It’s a premiere ! By the end of 2012, six European TV channels (Canvas (Flanders, Belgium), VARA (Netherlands), SVT (Sweden), NRK (Norway), YLE (Finland) and TV3 (Denmark)) will join their forces to broadcast a large-scale drama tv series, called “The Artists”

Focusing on an international artist’s community, based in Copenhagen, this thriller will start with the enigmatic disappearance of one of its members.

Taking advantage to the Multitasking trend, the production decided to allow the public to discover the story and characters through various media, kept secret at the moment.

According our information, The main characters will be played by actors Tuva Novotny, Donald Högberg (both from Sweden), Tommi Korpela, Elmer Bäck (both from Finland), Thure Lindhardt, Paw Henriksen (both from Denmark), Viktoria Winge (from Norway), Teun Luijkx (from The Netherlands) and Thomas Ryckewaert, Johan Van Assche, Johan Leysen and Lien Van De Kelder (from Belgium). All are acclaimed actors in their respective countries.

Hans Herbots

« The Artists » is a five-episodes series, English/multi-language spoken, with subtitling, to make it more accessible to an international audience.

This European co-production, directed by  Hans Herbots already well kwown in his own country,  produced by Belgian TV production company Caviar, also get support from VAF (B), Media (US), and investment funds Wallimage (B), Mediafonds (NL), Svenska Kulturfunden (FI) and CoBo (NL).

We don’t have access to more information so far on this series which is still in post-production but  we will keep you posted and cover it further in the future.

To be continued…

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

Sandra Albertolli & Dan Benzakiem
Oriane Hurard
Vanessa Meheut
Manon Perroud & Mathilde Prat
Ane Vasile
Stéphane Adamiak
Julien Aubert
Nicolas Brunet
Nicolas Bry
Aurélien Gaucherand & Cyril Huet
Olivier Godest
Sam Howey Nunn
Sébastien Lachausse & Rym Soussi
Deni Susic
Eric Viennot

A big THX to all !
You want to contribute -> transmedia (point) contact (at) orange (dot) com

We make some surprises for 2012 we look forward to sharing with you.
We present our best wishes for the new year the transmedia longer than ever!

The team of Transmedia Lab

A new Orange team
Transmedia Lab is supported by the Transmedia & Social Media team set up in 2010 by Jean-Francois Rodriguez as part of the Orange Content division, and is headed by Morgan Bouchet. The team, which brings together Stéphane Adamiak, Nicolas Labretonnière and Nicolas Brunet, is rich in expertise acquired in the gaming field (engineering, design, release, distribution, etc.) and more generally in content: multi-screen approaches, new marketing practices, emerging business models, new patterns of involvement, community dynamics and so on.

In collaboration with other Orange divisions, the unit aims to design innovative entertainment experiences based on partnerships with the content industry.

New ambitions
As pioneers in transmedia coverage in France, we intend to keep the transmedialab.org blog on the cutting edge of the phenomenon, helping readers to find better information and improve their understanding and grasp of its various facets.

With this in mind, we have decided push our work forward in three major areas :

- Giving more visibility to transmedia phenomena and initiatives in France and internationally: news, presenting new projects, case studies, analyses (usages, marketing, innovation, etc.), interviews with transmedia players and media personalities, events, studies, institutional partnerships and so on.

- Capitalising on our DNA as a Lab with experiments, tools and new technologies: presenting and sharing findings from our transmedia projects (Fanfan2, Detective Avenue, The Prodigies, our future projects) and offering you solutions and tools (API) to test that are developed by our unit in partnership with Group researchers (Technocentre, Orange Labs, R&D, etc.)

- Opening up our blog to contributions from the rest of the Orange Group and external sources, giving you access to new expertise (researchers, sociologists, lawyers, gamers, communicators, etc.), aiming to expand on the transmedia concept in the context of digital culture, film, sport, reading and TV.

We hope very much to hear from you, to ensure that transmedialab.org develops to meet your requirements, and are relying on you to share your contributions, ideas and enthusiasms, so as to broaden the discussion on these new patterns of expression.

