by Deni Susic, published on 26.04.2011

After “The search engines” and “3D relief”, the 4^th meeting of the Ina SUP professionals focused on the subject of transmedia in TV production. Jean-Yves Lemoine, a specialist of media convergence, and Didier Giraud, coordinator of the Ina seminars, led the debate.

 

Context

The multiplication of media platforms has led to an individualization of audiovisual content consumption. Audiences have also become internet users, immersed in a digital flux of continuous information. Uses have evolved: these internet users have also become multi-taskers. They want emotion and proximity. They want to feel, participate, create and communicate. For these reasons, audiovisual production has to invent transmedia formats, to capture the attention of these super-solicited audiences.

First part speakers: “How does Transmedia mobilize competencies?”

Jean-Claude Mocik – Head of the directing department of Ina SUP
Bruno Masi - Head of the journalism department of Ina SUP
Eric Viennot – Director of Lexis Numérique and creator of « In Memoriam »
Mathieu Leblanc et de Mathieu Salomé – Producers – Aomys

An author tells a story, a transmedia author creates an experience

The ability of a transmedia author to target an audience and determine the platforms to reach them are the characteristics that differentiate him from a traditional author.

In terms of writing, the notion of “participation” and using the right media are an integral part of the development of a transmedia project. Ideally, these approaches are included from the conception stage (more efficient).

In the US, transmedia authors are called “Story Architects”. They’re “Supermen” who script a universe on several media. Their job consists of isolating the narrative elements and transmitting them while creating emotion. They know how to work in teams, accept the expertise brought in by new participants and understand the specificity of each medium. These profiles are relatively rare in France.

In the journalistic domain, it’s possible to find a certain resemblance between the “Shiva Journalist” and the “Story Architect”. Bruno Masi, Director of the journalism department of Ina SUP, relates the birth of the “Shiva Journalist” to the emergence of new technologies, and he warns us about the economic overexploitation of this new type of journalist: the “Shiva Journalist” is a DOP, cameraman, sound engineer, editor, graphic designer, community manager, all at the same time. This can be considered like a danger for the profession.

 

The influence of video games

“Video Games have become the pop art of the 21^st Century”

It’s difficult to contradict Eric Viennot, the creator of the game “In Memoriam”, when he announces this in the introduction of his intervention.

With his company Léxis Numérique, Eric Viennot is developing concepts of “total fiction”. According to him ARGs are too complicated to play and remain, for the most part, promotional works or simple derived products.

A total fiction is an experience that blurs the boundary between reality and fiction. It allows players to follow a mystery in a non-linear way, to get involved, to modify the course of its story and become the hero. This experience exists on its own. The platforms that build it are independent.

On the contrary, in ARGs, the player is really guided: accompaniment, engagement and reward processes are created. For example, In Memoriam: Julie’s character was an investigator who sent emails as soon as a player took too long to solve a mystery.

These markers, as Eric Viennot calls them, allow the game’s editor to “track” the player’s progress. According to him, these mechanisms specific to videogames seem essential in a transmedia project.

Furthermore, the development of a “total fiction” is very different from that of a traditional fiction. On his latest project, Eric Viennot dedicated an entire year to documentation – accumulating the themes touched upon in the game – with the idea of establishing a coherence between places and characters.

Whatever his cultural knowledge might be, he says, an author/conceiver is never protected from players that might be better than him. After that, the tools and mechanisms of the game are set up. Finally, he establishes the different levels of the story – the possible itineraries of the player – and creates the project bible.

“The Gameplay and the story have to be conceived and weaved simultaneously”

Is transmedia the business of an author or of a conceiver? Opinions diverge. Will an author be able to create an interaction with his audience? Will a conceiver know how to bring to life and make his characters coherent? What we learn from In Memoriam, is that it’s perfectly possible for a conceiver from the world of video games to create immersive transmedia experiences. However, it’s important to note that the development time of such projects are much longer than traditional linear fictions.

 

A need for training, collaboration and models

Jean-Claude Mocik, director of the directing department of the Ina SUP, summarized, in a few sentences, the need to establish transmedia specifications for audiovisual professionals :

“There’s a real need for training, reflection and exchanges between audiovisual professionals. Traditional authors will have to profoundly review their approach to their profession.”

