Author: Christy

I’ve spoken before about a new cross-media project that was being developed here in Oz. Well, it has been launched. Forget the Rules is a cross-media project that falls on the extreme left side of my cross-media continuum: it provides the same content over multiple platfroms, rather than offering different content over platforms. It is a drama created by Jim Shomos and Paul Baiguerra of Global Dilemma that is available simultaneously on TV, broadband internet and mobile phone.

At present there are some snippets of scenes provided for insight into the show and the characters. You watch a snippet and can then choose an ending. They have good design by allowing you to then watch the alternative ending too. The acting was a bit wooden, so we’ll see how they relax into the show. I’m not that interested in the topics (singles looking for sex, having trouble with mates, looking for a partner). They are universal themes, but the way they deal with these issues is niave. It is targeted at a culture that I don’t subscribe too. Nevertheless, I enjoy the choosing of endings and was pleasantly surprised by what they offered. I was coloured though, for whenever someone chooses something they are suddenly highly invested in the experience. One marker of successful design is how closely the scene depicted the choice. The names of the choices must be an accurate description of the object.

Couple of clashes: the Kama Sutra game entails playing with another person, a friend. Keeping in theme with the show the game is for horny friends, but the idea of inviting someone else to play an orgasm game didn’t rock my boat. It is something I’d like to do secretly on the web rather than publicly. Another successful orgasm game that is played single player is the widely popular Orgasm Girl. Another problem: they don’t have an email registration to find out more details once it is launched. Strange. It has been created (I websucked the site) but it is not publicly available (or did I miss it?). I find this the most important feature of sites I go to. I don’t want to have to remember to go back to the trillion sites I visit, I want to be prompted.

The full series commences on Oct 10th. Should be interesting, we’re getting a big collection of Oz created content that includes Web & mobiles: Girl Friday and Random Place…Good on you creators!

I haven’t been online for a bit because I’ve been trekking through the desert! To celebrate my birth day I went to Central Australia to hear stories of Creation Time. I’ve been to Alice Springs, Uluru, Kata Tjuka, Darwin and Kakadu for the last couple of weeks. I haven’t really been in the rough since I stayed at resorts, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting red sand between my toes during the day.

The best part for me was the storytelling. I spent the whole time listening to stories from Aboriginal guides, reading stories from the ground, canvas, cave walls and books; and scrawling my own. I was thrilled to find that the system for Aboriginal oral storytelling (as far as I’ve been privvy to) has all the tropes that I’ve observed and come up with for cross-media storytelling. Amazing, and completely understandable. My experiences there have confirmed and extended my own theories and made me feel absolutely at home (in more ways than one).

The ‘systems’ that correlate are: having layers of complexity that are accessible according the age/knowledge of the audience, having an understood essence that can be retold in many ways (different details and media)…stories having a multifaceted function as archive, guide, law, invocation and healing.

I’ll discuss this further, but for now, I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to get back to the Anangu people.

I just watched the SBS debate about the Aust film industry, which is available online, as I’ve mentioned before. Here are a couple of quotes applicable to the cross-media concern:

PENNY CHAPMAN, PRODUCER: The future of this industry is not cinema and it’s not free-to-air television. It’s that myriad of platforms and it means that we are no longer, as somebody said at the SPAA conference, looking at a four to five year life span for our programs. We’re looking at what somebody has called the long tail where it’s going to take us years to get back in a variety of markets what was spent on our program. But also I reckon the most exciting thing about this industry is the technology’s changing, kids are going out and making films for $2 on video cameras HDTV –

GLENYS ROWE, GENERAL MANAGER, SBS INDEPENDENT: […] Has that film-maker thought about the audience for the film, because there’s a lot of competition for audiences now. We’re now releasing Australian films into a market where literally people almost have Google TV at their fingertips WHERE they choose what they want to see, what they want to look at, what they want to know, what they don’t know now they can get it at their fingertips when they want it WHERE they want it. Going to the cinema I find quite an unpleasant experience now. It costs me $15, I have to sit there while terrible ads go on, I’m sitting with a lot of people who are eating, you know, horrible food, giant, you know cokes, it’s not a pleasant experience, coupled with the majority of the Australian films that have been around, or many of them look like a small experience. I want to see big cinema. I’ve paid $15, I want an orchestral score, I want to feel like I’m getting my money’s worth because otherwise, actually it’s cheaper and easier to stay home.

Summary of important points:
* The question isn’t: Is Film Dead? Is the Book Dead? Is the TV Spot Dead? They’re not dead and will not be far into the unforeseeable future. What we do have though, is another option on the horizon: film AND books AND TV AND Radio…
* A product has a lifespan now, not just a release date. Which means ongoing production AND income.
* Audiences want to choose how they experience a work: what medium & when. So give them access to all of it at once.