These slides were produced for a presentation called “STORY TRIBES” for a class at California State University at Northridge on Nov 18, 2014.

These slides were produced for a presentation called “STORY TRIBES” for a class at California State University at Northridge on Nov 18, 2014.

What qualifies me to give this talk? I am a movie geek.I am an ex-journalist, filmmaker and marketer. And I spent 20 years running digital programs and initiatives at the American Film Institute, some of which are listed on the next slide. To learn more about my career, check out my website at http://www.nickdemartino.net

During a tenure of over 20 years at AFI I developed a range of programs at the intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. http://www.afi.com/ To learn more about my career, check out my website at http://www.nickdemartino.net

In 2010 I launched a consulting business to help companies navigate the digital era. Most of my work is in content and distribution.

The traditional elements we deal with in the all sorts of story forms include plot, setting, character, structure, theme, tone, imagery, and point of view.

Over the centuries, we have seen patterns emerged for effective storytelling, for example, the Hero’s Journey Paradigm, or monomyth, based upon thousands of myths analyzed by Joseph Campbell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

http://www.amazon.com/Poetics-Dover-Thrift-Editions-Aristotle/dp/048629577X/ref=pd_sim_b_42?ie=UTF8&refRID=0GQBPYJNEGV9KTJKABXY

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1577315936/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_sims_1

http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Journey-Structure-Edition/dp/193290736X/ref=pd_sim_b_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JYWFQTM93DRFWHNEQ26

http://www.amazon.com/Screenplay-Foundations-Screenwriting-Syd-Field/dp/0385339038/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1NFPJBT6G7GM7KCRT49Z

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Substance-Structure-Principles-Screenwriting/dp/0060391685/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0M5ZA00309RZXQR65RYY

http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Story-Becoming-Master-Storyteller/dp/0865479518/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1416252577

Save The Cat! by Blake Snyder - http://www.amazon.com/Save-Cat-Blake-Snyder-ebook/dp/B00340ESIS

The traditional elements we deal with in the all sorts of story forms include plot, setting, character, conflict, theme, tone, imagery, and point of view.

If I ask you to name some different forms of story, we see before very long that the form of the story has emerged as a result of some innovation in technology, and just as importantly, the financial viability of the means of production and distribution. This is the root of Marshall McLuhan’s deceptively simple phrase, THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE -- in other words, the content cannot be extracted from the medium (e.g. Technology) by which we experience it.

Indeed, it seems to get harder and harder to distinguish the actual technology from its application, or specific business use-case. The movies, for instance, are a cluster of technologies applied in a specific business use-case that evolved over our history. McLuhan used the term ‘rear-view mirror’ in describing the characteristic strategy for a new media technology -- e.g., that it mimics an earlier form. TV used radio and cinema at first, before unique story forms evolved. YouTube encompasses many technologies and many creative formats, in addition to spawning its own. Ditto with social media.

The business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value -- this has been true down through history, from royal patronage onwards. We often take the business model for granted -- movies require payment, either at the box office or via advertising -- until they don’t, with the advent of p2p file-sharing protocols. Early stage businesses, especially tech startups, are unique.

These are related words describing various story forms. Some would say that none is as complete as “transmedia.” Others say, to hell with the language wars. Let’s get to storytelling! (Note: ARG=alternate reality game)

In recent years, with the help of scholars like Henry Jenkins, the concept of transmedia has taken hold. These are stories that appear on different media platforms. Each story form contributes to the overall story world, and each is a portal through which a consumer can enter fully into the story.

I love this quote from a recent study : “Peop want to befriend characters and influence their decisions.” This is the pull of fandom, deeper levels of engagement than were possible in the past when stories were presented in various one-way formats.

These are related words describing various story forms. Some would say that none is as complete as “transmedia.” Others say, to hell with the language wars. Let’s get to storytelling! (Note: ARG=alternate reality game). Source: http://www.storycode.org

Fans of a particular story world can really be seen as a tribe.

A tribe is a group who are connected to each other, a leader, and an idea.

Like you, I belong to tribes, many defined by the stories I love.

In one tribe, I like rebels and outsiders. In another spies or detectives. In another politics and revolution.

I call it the era of “fan-centric” media. It’s all possible because of media are now, mostly all digital -- bits. The story plays out on several platforms. Usually there is interactivity -- “Low is liking or clicking” & “High is deep fan engagement.” Our media is shareable across the web. There’s the question of density -- video and gaming are dense. Text is not. Finally, we talk about context, especially the story in which fan engagement occurs.

