I recently curated a panel for the Freeplay Independent Gaming Festival: How Every Little Decision Can Bring You Closer To or Further Away from Creating Crap
A (self-described) “handsome and debonaire stranger” said to me the best way to avoid creating dull projects is “don’t work for shit companies” and “only go indie if you have a brain”. But what happens if you (think) you don’t work for a shit company and you have a brain? Are there still little things you can do that gradually and inevitably steer your project into the sea of mediocrity? This session is a discussion about how all of those little design and process decisions build to make or break your game.
And now, thanks to Stephan Schutze, I can share the audio from the panel!:
I opened with a short intro, and then moved to Floyd Mueller, who directs the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT. He spoke about how you can avoid crap game design during prototyping:
How does one direct across media? In her book on Cinematic Storytelling, Jennifer Van Sijll offers 100 ways to convey ideas in movies beyond dialogue. Jennifer talks about the overemphasis on books that cover plot, structure, and character, but not how ideas are conveyed cinematically. Screenwriters need to convey to the reader of their script what they will see and hear on screen; and importantly, they need to communicate by more than dialogue and narration. Directors need to “understand the technical properties of film and then employ them creatively to advance the story. Without the connection between content and technique, you are watching two disjointed parts; the result, more often than not, is a technical exercise” (xii).
An example Jennifer gives is from Francis Coppola’s movie The Conversation. Jennifer talks about how this film grew out of Coppola’s interest in repetition, which he symbolises with ‘the circular’. The symbol of the circular was used in the film with images such as spiral staircases. There are many director’s commentaries on DVDs that reveal how certain shots or edits or sound was structured to convey meaning, but a lengthy treatise is filmmaker Sidney Lumet’s book.
Sidney Lumet, the director of many award-winning films such as 12 Angry Men, The Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon. In his book Making Movies, Lumet shares how makes meaning through all the stages of production, across all departments and areas — rehearsals, costume, lighting, editing and so on. When talking about his process, Lumet discusses the importance of theme:
Having decided, for whatever reason, to do a movie, I return to that all-encompassing, critical discussion: What is the movie about? Work can’t begin until its limits are defined, and this is the first step in that process. It becomes the riverbed into which all subsequent decisions will be channeled. (13-14)
Lumet then offers examples of themes, of what a movie is about:
The Pawnbroker: How and why we create our prisons Dog Day Afternoon: Freaks are not the freaks we think they are. We are much more connected to the most outrageous behavior than we know or admit. 12 Angry Men: Listen Running on Empty: Who pays for the passions and commitments of the parents?
Such core ideas then influence all creative decisions such as (from the writers perspective) characters, settings, plot, and (from the directors perspective) costumes, props, sets, composition, sound, editing and so on. An example, Lumet describes is his choice of camera lenses based on the theme of the movie Prince of the City:
Going back to its theme (nothing is what it appears to be), I made the decision: We would not use the midrange lenses (28 mm through 40mm). Nothing was to look normal, or anything close to what the eye would see. I took the theme literally. All space was elongated or foreshortened, depending on whether I used wide-angle or long lenses.
This process of making meaning with every element a person sees and hears in a film is not, of course, specific to film. Any medium has its technical elements that can be drawn on to communicate meaning. In interactive arts, what a player does is sometimes designed to be a significant event. For instance, game designer and theorist Ian Bogost talks about how gestures can work in persuasive games. Bogost cites designer and educator Brenda Brathwaite‘s art/persuasive game Train. Train is a game about the holocaust, that involves a point in which the player smashes glass. This gesture and the feelings it evokes in the player are meant to be part of the meaning making process. Indeed, the game is part of Brathwaite’s series called Mechanic is the Message.
Actions can also be meaningful in trans/cross-media projects. An example is the film Untraceable. If you watch the first part of the trailer, you’ll see a website and its significance mentioned.
The website featured in the film, KillwithMe.com, was actually created (as part of a marketing campaign). As you will notice on the site, visiting it and choosing to enter is implied to be an immoral act. The film audience are given the same option as the characters in the film. Although without doubt a marketing tactic, the significance of user action was not lost. In fact, a fan (?) created a page/group asking people if they visited the site after seeing the film (the group is no-longer online).
Lets look at other ways meaning can be communicated across media, between a film and its website. Take the film Stranger than Fiction: it has digital effects and narration that contribute to the story about storytelling:
The website for the film, Stranger than Fiction website (click on Enter to open it up), continues the visual and conceptual approach of the film. In the past, continuity across media was purely governed by visual concerns. Franchise bibles were style guides that ensure the ‘brand’ is depicted in the same manner. What is described as a transmedia approach, on the other hand, involves ensuring that the theme that dictates meaning in one medium, also does another. This is, to me, one of the first approaches that reflects a transmedia process. But another is to think of an overall theme, with other medium-specific iterations on that theme as well. But I digress.
Another example is Darren Aronofsky’s film Requiem for a Dream, with some excerpts here:
The website for the film draws on the TV show featured in the film, as well as explores the themes of the film – addiction and corruption…but in a manner specific to a website. In fact, the navigation (if you noticed) is structured on a z-axis (it keeps getting deeper). This is a characteristic of some websites created by HiReS!. They’re talented designers who have worked on many websites (including Aronofsky’s other film sites, and the Donnie Darko website, and the had a large role in The Lost Experience). Here is the designer talking about the Requiem website and how the theme of the film influenced its design:
In these film and website examples, the web designers were talented enough to conceive of a site that is thematically meaningful (and the producers or marketers selected the team well). These sort of designers are hard to find. This is one issue associated with transmedia. But another is the director. A transmedia director needs to know not only how to direct (in their own way), but also understand the medium (that is the point). In transmedia they need to know enough to work with more than one medium confidently.
