One of the first projects we’ll be working on is obviously a second season of CELL. The feedback we’ve already gotten has been great, and you guys haven’t even gotten to the meat of the show yet. So we’re starting the process of fleshing out what our second season will be. Then we just have to figure out how to pay for it. I’m hopeful we can make that happen and then keep the story rolling for all of you.

Breaking the story with Carpool Productions

Another project is called Carpool Productions. We’ve been working on it for a few months now and it’s starting to pick up speed. It’s a mix of a documentary and episodic series with a bunch of brilliant kids. Some of our documentary footage is already in the can and we’re working hard to get the story going. We’ll have a website up soon with more information and we’ll keep you posted on where we are as we get more information together. I can’t wait for this one to come out. It should be a LOT of fun for everyone.

We’re also really early in a show called Ashes of Adair. This one has me really excited. It will be heavy on the action and we’re aiming for something visually stunning. What’s really fun for me is we’re looking for this one to go through a cross-media storyline. That means it won’t just exist in the web-series format. The sky’s the limit but think comics and ARGs just to name a couple of options. This is new and exciting territory and the potential for it is huge. We’ve got a rough story for the first season already and I think it could be spectacular.

Early titles for Ashes of Adair website

So we’re working hard to keep the content churning out while maintaining a high quality for everything. Of course a big part of this will be finding money for them all, but we’re hoping we can get there as well. The great thing about new media streams is there are a lot of options for monetization, and we’ll be exploring as many as humanly possible to make these shows happen.

It’s an exciting time and I’m hoping you’ll all stick with us as we start up these projects. None of it can happen without the support of all the fans out there that care about what we’re doing here.

SXSW is starting up Friday. The Interactive and Film Festivals are going on from March 12 – 16. I’ll be there for the whole thing and sending in updates through the blog and twitter. If you’re not following Twitter, give us a look at @ut_markle or @CELLwebseries.

If you’re going to be at the festival drop me a line. I’d love to meet a lot of you.

We’re actually working on several new projects and we hope to be talking about them all within the next couple of weeks. So keep watching CELL and keep trying to figure out what’s going on… because we’re going to do it to you again soon.

Keep your eyes open… and take a gander at this…

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Keep in mind that I say this about transmedia with an understanding that it’s ridiculously difficult for independent producers with limited resources to start up a transmedia effort. It’s much easier for someone making a web series to just film it and put it out on some streaming source and hope for the best. Also much cheaper.

Did I mention much less successful, too?

With so many outlets fighting for a limited number of eyes, producers need to plan for more in-depth engagement with the viewers from the beginning. It is more work. It does take time and can be really frustrating. At the same time, if you work hard at it then you will start to see results.

Gennefer Snowfield is one of my favorites in the interwebs when it comes to finding great information about transmedia or branded entertainment. Following one of her links pointed me to this post on Culture Hacker by Robert Pratton. In a nutshell, he explains his plan for creating a cross media experience for the film Vauxhall Crossed in order to build an audience. He has a great analogy for growing a fan base that relies on digging for oil. He even has a great visual aid, which I am blatantly ripping off right now.

Digging for audiences, from Robert Pratten

This analogy works really well and explains the importance and power of really taking the time to connect with the audience. The example he continues with is great because it shows an understanding of the audience he’s trying to attract. In this case, the project is for a story about spies. So he created a storefront for a Chinese restaurant that doesn’t exist. It’s a cover for the agents but the site acts just like a restaurant. Early adopters who join in get secret access to another part of the store, just like… wait for it… spies!

He did a great job in thinking about the product and how to support it by playing up concepts that fans of that content would appreciate. He connected with the desired audience. This is a really important part of the puzzle that a lot of people miss.

It’s not enough to just tweet about your show or your story. You can’t get by with simply adding a lot of random friends on Facebook hoping that someone will pay attention. You have to engage with the audience you want to attract. And that’s the really hard part. It takes time and you really have to care. Once you get there, you really have struck oil. Or gold if you prefer something less messy… but less accurate as a metaphor. ‘Cuz it doesn’t really spread out like… let’s just stick with oil.

So in this case Pratton does a great job of getting people into world he’s creating. Once they’re invested in this world, they start to tell their friends. And then we have a shampoo commercial.

What about existing properties? Can existing properties with an established fan base benefit from a transmedia approach? Absolutely.

More and more TV shows are reaching out to new audiences

Just look at your local bookstore and see all of the novels written for Star Trek. Swing by a comic book store and check out how many comics there are of TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other TV properties. When you stop and think about it, these transmedia projects aren’t just great for the originating property. They’re great for the new industry and the new market that’s being introduced to the property.

Transmedia is a gateway for people to access stories they never knew existed and I’ll argue it’s good for the entertainment industry as a whole. But that’s a big heady concept and I’ve rambled enough in this post for now. So let’s talk about that next time.

