Carole Dohan in immersion at Transmedia  New York City Meetups since 2010

Since November 2010, I’ve been attending regular Transmedia NYC Meetups. These monthly events gather cutting edge (trans)media professionals, newbees and interested fellows just like me and consist in presenting and sharing transmedia experiences of all sorts.

Transmedia Meetups NYC are often very eventful with a packed audience, and a time for drinks and conversation after the presentations, which is always a good way to exchange ideas with the always very creative speakers, network – of course, or simply meet new friends.

Founded by Mike Knowlton and Aina Abiodun*, the small group of 50 people at the time has been steadily growing to reach a crowd of more than 500 members at the end of 2011. Topics covered are very diverse and highlight the creativity and innovative concepts that surround the notion of transmedia.

Last April for instance, Lance Weiler, a well-known director presented « Pandemic » , a transmedia experience praised at Sundance last year. He also took the opportunity to explain and discuss his theory about the future of film and creation. James Carter presented to one side what a transmedia theater experience could be through his latest play, « Feeder, a love story ». (I actually had the opportunity to experience it for real in NY, attending a play where real time acting was mixed with pre-show interactions with the characters, video blog excerpts…).

More recently, Lina Srivastava and Koffi Annan, amongst others, pointed out the growing role of transmedia tools to promote social activism and human rights. The so-called ‘transactivism’ offers innovative ways to integrate both tech and social change – several initiatives targeting mostly emerging markets were shared, including « Africa unity kit » by Puma, « 18 days in Egypt » or « G3nerations » in Rwanda…

The group recently made two big announcements. First, it is incorporating as a NY-based not-for-profit organization called StoryCode. On the other hand, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is a new sponsor, offering the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater for the group’s meetings. Wonderful, dramatic changes and another proof if needed that the group is now all grown up: 2012 shall be a pretty busy one for NY transmedia professionals!

I was happy to be part of this growing community; rest assured the GMNA team will continue covering the subject and relate on. Now find the past videos on the meetups Youtube channel Story Code.

* Aina Abiodun is an American film maker and transmedia activist, Mike Knowlton is the CeO at MurmurCo in NY

Sylvain Leroux at Transmedia NYC Meetup to present FanFan 2 project.

Last October, I attend the Transmedia New York City Meetup in order to present the case study of our project Fanfan2 orchestred with Alexandre Jardin.

Transmedia NYC brings together digital folks, creatives and cross-platform storytelling enthusiasts to explorate the rapidly evolving world of transmedia storytelling and participating in these gatherings was an amazing experience for me.

This meetup offered me the opportunity to present our project with some very interesting specialists : Frank Rose, contributing editor at Wired for more than a decade who writes extensively about the intersection of media and technology, and Nate Goldman the producer of Undead End, a transmedia radio drama inspired by Orson Welles’ 1938 perfomance of H.G. Wells war of the worlds.

The networking session after the presentation allowed me to talk with people from industries as diverse as TV or fashion and many other fields, all exploring transmedia storytelling opportunities in their own ways. Transmedia NYC brings together like-minded professionals and I was pleasantly surprised to meet these stimulating people with such ease.

A good idea worth to mention : Aina and Mike the co-organizers also give everyone the opportunity to make a five minute pitch to present or challenge a project.

I was pleased to see that many people were interested in the original dimension of the Fanfan2 project based on a book. Like radio, publishing a daily novel as a social media stream with various entry points allows a lot of flexibility and interaction with the audience. With so many producers facing financial and production issues due to the global economic situation and the inherent challenges of transmedia creation, it’s easy to see that transmedia makers are looking for more flexibility. So, will these audio and (or) written projects be the trend in 2012 ? Your insights are welcome !

Others Transmedia Meetups in the World :
Transmedia Meetup de Londres
Transmedia Meetup de Los Angeles
Transmedia Meetup de Paris
Transmedia  Meetup de San Francisco (near future)
Transmedia Meetup de Toronto
Transmedia Meetup de Vancouver

Feel free to share your experiences with Transmedia Meetup around the world. We look forward to sharing your patterns.

