Towards A True Cross-Platform Future

This entry was originally published at Hope For Film

Last fall at PowerToThePixel I had the good fortune to be invited to partake in a ThinkTank on transmedia.  They have recently published their report on the day and I encourage you to read it.  Special thanks for Michael Gubbins for pulling the report together and facilitating the session.

Among the observations and recommendations:

• The business models of film and other creative industries are struggling because they are trying to dictate how customers use the media

• Creative industry needs to break free of restrictive single media practices with territorial rights and release windows

• Different media platforms are not always in competition and can cross-fertilise a brand and attract new audiences

• Value is moving away from product sales towards customer engagement with a brand

• Collaborating with audiences is not a restriction on the creative process but a means of informing and supporting it

• The ‘active’ or ‘empowered’ audience works at many levels, from crowd-sourced finance to recommending a work through social media

• Cross-media work, and audience and community relationships, can build true cultural diversity

• By working with audiences, film-makers and other content creators can gain greater control over, and draw greater value from, their work

• Cross-media work involves much greater participation in content creation which will attract new talent, promote the visual arts and potentially open up new creative forms

- Cross-media film-making is about renewing film-making not replacing existing media, such as cinema theatres

• Open standards and net neutrality are central to the development of these new forms

• Content creators are competing for audience time – not with each other in a tiny distribution channel – hence sharing ideas and tools is part of the culture

This paper should be mandatory reading for all storytellers.  It provides a great catch up as to where we are now (or were 6 months ago).

Topics are:

1. THE PANEL  2. THE CONTEXT  3. THE AGENDA (Cross media: evolution or revolution?  Where are audiences driving content?  What are the missing links?  Can we create a cross-media movement?)  4. THE LANGUAGE   5. FROM CONSUMERS TO COLLABORATOR  6. THE ENGAGED AUDIENCE  7. TURNING ENGAGEMENT INTO VALUE   8. EMPOWERING THE STORYTELLER  9. POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY  10. STORYTELLING AND CROSS-MEDIA VALUE  11.CROWDSOURCING AND CREATIVE COMMONS  12.VALUE THROUGH INTERACTION  13.CROSS-MEDIA VALUE  14.LOOKING FORWARD