Starlight Runner’s Caitlin Burns will be participating in two events at Digital October.
Caitlin will be moderating a roundtable on February 3, livestreamed on the internet from Moscow.
Caitlin will also be a key speaker at the “Investments in Cinema, TV and New Media” Forum, which will take place on 4 February at the initiative of Sberbank of Russia, Troika Dialog, and Cinemotion Group.
Jeff Gomez will reunite with X/Media/Lab and journey to Peter Gabriel’s RealWorld Studios in Bath, United Kingdom to deliver a keynote and mentorship to an array of startups and creative projects at the first Bath Digital Festival in March.
Experience “The Great Happyfication” which employs much of the mythos, characterization, messages and themes developed by Starlight Runner for Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory campaign.
Variety’s piece on transmedia at CES featured an interview with Jeff Gomez, dubbed a “Power Player” in the entertainment and tech industries by veteran journalist Marc Graser.
Transmedia should be an easy concept to understand: Create a project that can play across multiple platforms. Walking the show floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center, during CES, all of those various screens are on full display.
But Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, who has helped studios develop transmedia storytelling with franchises like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Transformers,” says there’s still a lot more work to be done. He spoke to Variety about the issues the biz still needs to deal with to make transmedia successful…
Today’s Variety, now being distributed to thousands of attendees of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, features a piece on the significance of the Producers Guild of America transmedia producer credit in Hollywood since its introduction in 2010. Jeff Gomez and Starlight Runner figure prominently in the article:
Since the PGA started recognizing the role in April 2010, the first credits have already started to appear with George Stayton getting a transmedia producer title on Paramount and Hasbro’s “Transformers” franchise. The credit’s also appeared on THQ’s “Red Faction” video game.
But 2012 should prove a watershed year, according to veteran transmedia producer Jeff Gomez, who’s been championing the concept for more than a decade. The Canadian Media Fund will add the credit to its projects. And “there will be (another) major studio getting on board very soon,” Gomez said.
If you are at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, join Jeff Gomez at Digital Media Wire’s Games Summit on Wednesday, January 11. His panel at 4 PM is called Hollywood and Games – A Transmedia Approach to Entertainment Content.
PANEL 6: Hollywood and Games – A Transmedia Approach to Entertainment Content
Starlight Runner’s Simon Pulman interviewed Henry Jenkins about his new book, “Spreadable Media” at Merging+Media 2011 in Vancouver.
Simon Pulman graciously posted the text of Starlight Runner CEO Jeff Gomez’s keynote on World Building & Mythology on his Transmythology blog. The candid speech tracks Jeff’s efforts to introduce multi-platform narrative to Hollywood and share the fundamentals of storytelling with the world.
If you’ve been following the many interviews 343 Industries has been doing surrounding the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, you might have seen a mention of a company called Starlight Runner Entertainment. The New York–based Starlight Runner specializes in what’s called “transmedia,” or branching fiction into other media platforms. If it’s a videogame franchise, for instance, the process could involve taking the game’s world and preparing it for expansion into novels, comic books, TV series, movies, etc.
Starlight Runner’s work has been felt in popular franchises such as TRON, Red Faction, Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Persia, Transformers, and Avatar, but President and CEO Jeff Gomez calls its undertaking of Halo, which spanned about a year-and-a-half of the company’s time, one of its proudest moments.
“It was the biggest and most challenging work of our entire careers,” he says…
Read the rest of the interview at the Official XBOX Magazine
Starlight Runner Entertainment’s Caitlin Burns spoke on the panel A Tale of Two Worlds: When Film/TV-Game Worlds Collide at the 2011 Merging Media conference in Vancouver.
Film and television storyworlds appear to make good game fodder and vice versa, is this true? We hear first hand from industry observers and those involved in these adaptations on what it takes to create a cohesive world and successful title from an existing IP, from blockbuster movies like “Star Wars-Republic” and “Tron” to popular TV Series “Lost” and “Family Guy.”
Starlight Runner Entertainment’s Caitlin Burns participated in the Tribeca Film Institute’s Transmedia for Social Documentaries panel, alongside Vladan Nikolic, Megan Cunningham, and Opeyemi Olukemi.
Jeff Gomez’s talk at the recent Power to the Pixel conference in London was highlighted by references to Ernie Cline’s science fiction novel Ready Player One, and an overview of the potential of J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore and the future of the Harry Potter Universe.
Date: Saturday, October 15
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Location: American Airlines Theater, 1A06
Speakers: Abdul H. Rashid, J.D. Matonti, Jeff Gomez, Mark Hamill
Description:
Mark Hamill appears on this very special panel with New-Gen, discussing his role in the upcoming film based on this science fiction comic book series. For more information visit www.newgenuniverse.com.
Pottermore: Expert Explains How Harry Potter’s Website Will Transform Storytelling
This Sunday, fans of the Harry Potter book and movie series will flock to Pottermore.com because of one sentence currently posted on the splash page: “Come back on 31st July to find out how you can get the chance to enter Pottermore early.”
Those lucky few will not only enter a world where the stories can expand both in length and depth. Or perhaps be the first to enjoy Potter e-books. They will also witness a historical shift in entertainment, according transmedia expert Jeff Gomez.
President and CEO of Starlight Entertainment, Gomez has transformed stories, games and products — such as ”Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Tron Legacy,” ”Halo,” “Avatar,” and Hot Wheels — into interactive universes. He has lectured on developing transmedia brands (which he defines below) to the MIT Futures of Entertainment Conference, Game Developers Conference, O’Reilly Tools of Change and the Producers Guild of America.
And Gomez is seriously bullish on Pottermore’s potential. In this email interview, we talk about what Potter fans can expect, the role author J.K. Rowling will play and how this one site could change the way we tell stories.”
Comic Con: Twitter # brought these zombies together
“Tracking the potency of social media is part of what I do for a living, and more than the trending topics I scan on my Twitter feed, this (and so much more of what I’m seeing today) was tangible proof of that power. Arriving at Comic Con today, I was met with a jubilant wedding entourage of zombies, their open wounds glistening in the brilliant San Diego sunshine. What’s better than that? Most of the zombies were young women! “How did you two meet?” I asked the bride and groom. “#WalkingDead!” they grinned. “
“Comic-Con: Robert Rodriguez and friends bring “Heavy Metal” to the social media masses”:http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504943_162-20082666-10391715.html
“But, what’s really trippy is that Rodriguez has invited fans to contribute “characters, worlds, and/or story ideas” to Quick Draw via a dedicated web site, with the chosen concept being added to the film as a final segment! This is no ordinary trip to the set contest, but an embracing of the power of fandom that makes Comic-Con relevant today.”
Comic-Con: Why you should be excited for remakes and reboots
“If you’re a cynic — and there are a few of you lurking right here in the convention center — this is Hollywood at its worst, a bankruptcy of ideas, the scraping of barrel bottoms. But, my sense of it is that there’s room for hope.”
