Bugger.
My previous post regarding my removal of the term, “transmedia,” from the Brain Candy, LLC site sparked some unexpected and rapid responses. Despite my best efforts to state my position and rationale for the removal, I failed to accurately convey my intent. So…take two.
Professionally, I am not marketing Brain Candy, LLC as a transmedia shop. That’s the only change between yesterday and today.
The company’s activities remain the same; it’s business as usual.
Many may call what my company does “transmedia” or “cross-media” or a similar term. And they would not be completely wrong.
Brain Candy, LLC is seeking to do more than what is commonly referred to as transmedia storytelling, however, and I’m finding the term inadequate to wholly describe our approach to collaborative commercial entertainment. Transmedia is just one piece of the puzzle. This is the core reason for my decision.
I realize that I may be unnecessarily splitting hairs and causing an unintended cloud of confusion by choosing not to label what Brain Candy, LLC does as “transmedia storytelling.” I sincerely apologize for this.
The veterans in the transmedia field – academics, creatives, and advertisers alike – are doing yeoman’s work to define in both word and deed what transmedia storytelling is. I follow humbly in their footsteps and hopefully add constructively to the conversation.
At the risk of repeating myself, I think that we’re only just now getting a glimpse of transmedia’s true possibilities (not least of which is having transmedia move from its traditional role as a cost-center marketing endeavor to a profit-center storytelling offering). The future is, indeed, quite transmedially bright.
And building collaborative entertainment properties is hard to do in a single-medium framework. In fact, I seriously doubt Brain Candy, LLC can develop collaborative properties without utilizing a transmedia storytelling framework. I just won’t be calling it that.
Brilliant Scott, just what I was hoping to hear. Please don’t stop contributing your cogent thoughts and observations on the field. You are on track to becoming a leader in it, and this post clarifies that will remain the case. In the coming years the industry is going to need truly qualified transmedia producers of note, and I for one would like to count you among them.
Not to worry, Jeff – I’m stepping away from the term, not the practice, at the Brain Candy level. Choosing to just “do” and let others label it.
Personally, I’ll still be commenting from the peanut gallery…
There are a lot of exciting developments happening in the world of story. The idea that you can imagine a universe of story and spread the telling across many media in order to reach and deeply entertain many audiences is thrilling. And so too is the idea of co-creating with the audience, developing an intimate relationship with the “listener” and building the story with and for them.
Let the academics puzzle over the nomenclature. For the rest of us this is the time to be telling and listening to tales.
“For the rest of us this is the time to be telling and listening to tales.”
And for some of us, this is the time to finally bridge canon and fanon at the commercial level…at least, that’s the dream.
Also, I think/hope we’re about to see an explosion of examples that dwarf the commentary surrounding them. ‘More, better, faster’ is my transmedia credo for 2010!