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'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.

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

Arcade Fire Live

Thank god for the Internet.  It means I can gleefully ignore all crap music.

Note: This is not an article about illegal file sharing, the digital economy bill etc etc etc etc…

Sell-outs Arcade Fire (keep up, hipsters) played a live YouTube webcast from Madison Square Garden in New York on August the 5th.

Directed by Terry Gilliam, the Canadian band wowed audiences of up to 10 million with new tracks from critically acclaimed ‘The Suburbs’ as well as a handful of tracks from ‘Funeral’ and ‘Neon Bible’.

Viewers could even switch camera angles and crap like that – a cool alternative to queuing in the rain for 3 hours to get the sweet spot, front row, directly opposite the hot rhythm guitarist.

This gig is forming part of a new series called Unstaged for YouTube.

I’m interested in what’s happening online with music television.  I used to work with the guys at Rockfeedback TV – a true guerilla force in music television, innovative, impeccable taste and not to mention ridiculously young.

They provide an online music service the bigger music networks have yet to rival.   It’s a powerful example of music and television working together and feeding each other.

Creating music content is relatively cheap – no writers, no actors, no rehearsals.   You can usually work with existing stage lighting and plug into the mixing desk for your sound.   Shooting formats are basic – a Z5 or Z7 will do just fine.

Also, unlike almost every other television format, you have a huge obsessive fan base ready to pounce on any new material you release, earnestly sharing with all their friends; such is the highly social and active audience that loves music.

Music TV needn’t be forced to interview the Justin Beibers’ of the world, because the internet has fractured consumers, resulting in an endless bifurcation of taste.   This means Arcade Fire or Fleet Foxes can headline a live internet gig, while on television they would probably be bundled into a Glasto special, or tucked away in C4’s now defunct music night-part.

That isn’t to say that the music industry is booming online in a commercial sense.   But consumers are in the driving seat, heading to small hamlets online specifically catering to their precise taste.

Rockfeedback TV,   Que Pasa for Red Bull, and The Black Cab Sessions are among the ‘fast & furious’ online music channels providing this kind of on demand, but still editorialized content.

And with 10 million viewers tuning in to what basically amounts to an in store album launch – live webcasting and live music are bound forever to be the perfect partners.    I predict a lot more of this to come.

As the music industry and digital content makers continue to find ways to monetize this process, we can just sit back and enjoy.   So much of the music industry is utter, mind bending, illogical crap –the digital expansion is a godsend for those of us who want to swat the buzz.

The question fills me with pure, stomach churning fear. The measurement of your success or cataclysmic failure is there for all to see – plastered across research presentations, YouTube ‘hits’, downloads – all manor of rigid, unspinable data, far to readily available to humiliate you in the next digital strategy update.

It’s not total creative insecurity; it’s that I fundamentally disagree with the idea of targeting audiences with the sole purpose of having them do your marketing for you.  It’s out of touch, arrogant and doomed to failure.

And anyway, ‘viral’ is an adjective, not a noun.

I don’t suppose Neil Cicierga who wrote and directed the Harry Potter Puppet Pals was given a brief, 3 weeks, and a couple of thousand quid to make his You Tube ‘viral’ – it doesn’t work like that.

He is a fan boy, who over 5 years (yes, he started at the age of 17) developed a comedy concept from basic flash animation into an 86 million ‘hits’, puppet musical sensation.   Try costing that up, it will make your eyes bleed.

It’s also virtually impossible to ‘fake’ a viral.  You can ask a fat kid to do a light saber show – but if it isn’t real no one is gonna spread it.  You just can’t fake these kind of football mishaps.

Despite the perfect storm of marketing strategy to the contrary, the social marketing ‘audience’ is more discerning than ever.   Just ask Henry Jenkins.   From a recent interview in iMediaConnection.com he says:  ‘In general, I have declared war on the concept of “viral media.” As a model, it leads media producers to think in the wrong ways about the value of their content and its relationship to the audience.’

‘Taken at face value, it offers us a smallpox-soaked blanket approach to media distribution: Unknowingly infect your consumer and let them spread the germs to their friends and neighbors. In fact, in a world with many media choices, consumers are actively selecting what content is meaningful to them and circulating it consciously to people they think may be interested.’

Yes Uncle Henry, you can’t give a girl a video virus like you can give her herpes.

Despite this, companies such as The Viral Factory have made big business out of building a highly coordinated social media campaign.  But this isn’t because they made a good ‘viral’ – the videos they make are brilliant, funny and have great creative concepts at their heart. It’s lovingly developed content, with time and budget spent – plus they know where to stick it so it’s found.

So no, I can’t make you a viral, but I can make something fucking ace with a great idea plus enough love or money or time.   You know, just like it’s always been.

Football is the most beautiful, sexy, exciting sport on earth.   To play and to watch.  It is.  And the world cup is the Paris Fashion week of the football calendar. Only it only comes once every 4 years. That, my dear girlfriends, is delayed gratification right there.

I played right throughout university. Sure, it was 3rd grade women’s division in a small town in N.S.W, and any goals I scored were accidental, and usually off my bum or boobs – but I loved every minute of it. Never have I been so physically fit -  during that time my thighs were a thing of wonder.

And here’s why – Players cover 8-12km during a match, consisting of 24% walking, 36% jogging, 20% coursing, 11% sprinting, 7% moving backwards and 2% moving whilst in possession of the ball (1).

That is an exceptional work out by any standard. Fat burning, cardio intense, and great for toning your legs and butt.

But football is also the perfect spectator sport for women.  It’s full of drama, tears, pain, love, passion. Yes, the players can seem histrionic, manipulative and sulky at times – but I could use those adjectives to describe myself and most of my girlfriends.   You recognize the game play, ladies.

