“The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” (2012) is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, a classic novel originally released in 1813. While there has been a multitude of retellings of this novel, “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” was the first of its kind to take the narrative to the medium of YouTube, Twitter and Tumblr, among other platforms. Characters and storylines were reworked and changed to suit a contemporary audience, while still staying true to the message and plot of the source material. The multiplatform adaptation of the source material meant that fans could interact with the characters on a variety of platforms and in a way that has been previously unable to.

While predominantly being told through a series of YouTube videos (mostly on Lizzie Bennet’s channel, although there are other side channels which explore other characters points of view), each of the characters had their own Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest accounts, which helped further push along the story. This addition of content pushed the audience to piece together the narrative themselves. Andrew Stanton called this the ‘2 + 2 method’, stating that “the elements you provide and the order you place them in is crucial to whether you succeed or fail at engaging the audience” (Stanton 2012). The Lizzie Bennet content creators succeeded at giving the audience information to keep them engaged in the content, and creating an interesting retelling of a story that they were already familiar with. When following the narrative in real time, the audience was given enough information between episodes (3-4 days) to keep them interested in the narrative to keep them engaged and coming back to watch the videos.

Manovich (2001) describes this method of storytelling as “collections of items on which the user can perform a variety of operations”, and while Manovich’s writing is a little bit out dated, this definition can be applied to “The Lizzie Bennet Diaires”, as it draws together information from a variety of sources to tell a singular narrative, as well as allowing audiences to jump between a variety of sources at their own free will and choice. Through the multiplatform retelling involved with “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries”, the audience is given the opportunity to do this, being able to browse through a variety of Twitter accounts, YouTube videos and a variety of other platforms, to piece together the story for themselves. The audience also has the ability to go back and rewatch and view all of the content for themselves if they desire to. This works particularly works in regard to the Lizzie/Darcy storyline, as the audience can see how Lizzie’s opinion of Darcy evolves over the course of the story and go back and see each pivotal moment at their own choosing.

“The Lizzie Bennett Diaries” is a refreshing and interesting retelling of a story, which has, over time, become part of the cultural domain. The rejuvenation of the story into the modern day and into contemporary platforms allows for the audience to engage with a classic story in many new and interesting ways. The use of transmedia can be considered a model for many web series to come, considering not only the amount of views the videos got (over 1.5 million people), but also for the levels of engagement over a variety of platforms.

References:

Manovich, L. (2001) “The database”, The Language of New Media, Cambridge, USA, The MIT Press, pp. 218-243

Pemberley Digital (2014), “The Lizzie Bennett Diaries”, Pemberley Digital, <http://www.pemberleydigital.com/the-lizzie-bennet-diaries/&gt;

Potter, J (2013) “Five Reasons to watch The Lizzie Bennett Diaries” The Awl, <http://www.theawl.com/2013/03/five-reasons-to-watch-the-lizzie-bennet-diaries&gt;

 Stanton, A (2012), “The clues to a great story”, TED.com, <http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story&gt;

McNutt, M (2014), “Webseries Phenom The Lizzie Bennett Diaires made it to 100 entries (and beyond)” The AV Club, <http://www.avclub.com/article/webseries-phenom-the-lizzie-bennet-diaries-made-it-201003&gt;