Jean-François Rodriguez
Games & Transmedia BU Managing Director (Orange – Content Division)

Morgan Bouchet
VP Transmedia & Social Media (Orange – Content Division)

Assassin’s Creed : Project Legacy

In September 2010, Ubisoft achieved a coup with the launch of a strategy game on Facebook: Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy, aiming to prepare the way for the arrival of Brotherhood, the saga’s third console game. The game offers web-users the opportunity to synchronise their Facebook and Uplay accounts.

Using this synchronisation, a bonus system interlinks the gaming experience of both games: playing Project Legacy, the web-user gains experience and money that can be transferred to the console game. Similarly, playing the console game gives the web-user the opportunity to unlock 25 exclusive missions in Legacy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Assassin’s Creed : Aquilus

The second volume of the Assassin’s Creed graphic novel series, an integral part of the campaign preceding the launch of Brotherhood, came out in November 2010. Writer Eric Corbeyran and artist Djillali Defali, who created the first volume in 2009, return to the story of Desmond to recount the next chapter. Entitled Aquilus, the graphic novel presents events which take place after Assassin’s Creed II, leading to the search for an artefact with great unknown potential.

Assassin’s Creed : Ascendance : a short animated film

Created by UbiWorkshop, the animated short Assassin’s Creed: Ascendance was released in November 2010. The animated adventure, which was produced and developed by Ubisoft Montréal, was available on Xbox Live, PlayStation Store and iTunes for around 2 Euros. The short film was designed to fill in the narrative gaps between Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Plots, betrayals and assassinations… The film brings together all the ingredients behind the series’ success, with a focus on the irresistible rise of Cesare Borgia and Ezio’s role behind the scenes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to Louis-Pierre Pharand, director of UbiWorkshop, Ascendance was a profitable exercise.  “Even today it’s in the top twenty short films sold on iTunes,” confirms the film’s producer.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: becoming the perfect assassin in “multiplayer” and “training-ground” modes

Released in November 2010, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is a direct sequel to Assassin’s Creed II. Surprisingly, while Wired reviewed this new version as a novelty-free retread of the previous title, it was also awarded best video game scenario by the Writers Guild of America in the same year.

In this instalment, Desmond is again controlling Ezio, and the player is called on to explore Renaissance Rome, a city under the thumb of the infamous Borgias. Ezio re-forms the ancient Order of Assassins, recruiting opponents to the Borgias’ power, and together they work to confound the actions of the corrupt family.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On the gameplay side, Brotherhood brings two significant improvements to the saga: multiplayer mode and a training environment to become the perfect assassin.

Developed by Ubisoft Annecy, multiplayer offers several playing modes, based on the solo dynamics. So, depending on mission aims, the player may have to assassinate other players, or become defenceless prey with no option but to hide. This particular mode received strong criticism from the Wired reviewer, who was, however, impressed with “Manhunt” mode, where the player can work as part of a team, with other online players.

In less than a week, Brotherhood sold over a million copies in Europe, making it the fastest selling Ubisoft game ever on the continent. In May 2011 the games developer announced that this third episode in the Assassin’s Creed saga had sold over 8 million copies.

Assassin’s Creed : The Fall

At the end of 2010, the assassins’ saga attracted a major US comic publisher! The Fall is a series of three Assassin’s Creed comics published by DC Comics, where we follow the adventures of a Russian assassin and his descendant. Published in the US and the UK, the series steps away from the characters we have met so far in the saga.

In Russia in 1888, Nikolai is a member of the Russian order of Assassins, who we meet at the start of his new mission: to assassinate Tsar Alexander III and retrieve a mysterious artefact. As with the games, the reader also follows the story of Nikolai’s descendant in modern day America…

According to Cinecomics.fr, the series contains “excellent revelations and a taut and well-developed plotline, alternating between 1888 and 1998 in a perfect rhythm.”

In the Around the Transmedia World interview series, Louis-Pierre Pharand, transmedia producer and director of UbiWorkshop, adds some extra insight into this transmedia approach to the franchise:

“Whatever the medium, we never tell the story of the game: that would be cross-media. With transmedia we open up a new narrative avenue within the brand, which is connected to the brand and respects the parameters of the brand, but is entirely independent, a stand-alone product which will give someone who doesn’t play the video game an excellent experience within the given medium. We also call it an entry point into the brand.”

