, audio and stills. I would like to make mini documentaries that are creatively non-fiction, through juxtaposition, braiding different kinds of information and ways of presenting it, and detailed observation.