Film Futurist

At the FOE4 Conference, I was struck by something Mike Monello said on when speaking on a panel. He said something I had never thought of quite that way before: that as a Transmedia creator, one’s role becomes that of a creator/performer – not in the sense that the storyteller is acting per se, but rather that a storyteller MUST design a performance of engagement. What a brilliant way of thinking of audience engagement, I thought. And I nabbed him and made him promise to sit down with me after the conference.

Over tea in Brooklyn’s train-rattling DUMBO neighborhood, Monello and I spent a few lively hours discussing a broad range of ideas surrounding the practice of Transmedia and what it means to the form and art of the story when we cross into the wild, expansive possibilities of narrative without boundaries. Again and again, he cited examples of  audience engagement AS art, performance, and not simply the necessarily evil creative people have to suffer to get their work seen by audiences. I recognized that as artists, especially filmmakers, the “art” of audience engagement may be the hardest one to embrace yet in constructing the full Transmedia experience, Monello demonstrated how critical it is.

What struck me as we spoke was how accessible and practical Monello was but then I remembered that it was he and his group of collaborators after all, that were responsible for the savvy, practical and explosive phenomenon known as The Blair Witch Project. (He calls that an early, unidentified Transmedia project – which spawned lesser known books and games that expanded the story and appealed to varying audiences) Yet as the same time, I found myself his unbridled love for story and his zeal for the challenge of creating compelling, immersive experiences rather infectious.

Because it was my obsession with rapidly shifting world of narrative form and content that led me to start writing this blog in the first place, I bombarded Monello with questions about how he and his partners at Campfire manage to do what they do, convince brands to let them create cross-platform stories and experiences; badgered him for the requisite end-of-year 2010 predictions; and pestered him for speculations on when Transmedia might go wide. He was gracious and patient with his extensive answers – a limited selection of which I am posting here.

WHAT IS A STORYTELLER WITHIN TRANSMEDIA?
Rejecting the limitations of titles such as “filmmaker”, Monello says stories can be anywhere and on any platform so he privileges the term “storyteller” above all others. When a storyteller is effective, s/he is “conducting” and “orchestrating” a creative narrative experience for an audience, no matter where that might be. He is adamant that audiences should be able to engage as lightly or as deeply as they want, and that all engagement experiences should be built with that in mind – value at very level. Emphasizing that a Transmedia narrative might have a component as low-tech as a paper invitation (which Campfire used in the True Blood campaign), the goal is always to allow the audience to engage, and dig deeper if they so desire.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ARTIST/AUTEUR’S VISION IN TRANSMEDIA NARRATIVES?
In designing the narrative experience, Monello says, “the dirty little secret of transmedia narratives: creators have far more control over the story than anyone really lets on.” In more cases than not, when an audience engages with the intention of building/contributing to a narrative, they are playing a role that has been designed by the author of that story. So to all those auteurs nervous about crossing into the abyss of a creative world run by crazed mob fans, there’s nothing to fear. On the contrary, encouraging fans to engage can only increase the value of one’s brand.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR TRANSMEDIA NARRATIVES TO BECOME MAINSTREAM?
Right now, he says he still struggles with mainstream marketing teams resistance “to constructing a convergent multiplatform narrative” because of the splintered way agencies handle all their platforms–hardly ever basing a campaign vision on a unified cross-platform story. Despite challenges on the brand side with which he works,  Monello thinks the Transmedia road is still a lot tougher on the Film and TV studio side where one might expect there to be more story innovation. The ideal scenario, he says, is that a powerful showrunner will initiate a Transmedia project across the board and turn it into audience gold but doubts that will really happen. He believes a more likely scenario is that the “game-changer will come from an indie creator,” not unlike a Blair Witch scenario of the next decade who “with the force of the fans will reformulate the system”.