When looking into the concept of narrative across a range of mediums, I found a helpful paper by Michael Beeson entitled Cross-Media Narrative (2005). He made some very encouraging comments on the topic.
“By relying on a single medium, the artist may be neglecting aspects of his or her world which the chosen medium cannot easily depict, but which another medium may be perfectly suited to. By using several media, the artist allows the audience to explore much more fully the story world and for it to become more real.” (Beeson, 2005)
“…by referencing another piece which the reader hasn’t experienced, you’re advertising it and increasing the chances that the reader will try to track the other piece down.”
(Beeson, 2005)
This last comment I particularly liked. It lead me to create relationships between the mediums, for instance, passwords would be given out in some mediums that had to be used in others. Beeson also gave me some tips on how to create a good cross-media narrative.
“The make-up of the story, from specific events to a character’s deepest feelings, can be interpreted in a variety of ways. It may be wise, before narrating a story to consider which medium to use. … Also, each medium leads the audience in a different way, and the choice of medium should reflect the sensation the artist wishes to provoke. … The audience’s prejudices should be taken into account as well… and can be challenged or played to.”
(Beeson, 2005)
I had already intended on planning what parts of the story would be shown where but this made me see that is was necessary to do so.
“… it can be very frustrating if you are unable to keep up with the plot because you didn’t see the other episodes.”
(Beeson, 2005)
For this reason, I found it helpful that I was using a range of mediums. I decided to show important plotlines on different mediums so people had more of a chance of seeing them. This can be seen on my system diagram. Beeson also made reference to the accessibility of the pieces. Parts of the story that are not as easy to find are not necessarily a bad thing.
“… the inaccessibility of the different pieces of work can add to the sense of achievement and understanding of the viewer/reader who manages to experience them all. ... a greater understanding is rewarded to the viewer is competent enough, not only at deciphering the different pieces of work but at tracking them down.”
(Beeson, 2005)
Although I read this comment before finalising my concept, it made me glad I was using Semacode websites. With these, people would actually have to find them in the city and use their phone to access the information. I think this adds to the fun of it as well as the sense of achievement of finding something and using it. However, as part of the main website, I made sure people knew about the other mediums that are part of the system so they know what to look out for.
Beeson also warned about the dangers of creating such a narrative.
“The reader and storyteller need to be well versed (and in the case of the reader, be interested) in the languages of the medium being used. By using several media, the storyteller is at risk of diminishing his potential audience, as well as stretching his or her own abilities.”
(Beeson, 2005)
I wasn’t so worried about the first point in this quote. If people don’t feel comfortable with or don’t like a certain medium, they are not forced to use it with my system. As mentioned before, I tried to make it so that the important points cross over certain mediums and I think using several mediums increases an audience, not diminishes it.
With regard to his second point about testing ability, I had planned to ask someone, perhaps and illustration student or graduate, to do the drawings and art work for me. However, I felt this was too big a risk. This is my degree and if someone doesn’t pull his or her weight it jeopardizes my final outcome. I also didn’t want anyone to get confused as to who did what in my project. So I decided to do the work myself, which would test but improve my abilities.
An example of how a cross media narrative has been used in the commercial world is the Audi A3. The campaign was called Art of the Heist. Audi’s director of marketing, Stephen Berkov, wanted to come up with a new way to get the Audi A3 message across to their main target consumers – young and wealthy individuals who want to stay on top of the latest trends. They managed to pull it off using their ad agency (McKinney Silver), Campfire (a viral marketing company) and a complicated, mysterious whodunit lasting three months. The plot was about two agents – Nisha and Ian – trying to prevent the biggest art theft in history, the plans for which were held in secure digital memory cards planted in some Audi A3s.
The makers of this phoney heist grabbed people’s attention at the New York International Auto show. Instead of the Audi A3 on display, there was a sign implying that the car had in fact been stolen. It asked anyone who knew anything about the theft to phone the number on the sign. On the other end of this phone call was a voicemail directing the callers to a website to type their message, but this website was password protected. However, this was evaded by clicking on ‘password’ giving them the feeling that they were hacking into a system. It was as if the consumers themselves were the detectives in this odd occurrence.
The ‘system’ they ‘hacked into’ held the private files of Nisha and Ian, things like e-mails, files and personal photos. None of these things added much to the plotline, but it gave them background information and created a more believable story and gripped the viewers.
“The next thing you know, you’re 40 minutes into this and you’re in way too deep to pull out.”
(Monello, 2006)
The story expanded into other media forms such as television, print and other websites and blogs. Even real world events were included in the marketing. Readers saw ads in classifieds that ran in different American cities every few weeks and, after a background check, they could help find the thieves.
This high cost campaign really worked as it made people talk about it and made Audi even more of a household name. They sold “75% more dealership leads than on any previous model” (Sacks, 2006). This kind of narrative works because of the sense of mystery and suspense it holds over the audience, along with actual partaking and exploration of the story. This would not have happened with unoriginal, static billboards and television ads.
You can see more about this here
Marie Laurie Ryan looked at narrative from many perspectives in her book Narrative across media; the languages of storytelling. One was an existential point of view.
“The act of narrating enables humans to deal with time, destiny and mortality; to create and project identities; and to situating themselves as embodied individuals in a world populated by similarly embodied subjects.”
(Ryan, 2004, p2)
Another view she explained was the cognitive view.
“…to notice objects or events in our perceptual environment is to construct embyronic stories about them.”
(Ryan, 2004, p2)
I found this quite inspiring. Narrative is an important part of life.
Ryan also made reference to Joshua Meyrowitz who said:
“What are the relatively fixed features of each means of communicating and how do these features make the medium physically, psychologically and socially different from other media…”
(Meyrowitz, 1994)
This made me think of things like where would people follow a story, what physical aspects of mediums alter the way in which information can be discovered (e.g. no mouse with a mobile phone) and the size of the information shown to fit. Psychologically, what state of mind would they be in when using the medium, what would they be expecting? And socially, how are the mediums used - in groups or individually? How can they be shared and what things can be shown that socially acceptable?
Ryan also references Marshall McLuhan who had a similar important point for my project.
"The medium detemines the modes of perception and the matrix of assumptions within which objectives are set."
(McLuhan, 1996)