Transmedia

It was late one night on the tube and a toned-up guy walked in wearing nothing but his underwear that I noticed the title of the book a girl was reading. She couldn’t have been older than 21 sitting in front of me in her yellow short skirt with the thick volume in her hands titled “RAPE”.

A hint of bemusement appeared in the corner of her mouth as the girl noticed him but soon she went back to reading. It was a cold night, I remember now, and the guy in boxers did carry a black plastic overcoat.

The train moved on. In the next stop a second guy climbed on also wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, barely covering his groin.

By now the girl had become visibly startled and hid the book away. Soon she seemed truly scared. As the guys approached her I read her lips whispering “This is not happening”.

But then she made eye contact. The 2 fellow passengers in front of her were cracking up. Laughing hard and pointing.

Suddenly she realized the train was full of people in their underwear. It was all part of a joke. Her eyes softened. She smiled. Suddenly there was nothing to be afraid of.

I wasn’t there. I was describing a video Charlie Todd of ImprovEverywhere showed at TEDxBloomington and I watched on YouTube. But it’s a good example of how the story changes once it becomes a shared experience.

The insight that real sharing matters is why 2 years ago the California winemakers Brenda and Marc Lhormer started the Napa Valley Film Festival — to enjoy film and wine in a social setting. On a planet filled with screens we are all humans looking for shared experiences with our loved ones and friends, the people who matter in our lives.

Transmedia is not about technology even though we need tools to make our stories happen. It’s about connecting me and my friends more deeply and a shared experience in the story-world of our favorite characters can do just that.

In the age of attention economy where media products are fighting for the 16-hours per day a person is awake, we need a way to get to the person. Can way be total immersion? By using movies, music, books, videos, podcasts, tweets, facebook, and other types of media, that traditionally were seen as distinct domains, each with their own set of experts (ex. the filmmaker, the writer, the composer). With media convergence, the borders between these media are blurring. The job of the transmedia storyteller is to use all these media to tell one story that remains coherent and captures the individual by surrounding him or her in an immersion experience.

With the change the in media economy, getting the attention of a person and retaining it is a massive undertaking and for one person to be a master of all mediums a difficult proposition. Transmedia storytellers replace the traditional director and producer roles found in Cinema. The Producers Guild of America introduced the Transmedia Producer credit in 2010 as a part of an official PGA-credit production, with the power to originate all or a part of the project content and to use multi-platform narratives to unite diverse audiences.

What does a transmedia storyteller do? A transmedia storyteller is a professional working in a Attention Economy. A master of mediums, who combines cinema, filmmaking, web, music, fashion, theatre, and other mediums with interaction design, game mechanigs to create a cohesive and immersive experience. For up to date news on the subject, I suggest following the transmedia hashtag on Twitter.

Transmedia Agencies

The Comprehensive Guide To Transmedia Companies, a Who, What, Why, Where of Business Models, Producers, Products & Audience. Here is a list organized by country — including direct contacts — that could be useful for finding co-production partners. The key to meaningful collaboration is relevancy. Finding the (organizational) skill-gaps that collaboration could create win-win situations for the involved parties. Transmedia storytelling does not save your low quality content.

United States

Starlight Runner Entertainment. A boutique studio with Jeff Gomez, Mark Pensavalle, Laura Sterritt, Caitlin Burns, Simon Pullman, Adam Nash, Steele Tyler Filipek , and Spencer LaVallee, Fabian Nicieza, Darren Sanchez, Chrysoula Artemis, David Zeichner.

No Mimes Media. Jan Libby
Campfire. Michael Monello
DJ2
PCB. KeithArem
StoryCode. Aina Abiodun
Fourth Wall Studios. Elan Lee.
Heardable. Gunther Sonnenfeld
GMD Studios. Jonny Leahan
Mirada. Guillermo del Toro. Andy Merkin.
Hydrogen. Sparrow Hall
Blacklight Transmedia. R. Eric Lieb.
Hooked Digital. Neal Edelstein. Kevin Washington. Behind Haunting Melissa

Indie (No Company; Consulting). Ken Eklund. Stephen E. Dinehart. Lance Weiler. April Arrglington. Tim Kring. J.J. Abrams. Michael Knowlton. Maya Zuckerman.Jen Begeal. Brian Clark. Lorraine Hopping Egan. Liz Rosenthal. Silvina Bamrungpong.Noel Víctor. Frank Rose. JC Hutchins. Karen Bellinger Wehner.Nick Demartino. Lina Srivastava. Jon Reiss. Jacques Thelemaque.

Academic

USC. Henry Jenkins. Geoffrey Long. Sean Hood.
5D Institute.
MIT Open Documentary Lab.
Canada Siobhan O’Flynn.
National Film Board. Loc Dao. Ana Serrano.
LVL. Geneviève Cardin
Indie. Juliana Loh

Europe

There’s a bunch of small transmedia producers around Europe working on small projects.

United Kingdom

Unit9. FB.

France

Karine Halpern. Michel Reilhac. Liso Cassano

The Netherlands

Spektor.Tim Murk & Joris Hoebe.
Hubbub media. Ian Ginn.
Submarine Channel. Bruno Felix.
Indie (No Company, Consulting). Dominic de Haas.

Italy

Betsy Pool. Max Giovagnoli.

Germany

Inga Von Staden
Herwig Kopp

United Kingdom

Nina Simoes. Tishna Molla.
Robert Pratten.
StoryCentral. Alison Norrington
Transmedia Next. Anita Ondine.

Switzerland

Rebel Mango. Carlo Pisani, Ankita Makwana, Andres Jud.
EBU. Nicoletta Iacobacci
Indie. Christian Ströhle. Didi Koller.

Denmark

Minerva Film. Mikael Windelin. Suvi Andrea Helminen.Jakob Høgel.
Christian Fonnesbech

Sweden

The Company P. Christopher Sandberg
Story Architect.Jasmine Idun Tova Lyman.
Berta Gomez Gallego
Bert-Ola Bergstrand

Spain

Monte Carlo. José Ignacio Galán. Fernando Carrion. Eduardo Prádanos Grijalvo. Roberto Ponieman.

Ireland

BeActive. Nuno Bernardo.

Finland

Mediacity.Simon Staffans.

Russia

Marco North

Latin America

In Latin America the biggest transmedia producers are TV-companies such as Televisa (Mexico) and Globo (Brasil).

Brazil

Renira Gambarato. Leandro B. Hipolito.Dimas Dion. Fernando Palacios . João Massarolo. Martha Terenzzo.Rodrigo Dias Arnaut .Solange Uhieda.

Mexico

Televisa. Lenny Altschuler.
Colombia Rio Visual.
Digital+

Asian transmedia companies don’t use the term transmedia. Even though the trend of convergence is there. Japanese culture has a strong tradition of multi-platform storytelling and was one of the inspirations behind Starlight Runner. More.

Hong Kong

Haexagon Concepts Ltd. Diogo Cordes Aniceto Martins. Marco Sparmberg (司馬可).

Singapore

Tiny Island Productions
Oak3 Films

Australia

Universe Creation 101. Christy Dena
Chopin’s Lovechild