Last week (Wednesday 22nd June 2011) Vision+Media were delighted to host Conker Media for Bridging the Platform Gap, the first in a series of seminars exploring best practice in cross platform development.
Bridging the Platform Gap focused on the themes of storytelling across platforms, the challenges of audience engagement and production funding for content on new and emerging platforms, and the opportunities presented by collaboration, through a series of case studies from Conker Media’s back-catalogue.
Conker Media is the digital production arm of Lime Pictures (Hollyoaks, The Only Way is Essex, etc.), who specialise in the creation of multi-layered experiences across TV, online, mobile and social media. Their previous projects include e4.com-exclusive mini-series Hollyoaks: The Morning After The Night Before, Proper Messy by Jonathan Larkin for BBC Switch, and award-winning interactive thriller The Well written by Melvin Burgess.
Conker Media has developed an innovative approach to multi-platform storytelling whereby the ‘events’, as the team likes to refer to them, are writer driven and audience focussed: Top class writing talent is engaged at the very start of a project and encouraged to fully explore fractured narratives that would lend themselves to working on different platforms, both interlaced and possibly also in isolation. The challenge here is accepting that audiences may first experience the event from different entry points but to guide them through the narrative seamlessly.
Another consideration that has to be taken into account with storytelling across multiple platforms is that the audience should not be made to feel that they are being punished for not also engaging with the story online, or through social media, for example. On the flip-side however, those that do follow the story on a secondary platform need to be rewarded in some way. A good example of this is in The Well: After each episode of the TV drama, online games were unlocked which, when completed, revealed additional back-story content enabling this audience to get one step ahead of the TV drama.
Additional, outside of broadcast, video content is by no means a new thing: VHS tapes and DVDs attached to soaps such as Brookside and Hollyoaks have successfully been sold at retail in the past, however these have always been supported with the financial backing of distributor partners. With free-to-view online video content available in the form of Hollyoaks: The Morning After The Night Before, a new funding model was required. In this case Conker Media partnered with the Home Office to support their Alcohol: Know Your Limits campaign by making the message of the public service campaign central to the development of the characters in the narrative. This enabled Conker Media to secure the production funding directly from the Home Office.
What I personally believe makes the Conker Media projects a success is that, whilst there is often a primary platform – typically TV – the secondary platforms are given just as much focus as a crucial element in the overall multiplatform experience. In fact as much of the production budget is spent on the development of the online facets as on the TV production, it was revealed. In order to maintain the high quality of the non-TV aspects of any event, Conker Media have been working with collaborative partners in specialist disciplines such as CGI and games. To return to the example of The Well, two design agencies were appointed to bring the online experience to life; Milky Tea built a replica online environment of the TV drama set and Splinter created the gaming elements.
Conker Media is now expanding its multiplatform model in the form of The Digital Fiction Factory; a creative partnership between the BBC and Conker Media that will continue to create and publish digital fiction events with storytelling at its core. In response to briefs from broadcast partners, the Digital Fiction Factory team will identify top class writing talent to work with to develop a story across a bespoke multiplatform model. Critical to the success of previous Conker Media projects and therefore to The Digital Fiction Factory will be a strong network of collaborative partners specialising in areas such as online and mobile development, social media and even live events to fully realise the project.
Anybody that believes that they can contribute towards the success of The Digital Fiction Factory is invited to join The Digital Fiction Factory creative network on LinkedIn.
For further details please contact Nick Hanson, Digital Producer [email protected]
A number of events will be held across the North of England from September 2011 to discuss specific briefs and to invite applications. In the meantime further information about the project can be downloaded from the sidebar.