At MIPCube you will find :

Live Learning sessions will present several experts on visionary talks, study cases and “how to” workshops. They will tackle two major themes :
- Spreading the Story will examine ways of expanding a content concept across all media, looking at games, brands and audience engagement.
- Enriching the Story will explore ways of adapting a concept and content to the changing content consumption associated with connected television, interactivity, online media and social networks.

Innovation Alley will showcase the latest technologies in Connected TV, social media and dual screen technology.

MIPCube will feature three competitions :
The seventh annual Content 360 will select the best projects from around the world in cross-media content and audience engagement.
The second annual MIPTV start up competition returns as MIPCube Lab, providing a global platform for start-ups to present their business plans and prototypes to venture capitalists, business angels and TV business leaders.
Finally, the TV Hack Day will offer developers a chance to team up for 48 hours to come up with the most innovative TV app.

The fourth Digital Minds Summit (DMS) at MIPCube, an exclusive behind closed doors invitation-only summit, will bring together 50 top global business leaders of the media world in a private session to debate, discuss and plan the future of TV.

Lastly, the MIPCube Party will bring together participants from every continent in a celebration of innovation, as part of a series of themed parties, lunches and intimate networking dinners  alongside MIPCube.

Who will be at MIPCube ?

Cindy Gallop is the first confirmed speaker at MIPCube. She is the former US President of creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty and the CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld.com, a web meets world platform that turns good intentions into action, one microaction at a time. Following her TEDBooks release of “Make Love Not Porn: Technology’s Hardcore Impact On Human Behaviour,” she will launch makelovenotporn.tv in the spring of 2012. Cindy Gallop acts as board advisor to a number of tech startups around the world, describing her consultancy approach as: “I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business. You can find more informations about Cindy Gallop here.

The Coca-Cola Company , Vivendi and Ogilvy & Mather, will announce thought provoking speakers for the event shortly. Contagious will present an exclusive Trends Briefing on augmented content by Senior Consultant Ed White during the 2-day event.
And we will inform you as soon as we get new informations !

How to go to MIPCube ?

This year the MIPCube Pass will give access to this unique two-day accelerator event on 30-31 March and to the first day of MIPTV on April 1. For more informations :
- The website where you can register online
- The Facebook fan page to follow the newsfeed, The LinkedIn group to start the conversation with the future participants and on Twitter by following the account @_mip and by starting to use the tag #MIPCube

This year the Pixel Forum (sponsored by Orange) opened with a single day of lectures, which mainly focused on case studies and feedback. The following day was given over entirely to the Pixel Pitch (with a prize awarded), with a series of project presentations made to a panel of judges. Closing with the Pixel Market and Pixel Think Tank, this year dedicated to financing projects, 2011’s Power to the Pixel ran for an intense four days of encounters and discussions.

On returning from this busy interlude, what trends can we identify shaping the present and future of this still emerging cross/trans/inter/omni/über/media industry (delete the terms you find most irritating) ?

Pragmatism bites

Looking beyond the inspiring speeches of the genre’s evangelists, this year a sense of realism permeated the presentations and project proposals. Perhaps faced with the conceptual complexity of transmedia’s inherent nature, or the wariness of broadcasters and distributors, creators and producers seem currently to be approaching the transmedia model with pragmatism. Rather than promising the earth with longshot cartoon, toys or video games plans, projects are focusing on proven formats (mostly documentaries and serials, and occasionally film) that are extended or augmented on other platforms to demonstrate their transmedia potential. A documentary can lead to a more persistent interactive web platform, or a film can link to an iPad application in the style of an exhibition catalogue, and so on.

Traditional publishing takes up the baton

Over the four days of the Pixel Forum a number of publishers (Penguin and Edgemont amongst others) came forward to share their vision and experiences of the transmedia world. Past months have produced a number of initiatives involving book launches preceded by ARG type schemes like BZRK, or original ideas like Night Circus (interactive web story experience still available here) and Orange’s Fanfan2, to give only this examples. The big news of recent weeks is the strategic partnership linking Blacklight and Random House. Another between BeActive and Penguin was announced following Power to the Pixel. There can be no doubt about it, the world of traditional publishing is coming to grips with transmedia, and we will hear more from them in the months to come.

There should be no surprise in the fact that the “young adults” market is the key focus for publishers who are closely tracking a generation brought up on a diet of Harry Potter, hungry for stories, eager for connectivity, and particularly prone to spending their time on platforms not made from dead trees.

