Sins of the Industry – What is this?

Originally when Storytects approached me about joining up and contributing to the effort, I couldn’t think of what blogs I’d write.  I am a transmedia producer with a slight obsession with audience development.  My initial thought was to repurpose work from another blog (Artists Building Audiences) about audience building and assisting artists therein.  But then, like Kronk interacting with the personification of consciousness, I realized the devil on my shoulder, whilst doing one arm handstand pushups, wasn’t getting enough attention.

Easily one of my favorite movies & characters

While one side of me is optimistic for the future of entertainment, the other just can’t help but be furious over the current non-transmedia IP we have to endure: The terrible storytelling adaptations, destruction of potentially great worlds, and the general disregard for audience’s thoughts and participation.  These IP’s are committing cardinal sins against Transmedia.  Some will say they don’t know better; I say they will soon enough.

Sins of the Industry is a blog series to highlight those IPs who are woefully inadequate at building great transmedia story worlds.  It is meant to be comedic-informative, where I rant about things that the IP will never change. However, the points are salient transmedia bedrock which you can use to build your own story worlds.  By highlighting their deficiencies, I hope to educate and awaken you to the possibilities of transmedia.  Additionally, if you are a fan of the IPs I criticize, perhaps you can start to demand better from them (there is power in numbers!).

Continuing with this religious theme into which I’ve stumbled, in order to have Sins one must have Commandments! 

Don’t worry, the angel wrote them:

The Ten Transmedia Commandments:

  1. Thou Shall Hold All Artists & Their Disciplines as Equal
  2. Thou Shall Not Besmirch Transmedia Through False Definitions & Strategies
  3. Thou Shall Keep True to Thine Soapbox
  4. Thou Shall Honor the Trinity of Medium, Platform, & Audience
  5. Thou Shall Always Be Open to New Mediums & Platforms
  6. Thou Shall Not Succumb to Media Mix or Adaptation
  7. Thou Shall Create Worlds Worthy of Exploration
  8. Thou Shalt Always Prioritize the Audience Experience
  9. Thou Shall Incorporate Thine Audience into The World’s Narrative
  10. Thou Shall Spread the Word of Transmedia to All Artists

For those familiar with Transmedia, these may be second nature and possibly quite funny to you (good!), but if you are not, allow me to break them down.

I. Thou Shall Hold All Artists & Their Disciplines as Equal

An IP (or creator) will value all artists and artforms while creating stories for the story world.  A principle of Transmedia is to leverage many forms of art to create a robust, breathing world for audiences to explore and belong.  This means respecting each discipline and the artist therein as you would your own.  This includes paying them for their work and not taking advantage of the current state of the artistic world.

If an IP is taking advantage of art or artists, they are committing a Sin against this commandment, and I will blow their eardrums out for it.

II. Thou Shall Not Besmirch Transmedia Through False Definitions & Strategies

A creator will not claim to be using Transmedia when they are in fact not.  In Houston Howard’s book, You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Story, rather than initially defining what Transmedia is, he opted to define what it is not.  Some highlights:

1.      Transmedia is not multimedia - Multimedia is telling the same story over and over through multiple mediums and platforms. 

2.      Transmedia is not a marketing strategy - Creating short form content (reels, shorts, behind the scenes, etc) from long form content and posting it on a different platform to promote the project is marketing.

3.      Transmedia is not merchandising - Posting your logo on a shirt and selling it is a marketing / promotional activity.

4.      Transmedia is not extending the experience - Building a museum, exhibits, meet-the-stars panels, etc. are not creating new stories for the story world, only rehashing the old ones.

You don't often see a huge IP claiming to be transmedia when in fact they aren’t, but I’ll be ready for them if they do!

III. Thou Shall Keep True to Thine Soapbox

An IPs stories will stay consistent to the morals and rules established in the IP.  Again, in Houston Howard’s book, You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Story, he details the concept of a Soapbox which is an IPs opinion on a recurring thematic topic resulting in a call to action.  An example Houston uses is Lord of The Rings, in which Tolkien argues that “no matter how small you are, you can do great things, so be confident and try”.

