Happy New Year 2014, in a perfect balance!

©  Urszula Gleisner

Cinewalks in Paris - test of Cinemacity

Paris and cinema it's an awasome mix that I decided to test this summer with the application Cinemacity.

Cinemacity is an application that through geolocalisation offers you the opportunity to visit Paris and  to review major motion pictures that were filmed within 300 meters of the position from where you are standing.  There are approximately 400 videos (excerpts of well known films).

Cinemacity was coproduced by Arte and Small Bang. More information on 

http://cinemacity.arte.tv/en/

You may also take part in this project by sending your own "sweded"version of a film scene shot in Paris.

As it was summer time so I tried it during “Paris Plage” which is an event that recreates the beach at the border of the Seine river. If you are in Paris during holidays, try it!

I don't have the latest version of IPhone so maybe some of my remarks may not be experienced by users of iphone 5.

After downloading the app on my smartphone I had a choice to start my experience either by watching videos that I was close to (min 300 m) or by following one of the 24 optional walks.

I chose to watch videos that I was close to and could discover spontaneously.  A map pointed out my position, indicated the closest videos and the perimeter of 300 m that enabled me to unlock the videos.
Sometimes when I wanted to zoom in on  my position, the application dezoomed it.

I started to walk  and experience the magic of Paris. The length of videos varied from  very short (30 seconds ) to almost four times as long (2 minutes).  I traveled in space and in time as this app includes black and white films as well as recent ones. For example  next to Notre Dame I saw Gina Lolobrigitta playing Esmeralda.

After each video excerpt,  my screen showed the video’s poster, its title, and synopsis. 

I wanted to watch some of them immediately, but unfortunately it's not possible. I also  would like to receive a mail with information about the videos that I watched- in order to rent them later, but this is not an option.

Since this application requires 3G connection- we are dependent on the quality of the internet connection. As long as I had 3G, the experience was really great. However, sometimes I lost it and I couldn't acces to videos, which was frustrating.

Also, at the “Paris Plage” event there is no Wifi Free Spots...

There is an option to download the videos prior to your visit according to the walk you will choose.

But as I was moving randomly, I crossed through a few different intineraries and switching between connected and non- connected modes was not convenient for me.

Sometimes the geolocalisation indicated my position in a totally different place than I was.

To sum up- it’s a good experience that  enables us to discover Paris through the magic of cinema.

The disadvantages- the experience depends on the quality of connection if we don't download a specific walk prior to arriving. 

Interview with Kissinger Twins, winners of Webby Awards 2013 in the category of the best use of interactive video, for their transmedia project "The Trip"

"The Trip" is a transmedia project consisting of movie, documentary and archive mix together with digital technology and music.  The result is really surprising . 

The story is inspired by the real life event. 

To see the project, click on http://www.jacktorrancetrip.com/

1. Who are Kissinger Twins ? Could you tell me few words about you and your company? 

Kissinger Twins are Dawid and Kasia. Dawid complicates and Kasia simplifies things. 
(http://www.kissingertwins.com/)

2. "The Trip" tells a story of "The Man who took America to the Moon". 

It is based on the gossip that the first fly to the moon was actualy a fake event. Why did you choose this subject? 

We didn't choose this subject This subject chose us. We met this guy last year, he told us his story and then we decided to make a project based on it.

3. Are there any connections between your hero Jack Torrance and a fictional hero that got the same name from the novel "The Shining" of Stephen King? 

We decided not to reveal his details, instead of it use the fictions name. Jack Torrance was a writer, in his life the line between fiction and truth was totally blurred. 

Isn't it the same with present day world created by media?

4."The Trip" is a coproduction between your company and Unit9 with music of Smolik. How the idea of this project was born? 

Everything started in January 2011 when Andrzej asked us and UNIT9 to make an in interactive music video to his track 'Forget Me Not' (www.forgetmenot.tv).

It was an obvious choice to use his music as soundtrack to 'The Trip'. His music has got great 'cinematic' atmosphere. 

