Presentation prepared for the Sacramento Film Festival. Explains what transmedia is, why it's important to indie filmmakers and how one might start developing an indie transmedia entertainment project

1. Sacramento Film Festival, April 24th 2010
BY
ROBERT
PRATTEN
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2. Robert pratten… about me
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3. Today’s presentation
• PART ONE: intro to transmedia
– What is transmedia?
• PART TWO: a new mindset
• PART THREE: a design process
• PART FOUR: final example
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4. Part one... of four
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5. What is transmedia storytelling?
Telling A
Story over
multiple media
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6. Example: Mass effect 2
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7. example: Cathy’s book
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8. Example: level 26
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9. Aim: Whole is greater than sum of parts
Movie Game Book Media Franchise
Whole is less than the sum of the parts:
dissatisfying conclusion to consuming all media
Movie Game Book Transmedia
Whole is more satisfying than the sum of the parts:
euphoria of collecting and connecting the pieces
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10. Lowlifes: novella, webseries, blog
http://www.lowlifes.tv
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11. Early transmedia Problems (IMHO)
• Many transmedia examples
today are “experimental” in
that their appeal is in their
novelty
• Too much friction for too
little entertainment
• Endless detail ZZzzzzz
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12. Two key thoughts...
• Emotion leads to immersion
• Choices not things
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13. Part two... of four
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14. Why consider transmedia?
• Becoming the entertainment modus operandi
– Audience expectations
– Audience habits (e.g. online)
– Old world is dying
• The explosion of free content has meant:
– Discovery & attention problems
– Payment “issues”
• Multiple audience touchpoints
• Opportunity to outflank Hollywood
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15. The Transmedia tao
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16. Rethinking entertainment
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17. New indie dharma
• Lose attachments:
– Feature film
– Ego
– Past and future
– Technology
– Money
• Walk middle path:
– Old ways not all bad
– New ways not all good
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18. TRANSMEDIA BUSINESS MODEL
(FOR INDIE FILMMAKERS)
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19. Example: rekill
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20. Example: metro 2033
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21. Timescale for metro 2033
• 2002: Self-published novel given away for FREE. Set up website
(http://m-e-t-r-o.boom.ru) and posted on sci-fi forums.
• 2002-2004: Thousands of readers. Readers ask for revival of
the main character and to continue the book.
• 2004: Added 8 new chapters – published as series with readers
suggesting plot lines, guessing the plot and providing
criticism.
• May 2005: New version of Metro 2033 completed. Now has “dozens
of thousands of readers”.Three publishers offer deal.
• 2010: Millions have read Metro 2033 online. In Russia,
400 000 physical copies of book sold.
• 2010: New book and new website for Metro 2034 (M2034.RU). In
less than 6 months, visitors exceeded 500 000 unique readers.
300 000 books sold.
• Source: Author Dimitri Glukhovsky and http://transmediadesign.org/metro-2033-book-game/
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22. Part three... of four
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23. Delivering your story, profitably
• Five key, inter-locking
considerations
• Iterate through the process to
ease complexity
• Could be tackled in a different
sequence to the one I’ll show
here but considerations are the
same… and still requires
iteration.
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24. Transmedia from first idea
CHARACTERS
PLOT
PREMISE
THEMES
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25. Who’s this story for?
ITERATION
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26. What’s the best way to delivery this
story to this audience?
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27. Matching Audience to Platforms
• Audience
– Who are they?
– Lifestyle?
– Where do they hang out?
• Platforms (e.g. media + technology)
– Reading: paperback, ebook, comics
– Watching: TV, online, mobile, theatre,
cinema
– Listening: radio, online, mobile
– Interacting: console, online, mobile,
social
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28. Match Story to Audience and Platforms
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29. Paying for it…
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30. Business models
• Free
– Investors don’t want repayment
– Crowdfunding
– Sponsorship
• Premium
– Higher marketing costs
– Vulnerable to piracy
• Freemium
– Free to view on some platforms
– Paid on others: some more suited to
payments
– Other revenue sources
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31. Spotlight on selling to audience
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32. Goals of business model
• Sell things that can’t be
copied
• If they can be copied, bundle
with something that can’t
• Leverage time and friction
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33. Connect with fans + reason to buy = $
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34. Rethinking products & pricing
• Provide more opportunities
for audience to give you
their money
• Range of “products” at
various price points to suit
different audience segments
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35. Example from Tectdirt (Mike masnick)
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36. Iterate in light of business model
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37. Five point approach for transmedia
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38. Execution: Play to your strengths
• Timing
• Resources
– Money
– Skills (technical and personal)
– Social network (online and
offline)
• Optimize >> probability x
impact
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39. KEEP ITERATING, MEASURING & MONITORING
DEVELOP IMPLEMENT
MEASURE & MONITOR
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40. Key to great transmedia…
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41. Part four... of four
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42. Christian Viel, Indie filmmaker
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43. Canadian superheroes!
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45. 45

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48. 48

49. Summary
• The internet has leveled the
playing field: let’s change
our game
• Transmedia plays to indie’s
strengths
• Doesn’t have to be
complicated
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50. Credits
• CwF+Rtb=$$ (TechDirt/Mike Masnick)
http://www.techdirt.com/rtb.php) but for indie
filmmakers, recommend Ross Pruden
(http://rosspruden.blogspot.com/)
• Christian Viel: Heros of the North
(http://heroesofthenorth.com)
• Slide borders use half-tone brush for
Photoshop from:
– http://szuia.deviantart.com/
– http://www.brushking.eu/164/halftone-brushes.html
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51. Things I’m working on now
• Platform for transmedia storytelling
– http://www.transmediastoryteller.com
• LowLifes
– http://www.lowlifes.tv
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52. My Contact details
• Robert Pratten
– http://twitter.com/zenfilms
– http://www.zenfilms.com
– robert at zenfilms dot com ;)
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