The place to discuss, share content and offer tips and advice to OTT - "Over the Top" streaming and Transmedia – the technique of telling a single story or story across multiple platforms including, but not limited to, games, books, events, films and television.
Subscribers of Netflix have probably never heard of Anne Aaron, but she has what is perhaps the unenviable task, of working on codecs delivery for their catalogue and also as they move into live-streaming, cloud gaming and live sports coverage.
I’m not a tech geek, but found this article an interest...
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This is an interesting report and I think I can predict that by 2034, the OTT landscape will have changed dramatically with many a merger and acquisition ad maybe the disappearance of some old favourites.
"The video-on-demand (VoD) sector is undergoing significant expansion. Anticipated to achieve a...
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Stephen L. Stern, the president of Storyboard Graphic Novels is sharing his insights about the Creative Process For Developing A Comic Book in the below video!
I'm looking at booking my second career development call, and would love recommendations on which executive I should connect with regarding transmedia?
That’s so crazy, Leonardo Ramirez! What a small world!
Waheed Rehman, you should reach out to the success team at success@stage32.com. Tell them about your project and ask which execs would be best to connect with....
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This really looks amazing Ashley Renee Smith and thank you!
"How do you keep the reader turning the page?" Such a great question! Because it's not just important to get the consumer of the story to understand what's happening. They also must understand why they are supposed to care.
After reading a recent statement from Pixar about everything in their bucket possibly being rebooted, I started to think about films spawned from other sources that did not do great in their theatrical release. Curious about how folks feel about the growing safety-net of reboots.
Are there any films...
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I tried to buy the rights to make a "Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver" movie way back, but someone bought them first, Terrence Sellers.
Maurice Vaughan It happens. Never seen anything about a Legacy of Kain movie, so maybe the rights reverted back to the original owner.
You might be right, Terrence Sellers. I was gonna buy the rights to make a "Bloody Roar" movie too, but I gave up producing and focused on writing.
I just put one up called today "Finding Jamal" and is a reboot of Finding Forrester film with Sean Connery James Hoey
I'm at an age (just under 40) where I have mixed thoughts about reboots. I feel like in the industry, it may be something that's overdone, but I love the nostalgia when a reboot is properly executed. And sometimes, it just flat out doesn't work for me.
Hi everyone--Welcome to my very first post on this awesome planform. My question is very easy to understand, and for me it's just completely frustrating. I am planning ( actually I" was" planning) to begin doing a podcast. As you all know Spotify music/podcast service has likely a million songs in t...
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Hi, Marcus Monday. I'm commenting to bump your post to the top of the Lounge and so people in my network will see it. Hope you get the advice you're looking for.
Fascinating to see Netflix inching further into the live event venue business. It's like a new turn on Disney's theme parks. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this move? https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/netflix-house-entertainment-dining......
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It's creative, Sam Sokolow! It's kinda like a theme park/mall. I think it's smart marketing wise for Netflix and it's gonna be a fun experience for fans.
i agree, its very creative, and going in a different direction from your typical theme park
It's an interesting idea, but it's going to require a lot of creative marketing to get the word out and entice people to check it out.
This is very interesting Sam Sokolow
I find funding comic books in single issues to build a convenient cinema length story upon completion to be a far more exciting model than producing short films.
Kickstarter's existing audience of sexy pinup art allows for fairly low-risk offerings.
The resulting comic book trade paperback tells a fa...
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Congratulations, Preston Poulter! How many issues do you like to write before adapting it into a complete script?
Well done Preston Poulter
Ashley Renee Smith In truth, I just flew by the seat of my pants this time around. A bit like Charles Dickens, I would gauge the audience reaction to an issue and write the next one....
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In person meetup this Thursday!
https://www.stage32.com/meetups/1979
You're the meetup queen!
Wouldn't it be awesome to learn how to do the ultimate foot-in-the-door job in production from a Directors Guild of America 1st Assistant Director who started as a Production Assistant himself who has worked on huge movies like PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN, OCEAN'S ELEVEN, AIR FORCE ONE, BODY OF LIES an...
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Brian Smith, Self-Published Author, Screenwriter, Animation Production Professional, Professional Reader, and Stage 32 Thought Leader (Disney, Universal, Sony, and DreamWorks Animation), will be hosting a 24-Hour Ask Me Anything ("AMA") from Wednesday 6/5 to Thursday 6/6 in the Authoring Lounge, foc...
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Arhynn Descy, Acclaimed Film Composer & Producer, will be holding an AMA on Composer Workflows: Why They're Important and What to Consider in the Composer Lounge.