That’s certainly what has been achieved with The Fall, which can be read, understood and enjoyed without ever having played one of the games. The comic book remains within the framework of the brand, without becoming a derivative product or a mere marketing tool.

For more details, why not listen to what series’ creators Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart have to say, talking in this video about how they created a comic book that contributes to expanding and enhancing the game’s world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Assassin’s Creed: Oliver Bowden’s novels

The writing may be excellent, but Oliver Bowden’s series of linked novels is above all a “novelisation” of the games, a common phenomenon in the video game industry. By remaining faithful to the plotlines of the games, these books bring little in the way of new insight, making them crossmedia rather than transmedia.

Nevertheless, enthusiasts have been able to appreciate this opportunity to get to know the characters better, to learn more about “their thoughts, feelings, fears, pains and hopes… a worthwhile addition to the video game, certainly enjoyable.”

Assassin’s Creed: The Secret Crusade is the third book in the series, published in June 2011. Bowden plunges the reader into the childhood of Altaïr, hero of the first video game; the narrator is none other than Niccolo Polo, father of Marco Polo and… a member of the Brotherhood of Assassins, tracked down by Ezio in Revelations, the latest game in the series.

So while part of the book faithfully follows the events of the first game, The Secret Crusade moves away from it to successfully link to an additional storyline. Fans of the series were therefore able to detect hints in the book of the premise of Revelations, launched a few months later.

Assassin’s Creed : Embers

Released on Xbox Live, PlayStation Store and UbiShop, a few days after the publication of the comic book Assassin’s Creed: Accipiter, Embers is a 22 minute animated film and an epilogue to Ezio’s story.

According to Louis-Pierre Pharand, Embers was “produced in a way that is entirely unique and different from usual production methods. We reused the game environments as well as the characters, animations and models, pulling them together within a more traditional pipeline of linking animations and images. We took our material from inside the game!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

The production technique may be interesting, but can Embers reach a public beyond the fans of the game series? What if, by dabbling in animated production, expectations are raised even higher? Reactions to its premiere screening at the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma provide a good indication of the sort of debate this kind of ambition can provoke.

What next?

Assassin’s Creed Revelations is now on sale, and like its predecessors, provoking plenty of reaction. Whether from hardcore gamers or fans of the game’s world, opinions will differ, and if one chapter of the saga is now complete, another will surely follow, and with it, a new departure resolutely anticipated by the most demanding.

Meanwhile, we can wind up this analysis with a promise for the future: Variety has announced that Sony is hoping to adapt the Assassin’s Creed universe into a film franchise. Crossmedia? Transmedia? We’ll just have to wait and see!

The origins of Assassin’s Creed

Assassin’s Creed, released for PS3 in 2007, was designed at Ubisoft Montreal as an action game, with adventure and infiltration coming together in a narrative inspired by historic fact. The first title in the saga transports us to Jerusalem in 1191 in the role of Altaïr, an elite assassin tasked with bringing hostilities to a halt by attacking both Crusaders and Saracens. There is plenty at stake in the adventure, with the player’s actions deciding whether the Third Crusade will be triggered, settling the fate of the Holy City.

While critics where initially cautious, sales were not: Assassin’s Creed sold over a million copies in its first week, performing far better than expected – a fact emphasised in a press release from the publisher. According to Ubisoft, eight million copies of Assassin’s Creed have been distributed worldwide for different platforms. Patrice Désilets, the game’s creator, believes that between 30 and 35 million people have played the game, once rentals and the second-hand market are factored in.

The world of Assassin’s Creed

Going beyond questions of playability and design, Assassin’s Creed hit the bull’s eye by drawing inspiration from a fascinating period of history and featuring a genuinely charismatic protagonist. But there is more even than that to creating a rich and immersive world, and those who have played the game have become aware that the structure of Assassin’s Creed conceals many mysteries, leaving the way open for numerous new developments…

The real plotline begins in 2012, with a hero called Desmond Miles, an American barman taken prisoner by Abstergo Industries, a pharmaceutical company founded by the Knights Templar.

Desmond is no ordinary patient: hidden in his DNA is precious information about his ancestors, crucial data that Abstergo’s scientists are trying to recover through experiments on genetic memory. Using a machine known as the “Animus”, Desmond relives the actions of his ancestor Altaïr, and in the second title in the series, those of Ezio.

