WATCH

CHAPTERS

   Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER

Additive comprehension

Which art form was relied on to create the universe of The Martix?

What are two main critiques voiced about The Martix franchise?

Which term describes the way new pieces of a transmedia story force us to revise our understanding of the story as a whole?

Jenkins, H. (2008) Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide. U.S.A. New York: New York University Press.

Nielsen. Better Together: Examining the Incremental Utility of Cross-Media Campaigns, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2014, from: http://www.indiewire.com/article/5-elements-of-transmedia-storytelling-in-infographic-form

The Martix. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 28, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix

Brand Recall is 74% based on 4  screens.

How did the creators of The Matrix play the transmedia game?

READ

Find out how screen-based media influence brand recall.

GLOSSARY

CREATIVE TEAM

Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling

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Hop on the transmedia express! Follow stories across mediums and step into a complex fictional world.

Facts & Figures

Practice

Test your knowledge by answering these questions about Chapter 3.

The art of world-making.

That it requires consumers to spend too much time putting the pieces of the story together, not being able to fully understand each work separately, and that its fragmented, open for interpretation plot points to the collapse of storytelling

Why do media corporations have economic motives to create transmedia stories?

The flow of content across multiple platforms is made inevitable by media convergence. Today’s media corporations have strong economic motives for creating stories and products that capitalize on this trend, integrating entertainment content with marketing and strengthening consumers’ emotional bonds to make additional sales. The ultimate manifestation of this strategy is transmedia storytelling in which a story unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each part of it being distinctive and valuable to the story as a whole. More and more, such complex stories rely on the art of world making, as their elaborate history, mythology, environments and characters cannot be contained within one work or medium. A prime example of entertainment created for the age of media convergence is The Matrix franchise.   

The Matrix (1999) is the first out of three science-fiction action films revolving around Neo, a computer programmer who discovers that reality, as humans perceive it, is nothing but a simulated system created by machines to subdue the human population. The futuristic film taps to contemporary themes such as multiculturalism, social dissent, fear of technology and spirituality. After the successful release of the first film, the complex world of The Matrix was offered to fans through a variety of entry points; starting with a few Web comics to sustain the buzz, then a series of short anime films titled The Animatrix (2003) prior to release of the second film, followed by the double launch of the film The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and the computer game Enter the Matrix (2003), and bringing the franchise to a whole, the last film in the trilogy The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and the multiplayer online game The Matrix Online (2004). Each part built on what came before, and each offered new information, new mysteries and a new way for fans to interact with the story.

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The financial success and popularity of the franchise cannot be debated, yet it did attract much criticism and was deemed by many an unsuccessful transmedia experiment. A recurring critique about The Matrix is that it relies too much on additive comprehension; it requires consumers to spend much time putting the pieces of the story together, not to mention the financial requirements of gaining access to several media platforms and products. Yet, the complexity of the story and its many entry points do seem to be very appealing to fans, particularly the younger generation. Many consumers now expect popular culture to offer opportunities to explore complex worlds and share their notes with others in online communities. Ideally, critics argue, transmedia stories should offer such possibilities, but also allow audiences to consume each part of the story separately.

Film critics further voiced their concern that films such as The Matrix with their non-liner, fragmented, open for interpretation plots point to the collapse of storytelling. However, much like unrealized concerns about the end of traditional media in favor of new media types, stories are basic to all human cultures and they are here to stay – it is their structures, delivery forms and models of authorship that evolve over time. Chapter 4 delves more deeply into the issue of authorship in participatory culture, where fans’ alternative narratives supplement and reshape big media franchises.

THE AUTHOR & THE BOOK

Brand Recall is 50% based on tv alone. 

Consumers’ engagement with content through multiple media improves brand recall and creates stronger emotional bonds with the brand, which make consumers more committed, involved and  likely to make related purchases.

They first released the film to stimulate interest, followed by more niche products for the hardcore fans, and then released the following films back to back alongside video games, to surf the waves of the franchise’s success.

LITERATURE