Last night I scared my wife telling her about the horror movie I’m outlining. She couldn’t sleep; I felt bad. But that’s not the scariest story I… Read more “History’s Scariest Story”
Journal
Concurrent Stories and Characters as Connectors
When people think of a single character connecting two fiction worlds, it’s usually part of a franchise universe. Like Marvel’s behemoth. I’ve recently developed a few TV… Read more “Concurrent Stories and Characters as Connectors”
Xbox Television Studios And TV’s Future
It’s really too bad about Xbox TV Studios. Nancy Tellem and XBox Television Studios seemed to be heading in the right direction: The company is taking… Read more “Xbox Television Studios And TV’s Future”
Meatpuppets & Transmedia Storytelling
In the early days of online politics, we invented a way to unfold key points of a campaign’s narrative in different online niches — depending on which… Read more “Meatpuppets & Transmedia Storytelling”
Steven Spielberg Hearts Transmedia
This is what I mean when I urge storytellers to think of unfurling their stories “outside the box.” Only Stephen Spielberg calls it “the square.”
“I believe we need to get rid of the proscenium,” Spielberg said. “We’re never going to be totally immersive as long as we’re looking at a square, whether it’s a movie screen or whether it’s a computer screen. We’ve got to get rid of that and we’ve got to put the player [viewer] inside the experience. That’s the future.” (Steven Spielberg, June 2013)
Writer on Your Show? Show the Writing
Netflix’ great House of Cards has this character named Zoe Barnes who writes for a political news website called “Slugline.” In the wake of the NSA’s PRISM… Read more “Writer on Your Show? Show the Writing”
Appointment TV and Character Blogs
Evan Shapiro of Pivot wrote about the decline of the traditional nationwide scheduled television model, sometimes referred to as Appointment Television; when everyone watched the same revenue-generating commercials at the… Read more “Appointment TV and Character Blogs”
Europe’s The Spiral is Great TV 2.0
With American TV borrowing so much from Scandinavia, England, and Israel for our best TV shows, how about we borrow from Europe’s best transmedia television phenomenon: The… Read more “Europe’s The Spiral is Great TV 2.0”
Syfy’s Defiance and Transmedia TV Gold
My interest in transmedia storytelling exists at the intersection of my obsessions with participatory culture, new media, and entertainment. I believe storytellers can create deeper experiences for… Read more “Syfy’s Defiance and Transmedia TV Gold”
CBS Interactive: On a Path to Solving the Piracy Problem
A stat from Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Future, of the Annenberg School furthers one my favorite theories about TV’s evolution. When talking… Read more “CBS Interactive: On a Path to Solving the Piracy Problem”
Transmedia, TV Time and the Brain
So what the hell is Transmedia? It is not watching a TV show on an iPad. That’s “watching TV.” It is not telling many stories in the same… Read more “Transmedia, TV Time and the Brain”
Preventing Cut and Paste TV
Clay Shirky wrote a great article that contained another example of how we must adapt or die: Fifteen years ago, a research group called The Fraunhofer Institute… Read more “Preventing Cut and Paste TV”
Parks & Rec Transmedia Wins
Parks & Recreation is great. And it’s also doing a lot of transmedia storytelling right. I watch TV with a device on my lap, and when Amy… Read more “Parks & Rec Transmedia Wins”
5 Pitfalls of John Cusack’s Rush Project
As in Rush Limbaugh. Script not done – well see what it’s looks like – could be good hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-cusa… — John Cusack (@johncusack) November 4, 2012 I… Read more “5 Pitfalls of John Cusack’s Rush Project”
What’s Outside the Box
Gen Y and the early Millennials are the last group of people who will remember broadcast ubiquity and an advertisers’ ability to rent a captive audience. They’re… Read more “What’s Outside the Box”
What Buzzfeed Has To Teach Television
I’ve been writing a lot about multidimensional (multi-screen) storytelling in film and television. The goal is to use the New Media forces that some perceive as a… Read more “What Buzzfeed Has To Teach Television”
Film & TV 2.0
Around 2003, after Democrats were walloped in the midterms, and the established liberal advocacy organizations in D.C. proved unable to register any victories against President Bush, the… Read more “Film & TV 2.0”
Thoughts on the Light
At dawn and dusk, L.A. glows. There is this haze that fractures the light, scattering it in such a way that on many days the city almost… Read more “Thoughts on the Light”
What’s New in Hollywood
Rarely is very much new. Of the 45 films Warner Brothers released in 1940, 15 of them were remakes including Bette Davis’ The Letter and Errol Flynn’s… Read more “What’s New in Hollywood”
Hello To All That
Today, I reread this essay by Didion called “Goodbye To All That.” I read it first in High School, with the guys I would eventually live with… Read more “Hello To All That”