A success like Cathy’s Book is a clear signal that this audience is ready to embrace these mutant narrative formats, and whoever manages to marry this sort of model to a new Twilight will have hit the mother lode. Rather than appearing in the second rank on the transmedia agenda, the world of book publishing (especially in the SciFi/fantasy or young adult categories) is looking to change the rules of the game and – why not – kick-start future franchise successes.

What if transmedia’s “Avatar”, the long awaited Holy Grail that will show the way like Cameron’s film did for 3D cinema, came from this unexpected source?

>>> Shining the spotlight on some favourites

Tomorrow we Disapear (produit par Rebell Yell) : A striking artistic direction for a documentary with multi-platform ambitions. There are still a bunch of days days left to give them a helping hand on KickStarter (and why not get an actual magic ring…) !

Click here to view the embedded video.

Love & Engineering (Produced by Making Movies Oy) : Pixel Pitch winner. An amazing documentary (not fiction!) linked to a site which elaborates on the subject of the film, as does an iOS application. The subject ? An engineer has discovered how to bypass any woman’s “firewall” and is setting out to coach his fellow engineers on how to find love. In the following video, producers explain their intention and share the railer (starting at 1’38s).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jezabel (Produced by Bridges Films) : A TV series with transmedia extensions: a young girl becomes famous too quickly. Rock and Roll. Student life… A combination that should quickly secure an audience if the cast lives up to the promise of the teaser.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cloud Chamber (Produced by Windelov/Lassen Interactive): An ARG style project set in an inspiring world, conjured from the enigmas of the cosmos and engaging with an ambitious mystery. The producers intend to put a freemium style financial model to the test.

Cloud Chamber concept art

The project takes the form of a specialized tuition period provided for the students during their normal academic curriculum. It is intended to allow them to realize their transmedia projects as part of an event during which these works will be broadcast and which will bring together people involved in every sector of transmedia creation. The tuition period includes a writing period, from October to December 2011, a pitch session arranged for 13 January 2012 and a production period between February and June 2012.

Organized over a period of three days, the first Transmedia Immersive University will be held in October 2012 in partnership with the Paris City Council, the Gaîté Lyrique and lemonde.fr.

The participating universities include the most prestigious academies in Paris as well as many other institutions: Gobelins, Cnam/Enjmin, Supinfocom/Supinfogame, EMLyon, Celsa MISC, SciencesCom, InaSup, Gamagora, Arfis, Factory, Ecole Bellecour, CEEA.

To help us gain a better understanding of this project and find out what we can expect from this innovative initiative, Jérémy Pouilloux kindly took the time to answer all our questions:

Jérémy, you decided to create Transmedia Immersive University. What motivated you to launch a project of such scope?
There were two main reasons. The first is that I believe deeply in the potential of this type of writing. Creative potential, emotional potential for the audiences, on the one hand, and economic potential and a source of renewal for French fiction, on the other. The second concerns the market situation facing this type of writing. It is still a very difficult undertaking to conduct large-scale projects in this field and find a way of exploring new narrative modes. It was necessary to do something that would allow professionals in the sector and the public to see this type of project. So that they can experience them. So that we can make our own contribution to the development of a transmedia culture in France and in this way send out a strong signal to and maximize the profile of authors who want to express themselves in this field both now and in the future.

Are the hopes of the transmedia market vested in the student generations?
I wouldn’t say that. If this question is meant to refer to a possible distinction between students and established authors, I think that many of the authors who are writing today are very interested in these innovative narrative approaches. And it is very important that these experienced authors get to grips with this type of writing if high-quality work is to be produced in the future. One of the aims of Transmedia Immersive University (TIU) is precisely to convince these established authors of the value of these new forms of expression and share our enthusiasm with them.

Having said that, it will be interesting to see what the students are capable of inventing, in particular since they are not obliged to fit in with any particular viewpoint or editorial policy. I should add that one of the tasks of TIU is to disseminate the “transmedia culture” within academic training and help improve the quality of this type of writing. Students are therefore a key audience for us.

