Presentation for the Digital Communication and Culture program of the University of Sydney, based on Henry Jenkins\' (http://www.henryjenkins.org/) work.

1. The Cross-Media Environment

2. Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling A presentation about Convergence Culture’s chapter

3. Transmedia Storytelling “ A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole.” Henry Jenkins in “Convergence Culture” (2006 p.95)

5. What made this possible?

6. 1 Time-shifting technologies (starting with the VCR) allow the public to go back and follow more complex plotlines

7. 2 Digitization

8. Media conglomerates Generate revenue streams for their various companies headquarters 3

9. they want to go deeper, find new possibilities, insights and experiences within stories Audiences want to feel empowered 4

10. “ When I first started, you would pitch a story because without a a good story you didn’t really have a film. Later, once sequels started to take-off, you pitched a character because a good character could support multiple stories. And now, you pitch a world because a world can support multiple characters and multiple stories across multiple media.” Hollywood scriptwriter cited by Jenkins in “Convergence Culture” (2006 p.114)

13. Pokemon

14. The most sophisticated transmedia story to date

17. By creating a world, with different stories happening in different media, it’s inevitable that not everyone will have the same experience. Is it a love story? (Keanu Reeves said so) Is it “a titanic struggle between intuition and controlling intellect”? (Hugo Weaving, aka Agent Smith) Is it a story about believing in something or not believing in something? Is it a story about secret societies keeping society under control? Is it a story about men’s history or men’s future? Is it just an enhanced Kung Fu movie? The Matrix

18. Good Not so good Possibility to link personal media affinity with the story Endless possibilities to get conversation about the story going Community building Possibility to alienate non-hardcore audiences Restricted experience by digital divide Different Levels of Experience

20. “ If you give people enough stuff to explore, they will explore. Not everyone but some of them will. The people who do explore and take advantage of the whole world will forever be your fans, will give you an energy you can’t buy through marketing ” Ed Sanchez, Blair Witch Project

21. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=IowE6oxkOMg

22. So far, however, there aren’t established aesthetic criteria to evaluate the works that are distributed across multiple media.

23. “ Our schools are not teaching what it means to live and work in a knowledge society, but popular culture may be doing so” Jenkins, in “Convergence Culture” (2006, p.129)

24. Hunting for information = Play with knowledge

25. Up to this point, do you think the industry has been successful in creating interesting worlds? Do you think that in the future, transmedia stories will overcome single media ones as industry standard? Do you think transmedia stories you’ve seen in this presentation get people more engaged or the depth actually alienates most people? Do you agree that today’s children will inevitably grow up thinking in “transmedia-mode”? What are the implications of it? Discussion