Transmedia for Low Budget Filmmakers

Today’s guest post is from Simon Pulman who writes an incredibly interesting and informative blog on transmedia: Transmythology.

To me transmedia is the future for independent film – and perhaps all film. It is already happening all around us – whether we realize it or not. I essentially backed into transmedia on Bomb It. We knew we were generating way more content than would fit in one feature. In 2005 – our thought was that we would ultimately make 6 features from the material! But we ended up producing a webseries for Babelgum which was became a transmedia extension of Bomb It – realized after the fact. This in turn led to Bomb It 2 which was conceived of as a webseries for Babelgum – but still ties into the Bomb It “brand”. There is no way that I would have done another graffiti feature this past year – but a web series was a much more manageable way to keep exploring the concept of Bomb It. Simon addresses these issues in his post that follows.

Transmedia for Low Budget Filmmakers

Part I: Why Consider Transmedia?

I’m going to assume for the purposes at this article that you have read Think Outside The Box Office, and are familiar with the principles presented within.  I don’t think an artist of any kind should proceed with a project without at least reading and considering Jon’s ideas.  We’re moving towards an age where personal branding and fan engagement will become increasingly important strategies in differentiating yourself from the crowd.

Due to the difficulties inherent in financing a feature film today, an increasing number of filmmakers are going DIY – foregoing years of fundraising and investor courtship to produce something relatively cheaply using inexpensive cameras and small non-union crews.  This concept should be familiar to anybody who has read Robert Rodriguez’s Rebel Without a Crew.

The downside of this trend for filmmakers is that the proliferation of lower budget films makes it very difficult to stand out from the crowd.  Unlike in Rodriguez’s day, merely making a film cheaply is no longer an interesting enough story to ensure that people pay attention.  The result is that even well scripted and produced low budget films are not guaranteed to find an audience.

With that in mind, I am going to suggest an alternate course of action: Transmedia.  If you’re unfamiliar with the term, I suggest you look into the work of folk such as Jeff Gomez, Lance Weiler and Mike Monello.  You can also check out my blog at http://www.transmythology.com.

My suggestion is that filmmakers considering the production of a low-budget feature film should look into the possibility of creating a cross-platform narrative instead – thinking not only outside the box office, but outside of the 90 minute feature film format altogether.  Here are some reasons why:

1.              Less Upfront Audience Commitment

Audiences today have roughly the same amount of entertainment time available to them as they had twenty years ago, but have thousands more options.  Expecting somebody who has never heard of you to pay and sit for 90 minutes to watch your film is asking a lot.  Even on Netflix, a viewer can easily stop a movie after five minutes and watch something else – heartbreaking if your film only really gets going in the second act.  However, a viewer might be willing to give a 6 minute episode a shot.   Because you’re smart and understand Transmedia story principles, you’re going to hook them with that 6 minute episode – and supporting Transmedia content – and never let them go.

2.              Scheduling Cast and Crew

Feature films are extraordinarily difficult to schedule and shoot.  They require people to commit for the equivalent of at least three weeks, often for virtually no money.  It’s hard to keep top notch talent around for that block of time when they can make better money elsewhere.  By comparison, web shorts can be shot in one or two day blocks.  Furthermore, Transmedia allows you to schedule an actor for half a day, tease viewers with his or her presence, and continue his story on another platform (book, comic book, audio story, video game).

3.              The Theory of Relativity in Production Value

When you produce a cheap independent feature film, you are being compared to other feature films.  Non-expert moviegoers don’t necessarily understand the limitations of different budget levels, so they instinctively wonder why your $50,000 feature doesn’t look like There Will Be Blood.  Conversely, much web content features atrocious production value.  If you produce something that looks and feels good, you will stand out.  I suggest you read my article titled MTV’s Valemont – Lessons Learned for more on this.

4.              Keeping Audiences Satiated

Even if you do manage to hit one out of the park with your debut feature, it’s difficult for you to quickly supply more content to audiences.  Another feature film release is at least 18 months away, by which time you may be forgotten.  Conversely, with a Transmedia project based around a webseries, you can engage with your audience every single day.  That kind of interaction is absolutely priceless.

5.              Responding to Audiences

How many feature films have you seen where you loved the first act, but it all went downhill in the middle?  When you are releasing content incrementally, you are constantly receiving audience feedback.  I’m not suggesting that audiences are always right – or even know exactly what they want.  But at least you can take criticism on board and tweak as you go.  If a particular character really resonates with fans, consider giving them more (even by selling merchandise immediately with that character’s image on it).

6.              Building a Fanbase

Because a Transmedia project can release content incrementally over a course of months – and even years if a success – there is a much bigger window for somebody to “find” your project.  A Transmedia project by definition has more entry points.  One person might follow a twitter link to your webseries, another might be hooked by the graphic novel you’ve written and, if you’re really audacious, another dozen might find you through the flashmob you organized in Union Square.  All those people begin to follow your filmmaking brand and – because you have earned their trust with detailed, expansive stories – will follow your future work.  Now, when you propose a feature film, you can point to 10,000 people on Twitter that you know will see your film.

7.              Baiting The Press

To date, a handful of people (at most) have executed a Transmedia project extremely successfully.  Transmedia is increasingly becoming a buzzword.  If you can do something new and interesting, you stand to profit from widespread interest – both online and from the mainstream press.

8. Maintaining Rights

When you distribute your content directly to audiences, you cut out the need to cede various rights to a large distribution company.  Theoretically, you maintain complete creative control.  See Think Outside The Box Office for more.

