Entries Tagged 'News' ↓

Brian Clark, CEO and founder of GMD Studios, talks about Transmedia Business Models

http://henryjenkins.org/2011/11/brian_clark_on_transmedia_busi_1.html

Brian Clark says ‘that the next wave of innovation in transmedia storytelling is going to be about business models rather than storytelling forms’.

Business models from the point of view of a creator, a storyteller, a person whose goal is to make a living making a story.

Five key challenges to making a model that works in the modern media age:
1. FUNDING: Where am I going to get the money to make this?
2. RETURN: What do the funders expect to get back for that funding?
3. SUSTAINABILITY: How am I going to pay my personal bills as a storyteller?
4. AUDIENCE: Is there an audience for what I want to make and who are they?
5. PROMOTION: How will get this work out to this audience?

If you look at some of the issues hampering innovation in the new forms of storytelling there’s no better place to start than where the money is. Models to consider:

1. Patronage through patrons and sponsors. BUT the transmedia movement has no traditional system to be excluded from, and the traditional system is the patronage model.

Ten alternative business models from other media movements that provide some inspiration to other entrepreneurial storytellers.

2. No Budget

3. Grassroots or “D.I.Y. ethic”

4. Research & Development arms from large companies

5. Fan Incubation

6. Fan Funding

7. Ticketed (paying) Events

8. Marginable Arbitrage (buying low in one market to sell high in another eg infomercials)

9. Audience Developed Products ie co-creators (as seen in Crowdsourcing)

10. Infrastructure Play

11. Venture Capital

Conclusion: New Models will emerge through entrepreneurial innovation. Two factors – grassroots entrepreneurial risk taking and well financed companies looking to take more limited risks with bigger piles of money – will inevitably influence and reinforce each other.

Teen Dating Violence

Everyone deserves a healthy relationship safe from violence and fear. Protect your teens from an abusive situation by learning these warning signs.

YOUR TEEN MAY BE EXPERIENCING PATTERNS OF AN UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP IF:

Your Teen:
•Apologizes and/or makes excuses for his/her partner’s behaviour.
•Loses interest in activities that he/she used to enjoy.
•Stops seeing friends and family members and becomes more and more isolated.
•Casually mentions the partner’s violent behaviour, but laughs it off as a joke.
•Often has unexplained injuries or the explanations often don’t make sense.

The Partner:
•Calls your teen names and puts him/her down in front of others.
•Acts extremely jealous of others who pay attention to your teen.
•Thinks or tells your teen that you, the parent(s), don’t like them.
•Controls your teen’s behaviour, checking up constantly, calling or texting,
and demanding to know who he/she has been with.

You:
•See the partner violently lose their temper, striking or breaking objects.

BREAK THE SILENCE, BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION. START THE CONVERSATION NOW.

Christy Dena from http://www.yousuckattransmedia.com/ speaking to Lucas JW Johnson re Azrael’s Stop: posted 30 November 2011

Seven Crucial Lessons learned from a first jump into creating a reactive story online.

Lesson #1: Quality and Speed means Costs.

Lesson #2: It’s never as easy as you think it will be.

Lesson #3: Have a plan or outline for the whole project before you begin. Know thematic elements as well as the look and feel of a project. And know when a project ‘ends’.

Lesson #4: Set the stage so the audience knows what they are committing to structurally (their time and commitment) as well as the ‘story’ elements.

Lesson #5: Everything in your transmedia story has a potential barrier to entry. For example, having to register to use the site, moving across platforms etc.

Lesson #6: Everything is a balancing act, for example, between audience size, audience engagement, audience contribution, accessibility etc. Don’t make the bonus content — the music, the audio play, the game, and whatever else I devise — necessary to follow the story.

Lesson #7: Promote yourself.
Your own networks aren’t enough. Go where your audience is, to forums and blogs and news sites and put your stuff in front of eyeballs.

Thank you to Christy and to Lucas for sharing these lessons!

