New Ways of Telling Stories

Television and film executives are facing the fact that making a movie or a TV show is just the beginning — they need to engage viewers on multiple levels.

Take the CBS show Ghost Whisperer, in which Jennifer Love-Hewitt plays a small-town antique store owner who communicates with earthbound spirits. On the show’s Website you can watch clips and music videos, preview upcoming episodes, and see video blog posts from the producers. There are also exclusive “webisodes” separate from the show. Add to that a community message board, DVDs, books, and even mobile phone features. It’s the age of what’s called transmedia storytelling — the idea of narratives that stretch across multiple media platforms and tell a consistent story.

That’s one big topic that will be covered this weekend at a conference at MIT called Futures of Entertainment 3. Here to tell us more is Sam Ford, one of the conference organizers. He’s a research affiliate at the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT, and is director of customer insights at the New York-based strategic communications firm Peppercom, Inc.

Speaking of audiences using the Internet to influence the media they want to see, that can be seen in action in Brazil. A new Website being used there called MovieMobz allows cinema-goers to select which film they want to see and where. BBC Digital Planet's Michelle Martin visited an all-night screening in São Paulo to find out how movie buffs are joining forces to determine what will play at their local independent theater. Read more about MovieMobz.