Part II: Executing a Transmedia Project

Having decided to consider a Transmedia project as an alternative to a conventional feature film, you now need to think about how to execute the project. It is important to note that – just like a feature film – there are good and bad ways to spend your budget. I highly recommend looking to “trade favors” – working on your peers’ projects with the understanding that they will help you out in return. Furthermore, you should certainly consider granting equity in your project to trusted collaborators; very few people have the skill set to pull off a multi-platform story single-handedly.

Here are a few suggestions:

1.Plan

You need to have a really strong idea of how your various narrative strands are going to interweave. True Transmedia requires integration of complementary story elements and themes in a cohesive and compelling way – it is not merely the addition of new media gimmicks or social networking aspects to an existing story. This greatly increases the upfront work required of you, which is why Lance Weiler’s company Seize the Media refer to themselves as “story architects.”

2. Hire a Lawyer

I suggest that you seek to cut a deal with a knowledgeable entertainment attorney. You are developing something that could grow into an ongoing, lucrative property. A Transmedia project is extremely complex, so you must ensure that relationships are articulated and rights maintained appropriately. If traditional attorney’s fees are out of your budget, get in touch with an organization such as Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and see if a lawyer will take on your project pro bono.

3. Concentrate On Your Production Values

Since you are a filmmaker, I’m going to assume that your core (“driving”) story platform will be a web video. It’s extremely easy nowadays to pick up an HD camcorder, or a DSLR video camera, and simply begin shooting. However, unless your story specifically demands a handheld aesthetic, I suggest that you take some time to study basic cinematography principles. As I said in Part I of this piece, if you can create great looking web video, you can immediately stand out. If you have the money to hire a professional D.P. and Production Designer (or can entice them by other methods), absolutely do so.

4. Find The Right Talent

On a similar note, think long and hard about how you cast and rehearse your actors. You could write an incredibly compelling cross-platform narrative, but will still lose viewers immediately if your performances are not believable. You may not have a lot of money, but you do have time, so spend it finding the right actors and working with them on their characters before you shoot a frame.

5. Create An Immersive Web Experience

It’s well worth putting aside a substantial portion of your budget to create a deep, content-rich website set in the world of the story to sets up potential narrative threads for other platforms. It should be sleek and easily navigable.www.valemontu.com, created to support MTV’s Transmedia series Valemont, is an excellent example of this.

6. Find a Score to Tie Your Stories Together

Transmedia commentators rarely discuss music, but I believe it to be an utterly critical piece of the puzzle – it can tie together narratives and invoke emotions like nothing else (think about the Star Wars score). Approach local musicians and discuss the project with them. With luck, you will find somebody who understands the sensibility of the project and will be happy to receive the exposure it will bring.

7. Use Panels and Ink

There are a lot of very talented artists on the internet. Consider crowdsourcing to find somebody to collaborate with on a graphic novel (which could be distributed through traditional print, digital platforms, or even as a “motion comic”). Graphic novels allow you to tell stories in an action packed, visceral way that you might not be able to accomplish on video with your budget and capabilities.

8. Interact with your Audience

Here is where you can get really interesting – by encouraging the audience to interact with the world of the story. Consider paying a writer (with whom you will thoroughly discuss the story world) to run several character twitter feeds concurrent with the release of your other content. These twitter feeds will chat with the audience, while dripping more story information at agreed intervals. MTV’s Savage County is doing this right now.

9. Think Live Events

Likewise, you can try to engage potential viewers directly through live events and targeted promotion. Perhaps some element of your story could acted out live on the streets, and shot covertly through flipcam for later release. You may think of this as “viral marketing,” and it is, but it’s also an important, in-canon part of the story. If you have a genre piece especially, you will be able to locate sympathetic, potential future superfans to help with promoting your story. Check out Campfire’s website to see how they targeted future superfans with their campaign for HBO’s True Blood.

10. Keep Something Back

Remember to keep back part of your budget to give the project a little push along the road if necessary. You never know; once you build up an audience, it might inspire you to try something creative that you had not considered at the project’s inception. The only limit to a Transmedia narrative is your imagination.

The Goal, And Economics

Your goal in the short term is to build a fanbase – a following that will consume your subsequent work and ultimately allow you to make a very good living as a storyteller. However, the aim is to at least break even on this first project.

Accordingly, you need to think about monetizing your project before you shoot a frame or write a word. I won’t sugar coat it; there is not yet a paradigm revenue model for grassroots Transmedia. One possibility is to give away the Driving Platform stories for free (in this case, the webisodes), while charging for side stories. At the product’s conclusion, a “special edition” compilation containing all story threads, the soundtrack, a behind-the-scenes DVD and so on is put for sale. Merchandise such as T-shirts should certainly be in your thinking as well.

Furthermore, you could think about brand integration right from your project’s inception. Think about who you are targeting with the film, and consider making partnerships with relevant brands to mitigate cost. This could mean asking a local clothing designer to provide the wardrobe for free, or even partnering with a platform such as Youtube or Vimeo to sponsor the entire project in return for exclusive video hosting rights.

A Word of Caution

I hope that I have given filmmakers something to think about with this article. Before I end, however, I should offer a caveat: don’t even consider attempting a Transmedia project unless you have put a great deal of thought into your story and the universe that surrounds it. Fortunately, you can learn a lot about this process simply by following the #transmedia hashtag on Twitter, and searching for “Transmedia” on YouTube. I also recommend the book “The Art of Dramatic Writing” by Lajos Egri – a book intended for playwrights, but containing timeless principles that extend to Transmedia.

Transmedia demands that you know your characters intimately, and have defined the rules of your story world extremely precisely. Unless you know your story completely, its expansion into branching plotlines and platforms will be clunky, confusing and ultimately alienating for the audience. That said, if you can put the work in, and have the storytelling chops to pull off a multiplatform story, the benefits will be tremendous – both for you, and your story.