Tom Weldon, Penguin UK CEO lists the skills needed to be developed quickly to take traditional publishing houses into the future as:

1) truly imaginative digital storytelling (especially in the children’s area)
2) managing data
3) dynamic pricing
4) brand amplification
5) publishing authors on multiple platforms
6) shifting from a display to a discovery marketing model
7) creating a halo of recommendation and engagement for the reader
developing our own IP
9) becoming even more ambitious and selective about what content we bring to market.

Interesting …

Philosophy deals with profound issues that are important for humanity. At its core, philosophy is concerned with truth and understanding and this is achieved through observation, reading, critical thinking, and analyses of alternative points of view. Critical and systematic thinking require an element of intellectual rigorousness, an open mind and a willingness to understand the views of others. In the study of philosophy we search for an understanding of what it is to be a human being, both as an individual and as members of a group or community.

In Kiss Kill the character, Mat, is grappling with the question of ‘What is a human being?’. In doing so, he must observe others as well as himself by examining thoughts, judgements, emotions, reason and experiences. Other manifestations of being human are also explored such as self-consciousness, agency, intuition, passion and imagination. To gain in his understanding of himself and others Mat explores the use (and value) of language by telling his story using different text types.

Other big philosophical questions for Mat are: ‘Is it possible for a person to truly know themselves …’ and ‘… to truly know others?’ This journey from solipsism to intersubjectivity is a integral part of this young adult story. Of course, no story framed in philosophy can ignore theories on morals and ethics, but Mat’s journey also includes his study of Religious Philosophy. He wrestles with the idea of a God and with the concept of evil (as seen in the character, Elle). Through the study of Buddhism Mat explores ego and egolessness to achieve greater awareness and self-acceptance. He concludes that there is both meaning and meaninglessness in his life and in the lives of others. And ultimately, Mat learns the value of himself.

Happy New Year!

To all the story tellers in the world we’re living in exciting times.

Here’s to a wonderful year of creation, innovation and appreciation.

It’s all about the story!

It’s official. We have a cover.
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

The points of difference between Transmedia storytelling and traditional storytelling are that the story is:
- Non-linear
- Participatory (engage + share)
- Has immersive possibilities.

Writers today must give forethought to the development stage of Transmedia by seeding their stories with possible multiple platform extensions.

Similarities between Transmedia storytelling and traditional storytelling are:
- Story still has a beginning, middle and end
- They both build aspirational story worlds (“I want to be there”), rich with backstory and futures.

Frank Rose is the author of the amazing book ‘The Art of Immersion’.

Kiss Kill is ground-breaking as a way of telling a story for the following reasons:

1) It’s a story told using multiple text types, not just prose narrative.
2) It is transmedia, incorporating a character blog, YouTube performance (How Do You define a Man?) and iTunes (Thought I Knew You), Facebook and Twitter @kisskilldigital
3) It is a story of relationship abuse where the abuser is the female and the victim is a 16 year old male.
4) Kiss Kill has permission to link with Headspace and Mensline Australia.
5) It is framed in philosophy which is only beginning to be taught in Australian Schools.
6) Humour is used as the voice of young males.

Am so enamoured with this conference line-up I’m going to blog it!

Children’s Publishing Goes Digital

Presented by Publisher’s Launch Conference

The takeoff of tablets and the proliferation of smart phones are igniting opportunities for digital children’s books — interactive ebooks, apps, learning products and online communities — that are vastly different from both the maturing adult ebook market and traditional children’s board books and chapter books. A flood of new entrants is reinventing — and supplementing — children’s publishing, from classic illustrated story books through to middle grade and YA. Children’s Publishing Goes Digital looks closely at this disruption and how the marketplace for children’s content will change in the coming year, and what publishers need to know about this new continuum of content, games, animation and interactivity. This will be the first of a series of events created by Publishers Launch Conferences, in conjunction with Lorraine Shanley of Market Partners, to address digital publishing strategies for children’s book professionals.

To learn more from Publisher’s Launch Conference – Click Here!

To Register for the Children’s Publishing Goes Digital – Click Here!