Comic-Con: A new generation powered by steam and DIY online
“Guys! How did this happen?” Like so many hand-stapled ashcans and photocopied ‘zines in fandom’s past, New-Gen could have stayed exactly as it had started, a labor of love that never improved, a dream forever being pursued. “We had some help from our friends,” smiled J.D.”
The world’s most successful transmedia producer who wowed participants at Melbourne International Film Festival’s “Film eXtended” last year, returns to Australia to present his full one-day masterclass – which sells out at Kidscreen, Cinekid, Comic Con and other major media events all around the world. Jeff’s Australian tour includes Melbourne – 27th July; Sydney – 29th July & 30th July; Perth – 2nd August.
This is your opportunity to spend a full day learning from the number one transmedia guru.
Jeff’s credits include: Avatar, Tron, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hotwheels and Coca Cola’s The Happiness Factory, amongst many others.
If you’re in film, television, marketing or interactive media – this is your sole opportunity to spend a day learning from the world’s foremost expert.
You will learn how to create intense loyalty and long-term engagement amongst audiences and communities, and how to turn that into multiple revenue streams.
Part Tolkien and part Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Gomez ’85 helps Hollywood and Fortune 500 companies tell their stories across multiple media platforms
You can’t hide in your bedroom and “play with your plastic dinosaurs forever,” muses the boy inside Jeff Gomez ’85. Instead, through his imagination, this lonely Latino child from the Lower East Side morphed into a globe-trotting storyline universe creator, consultant, and producer. From a gritty childhood and an adolescence of playing Dungeons & Dragons in the Queens College Student Union, he has shaped a professional life immersed in dozens of fictional worlds.
President and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment in Manhattan, Gomez is a guru of transmedia storytelling, which involves creating a narrative robust enough to span animation, ads, films, web content, and books to video games, toys, and theme parks. He guides Hollywood and Fortune 500 companies as they incubate or expand their epic fictional realms of branded entertainment, such as Disney’s sci-fi Tron: Legacy and Microsoft’s $2-billion Xbox game Halo. The fantasy universes Starlight Runner has been involved with generate millions of fans eager to interact with that world—as well as megabucks for the companies.
We hosted the second in a series of exclusive Transmedia workshops last week in Washington D.C. with Starlight Runner’s Jeff Gomez. This time I had the opportunity to sit in on the workshop and wanted to share some key take-aways with DMW readers. For those of you not familiar with Jeff Gomez, he has worked on blockbuster franchises such as Avatar, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Dog Files – Ep.11 – Hero Dogs of 9/11 from GP Creative on Vimeo.
BANFF: Hero Dogs of 9/11, a joint-venture project from Dog Files, Starlight Runner Entertainment and kelencontent that was inspired by a six-minute viral video, is being presented as a one-hour pilot to Animal Planet Canada.
The video Hero Dogs of 9/11 was released online in September 2010, attracting more than 250,000 views in the first 24 hours. Following the success of the video, executive producer Kenn Bell of Dog Files, Starlight Runner Entertainment and kelencontent teamed up to produce the project. The series is slated to launch into production this summer. The Hero Dogs doc special looks at the search and rescue dog teams who were at Ground Zero. The series will feature 12 half-hour stories.
Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner commented: “As long-time supporters of Kenn Bell and Dog Files multiplatform franchise, it gives my partner Mark and I great pleasure to join [as Transmedia Producers] to open a new chapter in our relationship in the form of Hero Dogs of 9/11, a celebration of the noblest of canines at Ground Zero.”
Starlight Runner is proud and thrilled with Laura Sterritt’s new blog, Transchordian, a look at popular music through the prism of transmedia. First installment: the multi-platform intrigue of Bjork!
AFTERNOON KEYNOTE:
Transmedia Storytelling – The Power of Connected Narratives
June 8, 2011 – 1:15 PM to 2:00 PM
Toronto, Ontario
The most dynamic entertainment franchises and the most potent social movements in recent years have something profound in common: Transmedia Storytelling.
Young people are no longer satisfied with being broadcast at. They want to engage, create and participate, and the brands that validate their involvement will be a step ahead of their competition. Transmedia Producer from New York-based Starlight Runner Entertainment, Caitlin Burns, will explain how to entice young consumers with evolving technologies and platforms; whether to evangelize a cause or a brand.
Learn how core storytelling tools can be used to activate and develop communities leveraging multimedia and emergent technologies including mobile content, social media, marketing, commercial campaigns, online ventures, gaming, television and film.
While traveling a few weeks back I had the good fortune to meet an Egyptian scholar. “Isn’t it wonderful,” I said, “how the Internet and social media were used by your people to free themselves from an oppressive regime?”
His response surprised me: “Oh no, Facebook and Twitter didn’t free us. Yes, they were tools we used along with diligent housewives, copy machines and handwritten flyers. The true tipping point happened late last year when our parliament retained power with the usual brazen wave of election fraud, corruption and thievery. The difference this time is that they didn’t even bother to lie to us about it. They didn’t even tell us a story.”
As someone who has spent the last decade advising the entertainment industry on how best to extend big movie and videogame properties across an array of strange new media platforms, I’ve had to think about story from any number of perspectives. What I’m coming to understand is this: Story is more powerful than any weapon. More than warriors, storytellers have influenced the way we’ve evolved as a race.
For the Full Article, go to ARGNet
“After introducing the members of the panel, Jenkins discussed the recent addition of the new Transmedia Producer credit from the Producer’s Guild of America, and asked Jeff Gomez to speak on the subject. First, Gomez discussed his interpretation of what transmedia does: “What has been discovered initially is that, yes, transmedia can help us sell stuff: this has been . . . the most common application of thinking about how to tell stories over multiple media platforms because somehow, if you like the story, you might buy iterations of the story from one medium to the next. But that’s not going to be the most brilliant application of transmedia.” Gomez focused instead on other changes brought on by transmedia narratives, such as affording producers and creators the opportunity to enjoy a greater level of control over their properties; being able to take equity and stronger financial stakes in their properties; and giving creators new ways of expressing themselves. “The canvas of the story is no longer a television screen, or even the movie theater screen; you are now envisioning how to tell stories that dovetail and flow across these different media channels.”
“Gomez conceded that greater financial investment would be needed in order to create robust storyworlds necessary to carry the story across media platforms, but found hope in new models of financing where creators and investors work in concert. Partnerships between struggling industries like the publishing or the music industry, and software companies looking to cross over and develop entertainment in these areas, are currently forming, and Gomez predicts they will become more prevalent in the future. There are also international partnerships forming. Canada has a new media fund that requires television and film makers to take other platforms into consideration in order to be financed by the new fund, recognizing the need for transmedia talent in order to make this happen. Brazil and other European countries have also been entering into co-production deals with the United States for transmedia properties. The greater equity this will afford will lead to new kinds of contracts: the amount of work needed to create a successful transmedia project will “command respect and participation. If we’re working harder, we deserve more.”