I’m currently developing my own projects and am writing and directing (and doing the producing until I find someone suitable). I’ve also spoken with Steve Peters about his work as an experience designer and how many aspects of what he does is directing (I had the pleasure of working with Steve, Jon, Maureen, and Dee on a global ARG for Cisco). Lance Weiler also talks about what you do with social technologies in a way that is meaningful too. It is also interesting to see articles about directors such as Chris Milk, who directed the film production, post-production, and web production of Arcade Fire’s The Wilderness Downtown. Exciting times this transmediary thing. Do you have some experiences to share about directing across media, or at least directing distributed online projects?
I came across this post on ‘lessons learned‘ by a 17 year old independent filmmaker Mahogany J. Slide about her film The Saving, and thought they were great:
1. THE SAVING runs on Dunkin…ok more like Krispy Kreme but you get the idea.
2. Always slate every take (shot). Even if you have to dig through the back of a Hummer to find the dang clapperboard, DO SO! Your editor will love you forever. Unlike mine heehee
3. Situations are only as awkward as you allow them be. After that, it just gets funny.
4. I finally understand what the phrase “punch drunk” means (slaphappy with exhaustion)
5. To me, when it comes to filmmaking its very hard to over-communicate. If it feels like overkill then you’re probably doing your job well.
I find it interesting that there has predominantly been two types of responses to this website. Beginners always ask how they can avoid ending up here, how they can avoid sucking at transmedia; while people who have worked in the area for a while are really excited about the idea of sharing the times they suck, their “war stories”, “lessons learned” and so on. This, and a few events in my life, has got me thinking about the weird but (to me) undeniable reality of working in transmedia (or perhaps any area really): things will always go wrong.
I remember when I started in this area, I thought that if I could learn all I can about the craft of transmedia I could therefore create great stuff. But I then realised that you don’t get anywhere in this industry/artform (or any) without also understanding the business — working with people, the politics, marketing, and so on. That is why you have services like Marvin Acuna’s Business of the Show Institute, helping writers understand the business side of screenwriting.
But another thing it took me a long time to realise was that no matter what level of knowledge and amount of experience you have in the area, things will always go wrong. There will always be things that happen that are outside of your control, like weird occurrences, client decisions, things you didn’t foresee, technical failures, unplanned audience responses, and so on. And just about every member of the team (including yourself) will make some mistake some time.
On reflection, I realise that I also had another assumption working in the back of my head. I thought that if I follow my dream, my life will become easier. I’ve learned that I am more satisfied with my life when I do what I want, but things do not get any easier. In fact, I’ve found the more unique and different your ideas and methods, the greater the obstacles will be thrown at you. Things get harder, they really do. (Or maybe it is just me?)
What is the point of all this? I want to highlight something that I think many people who work in the area already know, but those new to the area are trying to avoid: without a doubt, things will suck. Do you best to avoid what you can, learn to recognise when something is sucking, respond and learn from what is sucking immediately, and try not to repeat it. And in the end, the best thing you can do is enjoy the ride. Don’t wait for a time when everything doesn’t suck, because it will never happen. Instead, make identifying what sucks and dealing with it part of the reality of your process and not some uninvited imposter. And then ultimately, you’ll be more likely to enjoy it all.
I’ve been a judge on plenty of awards ceremonies, both public and private (internal to an organisation or corporation). I’m always surprised (and disappointed) when I assess the material submitted for a ‘cross-media’ or ‘transmedia’ or ‘multi-platform’ etc project. Why? Because nine times out of ten the assets provided are for one media. I cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve been given the trailer to a game or film to assess an entire franchise with. So what I’m really looking forward to seeing more of is pitch videos that describe the entire experience, not just one medium, and ultimately, for the audiences, trailers for an entire experience. A fan-made video I saw recently excited me to this possibility (see The Matrix Trilogy – sans the other transmedia elements – below).
We’re seen some great videos created to describe the experience of alternate reality games and extended reality experiences etc too, such as the Why So Serious campaign for The Dark Knight, The Art of the H3ist campaign video, and the online narrative for True Blood. All of these describe the experience across all the media.
There are many examples of these types of videos that explain the transmedia-native experience. But you’ll also notice that these videos don’t include the feature film or TV show they’re a part of either. They can’t, that is not their role. These transmedia experiences deserve their own videos as well. But I’m keen to start seeing more media-encompassing videos. I have seen some good pitch videos but they are not for public display, and I’m sure I’ve come across other on the Internetz. Do you have ones to share?
I had a friendly query from a colleague the other day. He wanted to know the range of projects that will be covered here. He probably forgot that I have championed all types of transmedia for years, from any industry. But his query alerted me to the fact that perhaps should overtly outline the range that will be covered here. so, here are what I consider the four key types of transmedia. I discuss these types in my PhD (I give them big word terms, so we need to come up with industry-friendly terms as well), and I will be discussing the different story design techniques one employs for each one of these types when I mentor at the Pixel Lab in the UK in July. But here is a quick overview:
Clear as mud? That is why I spoke about films and live events, as well as ARGs in my first two posts. That is also why I’ll talk about and encourage discussion about projects that are designed to be transmedia at the very beginning, and those that become transmedia after a mono-medium one has been created.Let me know if I should elaborate or if you have some other views.
I also want people to know that if you post here, you can cross-post on your own website at the same time. Also, I’d be happy to repost some of the great posts that have already been published by others elsewhere, but which may not have reached the readers of this site.
