This was developed for the Telefilm/NFB Melting Silos workshop (Nov.6 2009) and the What's Going On Salons series (Nov.7 2009), both Vancouver

1. TRANSMEDIA
STORYTELLING
Siobhan O’Flynn
narrativenow.blogspot.com
November 2009

2. DIGITAL STORIES
TODAY...
TRANSMEDIA
CONVERGENT
PARTICIPATORY
INTERACTIVE

3. what’s convergent???
DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
MEDIA NARRATIVES

4. three ways of thinking
about today’s online
‘stories’ & storytelling

5. FORM 1
STORIES GAMES

6. FORM 1

7. FORM 1
CHARACTERISTICS?

8. FORM 1
CHARACTERISTICS?
STRUCTURE SPATIAL
CLOSURE OPEN
PLOT EMERGENT
REVEALS STORY PLAY = STORY

9. FORM 2
EXTENDED INTERACTIVE
NARRATIVES NARRATIVES

10. FORM 2
DISTRIBUTED INTERACTION
CUT SCENES CHANGES
FIXED STORY

11. INTERACTIVE
STORYTELLING

12. World without Oil
• ARG
• Serious Game
• ‘What if’ scenario?
• How would your life change without oil?
• world without oil March-June 2007

13. the landscape has changed....

14. Jordan Weisman
42 Entertainment

15. Jordan Weisman
42 Entertainment
• creator of A.I. ARG, I Love Bees,
Why so Serious?
• "If we could make your toaster
print something we would.”

16. 42 Entertainment

17. 42 Entertainment
• “Anything with an electric current
running through it.
• A single story, a single gaming
experience, with no boundaries.
• A game that is life itself."

19. MAMET

20. FORMS 1& 2
STORY
CONTROL CHOICE

21. BOTH ARE
PARTICIPATORY
EXPLORATORY
FOSTER UGC
SOCIAL

22. 4 PROPERTIES OF DIGITAL
ENVIRONMENTS
• PROCEDURAL - RULE BASED
• PARTICIPATORY - INVITATION TO ACT
• SPATIAL - WORLD, PHYSICS, NETWORK
• ENCYCLOPEDIC - eg. THE SIMS

23. WHAT DO STORIES
DO?

24. 2 VIEWS

25. • “Database and narrative are natural
enemies.”
• Lev Manovich (2001)
• http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/AI_Society/manovich.html

26. DAVID MAMET
3 USES OF A KNIFE
• ‘Our survival mechanism orders the world
into cause-effect-conclusion.’
• art & drama = ‘the human capacity to order
the intolerable into meaning’

27. STORIES/storytelling are innate
and function as the cognitive
tool for organizing the world
into a coherent, meaningful
experience.

28. • Any meaningful negotiation of a database
(vs. random) is potentially a story
• either of what is found
• or of the experience of finding
• Digital environments are story-spaces
waiting to happen
• waiting for structure / design

29. FORM 3

30. FORM 3
LINEAR NON-LINEAR
story fragments
plot connections
progression exploration

31. FORM 3

32. SWITCHING
MORTEN SCHøDT
2003

33. INTERACTIVITY
CONTROL CHOICE

34. INTERACTIVITY
DESIGNER USER
CREATOR GAMER
AUTHOR PARTICIPANT

35. INTENTION
GOAL ORIENTED EXPLORATORY

36. INTENTION
GOAL ORIENTED: EXPLORATORY:
PUZZLES PLAY
QUESTS SPATIAL
GAMES EMERGENT
TASKS ENCYCLOPEDIC

37. PARTICIPANT IS
CO-CREATOR

38. DIGITAL MEDIA
= RULES

39. DIGITAL MEDIA
= RULES

40. DIGITAL MEDIA
= RULES
STORIES =
GAMES =
• GENRES
• PLOT • GENRES
• WORLD • GOALS
• INTERACTIVITY

41. STORIES
LINEAR/ EMERGENT
NON-LINEAR
CONTROLLED ACTIVE
SCRIPTED ENGAGEMENT

42. STORIES
CAUSE & EFFECT LINKING
THROUGH
= PLOT ASSOCIATIONS

43. STORIES
DYNAMIC
RELATIONS

44. STORIES
CONTROLLED DYNAMIC
STORY THREADS RELATIONS

45. STORIES
STORY STORY
CONTAINED CREATED
IN BY
DESIGN PARTICIPANT

46. IF INTERACTIVITY ≠ PLOT,
HOW TO CREATE NARRATIVE
COHERENCE?
= STORY
= IMMERSION
= SATISFACTION

47. ROOTS OF
NARRATIVE

48. ROOTS OF
NARRATIVE
• EPIC: Gilgamesh, Homer
• ARISTOTLE
• ARCHETYPES: Myths; folk tales, fairy tales
• GENRES = PLOT FORMS

49. THE EPIC

50. THE EPIC
• HOW DO YOU CONTROL A NARRATIVE
OVER MULTIPLE DAYS TELLING?
• poet’s ‘word hoard’
• patterns, set pieces, echoes, allusions, short hand
notation
• spatial design

