Transmedia Storytelling Explained

Before the age of the internet, movies did not have a big enough story-line to have to involve outside sources such as comics, sequels, or games to finish telling the story. Movies were able to stand on their own as one. The digital revolution has changed that drastically. And in my opinion it's for the better. Most big name blockbuster hits now involve much more to complete its story. For example, Lord of the Rings is notorious for how creative, imaginative, and big the world its based on is. It's so big that it needed three movies to finish the trilogy, countless of games to continue the story there are a series of books that the franchise is based on, and now developers are in the process of creating a prequel trilogy based on the work. Movies are not the only thing changing, TV shows are as well. For example The Walking Dead, it is on its third season and has multiple games, ways to interact with it through social media, a talk show, and graphic novels that te show is based on. Fans want to immerse themselves into the story if they truly want to become fans. Filmmakers, TV producers, and video game designers now need to collaborate, work together, and adapt to the digital revolution if they want to have a successful franchise. To be a true fan it is not enough to just watch a movie anymore. Hardcore fans keep up with the book, comics, movies, shows, social media, and the video games. Although it seems like a lot to keep up with, fans love the idea of really immersing themselves into the story that producers, directors and developers worked so hard to create. One of my favorite transmedia storytelling franchises is the Marvel series. I love the idea of super heroes and the movies that Marvel creates are marvelous (get it?). Not only are the movies great but the games are too! Also there are a huge amount of comics, if I had the time and the money I would invest it into reading Marvel comics. Overall, I really do love the idea of transmedia storytelling, it helps fans get engaged into the story a lot more than they ever could.