by Marc Guidoni , published on 2.10.2009

When we try to explain to others what transmedia is, we are generally bothered by the secret frustration that we can’t just say: look at this program on these media and you’ll understand straight away… When we talk about 3D cinema, it’s enough to suggest a viewing of “Coraline”… the experience is there, only a movie ticket and a pair of polarizing glasses away… Transmedia is first and foremost an immersion into a universe of content. It’s as difficult to describe as underwater diving and the sensation of breathing under water to someone who hasn’t tried it at least once.

However, there is a feature film that allow us to get close to this feeling of immersion. This film is “Time Code” by Mike Figgis here.
The process is simple as ABC: the screen is split horizontally and vertically, giving us 4 sub-screens of the equal sizes. And the show begins… We then see 4 films taking place in a continuous shot under our eyes. A common set: Los Angeles. 4 soundtracks are heard simultaneously.

What’s fascinating is that it only takes us a few minutes to completely forget the technical novelty and get wrapped up in the story, in all 4 stories in fact, and we quickly understand that they ultimately are one. In fact, a small earthquake, as often happens in California, disrupts the 4 scenes at a precise moment. And we then perceive, in a fraction of a second, that this whole universe is synchronized… Little by little, the characters that have been evolving in their quarter of the screen will be crossing into the others, and meeting each other…
A shot in a scene happening on the upper right corner will be completed by the reverse shot of the same scene happening in the lower left corner… Imagine all the acrobatics that this system allows, Mike Figgis played with them endlessly…

Time Code seems to me to hold two lessons:
- The absolute necessity of having a real and solid script… We can forget the technical system because the story is a real movie story.
- The audience’s ability to follow several films at the same time, including soundtracks. In a way, it’s the ultimate conclusion of flicking where flicking is no longer necessary. The brain has learned to take all this in without any questions. This film could exist in its classic form with an editing and a mix chosen by the director, but here, each spectator creates their own image and sound edit in the privacy of their own brain.

Therefore, even thought the universe of “Time Code” is fundamentally synchronized and doesn’t use the key tools of transmedia (several entry points, participative…) its viewing can really be seen as a “first dive” into the discipline…