The Amazing (Story) World of Gumball

I’ve been working on the story world extension of a new show for Cartoon Network called ‘The Amazing World Of Gumball’.

I want to go into lots of detail, but I can’t right now – it’s under wraps until we launch.  The strategy was designed between seasons with a tight team – a handful on strategy from the Cartoon Network’s side, and of course the key creatives from the Gumball team: Ben Bocquelet, James Lamont, Jon Foster & Mic Graves worked on the creative & story lining.

We knew there was value in being in these spaces, but we new whatever we did – it had to be excellent.   The team delivered some truly brilliant comedy – incredibly designed, beautifully written – and importantly – the content adheres to the strength of each publishing platform.

I was able to show some sneak peaks of the campaign to a select few, one of whom was film maker Lance Weiler who suggested I explore the value of transmedia on development process. He will be talking about this (Stories as R&D) at StoryWorld Conference in San Francisco later this year.

I asked writer James Lamont his thoughts on this.    ‘It provided us with an opportunity to closely examine some of the less explored character traits of main characters – most notably Nicole – which has already had an impact on the writing of series 2, even helping to shape the entire plot of one episode.”

Jon Foster (writer) adds, ‘You get to imagine what life is like everyday in Elmore without Gumball necessarily tearing through it causing trouble’.     And in terms of design, director Mic Graves notes ‘(it has given time for) Antoine Perez to play with mood and lighting in his art direction, something that will inform and inspire the work on the second series styling.’

Sorry I can’t say more. (What a tease). But you can read a whole lot more about the development process in the Toonzone interview with Ben here.  And you can check out Gumball’s home made website here.

So begins my investigation into these kind of projects and their influence on the development process.  Alongside marketing, publicity, reach, social engagement and all that jazz – can we add ‘development’ (in a measurable way) to the list of reasons we should commission story world extensions like these?

I will try to come back with more.  And a list of the amazing creative & production Gumball people who worked on this when I can.

In the meantime – Gumball episodes premiere on Monday on Cartoon Network US 7:30/6:30 central.  The rest of world later this year. And the online story world will debut soon…  

Sterling Lack of Insight

Sterling's Golden Waste of Time

Grrrr.

OK, So I’ve been writing a blog today about fictional characters and their portrayal on Twitter & Facebook but … screw that … I need to get something more pressing off my chest.

For those of you who have been following the latest season of Mad Men, you’ll know that Roger’s storyline features the writing of his memoirs – ‘Sterling’s Gold’.  If, like me, you’re a serious fan you would have been excited by the prospect of some Sterling Draper Cooper Price back story to enjoy between seasons 4 and 5.

If, like me, you work in cross media narrative you’ll also be delighted at what was to be such an excellent and simple execution of story world extension.

Except that it isn’t.

‘Sterling’s Gold’ so says one reviewer on Amazon –  ‘is a compilation of lines from the actual show.’.  What?

I’m actually dumbfounded and hoping I’ve missed something, but from the reviews it seems not.  ‘I was expecting a “memoir”, as it was presented in the show. To get 150+ pages of one liners straight from the script was a huge disappointment.’  My feelings exactly.

This is where I would like to rant for a couple of paragraphs about the rape of story and slack interpretation by various IP stakeholders – but I can’t even do that.

It’s repurposed content.  Actually, strike that.  It’s regurgitated content.   A Sterling waste of time.

What a missed opportunity to tease out and seed storylines for the new season.  What a chance tossed away!

This is one of the top US Dramas – and the AMC positioning statement is that:  ‘Story Matters Here’.   They matter on the driving platform apparently, and nowhere else.   Their off-air strategy must read ‘Monetize Loyalty’ (wasn’t it supposed to be ‘reward’?).

What the point?   Just read the fansite ‘What would Roger Do‘, or watch this.

#TransmediaNext

Transmedia Next

On the 7th of September, those bright sparks from Seize the Media came to London to show us what’s what with  their 3 day Transmedia Course – Transmedia Next.

Over 3 fascinating days Anita Ondine, Lance Weiler, David Beard and Inga Von Staden walked us through the mostly practical (but sometimes theoretical) process of creating a transmedia property.   From media architecture and storyworld bibles to manipulation of  metadata, management, the future and more.

As is usual in workshops, we were broken into smaller focus groups -  the objective – write a pitch for a transmedia project.

All pretty straight forward, but for the added excitement of having to acquire our ‘brief ‘ by cracking a series of clues, revealed via code, web links, voice mails and notes pasted in toilets (seriously).

I have run panels, written about and been enthused by the theory of transmedia storytelling for sometime – but in practice it was a challenge.    It was difficult to think about metadata, RFDI chips and code breaking in the same context, or environment as storytelling.

The Group and I discuss Story

We had to rewire our thinking back to a simple place where story was central – but then apply the basics of that to an audience who consume story so very differently.   Keep it simple, but then make it complex enough to engage on new, immersive and constantly evolving levels of engagement.  It’s a bit of a head fuck.

I was lucky to debrief over coffee with Alison Norrington (PHD researcher, transmedia writer, storyteller) and we touched on the difficulties facing writers who want to work in this new environment.    Is there a new breed coming?  There needs to be.

Lance Weiler called transmedia storytelling the return to a more ‘campfire scenario’ where stories become passed down, elaborated on, reinterpreted, and retold.   So here we have flashes of Barthes ‘Death of the Author’ – since text and author are even less related under new storytelling methodology.

As a writer, or a storyteller, once again your creativity is at the heart, but ownership can’t be.

Theory aside, writing the pitch was fun and remarkably easy for this very reason.  After a difficult day and a half, one smart member of our group (the very clever Jean Pierre Magro)  pulled our heads out of the digital  ‘cloud’ and back to the story.  When the story came, the rest followed with relative ease.  (oh, and we won the pitch… !)

So there the course left me.  Pondering story and authored environments.   Invigorated and inspired.

At the lovely venue over looking the Thames, delegates could post transmedia related questions on the window, which other delegates were invited to answer.

It was there, written on a yellow post-it note, I found my perfect description of transmedia storytelling:  ‘Permanent imbalance’.

* Photos c/o Tom Evans