“Last year, when the Producers Guild of America officially accepted “transmedia producer” as one of its Producer Code of Credits, the term “transmedia” suddenly gained a lot of currency in the entertainment world. For years, transmedia has been applied in a very general fashion to describe the process of stretching stories across several platforms. “
The global demand for producers familiar with the process of developing transmedia content (across several mediums like games, mobile, television and film) for studios and networks is on the rise. This 4-hour event is the first of its kind and unique in the world, delivering practical, how-to transmedia training led by leading cross-platform producer and strategist Jeff Gomez. Now he will teach his signature transmedia development process to business executives, content producers, marketers and creators which has been used for such blockbusters as Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron Legacy, James Cameron’s Avatar, Microsoft’s Halo, Hasbro’s Transformers, Mattel’s Hot Wheels and Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory.
This workshop is will take a maximum of 30 attendees for maximum efficiency. Reserve your seat now!
When:
bq. 1:30-6pm, April 25th, 2011
Where:
bq. SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills
For the past five years, Power to the Pixel hosted a Cross-Media Forum at the London Film Festival, seeking to connect the film community with digital innovators exploring new methods of distribution, marketing, and financing for their projects. On April 19th, Power to the Pixel is partnering with the Independent Filmmaker Project to bring the Cross-Media Forum across the pond to New York City, at the Walter Reade Theater.
One of the highlights of the program in years past has been the opportunity to witness pitches for new projects seeking funding, providing open feedback on what financiers and investors are looking for in projects. And the New York edition of the forum will be no different in this respect, with three new film-based transmedia projects slated to be pitched in front of a live audience. The forum will also feature presentations and case studies from leading figures in the transmedia production space, including Jeff Gomez (Starlight Runner), Kevin Slavin (Zynga NY), Lance Weiler (Seize the Media), Ty Montague (Co.), and Nina Bargiel. The Cross-Media Forum will feature a few new networking events to the schedule. On April 18th, the Cross-Media Forum will hold its official kick-off at SPiN with a ping-pong tournament. After the event, Wired is hosting a cocktail party for forum attendees.
You can purchase your ticket online or at the door for $100. If you use the discount code MISC20D upon registration, you can receive a 20 discount on the price of your ticket.
“Jeff Gomez is one of the leading figures in a new approach to developing and packaging media properties called “Transmedia.” As CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, he packages books, comics and graphic novels, and develops video games and alternate reality experiences with world-renowned partners and clients. On April 25th in Los Angeles, he will, together with Digital Media Wire, host the first of a series of exclusive transmedia workshops. In an intimate setting at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, he will teach a small group of media and marketing executives how to understand understand and leverage the most effective transmedia techniques out there. In this exclusive interview, he shares some of the insights that he will explore in the workshops.”
Pictured: Henry Jenkins; Caitlin Burns, Transmedia Producer, Starlight Runner Entertainment; Abigail De Kosnik, Assistant Professor, UC, Berkeley (Co-Ed., The Survival of the Soap Opera: Strategies for a New Media Era); Jane Espenson, Writer/Executive Producer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica); John Platt, Co-Executive Producer (Big Brother, The Surreal Life); Tracey Robertson, CEO/Co-founder, Hoodlum; Lance Weiler, Founder, Wordbook Project.
Last Friday’s second annual UCLA / USC Transmedia Hollywood Symposium capped off an extremely vibrant month of confabs and overall reporting from the transmedia trenches.
For the full recap of Transmedia Hollywood 2 on Tubefilter, click here
“NAB has also announced a panel centered on everyone’s favorite new buzzword — transmedia. Media scholar Henry Jenkins, who has been credited as the originator of the term, will moderate “Transmedia: Telling the Story Through Narrative Content, Games and Real-World Adventures.”
Panel aims to analyze the fundamental components needed for a successful transmedia property, which easily travels from one platform to another, using the examples from recent and soon-to-be-released films, TV shows and vidgames. Panelists will also discuss how multiplayer participation in videogames is changing storytelling.
Session participants include Danny Bilson, exec VP, Core Games, THQ; Jeff Gomez, transmedia producer & CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment; Gale Anne Hurd, producer; Tim Kring, multiplatform storyteller (“Conspiracy for Good,” “Heroes”) and Kim Moses, exec producer-director-writer, Sander/Moses Prods./Slam (“Ghost Whisperer”).”
Transmedia has been a buzz word for a while, but it’s rapidly rising up the radar: Content creators are increasingly seeking innovative ways to develop stories that arc over platforms, providing consumers with multiple entry points. Our trend report this month explores why transmedia is bubbling up right now, how it’s significant for brands and where it’s going.
“Transmedia Rising” includes a half-dozen case studies, a guide to finding more information (from events to podcasts to books and video clips) and a timeline charting some of transmedia’s milestones. It also features insights from experts, including several we interviewed for the report: commercial and music video director Mathew Cullen, a co-founder of the new transmedia studio Mirada; Wired contributing editor Frank Rose, author of the new book The Art of Immersion; and Dean Baker, managing director of JWT Entertainment in London.
At Digital Hollywood’s Content and Media Summits, the premier entertainment and technology conference in the United States, Gomez will participate in three sessions that address the various facets of transmedia implementation for writers, studios, networks and brands. On Wednesday, March 9th Starlight Runner will be showcased as part of Content Summit’s Best of Breed Transmedia Showcase: Screenings, Casestudies, Success Stories at 1:30PM. Gomez will also participate in the Day-end Fireside Chat: Tips and Wisdom from the Frontlines of Indie Producers creating Programming for TV, Cable, Broadband, Mobile at 3:00PM that day and Branded Media Marketing – Across Platforms – TV, Film, Broadband, Mobile, Virtual Economies, Music and Games – Reinventing the Commerce & Media Model at 3:45PM on Thursday, March 10th at Media Summit. For a list of speakers, specific times and locations please see the full schedule. Digital Hollywood officially kicks off on Wednesday, March 9th and concludes on Thursday, March 10th.
Later that week, Gomez heads to Rio Content Summit, the greatest audiovisual content market of Latin America, where he will speak on the Content and Transmedia Narratives panel on Wednesday, March 16th. Additionally, Gomez will conduct three Business Roundtables sharing insight with young creative’s on topics such as, planning, creating, and producing highly engaging story worlds that maximize both the creative potential of a work, equity participation, and subsequent revenues. For more details on the event visit: http://www.riocontentmarket.com.
