Thursday, November 7, 2013

Star Wars!

Transmedia Storytelling allows for brands to become larger and tell their stories through multiple platforms. I'm going to talk about Star Wars and how as feature film can turn into a cult classic and then have so many entertaining project project off of it. The story unfolds "across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole."

Jenkins talks about how Umberto Eco argues that a work must be a, "completely furnished world so that its fans can quote characters and episodes as if they were aspects of the private sectarian world." He also states that the work must be, "encyclopedic, containing a rich array of information that can be drilled, practiced, and mastered by devoted consumers." These films can provide resources that consumers can construct their own fantasies.



Star Wars was first released in 1977 and as can be expected, many big names and companies immediately wanted to be a part of the phenomenon. This is where the transmedia part kicks in. "A year later, the novel Splinter of the Mind’s eye was written by long time sci-fi writer Alan Dean Foster. Brian Daley would go on to write the Han Solo Adventures in 1979, and the radio drama adaptations of the films in 1981. Marvel comics decided they wanted a cut and created a line of comic books based on the characters, and taking place between the films. Those comics ran from the opening of Star Wars to 1987." All of these media tie-ins were there own separate stories and helped support the big core project films. The franchise made its biggest transmedia jump when the films prequel trilogy was coming out.  "With the build-up to Episode 1, the expanded universe as it came to be called, went into overdrive. The film had more tie-ins than any other film before it. And since 1999, hundreds of books, comic books, dozens of video games, and even a television show have been produced in the Star Wars universe"


With the new Star Wars film expect to see tons of video games, and side projects to come out before the new movie hits the screens. They are already announcing open cast auditions which is insane for such a big project. And with so many fans making there own trailers and movie posters it is interesting that people can really develop into this world of Star Wars because the franchise made this fictional world so big that people just go into it and make it a reality.


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