Indeed, it’s very complicated for a single author to elaborate a transmedia experience without surrounding himself with a multidisciplinary team to support its creation and distribution. In order for this team to work, it has to come together around a project. Mathieu, producer of Aomys, considers that the climate is favorable to share knowledge between professions and competencies: “There is a real opening in the field of audiovisual production for the convergence of classic and new competencies. In terms of writing, a synchronicity of forms and professions is necessary.”

In France, however, transmedia projects remain relatively few and difficult to finance. References are beginning to appear but there are still very few models. Mathieu Leblanc concludes: “Before, we had to create prototypes for cars, today, we have to create prototypes for circuits.”

Second part speakers: “How technology is impacting the financing of programs?”

Véronique Marino, Digital business development consultant – Espace in.fusion and director of the Interactive Media program of the INIS (Québec)
Valérie Bourgoin – Director of the Video Game and Digital Creation department – CNC
Jérémy Pouilloux – Producer – La Générale de Production

Towards a communal taxonomy

There exists an understanding and language problem between “classic” audiovisual producers and producers from the web. Few players from the world of the web and interactivity are integrated in traditional production companies. Furthermore, audiovisual production doesn’t really understand the production delays of web creation. It’s incapable of challenging the quotes made by professionals in that field. The audiovisual producer doesn’t really know how to estimate the cost of an interactive component. This will require a redefinition of human resources inside production companies and the creation of a common dictionary.

Transmedia is an artistic and financial challenge

As new uses lead us to new forms of content, the financing of a transmedia work remains a real challenge. A transmedia producer will have to fight. Finding the funds to finance a transmedia project is difficult. Jéremy Pouilloux, producer with La Générale de Production, comments: “Transmedia is a loosing production economy compared to traditional productions.”

According to him, it would be too easy to blame it all on the pre-financing crisis. Distributors, even if they are touched, still remain major and dominant actors in the financing of works, transmedia or others. The CNC production and development funds have managed to create a momentum. Furthermore, the opening of the support account is very good news for the producers of new media works.

The CNC also allows, within certain criteria, the input of a brand.

Brand-content, the relationship between a brand and a producer, a brand and a content, can be envisioned, but is confronted with many challenges. When a project is natively transmedia, it’s difficult to integrate it into advertising calendars. In terms of “timing”, in most case studies, the CNC has realized that the associations between producers and brands doesn’t work, because of the constraints established by the public establishment. Brands want a large distribution of the project first and foremost while the CNC is in a logic of helping creation.

Under the impulse of social media, post-financing, especially in the form of micro-payments, is a possibility for producers. It’s possible to sell certain contents, like applications and mini-games, through these means. Detective Avenue, for example, sells a package of SMS cues for 3€ on its internet site.

The Canadian Example

In 2007, Telefilm Canada created a new media fund, the CMF-FMC, destined for non-television content (multimedia, games, etc). This fund has a good track record since the organism has acquired a real know-how in the field of non-linear production.

Last year, a federal decision was taken that sent a real shock wave through Canadian TV producers. From now on, they have to subject themselves to the web game, meaning that they must develop an interactive component in order to be eligible for pre-financing.

The NFB has also stopped its distributing activity. From now on, the organism only finances artistic residencies. Despite that, they are successfully fulfilling their role, by offering very creative contents.

In terms of brand-content, more and more brands are participating in content production. To go back to the author-artist issue, it’s important that the latter question his role in this case. An artist has to understand that he’s not doing things for himself but for others.

There is one more real difference between Canada and France. Whether it’s in development or in production, a project’s ability to generate audience is key. The FMC asks producers to make the necessary efforts to find a minimum return on investment.

About the author : Deni Susic

Graduate of an Audiovisual Production MBA at the Superior School of Management, Deni worked for the production companies Few Interactive and Karé Productions. Soon, he became interested in the possibilities offered to the traditional audiovisual content by the evolving new screens and the social-medias. Since April 2011, he developed an international community of “story architects” as well as a discussion and exchange portal for the transmedia actors: Mediactivists.com.