The High Five Power to the Pixel Lab, showcases a three-day workshop for the six selected Nordic cross media projects and international experts with topics covering, creating the story universe, story design, project planning, delivery platforms and audience engagement design. Gomez is excited to be sharing a keynote, Building Aspirational Storyworlds for Children and a special case study, Hot Wheels: Highway 35 Through Battle Force 5 Fused — Building An Evergreen Property on Friday, March 18th. For a list of speakers, specific times and locations, please see their website.
Thanks to some serendipitous travel timing, Jeff Gomez and several of the Starlight Runner team will be in Los Angeles later this month.
Tuesday the 29th at 8pm to allow for an ad hoc meetup.
For More information Visit the Los Angeles Transmedia Meetup Page
Caitlin Burns will be Speaking at Transmedia, Hollywood 2: Visual Culture and Design in Los Angeles:
USC Annenberg School of Communication &
USC School of Cinematic Arts Friday, April 8, 2011
James Bridges Theater, UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television
9:45 AM-7 PM
Transmedia, Hollywood 2: Visual Culture and Design is a one-day public symposium exploring the role of transmedia franchises in today’s entertainment industries. Transmedia, Hollywood 2 turns the spotlight on media creators, producers and executives and places them in critical dialogue with top researchers from across a wide spectrum of film, media and cultural studies to provide an interdisciplinary summit for the free interchange of insights about how transmedia works and what it means.
WHEN:
Saturday, March 5th 2011
9:30 AM attendee registration opens
10:00 AM Opening statements
10:10 AM to 5 PM Conference
5:30 PM to 8 PM After Party and mixer
REGISTER NOW – IT’S FREE BUT SPACE IS LIMITED
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
WHERE:
The New School
66 W 12th St.
NY, NY 10011
Starlight Runner’s Caitlin Burns talks about her work on the independent project, Jurassic Park Slope and how Transmedia Storytelling can aid small productions.
As attendees were learning the details about Borders’s bankruptcy filing, O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference was winding down three days of programming with a slate of panels that included a look at the rise of Transmedia storytelling and presented a new generation of online literary ventures that offer a glimpse at the future of reading. Indeed, despite a crowded calendar of digital conferences, this year’s TOC sold out completely attracting 1,400 attendees, and the event’s popularity, utility, and cachet only seemed to grow.
From the Tribeca Film Institute’s blog—
As we launch TFI New Media Fund this week, we’re asking a number of people working in this space the same four questions. We want to create an ongoing discussion about what is possible when you work across different platforms to tell stories and embrace new technologies to engage audiences so please add your comments and questions. The first to tackle these questions is Jeff Gomez, President & CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment:
With their mania for film franchises, leading studios are behaving more like packaged goods marketers than the showmen of yore in pumping out movies, and appear more interested in taking direction from fanboys, brand managers and multimedia consultants.
So the time appears ripe for consultants such as Jeff Gomez and Mark Pensavalle, co-founders of Starlight Runner Entertainment. Their job: To make sure that stories and characters remain consistent as a movie is reincarnated as, say, a TV series, a video game, a theme park attraction or an online virtual world.
How To Make A Great Preschool Series
Three-Day Intensive
February 19 through February 21, 2011
Little Airplane Academy will be offering an intensive three-day workshop following the annual Kidscreen Summit in New York City. Participants will learn the fundamentals of creating a preschool series from pitching through writing, character design, directing and producing both live action and animated shows.
During the three day course, Academy participants will get an overview of every step in the process of making a preschool series, from pitching through writing, curriculum development, directing, music, legal and production. The course covers both live-action and animation and features a team of accomplished preschool TV veterans.
A highlight of the Little Airplane Academy is a panel discussion of network executives moderated by Josh Selig. This past August, we welcomed an impressive list of notable Academy speakers including PBS’s Linda Simensky, Nickelodeon’s Kay Wilson Stallings, Sprout’s Andrew Beecham and Kurt Mueller from Chorion Silver Lining. A very noteworthy group!
The Art and Business of Transmedia Storytelling
Moderated by:
Jeremy Bornstein (Subutai Corporation)
Panelists:
Flint Dille (Ground Zero Productions), Jeff Gomez (Starlight Runner Entertainment)
1:40pm Wednesday, 02/16/2011
General New York East
Storytelling is at least as old as humanity. The forms and accoutrements change through the ages: cave paintings, campfires, amphitheaters, novels, games, movies… The structures of a basic narrative don’t change, though. Right? Well, what if they do? How much is the experience of narrative a function of delivery technology and the relationship of the audience with the work, and each other? How can publishers of commercial entertainment adjust to a world in which the audience owns and controls your property, and your IP isn’t stories, characters, and settings, but a mythology (and toys and lunchboxes….)
In this panel, which boasts some of the world’s transmedia luminaries, we’ll explore what’s happening—and what could happen—with the business and art of transmedia.
The Power of Transmedia Storytelling
February 15, 2011 – 9:00 AM to 9:45 AM
ROOM: Bryant MASTER CLASS – Transmedia Bootcamp
Its history, its value proposition, how Jeff came to embrace it, and the latest industry news as its potential begins to be realized in the entertainment industry.
MASTER CLASS – Transmedia Bootcamp
A full day of practical, how-to transmedia training led by leading cross-platform strategist Jeff Gomez. He wowed the crowd at last year’s Summit with his “New Narrative Paradigm” keynote. And now Jeff has partnered with KidScreen to teach his signature transmedia development process to you using models and examples that are highly relevant to a kids entertainment crowd.
CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, Gomez is one of the world’s pioneers on the subject and responsible for the development of projects like “Happiness Factory”, or Coca-Cola, and actions for the publicity of the movies “Transformers” and “Avatar”, among other works.
About his coming to RioContentMarket, Jeff Gomez says: “Media in Brazil is still very traditional and conservative,” says Jeff, but I notice that a quick in course, because I have kept a close watch on this process. The Brazilian market is becoming digital and there is a great interest by Brazilian professionals in the advances of transmedia storytelling , which demonstrates a new vision, in touch with the cutting edge.
Writer and editor Fabian Nicieza has been a fixture in the comic industry for the past 25 years. As writer for X-Men, Thunderbolts, Turok, and Nightwing, this prolific writer has moved shared worlds for years. Now, he’ll be tackling virtual worlds with his latest project, FunGoPlay, which will be launching later this year. The developers of FunGoPlay describe it as “An online sports theme park, [which] separates itself from all other virtual worlds through “connected” sports gear that rewards kids every time they use them in the real world by tracking their play periods and earning them medals, points, and power-ups in the online world.”
Nicieza was kind enough to talk to MTVGeek about this project, weaving narrative into sports games, and the huge lineup of talent behind the scenes at FunGoPlay.
MTV Geek: How did the transition from comic creator to virtual world developer come about?
