TIGA Cross Media Content Conference: ‘Working with Games’ at Bafta, 195 Piccadilly Tuesday 23rd October, 9.00-5.00Â at the London Games Festival.
The conference will feature speakers from the games, film, TV, advertising and web areas but the unifying theme will using games and games related skills to reach audiences.
The conference is structured to be a series of quick fire presentations from games, creative advertising, and web companies and broadcasters and one from talent agency 19 – the speakers will all point to how games skills and know–how can be applied to many applications outside the traditional games market including education with a many examples being showed for the first time:
Speakers include: Adam Singer, Peter Cowley Endemol, Peter Davies BBC, Jonathan Smith– TTGames, and Nice Tech also working on BBC virtual world application. Ubisoft will talk about their move into CG film, 19 about the how interactivity can work for the Beckhams, and Google on how games are written into their new thinking. Cimex and Pre-loaded have made inroads into the educational content market and will show examples, whilst Mark Boyd of BBH, Blitz’s Sion Lenton, IGA’s Ed Bartlett, and Dan McDevitt of Woot!media will show how there is a healthy market for games growing in advertising.
I couldn’t find anything at their site about the event but something might be up soon.
A few posts ago I mentioned the new blog, The Extratextuals, and an (at the time) upcoming event . The session was put together by Jeff Gomez:
 Jeff Gomez (Moderator), CEO Starlight Runner Entertainment As the host of the seminar, PGA member Jeff will familiarize producers with the history, criteria and relevance of trans-media storytelling. An expert in the field of trans-media development and creator and producer of highly successful fictional worlds, Jeff exponentially increases the value of intellectual properties by preparing them at early phase to be extended across a wide variety of entertainment platforms. Jeff has written and produced elaborate trans-media universes (including content such as feature and episodic animation, video games, comic books, novels and web portals) for 20th Century Fox, The Coca-Cola Company, The Walt Disney Company, Acclaim Entertainment, Mattel, Hasbro and Scholastic. (bio from The Extratextuals)
Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc. is a leading creator of highly successful fictional worlds, maximizing the value of intellectual properties by preparing them for extension across multiple media platforms.
Starlight Runner produces animated and live-action feature films, as well as advanced media content. The company also packages books, comics and graphic novels, and develops video games and alternate reality experiences with world-renowned partners and clients.
The 8 defining characteristics of a transmedia production:
Content is originated by one or a very few visionaries
Cross-media rollout is planned early in the life of the franchise
Content is distributed to three or more media platforms
Content is unique, adheres to platform-specific strengths, and is not repurposed from one platform to the next
Content is based on a single vision for the story world
Concerted effort is made to avoid fractures and schisms
Effort is vertical across company, third parties and licensees
Rollout features audience participatory elements, including:
– Web portal
– Social networking
– Story-guided user-generated content
Examples of contemporary trans-media properties include: The Blair Witch Project, The Matrix, Hot Wheels: World Race / Acceleracers, Bionicle, Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, James Cameron’s AVATAR, many Disney projects including High School Musical, Pirates of theCaribbean, Fairies, Hannah Montana.
Great! I love reading how other people describe the form. I’ve described it in so many different ways according to my audience. I agree with all that he says though I’m wondering why he says three or more platforms rather than just two? I guess that fits in the franchise approach that he is working in. But of course, the continuation of a property across media platforms is not the exclusive domain of conglomerates.
Last November, the MIT Comparative Media Studies Department and Convergence Culture Consortium ran the Futures of Entertainment conference. Details of last years conference with podcasts are online. Registration for the next one, to be held on the 16-17th November at Cambridge, has opened. The event is described as follows:
The logics of convergence culture are quickly becoming ubiquitous within the media world. Audiences are being encouraged to participate in a wider range of sites. Transmedia principles are being adopted by content producers in a broad range of fields. ‘Engagement’ is being discussed as crucial to measurements of success. Futures of Entertainment 2 brings together key industry players who are shaping these new directions in our culture with academics exploring their implications. This year’s conference will consider developments in advertising, cult media, metrics, measurement, and accounting for audiences, cultural labor and audience relations, and mobile platform development.
Sessions and speakers include:
Mobile Media:Marc Davis, Yahoo!; Bob Schukai, Turner Broadcasting; Francesco Cara, Nokia
Metrics and Measurement: Bruce Leichtman, Leichtman Research Group; Stacey Lynn Schulman, HI: Human Insight; and Maury Giles, GSD&M Idea City
Fan Labor: Mark Deuze, Indiana University; Catherine Tosenberger, University of Florida; Jordan Greenhall, DivX; Elizabeth Osder, Buzznet; Raph Koster, Areae Inc.
Advertising and Convergence Culture: Mike Rubenstein, The Barbarian Group; Baba Shetty, Hill/Holliday; Tina Wells, Buzz Marketing Group; Faris Yakob, Naked Communications; Bill Fox, Fidelity Investments
Cult Media: Danny Bilson, transmedia creator; Jeff Gomez, Starlight Runner; Jesse Alexander, Heroes; and Gordon Tichell, Walden Media
Opening Remarks by Henry Jenkins, MIT; Joshua Green, MIT; Jonathan Gray, Fordham University; Lee Harrington, Miami University; and Jason Mittell, Middlebury College