This science-fiction theme, with its contrast to the historical saga of the assassins, is one of the aspects that has most appealed to gamers. Better still, Desmond’s progress, working back through time to relive his ancestors’ adventures, parallels the player’s own immersion in the game’s world. This mirroring of reality is a rare attribute, truly appreciated by gamers. With the essence of the story laid out in this fashion, opportunities to delve ever deeper into the meta-mystery are virtually endless.

Patrice Désilets, the games’ creator, explained to Ecrans.fr that as soon as development was complete on the first game, he wanted to take Desmond’s adventures further. “It felt like I had opened a whole series of doors, and I was eager to start closing some of them. For me, Assassin’s Creed is much more than a game, it’s a whole universe that we had created, and I was eager to explore it further. I wanted to see where it was all going to take us, on the creative level…”

It is with the launch of the second game we can really start talking about this artificial world in transmedia terms. While two further iterations of the first game were created – Altaïr’s Chronicles and Bloodlines, they were produced “under licence” and did not have a major impact.

Lineage, a series of short films broadcast on the internet and TV channel NRJ 12 in the build up to the release of Assassin’s Creed II, cemented the multi-platform approach: the story had started out on one platform and evolved onto another… From that moment on, Assassin’s Creed adopted a fully multi-platform strategy, launching into the creation of comic-books and short films, expanding the game’s world far beyond the usual promotional vehicles for computer games (official websites for each of the three games released on consoles, a host of video trailers, a Facebook page and games for the Facebook platform).

The strategy has been well-rewarded: Assassin’s Creed is now the focus of numerous websites and wikis created by fans, and even fan-fiction…

CHRONOLOGY OF A SUCCESS

First tries…

Assassin’s Creed: Altaïr’s Chronicles

Released in 2008 on Nintendo DS then in 2009 for the iPhone (subsequently renamed Assassin’s Creed HD), the game was developed by Gameloft and published by Ubisoft.
Altaïr’s Chronicles focuses solely on the young Altaïr and events that take place in 1190, in the midst of the Third Crusade. It does not reproduce the story of the first game for portable consoles, choosing instead to explore the protagonist’s youth.  However, by ignoring the SF meta-mystery aspect, and not contributing to the central narrative, this version failed to be adopted as a core part the world of the game

Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines

Released in November 2009 at the same time as Assassin’s Creed II, and developed by Griptonite Games for PlayStation Portable, Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines was the last title to follow the adventures of Altaïr. The story is designed to form a link with the next core game in the assassins’ saga, aiming to uncover a number of mysteries left in suspense by the previous title. Following on from the events of the first Assassin’s Creed game, Bloodlines is also build around Altaïr, who must travel to Cyprus to seek the elimination of the Templars.

First transmedia installments

Assassin’s Creed: Lineage

Created by Ubisoft and broadcast shortly before the launch of Assassin’s Creed II, Lineage is a series of short films that were released on the internet and shown on TV channel NRJ 12.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The films provide insights into Ezio’s family, and so into his motivations. Episode One of the Lineage series was shown for the first time on YouTube on 26^th October 2009, and seen by 1.1 million viewers, which at the time was the highest figure ever for a YouTube video in its first 24 hours online.  The two subsequent episodes attracted audiences of 250,000 viewers.

The films tell the story of Ezio’s father, Giovanni Auditore, his opposition to the Templars and his attempt to prevent a plot to assassinate the Duke of Milan. The story is continued at the beginning of Assassin’s Creed II. The series used the same locations and sets as the Assassin’s Creed II game, and some of the actors’ voices were also used in the game, to help weave the two scenarios into a single tapestry.

Assassin’s Creed II

The second game came out in November 2009 on Xbox 360 and PS3, to an enthusiastic response from the press and gamers. This time the story takes place in Renaissance Italy, with a new protagonist: Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Assassin’s Creed II performed even better than its predecessor, with 1.6 million copies sold worldwide in the first week and total worldwide sales eventually coming close to 9 million.

Assassin’s Creed: the first volume of the comic book

In November 2009 Ubisoft published the first volume of an Assassin’s Creed comic book, in France and Belgium only. Entitled “Desmond”, the comic explores the reasons behind Desmond Miles’ imprisonment in a secret and ultra-secure experimental laboratory.

