Institute for Multimedia Literacy School of Cinematic Arts University of Southern California 746 W. Adams Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90089 http://iml.usc.edu || 213.743.4421

Workshop  in  Multimedia  Authoring    iml  140  Introduction  to  Transmedia:  Digital  Tools  and  

Dynamic  Storytelling    

Fall Semester 2012 Location: Taper Hall Tuesday 2:00-3:50 pm Open to all students: 2 units Class Portal: http://iml.usc.edu/iml-portal/

Professor: Vicki Callahan, Ph.D. vicki.callahan@usc.edu Office: Taper B8 Office Hours: Wednesday and Thursday (TAPER B8) 1:00-2:00 pm and by appointment

 

IML  140  –  Workshop  in  Multimedia  Authoring  

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Course  Description  

Transmedia is a form of storytelling that while not entirely new is a format that is becoming increasingly dominant in our digital culture. Transmedia is characterized by its use of multiple points of entry (e.g., narrative lines, perspectives) across diverse platforms (e.g., web, photography, video) as it relays a story, or indeed, stories. Transmedia has been used in advertising, mainstream/ experimental/independent film, and is now the cornerstone of documentary and social change strategies. In this class we will look at the diverse possibilities for storytelling opened up by transmedia and engage the tools and structures needed to create our own cross-platform stories.

REQUIRED READINGS AND SCREENINGS

All Required Readings Will Be Available Online through course wiki or via links

We will have several course screenings some of which will require small streaming fees (via Amazon.com)

Grading Breakdown

Project #1: Social Media Storytelling (Group Project) 10%

Project #2: Research Presentation on Transmedia Case-Study 20%

Project #3: Video Remix 20%

Project #4: Cross-Platform Project (Individual or Group) 25%

Seminar Participation (Assignments, Workshops & Class Discussion) 10%

Peer Reviews 10%

Final Peer Review/Reflection 5%

Course Objectives

IML classes are designed to give students theoretical and practical skills in multimedia authorship for effective audio-visual expression and presentation. Our course will focus on developing skills in these specific core literacies:

Digital literacy: proficiency with basic tools of digital authoring and an understanding of storage, backup, compression, file types, naming conventions, etc.

Network literacy: ability to use network-based software for sophisticated participation in online communities.

Design literacy: ability to use appropriate design principles in service of critical goals,

 

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as well as the ability to control and articulate the relationship between form and content.

Argumentation: ability to use multimedia to develop and express a persuasive thesis and the effective use of evidence and complex thinking in constructing an argument.

Research literacy: ability to perform effective, critical online research; knowledge of academically appropriate protocols for selection, citation and attribution of electronic source materials; and knowledge of fair use and copyright issues.

Evaluation

Each IML-140 assignment will contain project evaluation guidelines clearly indicating what is expected for the assignment and how each component of the assignment will be evaluated. In general, you will be graded on these elements:

Conceptual Core

Is the project’s thesis clearly articulated?

Does the project effectively engage with the primary issues presented in the assignment?

Research Competence

Does the project display evidence of substantial research and thoughtful engagement with its subject?

Does the project use a variety of types of sources (i.e., not just websites)?

Does the project carefully and properly cite sources utilized?

Form and Content

Do structural and formal elements of the project reinforce the conceptual core in a productive way?

Does the project use an appropriate voice (or awareness of discourse communities)?

Are design decisions deliberate and controlled?

Is the effectiveness of the project uncompromised by technical problems?

Creative Realization

Does the project approach its subject in creative or innovative ways?

Does the project use media and design principles effectively?

Does this project achieve significant goals that could not have been realized on paper?

Policies Fair Use and Citation Guidelines: We assert that all of our course work is

 

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covered under the Doctrine of Fair Use. In order to make this claim, however, all projects will need to include academically appropriate citations in the form of a Works Cited section, which covers all sources, in order to receive a passing grade. The Works Cited is either included in the project or as a separate document, as appropriate to your project. The style we use is APA 5th edition and you may refer to these guidelines: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Statement on Academic Integrity: USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: http://web-app.usc.edu/scampus/. Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.

Statement for Students with Disabilities: Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Emergency Plan: In the event that classes cannot convene at the university, all IML courses will continue via distance education. Specifically, the IML portal and course wikis will be deployed to enable faculty-student interaction (asynchronously and also via virtual office hours), complete syllabi, course readings and assignments, software tutorials, project assets, parameters and upload instructions, peer review processes and open source alternatives to professional-level software used in the IML curriculum. Further details are available on the course wiki.

Course Schedule (SUBJECT TO CHANGE):

Week 1, Aug 28: Intro to class

Welcome to IML 140, registration to the portal

Practical: “all the world is atwitter” – basics of twitter and networked storytelling assignment

♦ For week 2:

Read: “The Future of Video: Becoming People of the Screen” Institute for the Future report

 

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View:

“What is Transmedia?”