51. HBO IMAGINE

52. POETICS
LITERATURE
• THEMES
• PATTERNS
• IMAGES
• DOUBLES
• INVERSIONS
• TONE

53. POETICS
FILM
• MISE EN SCENE
• LIGHTING
• PACING/EDITING
• POINT OF VIEW
• DEEP STRUCTURE (MCKEE)

54. POETICS
DIGITAL MEDIA
• INTERFACE DESIGN (click vs. zoom....)
• TACTILITY
• AESTHETIC (cell phone, webcam, vs. HD)
• FUNCTIONALITY (ease vs. resistance)

55. hi-res.net

56. bigspaceship.com

57. Tip #1
USE WHAT
YOUR AUDIENCE
ALREADY KNOWS

58. ARISTOTLE

59. ARISTOTLE
• FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD DRAMA:
• PLOT
• CHARACTER
• SETTING
• UNITY OF TIME & PLACE
• 3 ACT STRUCTURE - rising/falling action

60. GENRE
=
CONTRACT

61. PLOT
=
CONTRACT

62. DESIGN
=
NARRATIVE

63. PLOT
• HOW YOU TELL (delivery & genre):
• linear & non-linear plots
• in medias res
• causally connected i.e.:
• all events connected through cause and effect
• DISCOVERY & REVERSAL - SWITCHING

64. SCOTT
MCCLOUD

65. ‘BLOOD IN THE GUTTER’
=
IMMERSION

66. LESS IS MORE

67. IMMERSION
= SATISFACTION

68. IMMERSION
= SATISFACTION
• ACTIVE CREATION OF STORY
• COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT OF
AUDIENCE
• ‘WE - THINK’ / COLLECTIVE
INTELLIGENCE PHENOMENON

69. story & plot =
USER experience
IN FILM:
1Premise - ‘idea that inspires the story’
the ‘what if?’ factor
2v.s. Controlling idea: ‘the story’s ultimate meaning
expressed through action & aesthetic emotion of the
last act’s climax’ (McKee)

70. in digital media
core of story = experience
• The controlling idea = the experience
• The centralbe the centralexpressed through the plot
should also experience experience that defines the
interactive experience
• ‘Pirates all the way down...’

71. ASYLUM 626

72. OUR CHOICES SHOULD BE
MEANINGFUL
& DRIVE THE STORY
/ OUR EXPERIENCE

73. AUDIENCE &
MCKEE’S PLOTS
• Archplot: Chinatown, Matrix, Star Wars...
• Miniplot: Blow Up, Short Cuts,
• Antiplot: Wayne’s World, Gerry
• BE AWARE OF YOUR STORY DESIGN

74. REVERSAL
& DISCOVERY
• the most powerful elements of
emotional interest in Tragedy are
Reversal and Discovery as these
elements change our understanding of
the story(s)

75. FORM 3

76. NON-LINEAR
PLOTS USE
• JUXTAPOSITION:
• MEANWHILE / FLASHBACKS
• REVERSALS & DISCOVERIES THAT
CHANGE WHAT WE KNOW
• RECONFIGURE AS NEW STORY

77. • ‘Of course my films have beginnings,
middles, and ends, just not necessarily
in that order.’
• Godard

78. CHARACTER
• DEFINED BY ACTIONS (GAMES)
• OUR CHOICES DEFINE WHO WE ARE, NOT
OUR THOUGHTS & OPINIONS
• CHARACTER IS THEN A FUNCTION OF THE
PLOT
• POV - AVATAR, FIRST-PERSON

79. CHARACTER
SIMPLE VS. COMPLEX

80. Samsung's interactive video
Follow Your Instinct

81. DAVID LYNCH
Interview Project

82. SETTING
• SETTING - contemporary focus on ‘story
world’ (Tali Krakowsky, Alex McDowell)
• Henry Jenkins - Game design as narrative
architecture
• spatial narratives are exploratory by nature
• setting can mirror, contrast, foreshadow actions
& themes

83. Architecture
= Narrative
• spatial/architectural design creates and defines
opportunities for narrative direction.
• i.e. what is available in the space, the specifics of
place already encode expectations as to the
types of action we will encounter
• strip club vs. Court of King Arthur
• hospital vs. Star Trek but...Battlestar Gallactica?

84. TINMAN (verizon)

85. SPATIAL NARRATIVES

86. SPATIAL NARRATIVES
• RELY ON:
• ASSOCIATIONS
• PATTERNS
• MIRRORING & INVERSIONS

87. Errol Morris
Standard Operating Procedure

88. SPATIAL
ORGANIZATION

89. SPATIAL
ORGANIZATION
• PHYSICAL STRUCTURES
• WORLD CREATION
• TIME LINE
• MAPS
• CHARACTER LISTS

90. OAKLAND
CRIMESPOTTING
INTERACTIVE CRIME MAP

91. WHALE HUNT
Jonathan Harris

92. • there is sooo much more....explore...
• Part 2, 3, 4.... coming
• Siobhan O’Flynn
• links archive at:
www.narrativenow.blogspot.com