Are they the new storytellers, better suited to cope with the complex realities of transmedia projects?
Once again, I don’t really believe in this type of distinction between generations. Some “old” authors are far more familiar with the technological tools and what can be done with them than the students themselves. Whether young or old, the new storytellers will be the ones who are able to bring together drama skills, a passion for technology and an understanding of its practical implementation. Having said that, it is true that young people, the “digital natives”, want to make use of the new tools that are now available and their enthusiasm is fundamental for future development. Nevertheless, you still have to learn to tell stories.

What is the maximum number of projects that will be produced?
This year, the intention is to support between ten and twenty projects. TIU combines a period of tuition, administered to the students by their teachers and professionals from the industry, and an event during which their work will be broadcast. The tuition period includes a writing period which will take place from October to December 2011, a pitch session organized for mid-January 2012, and a project production period between February and June 2012.

The exact number of projects won’t be known until January because some establishments may decide to focus on one or two projects for production out of a number of projects developed during the writing phase.

What are you hoping for in terms of the quality of these projects?
That is one of the unknowns! We are experimenting and so there are bound to be surprises… I personally am very confident and have high expectations as to the results. The organization of the TIU as I have just described it means that these projects have every chance of succeeding and the motivation of the students I have met so far is a key factor. And having seen plenty of student projects, I think we are in for some pleasant surprises.

When will we be able to see the results (trailers, productions)?
Some elements of the projects will be made public as of the end of January and we intend to set up crowdfunding mechanisms to ensure that finances will be available for the completion of these projects.

You will have to wait until October 2012 to see these projects in full and experience them with us during a three-day event at which the projects will be broadcast and professionals from many different disciplines will be able to meet in what we hope will be a festive atmosphere.

In order to keep you posted on the advancements of this project we scheduled a future article with Jérémy, he will inform us on the stories this project created. Jérémy Pouilloux, associate producer at la Générale de Production, produces fiction, documentaries and transmedia projects. He is currently working on a number of transmedia projects including L’Œil Américain, a burlesque, interactive tale of a bank robbery, and Le Trou Noir, a transmedia documentary focusing on quantum physics and the fear of science.

The event will take a new approach on:

• What is Socially Responsible Media?
• What are the possibilities and magnitude of Socially Responsible Media?
• How can Media today be relevant, make a difference and contribute in changing the world?
• What might be the ideal blueprint for a Public Service that Matters?

This year’s event is committed to generating a call-to-action to bring together and mobilize concerned audiences and engage fragmented communities with a global voice to make a change.

In order to get a better glimpse on this years’ event, Nicoletta Iacobacci takes us on a Q&A tour of TEDxTransmedia 2011:

What is the target you imagined for this year’s edition?

I imagined for this year’s event to reach a wider audience, not only the specific NewMedia, CrossMedia, Transmedia audience. Transmedia is the strategy that has the capability of reaching different groups of people and aggregates them in powerful communities. A multigenerational audience that can become proactive and help making the world a better place. Why not expressing this concept instead of talking only about how to make Transmedia, what business model can be used or what platforms can we utilize?

At this year’s TEDx we will use transmedia as the “fil rouge” to connect different topics in order to inspire, to enthuse and to challenge the attendees. We will perform some Transactivism, starting from the power of a non linear/multiplatform narrative (the spring revolution in Africa) to the Harry Potter alliance; from Lina Srivastava, who is well known for being a transmedia activist to Jem Bendell who will give us an unusual and scary image of money.

Of course many well known transmedia professionals will take part of the conversation, but again with a wider, extended overview. We also planned a surprise at the end of the conference… that still needs to be confirmed. I have to confess that this year I tried to apply a sort of Transmedia strategy to curate the conference, engaging the attendees to enter in the conversation from different entry points…

What are your attendance expectations?

I think many Italians will participate, the European Transmedia crowd and some from abroad. Then artists, writers and at least 50/60 PSBs. The venue, the MAXXI Contemporary Art Museum in Rome is a great place to host a transmedia conference, being transmedia itself. The museum architecture encourages non linear experiences and allows different expositions to intersect and consciously overlap.

What should attendees expect from the conferences?

To be inspired, to continue with the DARING message I tried to convey at the last year’s event. We need to be bold, to try, to experiment, maybe to fail as well… but to continue… and if we consider the fact that we can use transmedia to contribute for making a better world, I think it could be a more pleasant activity. We will have many Public Service Broadcasters attending and the occasion will be great to spread this message.