Characteristics of fan-centric media.

The rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter empower fans and signal further shifts in story formats across the Internet.

Experts like Kris Longfield (@fanthropologist on Twitter) segment the audience by active vs inactive. There are superfans and ambassadors, and they tend to curate, collect and produce, depending upon where on the spectrum of fan engagement they fall.

When you array the many dimensions of today’s story on a single page, you see why the cube is a good way to think about this material. Each of these facets intersects with and impacts the others in ways that we are all learning about together as innovators and creators develop new work, which is what I want to turn to next.

Let’s wind up our payback machine and take a look at some of the products that have contributed to our history of interactive, multiplatform, fan-driven media.

http://www.museumofplay.org/icheg-game-history/timeline/

http://dnd.wizards.com/

http://www.ifiction.org/games/playz.php?cat=2&game=3&mode=html

Tamara was a theatrical event launched in Toronto in which the audience moved into different rooms and interacted with the actors. The story would unfold differently, depending upon your journey and what happened in each room. The show ran for many years in Los Angeles and New York, and was revived in Toronto. This is interactive, but not really multi-platform, though a CD-ROM was attempted.

Douglas Adams, the creator of A HITCHHICKERS GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE built this work with the BBC at the dawn of the interactive media age in order to explain and explore hyper-media. It could be said to be multi-platform because the links took the user into different environments and domains. You can tell that the ideas were ahead of the technology by looking at the clunky fonts.

MYST was a ground-breaking game series on CD-ROM back in the 90’s, which remained the highest grossing title until the SIMS overtook it. MYST was a unique journey of discovery in which users proceeded into environments and worlds by finding clues and activating elements of the system. Again, not really multi-platform, but a new way to tell a story. MYST and its sequels are now available in the iTunes store in both a free and $4.99 version.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(video_game)

Francis Ford Coppola created a successful film adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel about the original vampire starring Gary Oldman, and Sony released a game version that utilized footage shot on the set of the film, which nudges into the terrain of multi-platform. We were excited to show it at the time because of the high profile of the director, who created iconic films like THE GODFATHER trilogy.

Another CD-ROM title from Broderbund was created by my friend Haney Armstrong, a fllmmaker who came up with this extension of the traditional police procedural story by allowing the user to interrogate people.

This William Gibson classic was made into a film with Keanu Reeves, not well reviewed, but significant because Sony released a CD-ROM game simultaneously which allowed gameplay in a movie-like setting based upon the same story. The casts were different.

When the Sci-Fi Channel wanted to bring back the classic Battlestar Gallactica, representatives of the company, as well as Universal’s game division, came into the AFI’s Digital Content Lab to create a multi-dimensional viewing experience. The user interface, created by Schematic’s Dale Herigstad, allowed seamless movement by the user in and out of the primary story (TV), a first-person spaceship flying experience (game), and deep data about the ship, the characters, and the backstory, which also included clues. This was not the version launched at the time of the show, but inspired lots of others.

TV interactivity is a whole topic in and of itself. I included PUSH NEVADA in this presentation because it did represent a breakthrough. Clues were peppered throughout the show and the website that allowed users to amass points leading to a winner. I think I remember that some clues involved mobile calling as well, Even though the show was not popular enough to be renewed, it was an early example of multi-platform enrichment of a primary story.

Ditto with HEROES, which launched its 360 experience, later renamed EVOLUTIONS. Producer Jesse Alexander worked closely with the TV series creative team.

The Emmy went to the LOST EXPERIENCE, an alternative reality game from ABC and Hi-ReS, a design and experience company. The TV Show’s millions of fans could deepen their experience of the story world via this comprehensive site.

42 Entertainment created this multi-platform alternative reality game that invited players during the period bridging the release of the two Batman films, especially the much-anticipated DARK KNIGHT from director Christopher Nolan. Because the Gotham setting and the tone and elements of the franchise are so well known, the creators could play off of that with newspapers and other media released in sequence that contained clues and links to fill in the complex world of the films.

YEAR ZERO is an ARG that involved fans of the band Nine Inch Nails at concerts by leaving USB drives in restrooms. Those who activated the files contained therein on a computer got instructions that involved them in launching the viral game, which depicts a theocratic dystopian future, the subject of the album.