FN: Well, to be honest, the only “transition” takes place during the course of any part of the day when I have to shift my attention from one kind of work to another. I’m working on comics, Intellectual Property management for Starlight Runner Entertainment and serving as Chief Creative Officer for FunGoPlay on a weekly basis, so my emphasis shifts depending on the need for that day. How do I do it all? I learned how to add two more hours to the day and an extra day to the week. Piece of cake.
“In the interest of candor, I’d like to offer an update on my professional situation. I have been offered – and accepted – the opportunity to work with Starlight Runner Entertainment in a freelance capacity. Obviously, I’m thrilled to have the chance to with the SLR team; it was one of Jeff Gomez’s presentations that sparked my initial interest in Transmedia and I’ve been a strong advocate of his principles on this blog since day one. It’s a friendly, exceptionally talented team, and I’m looking forward to learning a great deal.”
Simon Pulman Big Earners, Missed Profits & The Necessity of Transmedia
Turnstyle delivers a mix of news, opinion, commentary, and entertainment produced by bloggers, filmmakers, photographers, and poets. It’s content with an edge that has visual allure and eclectic pacing.
“Formally recognized by the Producer’s Guild of America last year, the job of a transmedia producer is to weave one story- or a set of entangled storylines- across multiple platforms to create a greater tapestry.
The transmedia experience for Tron— which unfolded through all of 2010, right under our noses— makes a good example of what they do. The stories tied into Tron: Legacy have run across comic books, video games, iPhone apps, and into events produced by Alternate Reality Game pioneers 42 Entertainment. Starlight Runner’s work on the Tron franchise will continue to be revealed in cartoons and potential film sequels.
While many key techniques in transmedia were developed as part of marketing efforts for large media franchises, the opportunities for transmedia producers go beyond commerce.”
KidScreen’s LA Transmedia Bootcamp was a huge success, selling out completely and preparing producers and brand managers from companies including Nickelodeon, Mattel, Sesame Workshop, DreamWorks, Ubisoft, Random House, E1 Entertainment and National Geographic Kids for the future of kids entertainment.
And now, in response to heavy industry demand, we’re bringing this unique one-day workshop closer to your door!
Join us in Toronto (Friday, December 3) for this can’t-miss opportunity to learn the ins and outs of transmedia property-building from the best in the field, and amp up your business with a new set of skills that are in hot demand!
Transmedia Talk is a podcast covering all things story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia and Robert Pratten and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
Guests, Caitlin Burns and Jay Bushman, discuss Twitter Storytelling and Representation for creators in the Transmedia Storytelling field in this episode of Transmedia Talk
Exex speak at Variety’s Future of Film Summit
The future of Hollywood includes focusing on older auds and emphasizing the importance of a global view, according to panelists at Variety’s Future of Film Summit.
Meanwhile, the easing of the global recession and continued appeal of Hollywood fare is creating guarded optimism about the features biz.
Jeff Gomez, topper of Starlight Runner Entertainment, said studios need to provide far more than two hours of film when they release franchise pics. “If the fans like the world of that film, they are going to want a lot more content,” he added. “Franchises are determined by the size of the audience, not the size of the budget.”
Future of Film Summit: Crystal clear cloudy outlook
Showbiz players examine the issues of the industry
Will future tentpoles come from existing properties or is it still possible to create original material that can turn into a franchise?
Jeff Gomez, CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment:I’m biased because I worked on “Avatar.” I definitely think we’re going to see brand-new tentpole franchises. We’re going to see new original properties because there’s now a new rich and fertile source in multiplatform storytelling. You have people like Tom Hanks and his Playtone company launching a property like “Electric City” on the Web with another company in India (Reliance Big Entertainment). Young creators are operating with no rules. They don’t have to sit there and think about what their movie or TV show has to be to fit into the Hollywood establishment. They can take it to the audience using Twitter or Facebook or YouTube.
Some fantastic coverage of Jeff Gomez’s Masterclass from ARGNet
This past week, Amsterdam played host to Cinekid, the annual international film, TV, and new media festival for young people. The festival also provides separate sessions for professionals working in these entertainment media. One of these sessions, the Junior Cross Media Market, brings together producers of transmedia content for children with international financiers and co-producers, including broadcasters, networks, and entertainment companies.
The Junior Cross Media Market was held on October 28th, and while ARGNet was unable to attend the Market in its entirety, we were able to attend and report on Jeff Gomez’s transmedia masterclass.
Where Conventional + Interactive Producers Converge to Explore the Dynamic Business of Cross Media production
Join us for a Stunning Showcase of “Best in Class” Case studies, discussions on Cross-platform business strategies, Trends + Best Practices in cross-media production, the latest cutting edge technology + significant networking opportunities to form Cross-media partnerships…
Starlight Runner Producer, Caitlin Burns, will be attending Merging+Media Canada to mentor its Masterclass and speak on two panels, Going Going Games! and CanCon Convergence Roulette.
The Conference will take place on October 28th and 29th in Vancouver, B.C.
Join Jeff Gomez and these others at Digital Hollywood : October 20-21
Wednesday, October 20th
10:15 AM – 11:00 AM
Transmedia Storytelling – Crossing the Line towards Infinity and Beyond
Moderator:
Sarah Szalavitz, 7 Robot, Digital Brunch
Speakers:
Flint Dille, writer and interactive storyteller, Dragonstrike, Dead to Rights
Hope Hutman, Co-Founder, President, Telefon Projekt
Patricia Handschiegel, Commentator Huffington Post; creator, The New Power Girls
Alex Barkaloff, Executive producer, Lionsgate Digital
Behnam Karbassi, Founding Partner, No Mimes Media
Barrett Garese – founder, Spytap Industries
Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment
11:30 AM – 12:15 PM
Hollywood Content Summit – HwdSummit
Transmedia Production – Inventing the Language of Cross-platform, non-linear narration
Moderator: Suzanne Stefanac, Transmedia Maverick, Former Director AFI Digital Content Lab
Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment
Thursday, October 21st
11:05 AM – 12:20 PM
Strategizing the Campaign and the Entertainment Brand: Selling Movies, TV and Video on the Web, Social Media, Mobile and TV
David R. Beebe, Director, Video Production, Post Production & Distribution, Disney/ABC Television Digital Video Group
Jeff Gomez, President & Chief Executive Officer, Starlight Runner Entertainment
Lisa Marino, Chief Revenue Officer, RockYou
Dimitry Ioffe, CEO & Founder, The Visionaire Group
Jason Yim, CEO, Trigger
Bill Baxter, CTO & Executive VP of Engineering, BuddyTV.com
Donald A. Jasko, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Economics, Moderator
What had been a cold hard fact to me for over 40 years instantly vaporized into myth.
