At the end of The Matrix trilogy many casual consumers were left confused and disappointed with the films. According to Jenkins this was because "for the casual consumer, The Matrix asked too much.
This idea of transmedia story telling can be linked to Japan's "media mix" culture (Jenkins, 131). This mix media culture "disperses content across broadcast media, portable technologies... and location based entertainment centers" (Jenkins, 112). For these type of franchises to succeed they depend on "hypersociability" (Jenkins, 112).
This hypersociability and transmedia can be seen in the children's franchises Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Education professors David Buckingham and Julian Sefton Green explain, "Pokémon is something you do, not just something you read or watch or consume" (Jenkins, 132). And in order to be actively involved in this world "you must actively seek out new information and new products, and crucially, engage with other in doing so" (Jenkins, 133). Children, however, have far more time to devote to these transmedia franchises.
Could a lack of time commitment be to blame for the transmedia struggle in adult franchises like The Matrix?
If so, how could the creators of trasmedia franchises draw in a larger number of adult consumers and make it worth their time?
Would it be better to just leave transmedia franchises to the kids?
I don't know if it's accurate to say there has been "little" success in The Matrix franchise. The movie trilogy made over $1.5 billion, so I think it's safe to say they were successful films. I definitely agree that a lack of time commitment could explain why more people haven't fully explored the non-film parts of The Matrix franchise. That is certainly the case with myself. I think authors interested in creating transmedia stories all know that they relinquish a certain market of people when they spread the substance of a story over different media. The trade-off, in my opinion, is that they attract a smaller but more much more curious, passionate, and loyal fan base. It becomes an issue of quantity over quality – a huge crowd of people who will just watch the movies, or a smaller community of enthusiasts who will go to the theater for the films, play the video games, read the supporting comics, and watch the animated shorts.
ReplyDeleteI would say transmedia franchises should not limit themselves to serve only children. Don't get me wrong, I will never stop loving Pokémon, but I think transmedia stories can have enormous value for adults that is not possible with kids. Older consumers can glean meaning from transmedia stories, appreciate the more profound ideas put forth, trace allusions to other stories, engage in dialogue with fellow fans, and more. Perhaps this happens on a much smaller scale with child-oriented transmedia stories, but I doubt there are many middle schoolers out there discussing the philosophical implications of the never-ending struggle between Ash Ketchum and Team Rocket.
Haha I like Goli's comment about the philosophical implications of Pokemon. Here's another one: Could a vegetarian in theory eat a plant type Pokemon?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the fact that transmedia storytelling takes up too much time for the average adult fan to commit to. However, I think that this time commitment issue applies to any activity, not just entertainment. For example, if you show up at a marathon, you can easily distinguish the large number of recreational runners from the small number of elite athletes. Even the most devoted recreational runners might only reach 40-50 miles a week for training whereas the elite athletes are easily running 120 miles or more a week.
So perhaps for transmedia storytelling to be successful, producers of transmedia franchises should figure out how to best cater to fans who actually want transmedia storytelling instead of trying to attract every general audience member.
I do think time could be a huge factor, and also probably proves why the content that has produced transmedia storytelling is aimed at particular classes of people. I think that there is a huge different between the types of people that get seriously interested in a franchies like the matrix rather than those who just go to a romantic comedy for fun.
ReplyDeleteI think that the types of people that will search out all of the random allusions of the matrix or catch em all in pokemon are the types of people that already enjoy that type of activity and thus the transmedia storytelling paradigm that creates an entire world for an audience to explore can only be successful within certain genres. I think that this is also proven by the types of genres that successfully deploy the paradigm, typically fantasy or sci-fi.
I have to argue that transmedia has been a huge success, and we have been impacted by transmedia storytelling whether we know it or not. If we look at the big picture, we can see that movies, tv shows, and even celebrities have adapted to the transmedia model. Movies such as The Blair Witch project used media platforms that include comic books, soundtracks, web-pages, and tv episodes on the sci-fi channel. Similarly, tv shows such as Survivor used the "survivor sucks" as a media platform. Also Ishaq's blog, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Reality," explains how Kanye West used media platforms such as twitter, blogs, and interviews to communicate to his audience on a personal level. These tv shows, movies, and celebrities might not be as complex as The Matrix's (spelling?) transmedia story, but they still implement the same transmedia model.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that transmedia has been that much of a failure. This may not be transmeida, but recently the movie Cloverfield generated a bunch buzz and interest trying to get viewers to do research through websites and clues from advertisements posted around the city. That made it one of the most anticipated movies of the year. After the movie was released, just like The Matrix, Cloverfield left clues and easter eggs for persistent fans to find and enhance their experience. At the least, I think we could call transemedia storytelling great publicity.
ReplyDeleteI think the adults will come when they find the right niche for the consumers. Lets face it, if all media was like Pokemon we would be exhausted but as soon as they find what people are willing to invest their time in the adults will come. I think one media that might be excelling at this is sports networks. (Fantasy football)?
Nathaniel brings up a good point. If we look for them, we can find places where adults use different types of media to access things that interest them. I think fantasy football is a good example. In order to be "good" at fantasy football, merely watching football on television isn't good enough.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've been wondering, though, is if the "casual consumer" could be reached, and essentially forced to participate in transmedia? Sometimes I feel like trailers for movies go too far and I know how the whole movie will go without seeing it, ut I feel like the internet, especially, could be used to reach out to those who would be interested in a particular movie (or other subject).
I think investment is a huge factor in the understanding and consumption of such a concept as The Matrix series. However, I do not only mean investment of time. Though they sort of have a direct relationship, emotional investment is also important. Consumption of such a cross-media project will not be successful if one is not (somewhat) emotionally invested because they will not have been willing to spend the time nor energy comprehending what is being thrown at them.
ReplyDeleteGreat questions. I don't necessarily think that a lack of commitment is the reason for the little success of the Matrix. In addition to the investment factor that Katie mentioned, I feel there is also a need to stay novel. When The Matrix was first introduced, everything was new. From the costumes of he characters to the technology they used, everything was foreign to us. Today, our technology has improved so much that we are up to par with what The Matrix presents. I believe that another factor playing into the decreasing success of The Matrix is the level of being innovative and having the ability to expand our imagination.
ReplyDeleteTo echo what a lot of other people have been saying, I think the key is to start thinking of transmedia in terms outside of what we're used to after reading about The Matrix and Star Wars, etc. Those all represent really active forms of a transmedia experience, which require lots of time from the consumer (but still have been successful because there are definitely markets for them); what is going to gain traction is a more casual involvement in the transmedia experience for consumers. We're starting to see it already; in any free iPhone app or game, you might see an iAd for Toy Story 3, which has some video, photo, and game content all in one advertisement. We aren't actively searching out transmedia experiences anymore: they're finding us.
ReplyDeleteTransmedia storytelling is a time-consuming process, which can make it difficult for some people to participate fully in it. I agree with David that elements of the transmedia story outside the one currently being participated in should have some kind of explanation, so anyone who doesn't (for whatever reason) want to follow the entire story doesn't get totally lost. I think that's where The Matrix went wrong, and it seems like a pretty simple fix to me. If they had given more explanation, I feel like that would also have encouraged more people to dig deeper into the entire transmedia story. Sometimes clues can be an incentive to continue into the story further.
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