5. "The Trip" is an interactive fiction or more complex transmedia project? What platforms do you use? 

It is much more complex. You can WATCH, INTERACT and LISTEN TO THE TRIP.

It is a 10 minute short film, an interactive one, a concept album released on Vinyl, CD and in digital format, the VHS tape and finally large scale photo series.

6. Hard question: what was your business model? 

There was no business model with this project. It was just a totally experimental piece.

7. What does it feel like to win Webby Awards 2013 in the category of the best use of interactive video? 

It is nice to win awards.

8. What are your future projects? 

It is an erotic film. Revenge of Bee Girl. Emmanuelle meets Dirty Harry.

You can learn more about Kissinger Twins on  http://www.kissingertwins.com/

Moreover you can meet them during Filmteractive in Poland (25-26 September)  www.filmteractive.eu 

Gothic cathedral in Strasbourg - star of the transmedia project "The Builders' challenge"

3D film movie "The Builder's Challenge"

Do you want to travel to the Middle Ages, discover the mystery of the Strasbourg cathedral and its builders, then put yourself in the shoes of the modern architects and build the second tower? 

If you said yes, go and see  "The Builder's Challenge" – an English version is available from May 2013.  Click here to watch the web-documentary. 

This transmedia project is developed on 4 platforms: 3D film, a web-documentary, a mobile app and a media library.

3D film, directed by Marc Jampolsky and produced by SEPPIA, reveals the secrets of the cathedral and its master builders. 

Transmedia part was developed by Bigger than Fiction and Julien Aubert.

"Tower Buider" web-documentary

"Tower Builder" a web-documentary "built up like a video game" , immerses you in today’s world and challenges you: could you build the second tower?  

You get to meet experts, have access to various documents including the archives of the Museum Oeuvre Notre-Dame and unveil additional components to build your tower.

Mobile app is an interactive tour guide that offers you an exceptional visit of the cathedral.  
Moreover, mini-games are integrated into the app and if you solve tasks -you unblock more components for the web-documentary.

I'd like to know more about this project, so I interviewed Edouard Gasnier, Associate Executive Director of Bigger Than Fiction.

Edouard Gasnier, Bigger Than Fiction

 Interview with Edouard Gasnier, Associate Executive Director of Bigger Than Fiction.

Excerpts:

Could you describe in few words the project "The Builders' challenge"?

"The Builders' challenge" is a transmedia project about the Strasburg cathedral in France, which was built through centuries. 3D movie was broadcast on ARTE on December 2012. The project consists of 3 additional media platforms: a docu-game, a mobile app and a media library.

The transmedia part was conceived by Julian Aubert and developed by Bigger than Fiction.  Did you integrate the transmedia part from the beginning of the project?

Not exactly. The project began with the 3D movie, produced by the Strasbourg producer SEPPIA.

After working one year on the movie, SEPPIA and ARTE wanted to extend the project to transmedia.  This is the reason why they came to us, Bigger than Fiction, to discussed the transmedia design and the “story architecture” of the whole project.

How much time did it take to conceive the transmedia part?

We began in July 2012 and we finished in December 2012, so it took us about six months. It was very quick and required a lot of work.

Mobile App

You use QR codes and  NFC codes technology on mobile phone application. Could you describe  this  application in details?

The application is a tour guide that helps to visit the Cathedral in Strasbourg and uses some content from the TV documentary. You can download the application thanks to NFC  in the  Cathedral or in the Tourist office of Strasbourg. You can have access to the content inside the Cathedral in Strasbourg, and in the Museum of the Notre Dame.

We wanted to use this technology in order to improve the way people visit the cathedral. Of course the application is free.

Did your game "Tower builder" attracted mainly architects or broader  audience?

The "Tower builder" is a videogame inside the web documentary. It is aimed at a very large audience although our targets were mainly people from Strasbourg and the Alsace region. 

Other targets: people who are interested in history, property, technology, e-tourism and serious games. We targeted a lot of communities on the web.

Tower Builder 

You organized a competition to design the best second tower. How many projects did you receive?