My mind was blown by this Swedish alternative reality game from Company P, (Christopher Sandberg). They used TV, newspapers, the web, live events and kind of took over the whole country for a few weeks. The premise was a fake event, but it was treated as real, and people engaged with the story in a sort of ambiguous way, not knowing for sure what was real, what was fake, what was conspiracy, etc. Such a fictional trope is often part of ARG work, and many would date it back to Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre’s radio adaptation of H.G.Welles’ WAR OF THE WORLDS in the 30’s.

Tim Kring created Heroes and in 2010 launched a global ARG called Conspiracy for Good which was sponsored by Nokia. There were extensive live events that contained clues that could be retrieved via mobile augmented reality technologies, as well as many other events. The fictional elements, especially those about the evil corporation, were quite elaborate. There was a real-world charity in Africa that benefited from the activities as well.

This is just one of the properties created by Lance Weiler, whose breakthrough film THE BIG BROADCAST was itself a precursor to more complex storytelling components being added beyond the film “platform.” 2010: HEAD TRAUMA/Hope is Missing Lance Weiler/ Seize the Media

42 Entertainment produced an ARG called I LOVE BEES to support the release of Microsoft’s HALO game.

YouTube is a massive global video network which illustrates trends in audience co-creation with the artist.

Pemberly Digital is the company behind an inventive and Emmy Award winning format with YouTube videos as its centerpiece, but including an array of ancillary social media accounts, blogs, and other web elements “managed” by characters in the story, in the case, a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

COLLAPSUS was a documentary film on Dutch television that was expanded into a broader transmedia experience that integrated game-play, global mapping, animation and other elements. Directed by Tommy Palotta, who produced Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Won the best interactive film award at the SXSW festival in 2011. From Submarine and VPRO.

Tommy Pallotta and other collaborators created a game to support the release Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol, requiring a Facebook Connect log-on. http://cobalt.missionimpossible.com/

This is the image generated at the end of the Cobalt game, which is then sharable on Facebook.

Take This Lollipop is a 2011 interactive horror short film and Facebook app, written and directed by Jason Zada created in HTML 5 that requires users to launch Facebook Connect and authorize the use of content in the account, which is integrated into a creepy, serial killer type short film. http://www.takethislollipop.com/

Take this Lollipop screen shots -- it starts as a regular film.

But soon you get a view of his computer screen, and because I’ve registered via my Facebook account, he’s looking at me….

… and stalking me in his car.

And suggesting that somebody from my social graph on Facebook may be next. Very creepy, and very innovative. The cinematic experience of “Lolllipop” is startling because it embeds images, maps, names and facts extracted from your Facebook account into the movie seemlessly.

The Wilderness Downtown. http://thewildernessdowntown.com/ : Indie Rock Band Arcade Fire, working with filmmaker Chris Milk, released a song “We Used to Wait” produced with HTML5. Users enter the zip code of the place they lived as a kid, and the video incorporates street scenes grabbed via Google Map Street View feature. Milk has a slew of experimental video/web projects on his site, including the 2012 FWA Best website (voted by fans), another collaboration with a band, this time Danger Mouse. http://portfolio.chrismilk.com/

http://www.ro.me/?id=86057 is another Chris Milk project using Google Chrome’s browser, this time leveraging the power of Web GL technologies.

AIM HIGH is a web series about a teenaged spy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1730374/ “Viewers log on via Facebook” and by giving permission, become part of the story. https://www.facebook.com/AimHighSeries.

Beckinfield is a new site that creates a story world, e.g., a mythical California town, and a storyline that comes from the site, but the unfolding of the story is created by users who upload videos to the site that they have made in characters. The originator is an actor who had been helping fellow actors upload “audition” type videos to YouTube, and yearned for a way to let actors use their improv skills to further their careers. The company has now licensed its software to other content companies who want to include fans in a story. They call it “mass participation television.” http://www.beckinfield.com/

For USA Network, Theatrics helped create The S#cial Sector, an online edition of PSYCH, showing that the platform could be used to invite user-generated content into a branded storyworld

The Accomplice is an urban-based exploration game/theatre piece, launched in NY http://accomplicetheshow.com/details-ny.php and now in Los Angeles http://www.accomplicetheshow.com/details-hollywood.php

Dark Detour began as an IndieGogo crowd-sourced campaign by Alison Norrington and Steve Peters, two pioneers in multiplatform storytelling.

StoryCode is an international network of local story-focused groups, including this one in LA. You can attend and join by going to StoryCode LA on meetup.com.

Please feel free to contact me with questions. I will be posting this presentation on SlideShare. If you give me your card after the talk, I’ll send it to you, as well. Please check out my website, and if you like my blog posts, sign up for my newsletter.