Transmedia Aspect

As part of this module we have to come up with an idea of how our product could be expanded upon to create extended stories, characters or environments. Transmedia surrounds our society so by understanding and thinking about how my animation could be taken into a new medium will only be a benefit myself. By extending stories and characters through different mediums it can open up the world to a whole new audience than what it was originally intended for.

For my animation, I would propose that the story would be extended to the fox's point of view. The last shot you see of the fox is her running off to the woods. She would run back off to see her children and tell them her encounter with a human and how they need to be sly and cunning in order to escape danger. This extension of the story could be to tell children how animals need to be protected and shouldn't be hunted for their fur. The story could be told as an illustrated book to target it to a younger audience, however it could also be part of an anti fur campaign.

I took a pre-existing story and adapted it slightly by expanding on the characters and the environment they inhabited. Recently there has been a lot of animations that have been adapted from short stories and turned into feature films. This shows the versatility of stories and how easily they can be extended. Even though these animated films are still aimed at the same age group, it could still open it up to new people and people who have never heard of the stories before. Animated features are in high demand and by taking a story into this medium it can give the story a new form of popularity. This then can be translated into merchandise and games from that film. This list is extensive, is just needs the marketing and publicity to push it.

Transmedia

As part of the responsive brief, one aspect is to make what we're creating transferrable across different mediums, so it becomes transmedia. Not only is it story, but characters, and sometimes environment too that can be cross transferrable. FMX Conference which is going on right now in Stuttgart, Germany is a conference on animation, effects, games and transmedia. The video below is a clip from yesterday giving an overview of transmedia and how it's not about a story changing for a new medium, but it should carry through and be an extension. Transmedia is a very common thing today, what may have started out as just a story, can now be branched out into a huge franchise, books, films, games, comics, toys, the list goes on. It's interesting to see that conferences are addressing this topic too, by covering a range of different mediums and seeing the link between all of them. It brings people together and also opens up the story or characters to a new audience in a new medium.

Whatever we create, we should consider the life it has after. Things can be changed and added on to, create new stories to tell. As it is now a common thing, it's something to really take into consideration, everything can be easily moved between mediums, even more so now because of technology. For my piece I'm not fully decided on what would be transmedia but either the story or characters would be transferrable.

Star Wars Transmedia

Expanding on my essay around transmedia, I produced a piece of kinetic typography around the Star Wars franchise. Created using After Effect and Final Cut Pro, I decided to briefly explain what transmedia was from what I learnt by doing my essay and how Star Wars is a massive transmedia franchise. To make it more effective I tried to put the words to the beat of the music so it would be more 'punchier'.

Essay Title / Research

As part of the Context of Practice 1 module, we have to write an essay on a chosen title that we are given. 'Do Trans-media narratives mean the death of traditional media? How is digital technology challenging traditional media?' is the title that I chose. I chose it because I knew I would be able to find enough sources to back up my essay, but also because I find trans-media quite interesting and this would be a good way of expanding my knowledge of the subject.

With the chosen essay title, I then produced a mind-map to see what areas I could expand on and this would then help me to find relevant sources. I have began to get books out from the library and pick out relevant ideas and quotes which I may find helpful and note them down in a Word Document. I have also looked at internet sources through Google Scholar and have found someone called Henry Jenkins, a media scholar. Through his blog I have found some really useful articles on trans-media so I will definitely have to pick out key ideas from there.

The essay itself is to be only 1,500 words so really that's not a lot of words so I will have to plan out what I'm going to say where and give a guideline to how many words I will allow myself for each section.

Great Expectations

I recently watched BBC's adaptation to Charles Dickens Great Expectations. I was interested to see how they would translate the story into three 1 hour episodes. I felt that with the time constraints they were not able to elaborate on certain events or characters; yet saying this I think they did the best that they could have. They were able to put across the main storyline and made up for the missing details with the sets, costumes and overall atmosphere. The scenes themselves were really engaging, especially Miss Havisham's house. There was so much detail that went into it, so many different props and accessories, and with the lighting on top of that it made for a really gloomy atmosphere. Just that set itself told a story. A story of loss and almost abandonment.

 
I tend to be really drawn to period dramas and adaptations of classic books, mainly because of the style of that time. So much thought goes into the sets and the costumes, without this the story would not be believable for the time it was set in. You can compare dramas to films and I find that there is not much difference between the two when it comes to the overall look. Take Pride and Prejudice (Box Office Film) and compare it to Downton Abbey (ITV drama). Pride and Prejudice had at budget of around $28 million (roughly £18 million) whereas Downton Abbey had about £13 million. TV Dramas these days tend to be getting a far bigger budget, nearly matching some film budgets. Yet with £5 million pounds less, I feel that Downton Abbey is far more well executed. Their location is stunning and in the second series, they go all out building trenches and have real explosions rather than relying on special effects.





Unlike Pride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey is not based on a book, it is entirely created and written by Julian Fellowes. You will never know what is coming next as there is no book to relate it back to. In a way I prefer this as it can draw you into the story more, making you want to watch the next episode. With a book that has been made into a film, you have the problem of the film having to live up to the expectations of the book. The biggest of them all has to be the Harry Potter series. I will always believe that the books are far better, you cannot beat them. Yes the films themselves are good in their own way, however without the books there would be no film. Also with films, there will always be a time constraint, therefore information from the books have to be cut out. In each film you will find (having read the books) that there are parts that have been changed, are missing and are not elaborated enough.

You have to give credit, where credit is due. If every part of the book was turned into the film, it would be hours long and no-one would watch it. For me I think it would be quite hard to cut out parts of the book and I wouldn't know where to start. I appreciate that the writers and directors do the best that they can do and most of the time, the films do turn out really well. I think that it gets to a point where you can't compare book to film, you have to appreciate each in their own right.