Monday, November 12, 2012

Post 3, Transmedia Storytelling

Living in this media dependent world, it is easy to confuse the messages that marketing and advertising companies try to convey. Often times, transmedia and multimedia are easily confusable.

Multimedia refers to a single story that is told through different media platforms. Transmedia refers to multiple stories under the umbrealla of one big story, and that are told though different media platforms. Every story under this umbrella complements the other, and together they extend the original story.

One of Jenkins' original examples of transmedia storytelling is The Matrix. In the chapter, "Searching for the Origami Unicorn", Jenkins explains how the concept of The Matrix was expanded by having the movie trilogy, the comic books and alternate reality games or ARG's. They all remained under The Matrix's spectrum, but they all lived independent of each other.



In my opinion, a perfect example of transmedia storytelling is Harry Potter. The story about a boy wizard that grew into seven different books and subsequently those turned into movies. At the end of the series of books and series, fans of the boy wizard were left wanting more. In J.K Rowling's website -author of Harry Potter-, we see that she has written other works that have extended the original Harry Potter's story.

"Fans recognise them as they appear in the novels, being the titles of books mentioned in Harry’s world: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages." (1 J.K Rowling's website)

On June of 2012, the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida opened The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. In a re-creation of part of Harry Potter's world, which include Hogwards and some of the films' shops, fans are able to personally experience Harry Potter's world and interact as though they were characters of the film.

In addition to the books and theme parks, J.K Rowling, in collaboration with Sony launched the website Pottermore.com. In this website, fans can access exclusive content about the characters and extend their knowledge about them; information that is not told on the books and/or films. Pottermore engages Harry Potter fans in an experience that takes fans further than the Harry Potter series.

J.K Rowling on Pottermore Sorting

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With Pottermore, Harry Potter fans are able to create potions, discover different spells and curses and allows them to have duels, allowing them to have magic at their fingertips. 

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