Remix Fiction » transmedia

Remix Fiction Television Evolves

Steve — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:59:59 +0000

Remix Fiction is always striving to learn and adapt to meet the expectations of their small (but growing) fan base. We recently took a hard look at our video programing and recognized that we weren’t achieving the reach that we’d originally hoped. Based on feedback from fans who watch the show regularly we knew that we wanted to stick with interviewing amazing people in the transmedia storytelling industry, but we needed to ditch the hour-long format. We’re hoping that our relatively low viewership (based on video views on our Vimeo channel) is tied more to the length of the show versus the content. In general, we think that most people are not willing to sacrifice an hour of their time on an untested show. So, in order to boost our viewership numbers we’re going to make a few changes.

For those of you who are willing to sit through an hour-long show we’re still going to broadcast the recording of the episodes live. Those of you who make the effort to tune in while we’re recording will get a behind the scenes look at the making of the episodes along with some “bonus content” and bloopers that won’t make it to the videos. We’re still going to spend about an hour with each guest, but we’re going to break the videos down into more digestible ten to fifteen minute chunks and release them as a series. We’ve also got some ideas for producing some short, non-interview, segments related to the behind the scenes work we’re doing on our own Alternate Reality Game. We would LOVE to hear your suggestions for these new segments so please let us know your ideas in the comments.

We appreciate Brian Clark’s patience with our first attempt at producing shorter interview shows. Brian is the CEO of GMD Studios; an experimental media lab focused on the emergence of networked communities, audiences and marketplaces. Brian put up with us for almost two hours while we recorded several episodes of Remix Fiction Television that spanned a wide range of topics relating to his company’s vision and practices. Our first short-format episode with Brian is available now on our Vimeo channel.

Jay Bushman Visits Remix Fiction Television

Steve — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:10:05 +0000

Storyteller Jay Bushman will stop by the Remix Fiction Television studios tonight at 7pm 5pm Pacific time to recap his latest project CT-Halloween! Jay has recently formed Alchemy Storytelling as a full-service story consulting and production company, specializing in net-native storytelling. Formed in partnership with one of our previous guests (Andria Phillips), Alchemy Storytelling aims to be a confederation of story hackers, fiction designers and liars-for-hire devoted to fulfilling all of your narratological needs.

Please Don’t Call Me a Puppetmaster

Steve — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:05:20 +0000

I’ve never really cared for the term Puppetmaster for a person behind the scenes in an Alternate Reality Game, but I haven’t come across a term that I want to replace it. The term “puppetmaster” conjures up images of a mindless audience or characters in a story being controlled by one god-like entity. It can also imply an ownership of the characters in a narrative, and Remix Fiction believes that the story and the characters are guided by everyone who participates in the experience.

People in the Cross-media industry (there’s another disputed term) have come up with several variations which have merit, like Jeff Gomez from Starlight Runner Entertainment who mentions “Trans-media Producer” in his interview with Digital Media Wire. He suggests that there is yet another title that will evolve in the next five years for a person who will be a universe steward or world caretaker who manages the non-linear cooperative storytelling within each intellectual property.

So, what do I want to be called? I guess for the time being, if you must give me a label, you can call me a Trans-Media Producer. More than likely I’ll hear another term I like better in a week and write another post about why I don’t want to be called a Trans-Media Producer. Yeah, I’m already starting to dislike it.

What do you think of the term “Puppetmaster”? Do you think there is a better term? Share your opinions in the comments – we’d love to hear from you! Also, special thanks to Christy Dena for sending out the link to this video in her twitter stream.