In March 2013 we had received about 1 400 towers, that is in 3 month time.

What was the prize to win?

Samsung Galaxy mobile phones (thanks to Orange) and a weekend in Strasbourg (thanks to the Tourist office in Strasbourg).

Could you give me some more statistics about this project?

The movie itself was a second best audience broadcast on ARTE on Saturday evening: 1,4 million viewers. The DVD was sold out already by December 2012. Our blog registered  78 000 views- the third most seen blog on the Arte platform. Web-documentary even today attracts around 3500 unique views per month. Very good numbers.

3D movie is a very expensive production, so is the development of the transmedia part. What was your business model?

Strasbourg producer SEPPIA obtained funds from the local institutions (city of Strasbourg, Alsace region) as well as from Germany, because "The Builders Challenge" works on both sides of the boarder (French and German). ARTE funded too. 

During the press conference, Cedric Bonin, head of SEPPIA, gave these numbers: budget of 1 M euros for the movie and 300 000 euros for the development of other devices (web-documentary, blog, mobile app, website, community management).

How do you feel after 6 months work?

We are glad because this project was successful. Arte is also very satisfied.

Moreover, the institutions from Strasbourg will give a second life to this project, because in two years there the cathedral will be 1000 year old. To them, our content is very good and they want to explore it and use it more and more.

What are your next plans?
A serious game is planed for the end of this year/beginning of the next year. We have a lot of development to do around the celebration of the 1000 years of the Cathedral. The movie will be broadcast once again on France 3 (FTV), and aired on the big screen the front of Cathedral during the summer together with light show.

We will take this project to a lot of contests and festivals in a category of gamified project, web documentary and transmedia.

Edouard Gasnier is associate executive director of Bigger Than Fiction. He was previously Community Manager, specialized in video games, and worked for Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation, but also high-tech brands and web services. He is now managing the relationship with communities in various transmedia project, which means that you may have a nice chat with him about webcomics, Alternate Reality Games, or TV shows.

Transmedia festival in Poland "Laboratory of Innovation", Warsaw, April 2013

Transmedia is everywhere. For the first time this year - in Festival de  Cannes ( in Cabinet of Curiosities -well, there is still some evangelization to do...). In Poland this trend is in an early phase of development.

  In April 2013 in Warsaw, together with Media Desk ( Joanna Wendorff and her great team), we presented to a Polish audience the bases of transmedia approach during the festival "Laboratory of Innovation". 
Well-known experts in transmedia: Alison Norrington, Michel Reilhac, Jean-Pierre Magro and Christophe Cluzel revealed the bases of multiplatform approach illustrated by numbers of practical cases. The Polish audience received it with a huge curiosity and interest. I'm sure that soon you will hear about Polish transmedia projects. You can count on me to show them to you.

On the second day I ran a workshop "Experiment Transmedia", a mix of theory and practical use of transmedia with creative methods integrated into it.

 I was nicely surprised by  a few things: the number of professionals taking part in it, their enthusiasm and curiosity, their great team working skills and  creativity. At the end of the day they conceived the bases of projects that could be presented to potential clients. 
I noticed also that Twitter and QR codes are still not used in Poland,  but it's only a matter of time. Eastern -European market is developing rapidly.

MIPTV 2013: Réseaux sociaux et 2nd écran, deux concepts qui font le buzz

Cette année, dans un marché de plus en plus fragmenté, la quête de l’audience semble être la principale préoccupation des chaines et des producteurs qui cherchent par tous les moyens à établir une plus forte relation avec les différents publics. 

La multiplication des écrans au sein d’un même foyer est aujourd’hui une réalité bien établie dans les ménages où les jeunes sont présents alors que selon un institut d’études américain(VICE), l’âge moyen de téléspectateur devant la poste TV classique est de 50 ans et plus. Alors comment attirer l’attention de téléspectateurs et notamment des plus jeunes d’entre eux ? Comment utiliser les réseaux sociaux pour construire unerelation durable avec eux ? 