Children’s Publishing Goes Digital Program

8:45-9:30 am: Traditionalists Gone Digital
Though there are many new players entering the digital children’s market, traditional publishers are also innovating in the digital realm. What routes are publishers taking to develop digital content, and to market this and traditional print, online? What have been the challenges and successes through the transition into digital, and what do publishers see as being the future of children’s content—games, animation, or ebooks? Representatives from Macmillan, HarperCollins, and Alloy take on these questions and more in this discussion of what it means to be a traditional children’s publisher moving into the digital world.
Speakers: Josh Bank, Alloy Entertainment
Jonathan Yaged, Macmillan

Corinne Helman, HarperCollins

9:30-10:00am: Sizing up the Children’s Market
Kelly Gallagher, VP of Publishing Services at RR Bowker, will present findings from a study PubTrack and its UK partner, BML, on the current children’s print and ebook market.

Speaker: Kelly Gallagher, RR Bowker

10:00-10:45am: New Players, New Partners
Digital media companies developing apps and ebooks for children are using their skills in animation and gaming – and often new sources of content –to move into the “space” in the children’s market that publishers used to have for themselves. Who are these new players, and what impact will their products have on the established children’s book market? What role do they see their products playing in the future of book-like content, and how do they see themselves interacting with traditional publishers? Insight into new players will come fast and furiously as five companies will have five minutes each to pitch their new initiatives.
Speakers: Rick Richter, Ruckus Media
TouchyBooks

Lisa Holton, Fourth Story Media

10:45-11:15 am: Break

11:15 -11:45 am: Nook and Children’s Interactive eBooks and apps
Kevin O’Connor and Wendy Bronfin talk about Nook Color and its work with children’s interactive ebooks and apps. They will be joined by a children’s author in conversation about developing children’s books and apps for the color tablet and what the technical implications are of developing an interactive product to make the most of the development costs.
Speakers: Kevin O’Connor

Wendy Bronfin

11:45 -12:15 pm: What Trends Are Emerging for Children – and their Parents?
Two futurists talk about their analyses of where the market is going, and what the biggest influences are on children, and their parents.
Speakers: Amy Henry, Youth Beat

Ira Mayer, EPM Communications

12:15 -1:30 pm: Lunch

1:30-2 pm: Russell Hampton

Russell Hampton, president of Disney Worldwide, presents on Disney’s approach to turning its popular franchises into Disney Digital Books.

2:00-2:45 pm: Education Meets Digital
With the interactive capabilities of ebooks and apps, how are publishers and developers creating new
opportunities for education? What new innovations are emerging in the edutainment market, and how
are they accommodating new technologies as they develop their products? What type of interaction is
most effective to capture and maintain the interest of their target audience, and how do new apps and
ebooks grow with their readers? Developers explore these questions as they talk about new systems
and products that are combining the classroom with technology.
Speakers: Emi Abramzon, Panarea

Neal Goff, Egremont Associates (Moderator)

2:45-3:15 pm: Break

3:15 – 3:50pm: Jennifer Perry: How to Reach and Teach Preschoolers with Digital Books
Jennifer Perry, VP Global Publishing at Sesame Workshop, will talk about her organization’s qualitative research efforts with parents and children exploring how children use apps. Perry will also share Sesame Workshop’s experience creating 150 ebooks and 25 apps, and discuss its global expansion in digital media and how they will make it work with its 140 publishing licensees.

Speaker: Jennifer Perry, Sesame Workshop

3:50-4:40 pm: Marketing to a Community
Online communities and media that have already captured the attention of young readers constitute an important resource that publishers must employ. What sites and communities are most beneficial to children’s content developers, and to what extent do publishers need to customize their campaigns based on the communities they target? What are the ways in which publishers are reaching out to these communities/websites to make their books more visible? Panelists from the media will talk with a marketing executive about their experiences developing an audience among young readers and how they are working with publishers to promote books and apps.

Speaker: Laura Dail, Literary Agent

4:40 -5:00 pm: Closing Remarks