“How I learned to start a Pandemic” overview of Lance Weiler’s project

“Invisible People” transmedia documentary

Audi: Art of the Heist Audi transmedia campaign

“Barbie and Ken Are Back Together Again” Mattel marketing campaign

“Conspiracy for Good” Nokia collaborates with Tim Kring for “Social Benefit Storytelling”

complete #oneweekLA assignment begun in class.

Week 2, Sept. 4: What is Transmedia?

Discussion of readings/viewing and review of first in class assignment

Practical: Social Media Tools: Flickr, Tumblr, Storify

♦ For week 3:

Read selections from Digital Culture, by Charlie Gere and

Selection from Reclaiming Fair Use, Aufderheide and Jaszi

View: Peter Greenaway on the “end of cinema” and the Tulse Luper Suitcases website, Collapsus Walkthrough with Collapsus Website, and Moneyocracy

***Handout Project #1

Week 3, Sept 11: Transmedia in the Landscape of Digital Culture

Discuss fair use and qualities of digital culture/transmedia

Photoshop and Work on Project 1

♦ for week 4:

Read: selection from Henry Jenkins, "Searching for the Origami Unicorn" by Henry Jenkins. From his book Convergence Cultures: when old and new media collide. (USC Library Link)

View: Matrix (view film streaming on Amazon) and related materials

 

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Week 4, Sept 18: New Storytelling Forms

Discuss Matrix

Photoshop and Work on Project 1

For Week 5: view website for Four Eyed Monsters and feature film on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8rRFFi_stY

Week 5, Sept 25: Creating and Connecting Communities, Blurring the Fiction Borders (Project #1 Due)

Discuss Four-Eyed Monsters

Intro to Presentation tools, Vuvox, Prezi

♦ For Week 6

Read: Francesca Coppa, “Women, Star Trek, and the Early Development of Fannish Vidding”

View: Original Star Trek Episode on Amazon streaming

And Star Trek fan materials at Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own

Handout Project 2 (research and visualization of transmedia project)

Week 6, Oct. 2: Fans/Reappropriation/Remix

Discuss fan materials

Work on Project 2

♦ For Week 7

Read: Roy Ascott, selection from The Telematic Embrace, http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy.usc.edu/lib/pqpreview/docDetail.action?docID=10048742&pqid=14749

View: Starwreck, http://www.starwreck.com/ and #18daysinEgypt http://beta.18daysinegypt.com/,

Week 7, Oct. 9: Distributed Authorship (Project 2 due)

Discuss Ascott and crowdsourced/networked writing, stories

 

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Intro to Video editing

♦ For Week 8

Read Robert Mckee, selection from Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Prinicples of Screenwriting and Andrea Phillips, “Why so Serious: Lessons in Transmedia Worldbuilding”

View: The Dark Knight (streaming Amazon) and related material

Handout Project 3 (Remix)

Week 8, Oct. 16: What makes a good story?

Discuss readings and Dark Knight Materials

Video Editing Part 2

♦ For Week 9

Read: Lance Weiler on the “storyworld” of transmedia and Ted Hope “Allowing a Transmedia Approach to Process”

View: Here (streaming on Amazon) and materials with Hope’s essay.

Week 9, Oct. 23: “The Expanded Palette”: Designing a Cross-Platform Story

Discuss the “expanded palette” possibilities of transmedia

Work on Project 3

♦ For Week 10:

Read: Helen de Michel, “The Open-Space Documentary” and Brian Newman “Awra Amba: Documentary and Transmedia Activism”

View: Lunch Love Community and Awra Amba

Week 10, Oct. 30: The “Open Space” Documentary -- Project 3 Due

Discuss new documentary forms

♦ For Week 11

Read: This is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternative Reality Gaming, Dave Szulborski http://tinyurl.com/9kkwjjz (Google Books)

 

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View: World Without Oil

♦ Handout Project 4

Week 11, Nov. 6: This is not a Game: ARGs

Discuss ARGs and World Without Oil

QRcodes as transmedia tool and Project Design Workshop

♦ For Week 12: Read and View: 5 Examples of Transmedia Activism

Week 12, Nov. 13: Transmedia Activism

Project Design Workshop

♦ For Week 13

View: The Interrupters (streaming on Amazon) and explore the film site and be sure to note the Beyond the Film materials

Week 13, Nov 20: Participatory Media or Online Noise? Can “transmedia activism” make a difference and the ethics of online activism.

Discuss The Interrupters

Project Profiles/Feedback

Week 14, Nov 27: Project Updates/Feedback

Week 15, Dec 4 Final Presentations

Exam Week, Peer Review/Reflection of Final Projects due December 13 at 4:00 pm

Please note: You may revise any project assignments for the class (with exception of Project #1, weekly postings, or peer reviews), but ALL final revisions will due by Dec 13 at 4:00 pm.

****Very Important! Class Decorum: Since we are in a lab setting, we are faced with the temptations of social media from outside our classroom context. In order for us to have a productive seminar/practical lab, I request that any personal email, texting, Facebook, or other social media variants are put on hold until outside class (unless it is part of class!).