This is a major IP and AI production drive, for Iconic Arts.
“Iconic Arts, a new Transmedia entertainment studio launched by Steven Haddadian, Alec Roth, Matthew Medney, Mo Yazdani, and Jack Sheehan, announced it raised $3.1 million in funding at a $20 million pre-seed valuation. The company also ope...
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Very interesting. Will certainly be following this.
Good questions and interesting business model. It will be worth watching as Sam Sokolow suggests.
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I think it's hard at this point to consider Fallout a transmedia project. It could continue to grow into one over time, but currently, it's more of an adaptation of the original game to a series.
The...
Expand commentI think it's hard at this point to consider Fallout a transmedia project. It could continue to grow into one over time, but currently, it's more of an adaptation of the original game to a series.
The key to understanding Transmedia is that it's establishing a universe across multiple mediums to tell a larger story. An adaptation of a story is NOT transmedia unless it explores new stories within the world through different mediums and all of it is connected and considered canon. Transmedia is most successful when it challenges a fan to experience new pieces of the larger story by branching into other mediums. They should all stand on their own two feet, but as a whole, it would offer the most comprehensive view of the story, characters, world, etc.
I would actually say something like The Last of Us, where the video game established a story, then a comic book was created that told its own story with characters that were introduced in the game. The comic books filled in a chapter that the audience had never experienced before. Then the show adapted the game and comic but made it a further transmedia outlet by creating entirely original stories in episodes that used characters from both and most importantly, those new stories helped us understand the larger narrative, themes, world, etc.An even better example is the Matrix. Our lead characters of Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus are introduced in the first film and we're eased into the world and larger conflict. Then the sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, built on that story. BUT, if you watch The Animatrix animated series, you follow Niobi and other members of the Resistance who were working to help our main characters at the same time as the plot from Reloaded. Even more, there are references to this in the sequel film that you only pick up on if you watched the animated series. You can also watch the CGI shorts that fill in world-building gaps about the history of the machine war, various side adventures, and even how the crew from the Osiris learned about the attack on Zion and worked to get word to them. THEN if you played the Enter the Matrix video game, you could play as Niobi on an adventure that intersects with the Reloaded plot. The video game actually explains how she knew how to catch Morpheus on the freeway which is a scene that plays out in the film. Technically, you don't have to watch or play all of the extras to follow the main trilogy of films. But if you do, you actually understand the world, characters, and plot BETTER because it's all interconnected.
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From the time I created my first video files for the internet, and then authored my first DVDs for sale, the act of managing quality versus bitrate has been a real challenge. I’ve had to learn more ab...
Expand commentFrom the time I created my first video files for the internet, and then authored my first DVDs for sale, the act of managing quality versus bitrate has been a real challenge. I’ve had to learn more about codecs and compression than I ever wanted to.
Anyone else remember a time before YouTube? Those of us with websites would offer streaming video as QuickTime, Windows Media, and Real Video formats. And often a high and low quality version of each! Flash video (FLV) came next, then H.264.
For DVD production, it was MPEG-2 (M2V), and I used a specialized program called TMPEG to make those files. My non-linear editing programs certainly couldn’t make them. That’s when we really tried dialing in the high/medium/low settings for the variable bitrate files. Looking at scenes of fog, rain, and even cross dissolves was where the rubber hit the road.
So Netflix has developed the new AV1 codec and its successor? Bravo to them, especially since they’re making them open source. There was a lot of worry with previous codecs, since some were patented. (The reason Adobe doesn’t make Encore anymore is their dispute with Dolby over their audio compressor.)
And for Netflix to commission a free-to-use short film to demonstrate and test for compression issues? Very cool.
Here’s something more about the film, Meridian…
https://youtu.be/YMCvX9lW-wc?si=9BjZe9H6cKhDd-y0
And Meridian itself…
https://youtu.be/h3tqyQ6asZc?si=doNue0UCu9kdccj5
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Ashley Renee Smith oh, I thought there were extensive plans to move it into the TM world?
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Mike Boas yes, Mike, I remember those days. Yes, the Netflix free-to-use video is very cool and helpful to indie producers.
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Geoff Hall, I believe there are plans, yes. But that's the case with many franchises and few of them manage to actually do it. I'm hopeful that they will successfully create a more comprehensive trans...
Expand commentGeoff Hall, I believe there are plans, yes. But that's the case with many franchises and few of them manage to actually do it. I'm hopeful that they will successfully create a more comprehensive transmedia universe out of Fallout, but we'll have to wait and see.