I have been graciously invited to come speak at the 2013 edition of the Filmteractive conference, to be held in Lodz, Poland on the 25-26 September. It promises to be a couple of interesting days, as we’ll hear about everything from cutting edge second screen solutions from ExMachina to the art of including brands in multiscreen formats.
I’ll be talking specifically about two projects we’ve developed and produced over the last couple of years. One is The Mill Sessions, combining music with cross- and social media strategies, elaborate financial models with transmedia storytelling, and getting it all distributed on a great number of platforms. I’ll talk about what we did, how it all worked out and what we learned. The same goes for the right now ongoing project The Energy Ambassador, which can most closely be described as corporate storytelling boosted by transmedia storytelling methods. How did we fit ten global companies within the frame of one project? What was the fallout, and what did we learn?
There will be a number of other speakers as well. I spoke to Isa Ostertag from ZDF in Germany about her talk, which is on a topic close to my heart – ”Transmedia Projects on Television”. Isa told me she’ll be talking about the stuff they’ve been churning out at ZDF over the last years:
I will focus on crossmedia storytelling at Second German TV, ZDF. I’ll give examples of non-linear films where for example the plot is only solved via ARG in the internet (“Dina Foxx”), examples of episodic storytelling where we try to adapt popular Youtube-contents to our TV-station (“ZDF-Mashups”) and will go into some strategic thoughts on why formats in digital media are essential for the future of a Public Broadcaster like ZDF.
Do you feel transmedia and television are a good fit?
Yes I do. In fact, since Social Viewing is becoming so popular (almost standard), I would imagine any television show soon will be transmedia. That of course depends on how you define transmedia…
Do you feel the tv industry is ready to go for transmedia methods and approaches?
Well it’s coming. At MIP TV this year in spring they was an 80% increase in registered digital media people – so the media business is eventually changing. Someone at MIP TV this year said “Innovation is no option” – that fits the situation. You cannot “unthink” the internet, smartphones ect anymore.
In your mind, what are the most obvious benefits of applying transmedia storytelling methods?
Most obviously to engage a forthcoming audience, an audience who grew up with digital media in the phase of learning to speak.
I hope to meet many of you in Poland at the end of the month!
Simon Staffans // Evolving Media 