Tuesday, October 2, 2007


PGA member Jeff Gomez (left) assembled a stellar panel to discuss the brave new world of trans-media production.

“Trans-media” may be a new term for many of us… but after this fascinating discussion, it became clear that the word will soon become part of any good producer’s vocabulary.

The 8 defining characteristics of a trans-media production (by Jeff Gomez):
1) Content is originated by one or a very few visionaries
2) Cross-media rollout is planned early in the life of the franchise
3) Content is distributed to three or more media platforms
4) Content is unique, adheres to platform-specific strengths, and is not repurposed from one platform to the next
5) Content is based on a single vision for the story world
6) Concerted effort is made to avoid fractures and schisms
7) Effort is vertical across company, third parties and licensees
8) Rollout features audience participatory elements, including:
- Web portal
- Social networking
- Story-guided user-generated content

Examples of contemporary trans-media properties include:
The Blair Witch Project
The Matrix
Hot Wheels: World Race / Acceleracers
Bionicle
Pokemon
Magic: The Gathering
Many Disney projects, including High School Musical, Pirates of theCaribbean, Fairies, Hannah Montana

After 2 hours we only began to scratch the surface of this unbelievably rich topic. We will continue the conversation right here, featuring in depth discussion of each of the 8 characteristics.
Greg Weinstein