Connecting the world with transmedia

A panel discusses transmedial future of the film industry.Photo by Caroline Smith

So what exactly is transmedia? It’s something new and exciting, but according to Adam Neuhaus, “Disney has been doing it forever. I mean look at the rides.”

All four of the panelist (Zachary Lieberman, Evan Schectman, Adam Neuhaus and Greg Brunkalla) agree that the idea of transmedia is storytelling across multiple platforms and that technology is a tool for deepening it.

Technology is key in transmedia. “If you have an idea, the technology is available, just go do it,” said Lieberman.

“The fundamental basis of this idea is how to get the audience to interact,” said Greg Brunkalla, the creative mind behind the T-Mobile Angry Birds commercial.

Trasmedialists believe in giving the audience members an active voice. Each audience member has a voice and transmedia attempts to capture that idea. It is constantly “taking the essence or function of a story and putting it where people are to draw them back to the story,” Lieberman said. Transmedia takes people offline, online and back again through things such as comic books, films, video games, etc.

“If you see an opportunity and have an idea seize that opportunity,” Lieberman said. Transmedia is a multifaceted discipline, Schectman recommended, “being a student of it,” meaning that you are constantly learning, growing and experimenting with different media outlets.

“You will fail and fail big, but you have to be bold and confident enough to believe in what you are doing,” Schectman said.

Expanding your knowledge of different media forms only betters where you can go and what you can do with these forms. “Film is a collaborative media and transmedia is even more so,” Lieberman said. With transmedia, people are taken from different disciplines and thrown together and the panel recommends expanding your network and to start creating things as soon as you can.

If you’re interested in learning more about transmedia, panelist Adam Neuhaus recommended checking out the Tribeca Film Institute, Bay Area Collective and a book by Frank Rose titled The Art of Immersion.