Current events

What is transmedia content?

Transmedia content will lead to a change in both industry and independent art as it entails starting a story on a specific medium, such as television, and continuing it on other supports, such as the Net, a blog, a game, and so on. Until now, the same story could be developed independently and without any kind of relationship on different supports: first a book, then a film, and then a game. Now a story is created that is developed integrated on multiple platforms.

In one of your sessions at BCN Meeting, you gave the game called The Hunt as an example.

In effect, it's a game aimed at the sales department of the CISCO multinational. The aim was to aid ICT learning to then integrate it in their day-to-day work, and they decided to do it through a thriller. The Hunt, a filmed story, placed CISCO employees at the centre of the plot: they could e-mail the characters and get a reply in their mailbox. The characters also communicated using Facebook and Twitter, and they even asked the employees for help in achieving their objectives.

It seems like transmedia content and generally everything created to be consumed on technology platforms always end up having a game format with levels, etc.

It's true that at present most stories have been conspiracies, horror stories, battles, etc. But the reason for that is economic. When you've invested a lot of money, you aim to reach as big a public as possible and this type of story appeals to the great majority of the potential public. But it's true that we need stories to reach different targets and that we need to find financing alternatives that make creating content for smaller audiences more viable.

How could a conventional novelist explore the transmedia world?

They could, for example, create real virtual identities for their fictional characters. They could have a blog, a Facebook and Twitter account, a website... It would be content that would help enrich, specify and expand the vision-experience that the readers have of them.

What, then, are the main challenges facing transmedia content for it to become more widespread?

There are a number of obstacles that have to be overcome. On the one hand, professionals specialising in a specific media do not show any genuine interest in creation based on other platforms. Which means that film-makers don't want to know anything about the Net, and so on. On the other hand, transmedia content designers have to create experiences that are better at pulling in an audience from one medium to another to follow the story. At present, only heavy user gamers move from one platform to another. And finally, industry has to become better informed about what transmedia are to be able to identify a good project with good judgement and take a risk on it.

To conclude, how do you see the maturity of transmedia in Barcelona?

I have to say that the specialists in Barcelona have a very good level and that the knowledge, passion and imagination exist for transmedia content production to have a good chance.