One of the great things about comics is that there really is no limit. In film and TV, we can think of all sorts of amazing and imaginative stories. But even with all the great technology we have for video effects, that still costs a LOT of money to make happen on the screen. In a comic book, we have a visual medium where you’re limited only by what can be drawn on the page.

Well, we HAD one...

As a storyteller, that’s really liberating. We don’t have to have the conversations like “How are you going to get 200 cows in a gas station?” or “How are you going to pay for a 3 story-tall alien spaceship destroying main street?”  You just draw it. For the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comics, Joss Whedon has often talked about the freedom of getting to do anything in the comics. One reviewer on TV Squad (Keith McDuffee)  even proclaimed, “Thank God for a medium that lets creativity go completely wild without budget worries.”

Without budget worries. You hear/read that? That’s the part all us indie producers need to be listening to. If we can embrace the medium, then we can let our creativity go wild without worrying about the budget. We indie producers can make the most impressive, meaningful, and moving stories we can come up with to really capture the imaginations of our audiences. Hot diggity dog, I get to blow up a Main Street with a huge airship. Finally!

Take that Main Street!

But what ’bout mi film? I can still haz film?

Absolutely.

These media streams can work together to increase everyone’s chances for success. A great comic book release can fuel buzz about an upcoming film project related to the comics. If you can make a story in comics that really engages the readers and makes them want more, then they will want to see a quality film that takes them into that world. In fact, if there’s an existing non-film property out in the public (like a comic book), the chances for getting funding for a film version of it go up drastically. That was a pretty common theme at this last Austin Film Festival. Time after time we heard in panels, producers are more likely to take a risk on a property if there’s already a product out there.

Let’s take this one step farther and say there is a film version. You can expand that universe in comics to tell more stories about your world and your character that your fans can go to. So a good film can generate interest in comics. Comics can generate interest in film. They work together. Like ra-ma la-ma la-ma ka ding a da ding de dong.

Ra ma la ma ding dong a doop a de whatever

Yes, I made a Grease reference. Let’s move on.

4 of the top 20 grossing movies in US history are based on comic book characters, according to www.the-numbers.com. In 2008, comic book sales alone totaled about $437 million. There’s a huge potential market out there for producers that are willing to take on transmedia storytelling. If it’s done right, not only can we all tell deeper, richer stories and dig deeper into our characters, we can do it at a minimal cost compared to what it would take to make a film version. Then we can take that momentum and push it into another stream like web or feature content. That feedback loop just generates more interest and more chances to tell your story the way you want.

It seems like a no-brainer to push for a transmedia experience in order to reach more people and to increase your funding. I know that we’re going to be looking into it.

What do you think? Barking up the wrong tree? On the right track? Leave a comment and let’s talk about it.

I knew there were comic book tie-ins to TV shows and movies. That was never anything new. What really got me interested was when I heard that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was coming to comic books. Not as a tie-in, but as a full-fledged continuation of the story produced by Joss Whedon with some of the original writers contributing scripts. As a die-hard fan of the franchise I was excited, albeit a little nervous.

Buffy Season 8

When I finally got the first issue, I was sold. Here was a real crossover into a new media stream that accurately reflected the things that were great about the TV show. I’m sure there are others but I haven’t really experienced them. What are some other examples that you know? Leave them in the comments so I can check that out. (And no, Angel:After the Fall, even with its apparent financial success, is not another example IMO.)

Since then I’ve dipped my feet in a couple of other comic franchises, with mixed results.  But through all of that, I’ve found some great stories in the comic book world. I’m not talking Iron Man and Batman or all the other huge tentpole franchises. Everyone knows about those characters and the recent movies have been spectacular. I’m talking about the other stories out there that no one outside of the comic world really knows about.

Runaways

My latest favorite that I’ve just started delving in to is Runaways from Marvel Comics. I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying this series so far. I’ve only gotten a little bit into it and I can’t wait to get a hold of the next compilation. In fact, I like it so much that I want to see it as a film. Well, actually as a series. But you know what I mean. Fortunately for me, word is that Brian K. Vaughn (who started the series) is writing a film adaptation that should hit the screens in 2011. Although I was kinda hoping that I could do the adaptation. *sigh*

So let’s see… we’ve talked about a successful crossover into comics for a great television series. We’ve got a relatively obscure comic book property getting a treatment for a feature film. And these are just a couple of the many examples for crossovers from one media type to another. (There’s even a one-shot Dr. Horrible comic book that just came out.) In another post I talked about ARGs on the internet. So what does all of this mean for us indie producers?

It means there’s a market and that means there’s a way for us to finance all our projects.

More on that next time.

Leave a comment and let’s start a conversation. I’m curious what you all think.