What are the main ideas this events aims to spread?

The title of TEDxTransmedia 2011 is WHAT IF: Socially Responsible Media. I would like to generate a big number of “WHAT IFs” and see many of them realized!

The program

This year’s event will approach the Socially Responsible Media from three angles: Courage, Passion and Magic. Each angle will unfold under different conferences going from covering the spring revolution of North Africa, transmedia as a weapon and the strength of non-linear communication to advices on how to push the bar by daring to innovate. The full program, still subject to change, is available here and you can make your reservations here.

The place

Nicoletta Iacobacci,TedxTransmedia’s Curator chose Rome for this edition of TEDxTransmedia because the city embodies in her point of view the three main angles of the event : Courage, Passion and Magic. She presented the MAXXI, the national contemporary art museum created by architect Zaha Hadid to promote 21st century art and architecture, as the most transmedial museum she has ever experienced.

You may be impressed by the speakers and the event’s conferences, but you shouldn’t miss the expositions on permanent display at the museum: installations by Anish Kapoor, Sol Lewitt, Maurizio Mochetti, Giuseppe Penone and Massimo Grimaldi.

TEDx was created in 2009 in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

The upcoming event in LA is the 9th DIY Days event in less than 3 years. Currently, the event is held twice a year, in New York City in the spring and in Los Angeles in fall.  Presented as a roving conference for those who create, the event can be considered as national with past stops in LA, San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia.

One of the most important features of DIY Days is its free access and being organized by volunteers. The event claims to be all about the accessibility of ideas, resources and networking that can enable storytellers to fund, create, distribute and sustain. Lance Weiler declared in an interview accorded to The Creators Project that “There is something about making it free that lets people put their guard down. They feel the organic nature of the event—that we’re not trying to sell anything, but in fact working to inform and hopefully inspire something. »

Click here to view the embedded video.

The organizers declared that the main goal was to share information and creative process within a social environment. Apparently, DIY Days came out of the desire to transfer into the real world the storytelling-involved community formed around WorkBook Project, a project focused on innovation, new trends, cutting edge projects and an open approach to a once closed industry by creating a collaborative and open system that shares resources, networking, information and knowledge.

Speakers and innovative projects

Lance Weiler insisted that “What DIY Days looks to do is weave together a mixture of speakers working in film, music, gaming, print, design, and software. We’ve found that many of the issues are the same in terms of the impact of technology, but what’s a bit different is how people are dealing with them.” He explained then, that the filmmakers should realize that their creative world is expanding, which in fact is a great opportunity to experience new ways to tell stories.

The first round of announced speakers to this “DIY Days” edition include the transmedia legends Henry Jenkins, Tommy Pallotta and Christy Dena. The organizers promised to announce the detailed program in the coming weeks.

If you are motivated and you have a great project to present, you should contact the organizers and let them know, they are still looking for innovative projects and people who would make wonderful speakers.

Wicked Solutions for a Wicked Problem

While waiting for October, here some of the “action” the event’s organizers prepared for us.  “Wicked Solutions for a Wicked Problem” is special R&D project described as a “creative exploration into problem solving using storytelling” that should be at the center of the event.

WS WP assembles a “core team” of programmers, designers, storytellers, community leaders and researchers in an effort to harness the power of storytelling to impact a “Wicked Problem” that is affecting a community in Los Angeles. By combining design thinking, storytelling and co-creation, the project should evolve from concept to working prototype within a 48 hour period. DIY DAYS LA will close with a presentation of the prototype to a live audience, announced the event’s website.

Robot Heart Stories

Robot Heart Stories is another project that will take place during the DIY Days LA. Conceived as an experiential educational project and created in a common effort with the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montreal, Robot Heart Stories will have students in two underprivileged schools, one in Montreal and one in Los Angeles, co-creating stories that will move a robot (connected plush toy with GPS capabilities) from Montreal to Los Angeles. You will be able to dive into this project here.

