ASDF

Today, Mark Warshaw came to APOC and gave a wonderful lecture on Transmedia storytelling. A concept called “mother ship” was introduced, which is basically story considered canon, and provides the setting for any transmedia storytelling.

A question was raised during our discussion, about to what extent can the transmedia strategy divert from the contents of the mother ship, and at what time can it actually help storytelling and when does it exclude audiences who are not as involved with all the various spin-offs on all platforms. And can the mother ship be eliminated once it’s transmedia world has been successfully built? An example of how transmedia storytelling can hurt its main stream audience is probably Matrix, when the majority of the movie-goers are unfamiliar with a character who unexpectedly was given a big role because she was made popular by the video game.

From a fan’s perspective, I would say that it usually really does not matter how much fan fiction defer from the mother ship, in fact, all fans can clearly distinguish between what is canon and what is not, and therefore fan fiction can even be written on the romance between two very heterosexual protagonists who might both have female romantic interests in the mother ship already. Fan fiction can be viewed as alternate universe (fan speak here), and fans often can enjoy these parallels and the mother ship at the same time.

Things do get blurry when the original producers start using a transmedia strategy. On the one hand, it does enhance the story greatly with the depth such storytelling can achieve, but audiences can be left out. often times, producers might feel compelled to incorporate elements of the plot not presented in the mother ship, but became a hit among the more involved fans. It can generate very positive feedback from the die-hard fans, but it is also dangerous as general audiences will not provide “wtf?” feedback to the producers, and such people will simply stop watching the show that they felt disconnected with. These audience simply didn’t care to visit those 10,000 pages of content made for the show online, they also won’t know that the disconnect is not because the show sucked, but because more story is told outside of the mother ship.

My point is, the mother ship is essential to any transmedia storytelling. Spin-offs are great and fun because they get to explore the parts where the mother ship did not have time to develop: awesome side kick, the romance, the technology etc. However, just like the picture in the post suggests, all these popularity originated from the mother ship. I think Mark was absolutely right when he said that the mother ship will not disappear, but might find it’s place in another medium. Very true. If Heroes the TV show were to end abruptly, fans might have a huge debate on what is canon and what is not. Heroes the series might die during the process (because all transmedia storytelling will lose its point of reference), but it is also likely that fans might all agree that the comic book is now canon, making it the new mother ship.

To some extent, I believe that even when the original producers put up new content and extend story telling outside of the mother ship, fans will always treat such content differently, as a freebie rather than some sort of canon. Sure, such content will always be cited as a authoritative source during a heated debate between two die-hard fans of the series, but if there are discrepancies between the mother ship and such content, the mother ship will always be considered canon. As long as the mother ship is consistent within itself, fans will have no problem. But if the mother ship became inconsistent due to some kind of forced, non-organic placement of elements from the other transmedia platform, the fans might be excited or be indifferent (since they know why it is there, they take it for granted), but the normal audience will most likely be confused. I personally feel that if the Matrix did not care about the video game fans, and stick with what they feel will be the best mainstream approach, not only will the mainstream audience be satisfied, the video game fans will also understand that the movie is to be considered canon, and have a “well, too bad…” feeling and won’t really care. After all, they must have liked the original Matrix enough to play the video game.

I think any transmedia strategist cannot be too caught up in the idea that they have to tell an absolutely consistent story across all platforms. Producers need to know the power of the flag ship on all fan created materials. In the old days when fan created content was still very underground and invisible, fan fiction authors would change the content of their fan fiction in consideration for unforeseen advances in the plot of the mother ship. It will be great if the producer can identify elements that are popular among both the fans and the general audience, and to incorporate that into the mother ship (after all, good content is always good content), but producers also need to keep in mind that the general audience probably don’t know what is going on. It will be a good idea to maybe have a condensed version of the spin-off be part of the show, so that the general audience can have a good understanding. Do not be afraid that the fans will say, “hey, that is so OLD!” because every fan will be excited to see the spin-off be part of the canon anyways.

Also, personally, I do not feel “choose your own adventure” type of storytelling will be the future of mainstream entertainment. We read books and watch TV shows because we want to be surprised. Much of the fun comes from trying to figure out the conspiracy, and all value of the show could be lost if you know the trick behind everything (lol spoilers!). I feel that fans create content because they often enjoy doing so. It will be great if their idea became part of the canon, but by just providing a platform for the sharing of fan fiction or mash ups could be enough for a fan to feel very involved and valued.

Fans are important. After all, with ad and movie ticket sales going down, DVD and merchandise purchases often generate the bulk of the dough nowadays. Your average audience is much less likely to buy these things than your die-hard fan (the anime industry in Japan is booming because they realized they can make crappy anime and make money from DVD sale. It is not really healthy, but that is another post.). However, as the Longtail theory has shown, it is likely that you will only have at most 20% of your audience be those die hard fans. Not to mention, these people might have become fans of the show because they hear their friends and family talk about it and watched an episode. You cannot only serve to this small group of fans, after all, if your overall number of viewers decrease, and the proportions remain the same, you will get a smaller absolute number of fans anyways. Just my 2 cents

PS: Picture stolen from Faris’s blog. He has a great post on transmedia storytelling that I feel that everyone should check out!