Reading Response #7

1. The term “transmedia” refers to storytelling that uses many digital platforms to tell a single story. It is often used for promotional means, such as getting the audience involved to garner their attention and get them interested. They draw together a dedicated audience with cultural attractors and then give them something to do with cultural activators, such as games.

The term “origami unicorn” refers to any added element in a series of fiction that reopens up thought and debate about previous works in the series or franchise. It stems from a scene featured in the director’s cut of Blade Runner, in which character Deckard discovers an origami unicorn. This small detail caused viewers to question whether Deckard is a replicant, and thus the entire film could be seen in a different light. 

2. The website for the movie The Blair Witch Project can be seen as being very successful transmedia in terms of gathering audience attention through cultural attractors. The site gives every appearance of depicting real events while not explicitly addressing whether or not the story is real. It has a time line of events not featured in the movie that are relevant to the story, pictures of the filmmakers in the movie with captions such as “Heather and Josh editing a film class assignment a few weeks before embarking on the Blair Witch Project,” feeding into the fact that in the film and by all accounts of the website, they did not return from their trip. By giving the appearance of reality, the website captured the imagination of fans through the interest that is always paid to the unexplainable (UFO stories always gather attention, for example).

3. The Matrix franchise differs from those that use transmedia techniques purely for commercial means in that it defined a whole new type of synergy. Instead of forcing out endlessly simple and easily forgotten cross-promotion merchandise like plastic action figures and the like just to get attention quickly, The Matrix used licensing that mirrored what drew viewers to the original story in the first place. This was done through “co-creation,” which called for cooperation between the companies involved in the film’s creation and its distribution to ensure the creation of content that expands the points of the franchise and gives viewers new experiences.