Published by “Les Deux Royaumes”, the publishing house created by Ubisoft, this comic book series is not just a promotional tool for the games developer. Corbeyran and Defali, well-known figures in the comic book world and the names behind the Stryges series, were put in charge of the project, with the aim of providing further insights into still half-hidden areas of the game’s world.

In volume one, fans learned more about Desmond Miles and his ancestors Altaïr and Ezio, as well as about the famous Patient 16, whose symbols had aroused the curiosity of a large portion of the gaming community.

This is the sort of touch that explains the success of this transmedia franchise: small details scattered through the story’s world which can be developed into the plotline of another complementary narrative. Jeff Gomez characterised them as “distant mountains”, features that appear to be far-off, in the background, but which drive an urge to explore further, and underline the richness of the artificial world.

Assassin’s Creed II : Discovery

Released on Nintendo DS and iPhone at the same time as the main Assassin’s Creed II game, Discovery was developed by Griptonite Games. It’s an action game played as Ezio Auditore, who must travel to Spain to save his brother assassins and defeat a Templar plot.  While the DS version of Assassin’s Creed, featuring Altaïr, the protagonist of the first game, was a prequel which revealed the origins of the character, Discovery is simply a parallel story.

With the launch of Assassin’s Creed III: Revelations, the transmedia world created by Ubisoft will see a new injection of energy. Discover the latest enhancements to this game’s world and its developments here.

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

Balance of Powers introduces us to four main characters and to their Cold War era world. “Their stories converge at a strange city on stilts called Midway; a place between places, where the balance of powers will be decided.”

Murders, international politics, armed interventions, investigations, an ex-spy and a lot of imagination… this are the promises made by this hybrid online experience, a mix between a book and an ARG: a free-to-read online episodic story with special content available only for the subscribers like letters from the characters, live story events online, and even newspapers and artifacts from the story world.

We invite you to discover more on this promising project, guided by one of its creators, Adrian Hon de SixtoStart :

Could you introduce the Transmedia Lab readers to the storyworld of Balance of Powers?
We’ve created an alt-history universe similar to the twentieth-century Cold War world but with some darker, supernatural elements.

What should we expect from the plot and the characters?
There are four main characters, each with very different backgrounds and viewpoints. Sometimes they overlap, but much of the time you’ll be seeing four perspectives on events and will need to join the dots yourself to figure out the truth of the situation.

Balance of Powers seems to join an emerging trend in transmedia projects, more focused on the story and less influenced by the ARG. What is the main promise this storyworld makes to the user?
We’ll tell them a rollicking tale! Alt-history also raises interesting questions about how the world might have turned out if one or two key events had happened differently, so we hope the readers will think as well as enjoy. We don’t think you need cryptography and QR codes just to tell a great story through multiple media.

I’ve read that it’s been a while since you started cooking the Balance of Power’s idea. What made you choose the crowdfunding path to finance this project?
Crowdfunding isn’t just about funding – it’s about building a crowd. We wanted to create a community for our work, and Kickstarter gave us the platform to do that. It gave a focus for our campaign and helped to build buzz as well as budget.

Do you think that crowdfunding is valuable and necessary for a transmedia project? Would you recommend it?

It’s certainly a valuable way of connecting with an audience and raising a fairly modest amount of money, yes, but it’s not necessary. The great thing about crowdfunding is that it doesn’t have any gatekeepers – you don’t need anyone’s permission or blessing to get funding, unlike traditional routes like VC funding or investment or competitive grants – but it’s not easy either, because you have to work hard to spread the word amongst your supporters.

There have been several projects that have not been able to raise much money because they just assumed people would come out of nowhere. So – we’d recommend it, with the caveat that it can be hard work and it’s not an easy route to riches!

Between the gifts offered to your supporters, I’ve read there will be a newspaper, a book and an artifact extracted from the storyworld. Why did you chose those objects and do you think it’s enough to motivate your supporters to join the adventure?

We chose them because they are great ways of telling the story and expanding the world offline. People understand how newspapers, books, and artefacts ‘work’ – they don’t require any special devices or instructions; also, they’re not too difficult for us to make, and we can make them look fantastic without having them be too expensive.