Show & Tell » par Cinema Speakeasy

A special section of DIY DAYS will be highlighting some new innovative work. DIY Days teamed up with Cinema Speakeasy to create an innovative exhibition, in other words a space to show to creators of film, games, music, design projects, immersive experiences and anything else that deals with storytelling. Evidently the exhibition’s space is limited so the organizers told us to make sure to contact them early if you want to expose your work. For more details, check out this website.

DIY Days LA partnered with the UCLA Library as one of their Open Access Week events. You will be able to find the free tickets here, starting on Sept 12^th.

The web seminar is a free of charge public event; scheduled on July 27th at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT (American Time Zone) Here you can find out the schedule for your time zone and register. The subject seems quite interesting: “Surveying Transmedia: Case Studies of Successful Stories.”

The organizers explained their intentions: defining and discuss the transmedia evolutions through case studies. They might be called cross-platform stories, transmedia projects, branded entertainment, or even alternate reality games, but, whatever you call them, at the heart of these new forms of entertainment is engagement across platforms.It’s hard to believe that the earliest “extended” experiences are now at least a decade old, and it can be difficult getting a handle on the full scope of what’s already come in the world of transmedia storytelling.

For this special StoryWorld WEBCast Michael Andersen, owner and senior editor at the Alternate Reality Gaming Network, will lead attendees through a tour of what’s possible with alternate reality games, cross-platform strategies, and transmedia storytelling.

Michael’s goal is to introduce audiences to takeaways and tactics from transmedia storytelling projects, providing an in-depth analysis of a few key projects in addition to a broad overview of what specific industries have done to leverage existing networks and IPs, extend into new markets, and create meaningful connections with fans.
For those deeply asleep during the webcast event, here you might be able to catch up a recording.

See you on the cyberspace!

These last two years were intense and we are proud of the work we’ve done.  We evolved through some key stages:

• We helped creating the debate around the transmedia concept and new writing models, through our blog Transmedialab.org and through a series of events: the Barcamps on August 2009 et May 2011 ;
• The « call for projects »: out of 69 transmedia scenarios, 11 creations got through to the final: some of them became a transmedia reference.
• The thorough development work we conducted with the 5 winning projects, by alternating conception workshops and conferences with experts, opened for the entire transmedia community, by discussing subjects like the audience: its engagement and interactivity, Internet communities and viral buzz, multiplatform technologies and branded content.
• The creation of the first transmedia applications at the service of enhanced content value.

We are grateful to Xavier Couture for his active support to each of these stages, for his empathy with the subject and for his belief that the link between the technology and the creativity is unbreakable, meeting the audience’s needs: « creating by breaking the old borderlines! ».

This accomplishment could not have been achieved without the help of the Orange teams : (Orange Vallée – Jean-Lous Constanza, Studio 37 – Frédérique Dumas, Content Direction – Morgan Bouchet, Stéphane Adamiak, Boris Duchesnay, Frank Guillouard, Sebastien Goales, Jean-françois Rodriguez, Stephan Jost, Programming and Broadcast – David Lacombled, Carol Cuneo, Orange Lab – Christophe Aguiton, Dominique Cardon et Fabien Granjon) and the broadcasters, so important to our work: TF1 (Eleanor Coleman & Damien Rety), France Télévisions (Harold Valentin, Jean-Marc Merriaux, François Guilbeau) , M6 (Philippe Bony), Arte (with the special support of Michel Reilhac, so remarkable by his mixture of intelligence and energy), Dailymotion (Martin Rogard), as well as the multi-screens pioneer in UK: Liz Rosenthal, Power to the Pixel. At the end of this article we mentioned the others actors that helped build this experience.

Many projects emerged in 2011, especially under the impulsion of the Orange’s Content Direction that accompanied creations like Detective Avenue, Fanfan 2, The Prodigies and the Cross Video Days event.

Generally the transmedia conception methods are spreading; the physical and virtual places are accompanying the professionals’ community development and the technological applications emerge.  Transmedia aims to satisfy its audience; nevertheless it still has a beautiful challenge: establishing its business model.

While acknowledging this positive context, Transmedialb.org undergoes its transformation. Here we take a few minutes to discuss the technological innovations we’ve been working on for the past few months.

A new design for Transmedialab.org

Our blog changes skin, but not only! We have improved the structure of the website, in order to better help you find the transmedia references, by giving a themed structure to our articles and case studies. We created a glossary of all the transmedia scientific terms.