I guess this is one of those threads that we all have in life that is so weirdly personal, so seemingly unimportant to others, almost no one else knows or cares about it. I’m reminded, though, that just because we’re little doesn’t mean that what we felt or experienced was small or insignificant. Our feelings were every bit as intense and affecting as they are today, perhaps more so, because they were brand new. They can impact our attitude about people, places, things for the rest of our lives.
10/26/2010 7:00 p.m.
Transmedia development, production, and implementation is practiced at the highest levels in companies such as Disney, Saban, Microsoft, and Mattel. Around the world, visionaries are generating stunning multi-platform endeavors based on the principles of transmedia.
Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, is the world’s foremost expert at turning entertainment properties and premium brands into highly successful transmedia franchises. He conceived, co-wrote, and produced one of the most successful transmedia storylines of the decade with Mattel’s Hot Wheels comic books, videogames, web content, and animated series. He also worked on such properties as Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory, Halo, Transformers, and the upcoming Tron Legacy.
In this master class, Jeff candidly shares his latest experiences in the field and the techniques of funding, planning, creating, and producing highly engaging story worlds that maximize both the creative potential of a work, equity participation, and subsequent revenues. Case studies include analysis of some of the biggest entertainment franchises of today, and the discussion includes advice on how to apply these concepts to your own projects—large or small, fact or fiction.
Jeff is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) East executive committee and serves on the national board of the PGA New Media Council.
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Media Studies and Film.
Location:
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor
Admission:
Free; seating is limited; reservations required by emailing
The NYTVF was founded in 2005 as the industry’s first recognized independent television festival, providing a platform to elevate the work of artists creating for the small screen. Held annually each fall in New York City, the birthplace of modern television, the Festival unites artists, executives, industry figures, and fans together in one forum to celebrate the medium and to help shape its future.
Jeff Gomez be on the “Building the World: Multiplatform and Transmedia Storytelling” Panel at 3pm presented at the SVA Theatre.
For more information check out www.nytvf.com
The third part of Jeff Gomez’s discussion of Hot Wheels, transmedia storytelling and sticking to your ethical and creative guns is up on Kidscreen.com in his column The Cosmic Streetcorner
“Interestingly, a few Mattel execs (who are no longer at the company) expressed hesitation about female characters. They didn’t know how young boys would respond to them, Hot Wheels being a very “boy world” and they thought perhaps we could do without them. This would be one of the few times I really spoke up. I really wasn’t interested in a major story world that didn’t include girls. Had Disney’s Fairies property not included boys I would have protested equally loud. Single gender worlds compound artifice and by definition are not resonant with the contemporary world in which we live. It’s one thing to market toys to boys, but it’s another altogether to create entertainment in which girls don’t exist.
Fortunately, the series animation house Mainframe and several others at Mattel did agree with me and female driver Lani Tam got some nice screen time. There would be several other heroic girl drivers who would star in their own comics as well. Bravo Mattel!”
What does it say about being forward-thinking that venerable banking houses and cottage industries alike have gone multi-platform and even your parents have a social-networking strategy? It’s increasingly clear that terms like 3.0 are worth exactly 0.0. Today’s innovators are too busy actually innovating—challenging orthodoxies, shifting paradigms, redefining industries—to tout dictionary-ready catchphrases. These 16 game-changers in the worlds of entertainment, politics, fashion, and technology would rather leave the slogans for the suckers chasing their own long tails. Which makes sense: Being visionary means setting your sights beyond the horizon, on the things yet unshaped and unnamed.
As it turns out, “Star Wars” is a model that 343 is aspiring to with Halo–and that’s not just because both franchises involve outerspace, aliens and threats to civilization. In an interview at the studio’s offices in Redmond, Wash., Ross, the general manger of 343, says Halo “is a franchise that we want to take to the level of Star Wars as far as something that, 30 years from now, is still relevant.”
There’s also a dizzying selection of Halo products, including the games, comics, best-selling graphic novels, an anime video series and toys. A couple years ago, Microsoft hired a firm called Starlight Runner Entertainment that specializes in helping entertainment companies develop coherent story-telling plans for franchises that span various media.
From the Wall Street Journal
Jeff Gomez’s second installment of his Hot Wheels Case Study profiles the use of mythology bibles:
“We quickly realized that this would be no ordinary bible. Mattel was rapidly shoehorning the burgeoning Hot Wheels: Highway 35 campaign into their licensing and merchandising plans. I was certain that I did not want to repeat the same story in the comics, animated series and videogames. This meant that the story world had to be expansive and robust enough to furnish many hours of content in ways that best leveraged these varied media platforms. So the bible kept growing, and would wind up becoming a prototype for the Mythology books we would become known for.”
Starlight Runner Entertainment is proud to help produce this gift in memory of 9/11, a special episode of Kenn Bell’s The Dog Files.
Marrus, author of Lightsurfing: Living Life in the Front of My Mouth, published by Kissena Park Press will be at DragonCon over the weekend at table BT29. If you’re there, drop by and get a copy.
If you won’t be at DragonCon, it’s available through www.marrusart.com and Amazon
“It’s an idea that dates back to the 1940s and 1950s in America,” Mr Gomez said.
In Australia recently to talk about the future of films, he said movies and television shows began to create a world beyond the screen with comic books and toys based on props from the shows that allowed viewers to “be part of the action”.
“History tells us that if you tell a story well, people will be willing to pay to be a part of your audience. The trick with transmedia is that we as creators will have to work harder to tell the story well.”
Secondary characters are often reduced to basic stereotypes, which tend to be less interesting and more limiting in portrayals. Transmedia Storytelling requires that these characters get a deeper look and a fuller life so they can be the stars of their own stories.
More on this subject and Jeff Gomez’s speech at XMediaLab: Film Extended at Encore Magazine
Transmedia and Writing: Starlight Runner Goes The Distance
Jeff Gomez in Script Magazine
“It was mind-blowing, how these different media — animated television series, feature films — were dealing with the same persistent universe in intricate ways,” Gomez says, with the enthusiasm of someone who is still clearly in touch with his inner child. “I loved the idea that a storyteller could be given that kind of platform and I endeavored to be able to do that myself.”
Thanks so much to UTA, EA and Everyone else who made our San Diego Comic Con 10 year anniversary bash so wonderful.
More pictures of Starlight Runner’s adventures at SDCC after the Jump…
From The Sydney Morning Herald
Gomez says the transmedia producer can nurture a story world so it can blossom outside the film itself, and become integrated, artistically legitimate additions to the original work.
‘’With transmedia storytelling you are designing the narratives to carry over into all these different platforms. That means you can assert your creative vision over other manifestations of your story world.’’
Crucial to the transmedia success of an enterprise is that, as narrative universes expand across platforms, each iteration should add something new to the story and remain internally consistent with that universe.
“They are gorgeous,” said one Comic-Con attendee, Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, a movie production company.
“And movie studios realize this is one way to rebuild equity in a brand name, by bringing out these beautiful packages.”