Ces sont les questions que se posent aujourd’hui les acteurs des médias. Plusieurs conférences ont été organisées sur ces thèmes et les professionnels du monde entier ont ainsi pu confronter leurs solutions.

The infinity loop

A l’occasion de l’une d’entre elles, Kim Moses, Sander/Moses Productions, Slam de USA a présenté le concept d’ « Infinity Loop » (boucle infinie) : un business modèle dans lequel le programme TV est la pièce maitresse d’une plus large expérience multi-plateformes centrée sur les fans.

Concept d'"Infinity Loop"

La « Boucle infinie » permet d’engager son audience, de créer le buzz dans la presse, de générer des nouveaux revenues… Pour moi, c’est du Transmédia à l’état pur.

L’exemple de Ghost Whisperer

Ghost Whisperer ou Mélinda, entre deux mondes (au Québec) est une série télévisée américaine en 107 épisodes de 42 minutes, créée par John Gray et diffusée du 23 septembre 2005 au 21 mai 2010 sur CBS.

Cette série met en scène Melinda Gordon, une jeune mariée qui a hérité de sa grand-mère le don de communiquer avec les esprits des morts. Elle utilise cette faculté pour faire passer les messages des morts à leurs proches pour ainsi les faire passer « de l’autre côté ». Au fur et à mesure que l’histoire avance, on en apprend plus sur les personnages et sur la mythologie de la série. On découvre qu’il existe des esprits maléfiques voulant stopper Melinda.

Kim Moses a illustré le concept d’ « Infinity Loop » avec cette série TV autour de laquelle gravite une web série, des jeux vidéo, des blogs, une bande dessinée, des livres, des sites de fans, des pages sur les réseaux sociaux… La société de production Slam attache beaucoup d’importance à son audience. Elle la connait bien et analyse régulièrement son opinion ainsi que les sujets de conversations en temps réel.

La puissance communautaire au service de la société

Adam Gee de Channel 4 a démontré qu’en engageant son audience, un programme peut parfois changer le monde. C’est l’exemple du projet: « The great british property scandal » dont l’objectif était de recenser, grâce au public, les propriétés vides du pays afin de mettre en évidence le problème du logement.

Plus de 118 000 personnes ont participé à cette campagne multi-plateformes en référençant plus 7 900 propriétés vides. Grâce à la puissance de cette action sociale, la loi concernant les maisons vides en Angleterre a évolué. Cela montre à nouveau à quel point les réseaux sociaux deviennent incontournables en politique. Les politiciens le savent et l’utilisent lors de campagnes électorales. Barack Obama a d’ailleurs gagné beaucoup des votes auprès de la communauté hispanique grâce à sa campagne de mobile marketing conduite par Adsmovil.

Quelques conseils entendus lors des conférences

Comment gérer efficacement sa communication sur les réseaux sociaux? Selon Dan Biddle (Twitter UK),  »Il faut la programmer, exactement comme on programme le contenu des chaînes ». Et pour cela, rien de mieux que de nouveaux outils. Ils apparaissent sur le marché pour nous aider à gérer l’expérience utilisateurs multi-plateformes. The Shadow Gang a presenté l’outil Galahad. Et un autre outil que je connaissais déjà : Conducttr de Transmedia Storyteller.

Enfin, selon Sam et Nick Chapman de Pixiwoo et Scott Dikkers de The Onion, pour construire son audience, il suffit de « rester soi-même, d’être authentique avec votre audience » et elle vous le rendra.

Quelques courtes et fortes phrases de ce MIPTV:

Felix Baumgartner, l'homme qui sauté de la stratosphère

·            Hell, no" la réponse de Felix Baumgartner, l'homme qui sauté de la stratosphère, quand on lui a demandé sur la s'il allait essayer de battre son record.