They also allow us to talk about parts of the world in a way that would be more difficult in the main story – for example, a newspaper can include adverts and letter and articles that reveal more of the background. We think they’ve certainly been enough to motivate our supporters – a lot of people have opted for the newspaper or the book!

What will be freely available for the entire community, and what is destined for supporters only?

The main text will be freely available online, so a reader should be able to follow the story and enjoy the tale without paying a penny. But paying supporters will get real-life swag and the chance to take part in live online events.

Have you considered selling paid content, after the launching of the project?

We’ll probably sell the newspaper and books, yes, and perhaps other artefacts and story objects, but the core story will still be free.

Kickstarter represents your choice of pre-financing, have you also imagined other financing paths?
We’re certainly familiar with the process of chasing venture funding and so on, but we didn’t want to do that with this project because we’re in it for the joy of it. Going after the deep pockets isn’t much fun.

You have clearly gathered the needed amount, what would you do with the extra money?
We’ll just be making sure the rewards are the best they can possibly be. We’re not making money out of this – it’s not about profit (yet) – so we really want to thank our supporters for the help they’ve given us.

When will your project be launched and available on the internet?
TBC!

What are your future plans with this storyworld?
If Season 1 goes well, we hope to be back with a Season 2 with an even bigger audience and even better rewards.

Adrian Hon is co-founder and CEO at Six to Start, specializing in game-like stories and story-like games. Clients have included Disney Imagineering, the BBC, Channel 4, and Penguin, and Six to Start has won multiple awards including Best of Show at SXSW.

He also writes about technology for The Telegraph, is writing a Kickstarter-funded book A History of the Future in 100 Objects, and is the co-founder ofTransmedia London. Adrian studied neuroscience at Cambridge, Oxford, and UCSD, and has spoken at TED in California about Mars exploration.

The case study provides an overview of the experiment, which ended in May 2011. Stéphane Adamiak, Transmedia Projects and Partnerships Manager within Orange’s Content Management team, explains some of the lessons learned from this project and talks to us about the subjects of digital writing and interaction with readers.

Fanfan2 Case study

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fifteen years after they first met, the hero of the novel, Alexandre, sets himself the challenge of surprising his wife, Fanfan, everyday. Faced with the scale of this, Alexandre decides to ask readers to help him re-enthral his love!

Initially, this project was ambitious because of its positioning: the original Fanfan community is largely an adult, female readership; what’s more those who read novels appear to be quite remote from the digital world. Now the Fanfan2 adventure is over, have these assumptions been confirmed?

SA: Broadly, yes. However, we witnessed the community getting younger over time. The proportion of 15-25 year olds increased little-by-little, without becoming the most active members. Ultimately, Fanfan2 is not a book but actually the digital extension of a literary work. Although the majority of readers remain attached to the physical book, the question of adopting Fanfan2 is different. Those who are reluctant to adopt digital habits didn’t pay any attention to it, but those who already use social networks were curious and grasped the opportunity!

The collaborative aspect of the work is driven by social media. Readers are invited to respond and to create parts of the story with the author/character. After almost seven months of interaction with the public, how would you rate the level of involvement?

SA: Seven months is actually a real marathon in terms of attention and involvement, but we were surprised by the loyalty of the Fanfan2 community. A hard core of readers was rapidly formed, participating or responding every day and, more widely, this community shrank very little over the months. With Fanfan2, it’s clear that involvement went far beyond simply liking/following (which is frequently limited to a passing interest).

The other surprise was the effort made by participants in terms of their responses and contributions. Users were not satisfied with a single line comment such as “LOL”, they took the time to really enrich the stream of interactions with the characters (without wishing to stay on the right side of them, quite the contrary!). This quickly created a kind of standard and those who joined in the adventure along the way followed this example.

In October 2010, Alexandre Jardin said he was fascinated by the possibility of creating a real time narration and being in permanent contact with readers. How did the FanFan2 community enjoy the experience offered by the author?

