Brian Clark suggests we are the future of Transmedia
Are any of you as old as me?
Do any of you remember watching bad 80′s television. More about this in a minute.
Yesterday, I attended the Transmedia Meetup of Vancouver. Our very special guest speaker was Brian Clark. I had the pleasure of listening to him speak in San Francisco at StoryWorld a few weeks ago. My 1st impression of him was of enthusiasm, pure creativity an intellect that would ignite the air.
Today in the broken sound bites of a Skype call, the ever charismatic Brian Clark of GMD Studios in NYC offered his witt and insight into transmedia. I took a quick review over some of the snapshots in conversation and couldn’t help but think back to the good old days of television and how we have leaped INTO the future of then.
- Brian Clark in a Digital Box
- Max Hedrom in a Digital Box
Brian Clark- Transmedia meetup VS Max Hedroms (1987) advice to us:
For the real thing goto Live stream .com or http://silverstringmedia.com/
(Brian is paraphrased below)
DEVELOPING TRANSMEDIA BUSINESS MODELS
What did BRIAN say:
At some point there is always a point when the fans give us money no matter what medium, tv, film, transmedia.
It is possible to create a Theatrical transmedia experience for $30 – 60 per ticket
A sustainable biz model is being able to sell these tickets for 5 weeks in a row.
To access this, we must think: “What can I do for a fan in order for them to give us money”
What would MAX say:
Max Headroom: Say, would someone mind checking the ratings? I seem to have an audience of two.
THE INDUSTRY, A SNAPSHOT
What did BRIAN say:
The independent arts community was sustained by the Internet world.
Before this selling a production was about getting to know which studio executive is an asshole- and pass on him.
In march – The producers guild offered a transmedia credit for producers that offered creative work across 3 or more mediums but, this definition did not allow for some great transmedia productions being done among fewer mediums. It didn’t credit people that offered one part of the work to create a multiple channel production.
The world of transmedia is not understood by brands.
They do not understand the synergy of the parts. They think they can slice up a poster into different banners and be a transmedia product.
Brand journalism is a term to watch. This process of deconstructing the brand is closer to transmedia. Social media has come a long way to get brands to understand.
What would MAX say:
Max Headroom: How can you tell a network executive is lying? His lips move!
Max Headroom: As, ’tis Max Headroom here, and I quote from the bard, Shakespeare, a writer: “The quality of TV is not strained, it dropeth as the gentle ratings dropeth to a very tiny percentage share and, lo, ’tis gone.” Of course, Shakespeare would have loved your rating system. Twelfth Night would have been lucky to have lasted *one*!
WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US?- QUOTES WORTH SPREADING
What did BRIAN say:
“We all feel like impostors- afraid that people will find out … and feel that a brand needs to give us money in order to feel justified in our work”
“One for yourself and one for them”- inspired Switch United to re-think a business model.
Lessons/ Questions learned from the collective voices of Storyworld:
- What is the short form?
- No more work for free!
- Get a dialog on.
- Get people to release the guru status
so why are we giving up this relationship to the distributors”
[his head explodes then reappears]
Max Headroom: And I love, love, l-l-love… love those blip-blip-blip-blipverts!
IDEAS THAT GET IT:
What did BRIAN say:
Use a professional sport as an template for transmedia storytelling: Every sporting match has a story, competitive anticipation, optimize that story and every story requires tension.
A theatre with chairs that swivel and how the direction of the swivel takes you down the story of one character vs the other – (I can’t remember the person who did this)
That 1950′s idea: Classic audience vote with thumbs up or down to decide if you want the villein to die or live – a pause that engaged the audience.
If you want to get to know the farmer, show the cow … know all about the farmer’s life.
An Interesting design task- squirrels and escalators, The Smithsonian will entertain children by changing the focus of the museum visits. In the past children get distracted by chasing squirrels. The plan is to create an experience for the squirrels and allow the children’s attention to follow.
What would MAX say:
“MAKE THE ACQUISITION TO AN UNEXPECTED BUSINESS PLAN”
- Final thoughts -
North America is behind the ball on this one we need to look around us for insight.
How to get in front of the brands is a challenge.
The challenge of cause based transmedia - extremes are needed to change the perspective within the community but change is only an initiative for a short time.
Transmedia is a learning curve for all of us.
What would MAX say:
Max Headroom: Freedom. You know, writers have no freedom on TV. One rude suggestion, and the censors are straight on their back. Not on their back in a rude way.
Max Headroom: Well, most people would agree that censors are a silly breed. In fact, it surprises me how they ever manage to breed at all.
Max Headroom: Y’know… I get the feeling there’s a lot of faces out there… watching… me! And I can tell you it brings a lump to my ratings. Yes, this is Network 23. The net-net-net-net-network that puts it right… where they want you to be!
Start asking the right questions:
- How can we be our own distributors?
- How can we have a relationship with our fans?
- Can we Re-focus the story on keeping a relationship with the fans.
Excellent work! Thanks for posting this! I’m REALLY looking forward to how community/social media can fit in with all this. So many possibilities!
Makes the heart pump just a little faster doesn’t it. : )