·         Son saut de la stratosphère a été diffusé en direct par 65 chaînes dans le monde

·      14% des postes crées en France le sont dans le secteur digital, (Françoise Laborde, CSA)

·       25% des visionnements de YouTube proviennent de smartphones.  En Corée, jusqu’à  50%,  (David Rippert, Google UK)

·    Twitter: 200 millions utilisateurs dans le monde, 40% des tweets concernent les programmes TV, (Dan Biddle, Twitter UK)

·    You Tube est le 2ème moteur de recherche dans le monde, (David Ripert, Google UK)

·    Les programmes les plus commenté sur les réseaux sociaux concernent : star, trash et splash ( Virginia Mouseler, The Wit)

·    "On apprend les choses en les faisant, donc osez de les faire" Asta Wellejus  encourage les femmes 

Birthright: the Palestinian - Israeli conflict presented as a transmedia romantic comedy

Birthright, Transmedia romantic comedy

Last year, during the festival Power to the Pixel I was intrigued by Birthright, the project of BoomGen Studios, pitched by Mahyad Tousi. 

They dare use the complicated and painful context of Palestinian - Israeli conflict and made a comedy out of it.  And they are right, as laughter is the most powerful weapon. In Poland, during the communist period, comic cabarets were the most wanted and watched shows. This year, the project was presented at the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (Fipa) in France.  

Birthright  is a romantic comedy and political satire told through two different points of view: the film is about a shy Jewish-American kid Sam Raskin who follows the girl of his dreams on a free trip to Israel, only to get lost in Palestine, and a graphic novel showing a young Jewish - American girl who returns to Israel as pro-Palestinian peace activist.

Birthrights uses the following platforms: theater movie, interactive graphic novel for mobile/tablet (Tear Gas in the Morning), web, print experience.

 

Graphic novel Tear Gas in the Morning

The comical story untitled Tear Gas in the Morning was written by a writer and artist Katie Miranda and is  based entirely on her own personal experience. 

The ambition behind this project is "to explore other political conflicts through the lens of classical and contemporary love stories".

Interview with Mahyad Tousi, CEO and co-founder of BoomGen Studios

Mahyad Tousi

Birthright is a transmedia comedy that shows Jewish-Palestinian conflict - which is quite amazing as a mix. Why did you chose this form, quite politicaly incorrect?

The power of storytelling is in its ability to break through stereotypes and preconceptions and to reveal humanity even in the most absurd and tragic of circumstances. Taking a light-hearted approach to a heated political issue in this case helps to relieve manufactured tension and help the audience to connect with the characters. At the same time, the beautiful thing about this type of cross platform narrative design is that the story no longer needs to be defined by genre or format. Birthright is neither just comedy, nor just fiction. The motion picture layer of the transmedia property, however, is a fiction comedy. 

What kind of audience do you want to touch with Birthright?

We believe that the project will have a young international audience. What's interesting about having a motion picture, graphic novel application, and a game element is that you touch very distinct niches in each area. Having said that, we expect our core audience will be progressive 18-36 year olds, and leaning female.  

The story is declined on multiple platforms such as an interactive graphic novel, a mobile game, and a feature comedy. From which platform did you start the project?

Creatively it started with a film script penned by Ari Issler and Ben Snyder that came to us. We started working with Ben and Ari in further developing the script. Then we took a step back and asked ourselves what is at the core of this story? What truth are we hoping to tap into? We looked for and created other story layers that would further enhance that core message, the core truth.  

It's a long-term project. What are the phases of its development?

Graphic Novel, Game, Motion Picture. 

What is your business model? As you debuted the Tear Gas Teaser application in front of a live audience equipped with Samsung Galaxy tablets, I suppose it's your official partner, isn't it?

Samsung is not an official partner. The teaser is available for download through the google play store for any android device that has a screen resolution of 1280x800. 

The business model is simple. By no longer confining ourselves to the limitations of form, (i.e. book, tv, film, etc.), we create opportunities for a story to exist in multiple forms. In this way we tell bigger and better stories, and touch multiple niche markets and revenue opportunities for our investors. I call it sustainable storytelling.

What are the next steps?

We're working on the Graphic Novel and casting the film. 

More information about Birthright on website: http://boomgenstudios.com/birthright

The Tear Gas Teaser application: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boomgen.teargas