Transmedia - So what is it?

Transmedia –

What I’ve gathered from transmedia is that the main point of it is to tell a story across multi media platforms. It’s something that can immerse the viewer in a book, film or game but at the same time these things can work together to entertain and immerse the viewer or they can stand on there own and do it too. For example; Tomb Raider. This is a franchise that has been around for seventeen years and this is a story that has been transformed from an idea, into a game, into a book, into a film. I’m pretty sure they have Lara Croft action figures too! But the point is the audience can relate to the character and environment they have grown to love and feel involved in the story telling as transmedia has evolved it.

In my project I have done this by creating a fantasy world called ‘Tkan’ and giving it a background story so that the gamer can feel like the know more about the world, but at the same time I can transmedia this by taking my environment and putting it on the internet as an educational tool. I can transform it into say a virtual representation of a nation park that people can go online to walk around in. This way my project has changed multimedia platforms from game to education, thus extending the world and use of my project. It also could have been changed into a number of other things such as a game level that then I made a small film on, such as a film that shows the gameplay of the level or the character in the level itself, these different forms immerse the player in different ways but all come together to tell a story.

Researching transmedia has helped me to open my eyes more to what everything could be. You forget sometimes to look at things with open eyes and loose the ideas of merging storytelling with different forms of media. I find know that when I think of a game or something I want to create myself I sit down with a pen and a piece of paper, write my background story but also then think what else could this be? It’s a good tool to develop your ideas and get better at storytelling.

To quote Tyler Weaver who gives an excellent explanation I found of transmedia, ‘Transmedia storytelling is the crafting of stories that unfold across multiple media platforms, in which each piece interacts with the others to deepen the whole – but is capable of standing on its own – giving the audience the choice as to how deep into the experience they go.’ (2013, pg12.)

I agree with this paragraph a lot as Weaver makes a valid point that transmedia is giving the audience the option of how much they are immersed in the story, such as giving them the option to buy books and memorabilia to make them feel like they have something physical as well as mental from the story.

Bibliography –

Weaver, T. (2013). Transmedia Storytelling. In: COMIC'S for film, games and animation. UK: Focal Press. 12.

Here's my draft up of Transmedia too -