If rugby is the sport of ugly blokes (broken noses & battered ears) cricket the sport of slightly flabby public school boys, formula 1 the sport of short men…..  then, surely Football is the sport of lovers?  All that passion and tanned skin?  A 90 minute game is like a summer affair on the Italian Riviera.

But why don’t more ladies love the game?  The reason is almost certainly the fans.  Big, bald, bellied men downing pints and scratching their bums.   Taking up all the room at the bar.   Crash tackling each other in the stands after every goal – it can be more than a little intimidating.

I also blame WAGS who seem to have defined the only role for women in football.   The very definition of ridiculous.

But please – don’t blame something so beautiful for having so many hideous stalkers.  It’s not footballs’ fault.

Football is beautiful to watch – check out Zinedine Zidane’s goal in the Champions League grand final in 2002.  Football can make you burst with national pride – check Michael Owens’s world cup goal against Argentina (but ignore the rest of his career).  Football can make you cry (lucky for Gazza, I can’t find a link.)

So get into the world cup ladies!  Follow the fun on Twitter.   Check out the upcoming matches here.  Learn as much as you can on ITV and the BBC‘s world cup sites.  It’s going to be a cracking few weeks.

Oh, and football is for women because its full of fit, sweaty, rich blokes.   22 on the field at once!  In case you needed another reason.

Its all about storytelling and the challanges in working within modern media frameworks.   A great session for writers and hopefully a reminder that story is everything.

With these  super talented experts involved -  Matt Locke, Anna Rafferty,  Matt Costello,  Dan Hon, Phil Davies & Alice Taylor – it should be an insightful afternoon.

True Stories About Transmedia
An Expert Guide to the Complex Task of Designing Immersive Story Worlds

It is an incredibly exciting time to tell stories!  New creative talent is emerging into a landscape which is a world away from the industry of the past. Audiences are immersed in different forms of media and stories are being told across multiple platforms. If you are new to the Kid’s industry, or indeed to the world of multiplatform, this event will help you stay ahead of the curve and harness the storytelling potential of this rapidly changing world.

The Producers Guild of America recently took the unprecedented step of adding ‘Transmedia Producer’ to its list of credits – the first such amendment in its 60 year history, proof indeed that the jobs market in this area is growing in both size and stature.

But let’s get practical.  How does it work? How can you capture commissioners’ imaginations with a ‘Transmedia strategy’ for your proposal?  How can you shape the development process to allow for multiplatform expansion? Should you ever write with licensing in mind? What are the limitations in the kids’ market? How important is it to work with marketing teams to shape the narrative?

Our expert panel will share their stories of building immersive story worlds on today’s shifting sands. We’ll discuss controlling the chaos as the audience interprets your narrative in their uniquely delightful, but sometimes disturbing, ways… And why Peppa Pig couldn’t endorse Labour

Register here – Follow here

Check out David Cameron answering tough questions from Jordan Southwell on Gordon Brown, the Economy, and Barack Obama.    A bit of fun for your election hangover, enjoy.

‘Kick His Ass Dude!’  I tweeted.   ‘Fight, Fight, Fight’  I chanted!  Way too excited to sleep.    Man… this was gonna get uuuuuugly, and I couldn’t wait.

And he did it.  A proper fight broke out,  and we even got twitpics of the bloody aftermath.

If you havn’t followed it – get your A into G and jump on board with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s live performance of Romeo & Juliet on twitter.

Gripping?  Yep.   They have bloody nailed it.

Nice Guardian write up here, if you’re still unconvinced about twitter and the arts – seriously its here to stay, and people are using it for some really fun, exciting and innovative stuff.

Here’s an idea of what to expect:  @romeo_mo ’2 against one call of duty and still win? Thats how the montagues do it!! BRAPBRAP!’

From @mercuteio ‘Shit. Prince of pussy’s is here (his big sis is quite hot)Better keep @romeo_mo entertained or things could get messy (not Lionel)’

From @tybalt_cap : ‘Look at them. A full on joke. You have to earn a place. They failed from the start. #montaguescum’

From @julietcap16 ‘Jeesh school only finished hall an hour ago and iv already witnessed more drama than I hve all day! A fist fight betwen dad and Tybalt…’

Heaps of fun. And its The Bard, man.  Surely that’s Britain with Talent!

Kick-Ass is Out Now

Kick-Ass had the all the hallmarks of a masterful Transmedia property.    The comics, the fake Myspace pages, the YouTube viral…  There were so many places to engage with Kick-Ass, its surprising I knew nothing before seeing @wossy ‘s tweets about attending the premiere and being ‘so proud’ of his wife.

So, my entry point to the Kick-Ass IP was the film, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.   I love the idea of real people playing slightly crap Superheroes, and have worked on some initial concepts in this vein at Cartoon Network.

But I was pretty disappointed to discover that Red Mists’ crime fighting website – redmist.org – mentioned as a bit of a running gag does not exist.   Fail.

These days there isn’t really an excuse for this.   If the URL was unavailable, or too expensive, they should have changed the script.  If his address was ‘redmist8.org’ it might have even been funnier.

I watched the film with absolutely no knowledge of the background – and the first point I reached out to find out more I hit a dead end.

If the point of the gag was that Red Mists’ site didn’t really exist, there still should have been something there.     A fake site for a red headed pole dancer with clever hidden redirects, perhaps?

It’s surprising,  as the rest of the Transmedia production is ok.  The main giveaway that Kick-Ass’s Myspace page isn’t actually run by the fictional 21 year old is his music taste.   Morcheeba?   Were they even cool first time around?