The Transmedia Lab blog opens up to you! This becomes your blog, with an intern community opened to all transmedia professionals, in order to help you connect and share your transmedia info with your followers. You can directly contact any member of the community and find the missing know-how to your project.

The transmedia apps

The transmedia projects accompaniment helped us imagine some applications and tools to help the multiplatform broadcast of transmedia content. By tapping into our know-how of innovation management and into the Orange’s Lab, we created a selection of transmedia app that provide an easier broadcast of the story’s universe through different media, by allowing a broader audience access and by offering new interactive experiences even more immersive for the viewer.

iPhone and iPad video playlist generator

Allows a producer to generate rapidly and at a low cost his own iPhone and iPad app able to reflect his production company or his content universe. This application allows the mobile owner to create and manage his playlists, to search and buy a certain video, as well as highlight premium content.

The video content is available « anytime anywhere ». The mobile owner can be « connected » to the content; he can share the videos with his friends by using Facebook or Twitter, just as he can receive some informational “pushes”.

This instrument was conceived for:

• Adaptability to all kinds of production: for the big catalogue owners, just as for those proposing a small video offer.
• Allowing an easy content management, helping producers develop and update their catalogue, highlighting the premium content by using the already created app

A transmedia video player that offers multiples « augmented » paths inside a certain content universe

The transmedia player offers a new navigation experience inside the universe of contents all throughout the Internet.

Two main axes are proposed:

• The player associates in real time new content related to the played video: multimedia content (texts, images, sounds, maps, commercial links…) extracted from databases like Wikipedia or Amazon and semantically linked to the content of the video proposed by the broadcaster or the author.
• The player proposes other videos related to the one being watched, by using tags inside the video: this feature allows the bouncing on a new content starting from the 3^rd minute on to another video segment, en thus following the imagined narrative.

The cybernaut can navigate in the player from content to content, using semantically interpreted links. The player associates rich content to its display: multimedia content (texts, images, sounds, maps and commercial links) directly linked by semantics to the users’ profiles (social recommendations).

These tags can be enriched by the cybernauts and off course, the player can offer ratings and Facebook/Twitter sharing functions.

This augmented navigation finds its first applications in the games created in a fictional universe, in documentaries needing associated information (Travelling for example), news reporting and news feeds, the creation of video playlists on a certain theme. The platform is conceived as a toolbox: available when you need it and able to adapt to your creative ideas.

Blended TV, a service crossing TV/Video content with social networks

Blended TV helps you find and choose faster a TV program, and then to simply participate: by transforming the social buzz around TV programs and video content into an intelligible flow of information in order to help you better choose a program and enrich the experience in a playful manner.

Blended TV « scrolls » the social networks, especially Tweeter, in order to enhance the Buzz on these contents: TV, movies, VOD, web video…  It can organize the programs by their “buzz” levels; it can personalize the recommendations and associates the online social discussion to each program by using a filter that facilitates the participation and the reading (tweet, iTag, iVote): the best tweets, the experts’ tweets, the most recent tweets, my network’s opinion…

Blended TV it’s an “enabler”: available on API form (meaning that it can be research enabled and formatted to respond to questions: What programs are buzzing? What people say about my channels? What are the comments on this movie? Etc), the answers to these searches can be integrated to an “end-user” service, created for the viewer.

Transmedia Lab is a project that we build together, a collective adventure, a community gatherer around our passion: the transmedia, the digital writing and the multiple screens. We count on you for your contributions in creating the reference transmedia community. It is your turn to play!

Credits

This series of actors helped us on our evolution, involved themselves in the new formats development or they just simply opened their door and their ear to our transmedia ideas!

