Hello everyone!
For those of you who have been following my posts here for the last few months, you may have noticed I've been talking a lot about how technology has transformed the publishing industry, and how transmedia storytelling has broken down the barriers between a story and it's audience.
But I haven't really gone into the specifics about how this can be put into practice. There's been a lot of talk about transmedia storytelling, but very few good examples of what the medium is truly capable of. People and publishers have folded their arms, and decided to "wait and see."
And I don't blame them.
After all the talk about ground breaking-this, cross platform-that, and immersion-everything, not much has really happened, has it? There's been a lot of smoke, but no one has lit a match.
That's about to change. It won't be long before you'll be participating in a story instead of reading it. How do I know?
I'm going to help make it happen.
Do I have some amazing new browser plug-in? Some sort of new transmedia authoring platform? A storytelling social media network, perhaps?
Nope. (People always seem to get hung up on the technology...)
The technology of the written word changed how stories were delivered, but not how they were created. It's the same thing with e-books, film, and television...they are all different methods of delivering the same fictional drug.
It's the story that's important.
What's the difference between slapping a button on a coke machine, and visiting a barista at your local starbucks?
A can of soda will always taste the same. A caramel-pumpkin-spice-mocha-latte with a dash of cinnamon and whip, tastes a lot different if you have him add a splash of pickle juice.
There's only one way to have it your way: ask for it.
Here at Modern Mythology, we know that storytelling isn’t passive.
A good storyteller must actively engage their
audience. A story should be tailored to
whom it’s being told to, not diluted and homogenized just to make it more appealing
to a potential audience of millions.
The goal of a story should be
to make people think, feel, and help them blink away their pedestrian
view of the world. A book or movie should draw you in, engage you, make
you a part of it--not run you over.
Films shouldn't blind people
with cinematic eye candy, and books shouldn't hypnotize them with pages
of sex and violence strung together with a meaningless plot.
But they
do, and they will continue to do so, because that's the easiest way for
Hollywood and publishers to get your money without you noticing.
It doesn't have to be this way. Really.
(Unless you're into that kind of thing.)