Quotes: “The secret to quality transmedia is partnership, not licensing.”—Danny Bilson, distilling the philosophy behind the transmedia approach.
The Takeaway: The transmedia approach is going to be a big trend in the coming years as game companies, television studios, book publishers, and more strive to maximize consumer engagement in their products.
Random Fact/Who Knew?: The Producers Guild of America recently ratified their first new recognized position in decades: Transmedia Producer.
One of the best articles ever on what we at Starlight Runner accomplish as transmedia producers….
EXCERPT:
This is not about plonking a character on a shirt, or a doll in a toyshop. To the proselytes like Gomez, the task is to tell important stories related to the original material across the range of material. It is called transmedia storytelling.
On the phone, Jeff cited the webisodes for Battlestar Galactica as an elegant example. “Things were revealed about ancillary characters, or terrestrial creatures or certain concepts that could be viewed independently but gave you new insight into the characters and concepts of the show.” he said. “They made you want to go back to the show, and re-examine their characters and motivations – that’s a great transmedia mutation because it caused you to look at the ancillary and rethink whats going on in the main content.”
This makes sense as a marketing tool. The ancillaries reach far beyond the film, and can be made to point back to it. “Look at District Nine”, he said, “and its marketing. Almost everything in that marketing was canonical. That makes it fascinating, and helped to build the level of interest in the film. You are paying for that if you are a studio. However, you might also accrue a number of licensees for the tee shirts and magazine and comic books and toys, based on your IP. Why not go further and give them bits of canonical content so you are simultaneously licensing the content, and nurturing the storyworld? That is a major rethink for many of our clients to get that.”
To do this, the story elements have to be distributed across the media, and therefore ruthlessly consistent. Indeed, the central property has to be able to bear the strain of all this extra material. This is far more elaborate than ensuring all the properties enhance the brand – it cuts to the heart of the script and the world it creates and inhabits.
This is the bit that creates a model of development which explains just why and how the big tentpole franchises are filling our multiplexes – a process which can be subverted for our more modest purposes.
The San Diego Comic-Con has posted the schedule for Saturday, July 24.
3:30-4:30
Red Faction Armageddon: How to Build a Transmedia Universe
— The biggest event in the mythology of one of the world’s most popular video games is also a flashpoint in the launch of the Red Faction multiplatform universe. Get exclusive information about it and pick up tips on world-building and game concept development, along with info about the partnership with Syfy in this in-depth Q&A with creator Danny Bilson (EVP Core Games, THQ), Lenny Brown (director IP development, THQ), Hollywood’s leading Transmedia producer Jeff Gomez (Avatar, Transformers, Tron Legacy, Men In Black 3D), Alan Seiffert (SVP, Syfy Ventures), and Erika Kennair (director, development, Syfy). Room 9
This is your opportunity to learn from and work with world’s leading transmedia pioneers!
International Speakers/Mentors include:
* Nathan Mayfield – One of the world’s leading transmedia producers: LOST, SPOOKS INTERACTIVE, DAY X EXISTS (Brisbane) * Jeff Gomez – CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, who was behind transmedia strategies for AVATAR, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, TRANSFORMERS & more (New York) * Gavin McGarry – President of Jumpwire Media, former Head of Cross Platform for Endemol, and creator of some of the first cross media TV content with NBC and Discovery (New York) * Suzanne Stefanac – Media and technology strategist, former Director of the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab (Los Angeles) * Dibakar Banerjee – Writer/Director of India’s first digital feature LSD: LOVE SEX AUR DHOKA (Mumbai) * Morgan Jaffit – One of Australia’s leading game developers and designers: PANDEMIC, HAPPY FEET (Brisbane) * Lisa Gray – Head of Content, The Feds: video mashup tool for THE GRUEN TRANSFER (Sydney) * Christy Dena – Transmedia designer and producer: worked on Tim Kring’s CONSPIRACY FOR GOOD (Melbourne)
“It represents a fundamental paradigm shift—one that producers all over Hollywood are scrambling to understand and leverage,” said Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Entertainment, who has consulted on franchises such as “Pirates of the Caribbean.” “They’re going to make their budget back in 24 hours.”
‘The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers’ is ready to battle with flips, spins and dance steps
But perhaps the closest cousin is the Fox series “Glee,” which invited the LXD to be the opening act in its recent concert tour. Both take classic media — show choir and dance — and recontextualize them for a contemporary audience. Both focus on misfits who eschew more popular high school pursuits such as football and drinking Coors Light while upside down. “There definitely are a lot of correlations,” says Harry Shum Jr., who plays Mike Chang in “Glee” and performs in and co-choreographs for the LXD. “It’s rooting for the underdogs.”
“The LXD would have a much tougher time without ‘Glee,’ ” adds Jeff Gomez, a transmedia producer who has helped build the universes for “Avatar” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” among others. “Spiritually, symbolically and basically in reality, there is a direct connection between the two that opens a mass audience to the possibilities presented to the story worlds of the LXD.”
Jeff Gomez doesn’t seem like a salesman in the traditional sense. As CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, his job is to turn a movie plot (or a toy or any product with narrative potential) into a bigger, more lucrative franchise that will pay off long after the blockbuster has left theaters. He’ll turn the story into mobile phone games, comic books, toys – sometimes all of the above – and in the process, turn audience members into brand super fans. In short, Gomez knows how to sell a story — something that every good salesman must do. And he has become the go-to person for big brands like Disney, Hasbro, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola. Most recently, he helped James Cameron and 20th Century Fox extend “Avatar” into games, Websites, books, and more.
Power to the Pixel is delighted to announce its groundbreaking Pixel Market which will take place on 13 and 14 October 2010 in London.
Applications are now open to find 20 of the world’s best cross-media projects.
Each project will be based on stories that can span any combination of film, TV, online, mobile, interactive, publishing, live events and gaming.
Jeff Gomez talks about the powerful effect that transmedai strategies have on licensing in this feature for Kidscreen
“The entertainment industry at large has come to recognize that young adults and kids are consuming content voraciously, in ways not dreamt of even 10 years ago – they’re looking to follow the story surrounding a given property on as many mediums as possible, be it traditional TV, films, fan sites or related products. But to make a property truly work across the various platforms out there, the entertainment concept has to be conceived as bigger than any one medium and constructed with a sense of how each grand story arc will play out across each media touchpoint. Transmedia storytelling, as it’s become known, is really the art that’s driving this approach.”
TEDxTransmedia, reschedued because of Eyjafjallajokull, is now on
September 30, 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland
Transmedia Bootcamp reviewed by Tubefilter.
“People had traveled from as far as Italy, Mexico, and Canada to attend and participate in this rare opportunity to gain valuable insight into Gomez’s process when creating a Transmedia property: from mapping out every aspect of your franchise to production of materials across platforms to whether to keep your I.P. ownership or allow fans to extend your universes—Gomez always leaned towards giving fans as much creative ownership as possible in order to extend the chances of longevity.”
