(Watch video of the presentation here: http://vimeo.com/21091334) From the SXSW 2011 Film Festival: Marshall McLuhan’s famous adage, “the medium is the message,” is as true as ever, with evolving technologies — Web video, DSLR cameras, smart phones, smart TVs, and tablets — affecting the way in which filmed media is created and distributed. However, filmmakers are more often than not still bound by old paradigms — the feature film, the hour-long TV drama, the short — which struggle to fit into (and be sustainable within) a rapidly evolving media ecosystem. We will explore the creative opportunities for filmmakers to expand the language of their filmmaking beyond the comfortable and familiar boundaries of old formats, and investigate how a filmmaker’s vision can scale to create experiences beyond the theater and beyond the television. This talk asks the question, is it possible to create holistic cinematic experiences that span the many screens in our lives? What new messages will be enabled by today's new mediums?

1. Evolving Cinematic Storytelling to
Span Multiple Screens
Jason Brush
Possible Worldwide / UCLA Film, TV & Digital Media / Art Center College of Design

2. ere is precious little invention in the cinema world,
because traditional cut-and-paste, narrative,
illusionistic cinema has had its day. We must move on.
We must re-invent cinema.
Peter Greenaway, “Toward a Re-invention of Cinema”

3. 900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
History of the evolution of lm language, per Peter Greenaway

4. Film language is invented
1910 1920 1
Gri th Eisenstein

5. Consolidation
1940 1950
Welles Fellini

6. Revision
1960 1970
Godard Cassavetes

7. Post-revisionist Pastiche
1980 1990
Scott Stone Tarantino

8. Transmedia?
DIY?
Invention of lm language Consolidation Revisionists Post-revisionist pastiche 3D?
1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Gri th Welles Godard Scott Stone Tarantino
Eisenstein Fellini Cassavetes
History of the evolution of lm language, per Peter Greenaway

9. Transmedia?
DIY?
Invention of lm language Consolidation Revisionists Post-revisionist pastiche 3D?
1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Gri th Welles Godard Scott Stone Tarantino
Eisenstein Fellini Cassavetes
History of the evolution of lm language, per Peter Greenaway

10. If the cinema intends to survive, I believe, it has to
make a pact and a relationship with concepts of
interactivity, and it has to see itself as only part of a
multimedia cultural adventure.
Peter Greenaway

11. Transmedia storytelling represents a process where
integral elements of a ction get dispersed
systematically across multiple delivery channels for
the purpose of creating a uni ed and coordinated
entertainment experience.
Henry Jenkins

12. Traditional Media Franchise
Transmedia Franchise
Diagram: Susan Marx
Diagram concept: Robert Pratten of Zen Films

13. Transmedia franchises have often blurred
boundaries between marketing and content...

27. Tulse Luper Suitcases Pandemic My Beautiful Dark
by Peter Greenaway by Lance Weiler Twisted Fantasy
3 feature lms 1 short lm By Kanye West
a TV series 1 magazine Album
92 DVDs 1 koala Short Film
CD-ROMs 5 secret locations Music Videos
books 10 scares Twitter
12 totems
60 story artifacts
50 mobile phones
5,000 bottles of water
40,000 people
50,000 photos
3.2 million points of data

28. Tulse Luper Suitcases Pandemic My Beautiful Dark
by Peter Greenaway by Lance Weiler Twisted Fantasy
3 feature lms 1 short lm By Kanye West
a TV series 1 magazine Album
92 DVDs 1 koala Short Film
CD-ROMs 5 secret locations Music Videos
books 10 scares Twitter
12 totems
60 story artifacts
50 mobile phones
5,000 bottles of water
40,000 people
50,000 photos
3.2 million points of data

29. Tulse Luper Suitcases Pandemic My Beautiful Dark
by Peter Greenaway by Lance Weiler Twisted Fantasy
3 feature lms 1 short lm By Kanye West
a TV series 1 magazine Album
92 DVDs 1 koala Short Film
CD-ROMs 5 secret locations Music Videos
books 10 scares Twitter
12 totems
60 story artifacts
50 mobile phones
5,000 bottles of water
40,000 people
50,000 photos
3.2 million points of data

30. Tulse Luper Suitcases
Pandemic My Beautiful Dark
by Peter Greenaway by Lance Weiler Twisted Fantasy
3 feature lms 1 short lm By Kanye West
a TV series 1 magazine Album
92 DVDs 1 koala Short Film
CD-ROMs 5 secret locations Music Videos
books 10 scares Twitter
12 totems
60 story artifacts
Does the lm language used to compose these pieces of
50 mobile phones
content change when made part of a transmedia franchise?
5,000 bottles of water
40,000 people
50,000 photos
3.2 million points of data

32. Even when part of a complex, coordinated transmedia
e ort, the audience’s expectations of what a “movie” is
remains the same.

