Characteristics of Transmedia Storytelling

Transmedia Characteristics

• Liquid content that can be adapted to different media platforms
• Multiple levels of story depth to engage users differently
• Unified message across all media platforms
• A new way of storytelling that expands on traditional narratives

The Three Act Structure

• Act 1: Establish main characters, relationships, and world; inciting incident sets the story in motion
• First Turning Point: End of Act 1, where the protagonist commits to a goal
• Act 2: Rising action, obstacles, and conflicts
• Midpoint: Important event that doesn't change the story's direction
• Second Turning Point: Introduction to Act 3, the most intense part of the story
• Act 3: Resolution, climax, and final confrontation
• Denouement: Consequences of the story, how the characters' lives or world have changed

Dramatic Tools

• Action Knots: Narrative units with setup, development, and resolution
• Anagnorisis: Dramatic recognition of a character's identity
• Peripeteia: Obstacles and reversals, the strongest story event
• Model: A protagonist with a special talent but a weakness, combating an antagonist to achieve a goal

Writing Tips

• Daniel Cassany's advice: Look for ideas, organize, develop, put on paper, revise, adapt, and consider the audience
• Methods: Diary, maps, diagrams, brainstorming, exploring the subject, and the "star" method

Dramatic Premises

• Universal patterns: Present throughout history, helping to construct plots and characters
• Ronald Tobias' 20 Master Plots: Examples of universal patterns
• Estrategias del guion cinematográfico: Life is a dream, dramatized life, descent into hell
• La semilla inmortal: The Odissey, benefactor intruder, destroyer intruder, old and new, and double personality

Crossmedia, Multimedia, and Transmedia

• Crossmedia: One story, many channels, reaching different audiences
• Multimedia: One story, many forms, one channel
• Transmedia: One storyworld, many stories, many forms, many channels

Story Elements

• Foreshadowing and Payoff: Hinting at future events in the story
• Complication: Obstacles created by the protagonist for themselves
• Montage: A series of summarized actions, often with music

Character Development

• Character Arcs: Change in a character's inner nature, for better or worse
• DESIRE: What drives a character's choices, what they want
• MOTIVATION: Why a character wants what they want
• DIMENSION: Contradiction and conflict within a character
• SUPPORTING CHARACTERS: Helping to reveal the protagonist, part of the storyworld
• COMEDIC CHARACTERS: Blind obsession, objective, and desire

Dialogue

• Definition: Dramatic text to be expressed by one or several players
• THE FIVE FUNCTIONS OF DIALOGUE: Characterize, reveal inner information, establish conflict, exposition, and humor
• SUBTEXT: What is meant beneath what is being said