While the founding team of  Transmedia Lab remains more than important, we are canalizing our thoughts to:

Seize the media (Lance Weiler et Anita Ondine), Starlight Runner (Jeff Gomez), Pierre Lescure et Alex Berger, Tim Kring, Christy Dena, Générale de Production (Jérémy Pouilloux), Mascaret (Bénédicte Lesage), Making Prod (Matthieu Viala), Bridges (Eric Pellegrin), Faismoi jouer (Julien Aubert), Caroline Gerdolle, Honkytonk (Arnaud Dressen, Guillaume Urjewicz), Happy Fannie (Mathieu Chereau et Sandrine Girbal), Mutation Narrative (Simon Kansara), Enfin Bref (Jeremy Sahel), Trajectoire Givrée (Brigitte Coquelle), Darjeeling (Marc Lustigman, Noam Roubah) et Brèves de Trottoir , Endemol (Frédérique Micouleau, Axel de Charentenay), Citymoviz (Laurent Guerin), Silex (Elisa Larrière, Judith Nora), Story Factory (Dan Benzakein et Sandra Albertolli), Upian (Alexandre Brachet), In Prod We Trust (Cyril Pennec), Les Raconteurs (Sarah Hemar), BBC (John Denton), Idao (Franck Perrier), Google Creative Lab (Ed Sanders), IMCA (Pascal Josephe), Club Galilée (Philippe Chazal), Médiamétrie, Emery Doligé, Vivaki (Gaël Solignac)

CNC (Laurent Cormier, Guillaume Blanchot), SACD (Pascal Rogard), SPI, La Femis (Marc Nicolas), Les Gobelins, National Film and Television School of London (David Croft), l’ONF (Office national du film du Canada, Tom Perlmutter, Monique Simard, Hugues Sweeney), France Culture (Xavier Delaporte), Forum d’Avignon (Laure Kaltenbach), Ministère de la Culture, EBU Eurovision (Nicoletta Lacobacci, Nicolas Jeanrenaud), Forum des Images (Laurence Herszberg), EU Media (Nathalie Chesnel, Arnaud Pasquali), Media Club (Jérôme Chouraqui, Florence Sandis), Paris Sorbonne University, Cap Digital (Jeremy Sahel à nouveau), Paris 2.0, Paris Science, Festival 4 écrans (Claire Leproust again), SNPTV (Aude Tremedet), Buzz the brand, EGTA (Anne-Laure Dreyfus), Cinéma Tous Ecrans (Gaetano Stucchi), INA (Ana Vinuela et Dominique Gratiot), Stratégies, …

This month, the main speaker is Andrea Phillips, co-designer and writer of America 2049, a transmedia project/Facebook game/alternate reality game from human rights group Breakthrough. Lasting for 12 weeks, the game incorporated websites and live events.

Andrea’s other transmedia and ARG projects have also included Routes for Channel 4 Education, The Maester’s Path (Game of Thrones), and Perplex City.

Alexis Kennedy will be talking about Varytale, an open and intensely sexy, platform for building (and monetizing) interactive stories. Alexis is the Chief Narrative Officer and Chairman of Failbetter Games, the company behind the award-winning Echo Bazaar.

Noam Sohachevsky, the Product Director of Picklive (a real-time fantasy football game) will provide a brief history about his project and what they’ve learnt over the past 2 years about designing for split attention. He’ll also talk about different patterns within TV programmes that one should consider when creating a 2 screen or split attention project. at Picklive.

Julian Phillips (BBC) and Matt Wieteska (Six to Start) will introduce The Code, a groundbreaking TV documentary/treasure hunt airing this summer that combines Lost, Masquerade and online gaming into a heady and fun mix.

Booking Information:

This event is free to attend, but members of the public must pre-register via the simple Eventbrite sign-up. You can find more information about the event here.

BAFTA’s public events and online resources aim to bring closer to the creative talent behind your favorite games, films, and TV shows. Find out more at www.bafta.org/newsletter,www.facebook.com/bafta or www.twitter.com/baftagames

StoryWorld Conference aims to help attendees develop new revenue streams and add depth to their narrative. Through seminars and workshops, this event strives to help at the understanding of cross-media partnerships and transmedia-friendly story development, while providing the ideal setting for establishing new partnerships.

The event promises to help attendees:

• Discover the best ways to partner with complementary media and increase the value of your intellectual content
• Make deals and connect with potential partners at structured networking events
• Learn best practices from global transmedia front-runners
• Hear case studies from successful media companies already profiting from a transmedia approach

This brand-new event is making waves throughout the entertainment community with speakers like Lance Weiler, Jeff Gomez, Robert Pratten and Christy Dena.

Here you can find more information about the event. Hope to see you there!