If you missed Transmedia Bootcamp today, try to attend The New Paradigm: Transmedia Storytelling, Sponsored by Variety at Produced by 2010!
This Saturday, June 5 at 20th Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles, CA.
Incumbents John Hadity, Dana Kuznetzkoff and Mark Marabella have been re-elected as top officers of the Producers Guild of America East.
All three—chair Hadity and vice-chairs Kuznetzkoff and Marabella—ran unopposed in the org’s 2010 elections. The results were announced Wednesday night at a Gotham event. Each will serve another two-year term.
Filling out PGA East’s exec committee, the trade group tapped David Fox as financial officer and Kit Golden, Jeff Gomez, Nelle Nugent, Amy Robinson and Peter Saraf as members at large.
The event, the fifth in a series called “Night of the Producer,” included a conversation between helmer Jonathan Demme and performer Denis Leary, moderated by Golden.
Twitter invites direct response by the audience in a way that other media do not. Twitter breaks the fourth wall by inviting the audience to reply, simply by using the platform.
Twitter is not just a journaling of events; Twitter is theatre.
Jeff Gomez and Steele Filipek discuss the importance of the opening hook in video games, and the Art of Fun on Game Design Aspect of the Month
“One of Shigeru Miyamoto’s more famous quips is, “Find the fun.” That is, first find what is fun about a game and then build around that. It can be narrative, gameplay, action, mystery, whatever. Find the fun, the essence of what makes your game uniquely enjoyable and what will keep a gamer coming back for more. In that briefest of statements, the creator of Mario, Link, and a host of other iconic characters has captured the essence of creating a game: make the player WANT to play the game.”
Jeff Gomez and Hot Wheels are profiled on Pongr Mobile Social Marketing
“No matter what you are selling, the transmedia approach makes sense. TV, Web banners and print ads are all a waste of time if they don’t engage the viewer with a compelling storyline or motivation to participate. The approach works with ANY product. When was the last time you saw your friends get excited over their napkins or paper towels?”
“So there I am, standing alone at Mattel HQ, pitching to Amy and the Internet team. They think they’re going to hear about a web site that maybe has a Flash game or two to accompany a comic strip narrative that profiled each of the big anniversary’s 35 cars. But after I realized that they were going along with some of these ideas, I asked them if I could dream out loud for a few minutes ”
“I’ve been so busy dealing with end of term matters that I have not yet had a chance to publicly acknowledge here the extraordinary news that the Producers Guild of America has officially recognized the title of Transmedia Producer. ”
For our Italian friends we’ve got a Gomez quote from Cartoons on the Bay on the transmediality of Star Wars.
“Tubefilter had a chance to talk via e-mail with CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, Jeff Gomez. Gomez was instrumental in getting the Transmedia Producer credit sanctioned and is an extremely vocal supporter and advocate for the transmedia community…”
DAREtoCANCEL
I am sad to say that UNFORTUNATELY we lost the battle with the volcano and decided to postpone TEDxTransmedia to the fall.
Many of the speakers are stock in airports around Europe. I don’t give up easily and I will organize a stronger event in the fall (you know I will) It was a fantastic journey for me up to now… and I really would like to keep it to destination! Thank you and please come back for more updated information on the next TEDxTransmedia. (Nicoletta Iacobacci)
Jeff Gomez will still be speaking in Lucerne today. Please check back for details on when TEDxTransmedia will be rescheduled.
C21 Media’s Jonathan Webdale reports:
“Starlight Runner president and CEO Jeff Gomez told MipTV delegates this week that the skills needed to tell stories across multiple media are now worthy of special designation. Jonathan Webdale reports.
Transsexual. Transatlantic. Transmigration. Transmedia. Transmedia? The spell-checker turns red. Something must be wrong. It’s not in the dictionary. It’s not a proper word. Remove your tiles from the Scrabble board. No score.
This situation will change if Jeff Gomez (left) has his way. The president and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment has more than 20 years’ experience developing video games and digital extensions for franchises including Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Persia, Tron, Halo and Avatar. He’s helped created ‘online universes’ for brands such as Hasbro, Mattel and Coca-Cola.
He feels it is now time for a new moniker to describe what he, Starlight, and a small but growing band of producers are doing. Transmedia is its name…”
—Full text after the jump—
“Over the past couple of weeks, some friends and colleagues have emailed to ask me whether I’ve gone out of my mind. It’s one thing, they said, to prattle on for 40 minutes about what I do for a living at a seminar. That’s good business; keeps a high profile. But then they surf over to KidScreen last week and this giant page pops up telling them that at some kind of crazy Bootcamp in Santa Monica, Gomez is going to spill the beans about how to “do” transmedia. That is, he’s gonna go into detail, step by step, from idea to rollout… ”
”...A significant All-Boards meeting for the Producers Guild of America took place tonight. Sources tell me that the members voted on a series of amendments that qualify individuals as professional producers. More importantly, for the first time in the guild’s history, they voted on and ratified a new credit—that of the Transmedia Producer—which had been shepherded by such Hollywood names as Mark Gordon, Gael Anne Hurd, Jeff Gomez, Alison Savage, and Chris Pfaff. ”
An Interview with Jeff Gomez by Rafael Cabral (in Portuguese) at Yahoo! News Brazil
Have you ever followed a local band that wound its way through the bar circuit? They were your band, you learned the lyrics to their songs, loved them even when they had an off night, and cheered when they announced they got a record contract and were headed for the big time. But then you had to share them with everyone! It felt a bit odd: were they going to “sell out” and become something they weren’t, or would they maintain their integrity despite new temptations and the spotlight of popular culture? In a way, that’s how I feel about transmedia storytelling, and what a strange and exciting time it is!
“Looking to cut out that long wait between childhood phenomenon and big-screen blockbuster, El Segundo-based toymaker Mattel has begun developing toys that have Hollywood storylines and direct-to-film pedigree built in.
“It’s actually a great idea, with the caveat that they need to coordinate the story and have it all make sense well beforehand,” Jeff Gomez, CEO of the New York-based Starlight Runner Entertainment… ”
“Don’t get me wrong; I’m not waxing nostalgic for a time of political incorrectness in children’s programming. All I’m asking is for us to consider adding just a touch of darkness into the tales we’re telling, even for little kids. They’re stronger than we imagine. ”
As her new video Telephone’s success suggests- over 7 million views in 3 days. A week later, a Google search for telephone shows the 375+ articles about the video before even a description of the communications device. Whether one loves her or hates her, they have to admit, she gets attention. If there is someone out there who shows the potential of the union of social media and celebrity, it is Lady Gaga. For the Full Article, Click Here…