An IP transgresses against this Commandment if, for instance, a story in the LoR world actively discredits this Soapbox by Gandalf belittling a Hobbits ability to do something.  It wouldn’t feel a part of the world and more then likely wouldn’t be received by its fans well because of it.

IV. Thou Shall Honor the Trinity of Medium, Platform, & Audience

An IP will create stories for specific mediums, platforms, and audiences.  There is a special relationship between these three entities.  Every platform has native mediums which fully leverages its greatest potential for storytelling and has an audience on that platform interacting within that medium.  If one of these legs are out of sync, the storytelling will not work at the highest efficiency.

IPs that assume a story can be transposed into any medium or platform for any audience commits a Sin in this regard.  They often complain it’s the audience’s fault.  Not on my watch.

V. Thou Shall Always Be Open to New Mediums & Platforms

An IP must actively be creating new stories through new mediums and on new platforms.  “New” can be either to the IP or to the entertainment industry.  It is through new mediums and platforms that we find new audience members and continue to engage current ones.

An IP that consistently uses the same mediums and platforms is a boring, stale, and unsustainable IP.

VI. Thou Shall Not Succumb to Media Mix or Adaptation

An IP will not repurpose a story to a different medium.  Great IPs that have success with a story on a certain medium and platform, then seek to create new stories in new mediums within the world. This expands the story world, creating new corners to explore, stories to tell, audiences to share!

Probably the most transgressed upon commandment from a large IP.  The idea of taking a book and creating a movie about it or a video game and creating a series about it.  It is rampant.  It is infuriating.

VII. Thou Shall Create Worlds Worthy of Exploration

An IP will actively create new ways for the audience to engage with the world; though new digital stories on different mediums & platforms, community hubs, and IRL events.  A great transmedia story world never ends, which is to say there is always something more to explore and ways to interact.  This is done by creating new stories consistently, having ways for the audience to interact with the IP and each other digitally and at IRL events.  Together this creates a robust, strong, and healthy world.

You know what’s not healthy?  IPs that tell the same stories over and over all while ignoring their audience.  That’s like a Snicker salad; all sugar, no substance, and a recipe for diabetes.

VIII. Thou Shalt Always Prioritize the Audience Experience

An IP will always consider, plan, and engage with their audience as a top priority.  This means that when creating new stories, there is intention behind how the audience will engage with it.  There are mechanisms in place for audience members to speak to each other and to the IP itself.  The IP intentionally creates space for the audience within the world.

Most IPs still treat their audience like they are consumers at the lone grocery store during a famine.  Where else are you gonna go?  Somewhere else, I say! Somewhere we are wanted and treated as a part of the world!

IX. Thou Shall Incorporate Thine Audience into The World’s Narrative

An IP will go above and beyond to weave the audience's hopes, wants, and fears into the world’s stories.  Great IPs know that their audience, deep down, wish they could leave our world and live in the IPs world.  Best they can do is offer them a vacation through story either digitally or IRL events.  The audience wants to belong in the IPs world, and so the IP weaves them in though stories on platforms that function only if they participate and affirming their wants though the narrative

IPs are generally terrified of this level of interaction from their audience, instead keeping them at arms-length, because the audience can mess up the narrative.  That’s like rejecting a toddler’s invitation to have a tea party because you want to keep an elevated standard of an adult tea party. What kind of monster wouldn’t sit on the foot-high stool and sip air?  Can’t you see they just want to participate in something you both love?

X. Thou Shall Spread the Word of Transmedia to All Artists

A general statement.  It is up to us, the transmedia storytellers, to spread the word to all ends of the entertainment world.  The potential for it to change artists' lives is too great to keep to ourselves.  Go forth and spread the good word!

Thou Shall Join Me Next Time

The Ten Transmedia Commandments will serve as the basis for the coming rants on IP that simply are not up to snuff.  Come join me as I vent, ramble, and rave into the endless vacuum of the industry.  Perhaps together we can change IP for the better!