38. In addition to being smaller,
personal screens are:
- connected
- controllable
- often portable
- used in multiple contexts

39. e multi-screen experience is an inescapable reality of
today’s distribution landscape, yet lm language itself
hasn’t evolved in response to the fact that content
travels between vastly di erent media.

40. I've never watched “Avatar” on a laptop. I guess it
probably works, but I don't recommend it...What I
recommend is getting the co ee table out of the
way and sticking your couch about four feet from
your TV.
James Cameron

41. It is easier for me to see a minor painting by Caravaggio
in a small Umbrian town than it is for me to see
Kubrick's “2001” in any cinema that would represent
that lm in the way it was manufactured to be
presented.
Peter Greenaway

42. e innate pleasures of the cinema as we’ve known it
vs
e reality that today’s lm distribution
environment is dependent on a diversity of screens

43. Merchandise
Games
Installation
Websites Augmented Reality
Motion Pictures
Social Media Mobile
Music
Live Performance

44. How should lmmakers respond to this technological change?
Coordinated transmedia storytelling one compelling way, but perhaps not the only...

48. m
rp
diameter

49. ⅓
33
12”
LP
22-26 minutes per side

50. 45
7”
Single
3 minutes per side

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56. time
channels
8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30

57. time
channels
sitcom
8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30

58. time
channels
drama
8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30

59. Part of the problem is that cross-platform
transformation of media has always been seen as a
compromise — we’ve been trained to protect an ideal
form (even as theatrical projection becomes less and
less central to the life of a lm.)

64. Now if your playing the movie on a telephone
or on your computer, you will never in a
trillion years experience the lm. you'll think
you have experienced it, but you will have
been cheated.
David Lynch

66. But what if a lm was able to scale to the di erent
presentation environments?

70. Feature Film
TV Series 1
Feature Film 2
TV Series 2
Feature Film 3

71. ... we want to do part of it big screen, and then a lot of the
character stu — because Stephen King’s stu is so interesting
and fascinating, and instead of trying to wedge it into a movie,
let the movies be adventure and action.
Ron Howard

72. By telling this story across media platforms and over multiple
hours—and with a view to telling it completely—we have our
best chance of translating Roland’s quest to reach e Dark
Tower onto screen.
Akiva Goldsman

74. To get [the shorter theatrical version of Carlos] right,
we had to reshape the lm. Even stu that looks the
same is not the same. We had to make cuts within
scenes and within shots. We constantly had to nd a
new pace for the lm that was obviously quite
di erent from the longer version.
Olivier Assayas

75. I know the general audiences would prefer a shorter
cut. e thing is that a ve-and-a-half hour lm is
located within a very speci c cinematic space. In
terms of style and narration, it allows me to go into
areas that are completely new for me. It’s a much
more satisfying re ection on cinema and the power of
cinema. It shows how you can deal simultaneously
with small and big issues – small issues being the fate
of one man and big issues being the geopolitics of a
period. is kind of scope isn’t really possible in a
shorter version
Olivier Assayas

76. “Elastic Cinema”

78. e Dark Tower

79. Carlos

83. “Toward a re-invention of cinema”, 2003

86. Character
TV
Feature
Gaming
Films
Narrative World

87. Character
TV
Feature
Gaming
Films
Narrative World

88. Character
TV
Feature
Gaming
Films
Narrative World

89. What does Elastic Cinema get us?
e creation of lmic content which can blend easily with
other media within transmedia systems.
New revenue opportunities — a lm is also TV series, a Web
series, etc.
Cost savings in production for assets that can be used in
multiple venues.
A broader creative canvas, and an opportunity to keep
innovating lm language.

90. Where we need to evolve our approach:
Writing
Anticipating scale & shifting narrative structure.
Directing the Camera
Providing choice, to shift uidly from focus on character &
narrative to plan-séquence.
Distribution & Marketing Strategy
Explaining to viewers their di erent choices.

91. Transmedia = Diverse, coordinated media that each
contribute to an overall entertainment experience in
individual and separate ways.
Elastic Cinema = A uni ed lmic narrative that adjusts in
form and style based on the platform on which its being
experienced.

92. anks.
http://www.possibleworldwide.com