SA: Writing in real time in the form of tweeted messages or Facebook statuses leaves a lot of scope for the reader’s imagination, with the latter trying to anticipate and extrapolate whilst waiting for the next episode. After taking the time to grasp the potential and limitations of this writing “in a stream”, Alexandre took great pleasure in playing with the ellipses, the intervals between the main character’s idealistic plans and his carrying them out. It was not unusual for readers to be on the edge of their seats waiting for a report on the “situation on the ground” and sharing their opinions or predictions with others, and even moaning when the character took a long time to tell them what had happened.

On a number of occasions, we were also surprised that the characters were attacked, as if they were really “Facebook” type friends. Alexandre Crusoé, the protagonist, received a ticking off more than once, but it was ultimately only readers who enjoyed playing a role – that of the confidante of a fictional character. Obtaining this result was one of our aims, but it happened far more quickly than we expected.

Happy Fannie, Orange’s teams and Alexandre Jardin needed to work together on this project. How did you divide the duties and know-how?

SA: On the part of Orange, we first took the time to work with Alexandre Jardin on the general concept, adapting his writing to social media and the scheme’s schedule, as well as tailoring it to the brand image. We then linked up with 6Degrees (which brings together a number of companies and studios, including, specifically, Oahu for development, and Unity for design) in order to develop the concept into a website and applications. At this stage, Happy Fannie was already involved in exploratory meetings, but it was at the launch at the end of October that the team, led by Sandrine Girbal, played a central role by moderating the community and monitoring the smooth progress of the story in cooperation with Alexandre Jardin. From that point, we all got together for weekly editorial meetings to discuss the latest news and developments in relation to the project.

This new form of narration allowed readers of Fanfan2 to be immersed in the intimacy of Fanfan and Alexandre in real time. The latter implicitly needed the help of the community every day. Which media most encouraged participation?

SA: The protagonist’s requests were more than just implicit! The real time style of the narration led us to highlight the smartphone aspect, but this media lends itself poorly to writing, which was at the heart of the project (limitations in terms of the interface, context, available time, etc.). Ultimately, it was therefore Facebook that became the hub as it was most widely used by the readership in question and was most suited to the anticipated interaction.

Fanfan2 was created as a project that could be developed as it progressed. What was your strategy for maintaining the loyalty of your community and interest in the experiment for the entire duration of the project?

SA: The establishment of a dedicated team, constantly listening to and in a close relationship with the author, was the key. It’s thanks to this daily attention that we were able to “take the temperature” of the community and respond rapidly to expectations or anticipate lulls in intensity.

Anticipation rightly, but in the longer term, was also our concern. For example, beyond the impetus of the first few weeks, we needed to steer through the minefield of Christmas (leading to an inevitable decrease in public attention and a much smaller team, naturally). In the last few months too, we needed to keep the flame alight by making changes to the format or rhythm to avoid falling into a routine, which could have adversely affected both the public and the team.

On the other hand, our initial plan anticipated the establishment of new modes of interaction with the world of Alexandre Jardin. We could have moved towards applications that aimed to make the atmosphere of Fanfan2 into a social game, which would have made use of geolocation, for example. However, in contact with the community, we came to understand that our audience was made up of readers, who were fans of stories, and whose daily lives were already sufficiently full not to need additional challenges. Benefitting from the time to escape via a serial or soap opera, or a space for sharing and discussion was enough and going further would have divided the community. Instead of sticking with our initial vision, we changed, choosing to give more space and influence to participants’ contributions in relation to the writing, based on a fun, less formal, approach.

Beyond our initial strategy, Fanfan2 was therefore mainly managed “just in time”, responsively and as closely as possible to its public. Obviously, this type of flexibility is far easier to achieve with literary content than with video, for example. Nevertheless, once again, without a dedicated author and a committed editorial team, it would not have been possible to continue for such a long time.

What lessons can be learned from working alongside a “traditional” author?

SA: Alexandre Jardin did not turn out to be traditional in this case. Apart from the aforementioned writing, which clearly remains the domain of the author, it was also a question of collective working methods, a convergence of community management and web development. And even though publishing is a collaborative effort, “traditional” writing has not accustomed authors to this type of interaction. The upstream phase turned out to be the key for this kind of project, in order to guarantee coherence with the reference work and the feasibility of the approach.

There is no generic formula for projects which are so heavily based on encounters/interactions: an author, designers specialising in new media, community managers and, naturally, the public! An adventure packed with lessons, which opens up new prospects for literary works.