Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age

Al Kennedy:  "I do care about everything I write, but dealing with a hugely loved character and 50 years of world-building – that felt different. Different in the sense of being horrifying and wonderful."

Jake Muncy:  "Open-world games leave players to their own devices, free to explore what amounts to an enormous sandbox with no boundaries and few rules."

Adam Rogers:  "The shared universe represents something rare in Hollywood: a new idea. It evolved from the narrative techniques not of auteur or blockbuster films but of comic books and TV, and porting that model over isn’t easy. It needs different kinds of writers and directors and a different way of looking at the structure of storytelling itself. Marvel prototyped the process; Lucasfilm is trying to industrialize it."

Richard Edwards:  "Ever wanted to know how Star Wars keeps all of the movies, comics, books and TV shows all in line with each other? Meet the story team" ...

Katharine Trendacosta:  "Whatever question you had after seeing the original movie? The shows answered them. Who built the Stargates? Why are there so many symbols on them? The evil alien pretending to be Ra, where did he come from? Are there other planets out there?"

Damian Wampler:  "Expanded and shared universes are all the rage. They’ve exploded, and even imploded, in the case of STAR WARS. But what have they got right, and where are they going wrong?"

James Whitbrook:  "When a franchise is around for four decades, it can get impossibly unwieldy to try and grasp its lore — and Star Wars canon is no exception. Here's a guide to the origins of Star Wars Canon, the rise and fall of one of the most prominent Expanded Universes in fiction, and where the saga stands with Disney today."

Ryan Gilmour:  "One of the most compelling developments in modern filmmaking is how evolving technologies influence the ways that artists express themselves" ...

Jeff Gomez:  "What Hollywood is learning from the blockbuster that stars a sitcom second banana, a pro wrestler, a walking tree and a talking raccoon" ...

"Taking the example of one of his transmedia productions, [Nuno Bernardo] beActive's CEO shares tips on how to create meaningful virtual worlds"

Esther Inglis-Arkell:  "Worldbuilding is a major challenge for science fiction creators -- building a plausible world from scratch involves thinking about lots of variables. But sometimes, to imagine the future, the best way is to look to the past. Classic literature can help you build a world more believably alien than anything you've yet imagined."

Chuck Wendig:  "[...] I wanted to take a look at the film for some of the storytelling lessons it offers — in this case, not negative lessons (of which you could find some, I’m sure), but rather, positive takeaways that might wet your mind whistle when it comes to thinking about your story or other stories or, I dunno, delicious enchiladas."

ABC Radio:  "Fans have long had a role in influencing and in some cases helping to shape the works of popular culture they adore. But when they get restless in the modern age, they now have the resources to take a piece of fiction and make it their own. Some content producers find that assertive approach threatening. But others, particularly in the gaming sector, have begun to embrace it."

Anne Zeiser:  "Just as Disney and Lucasfilm have orchestrated it, you must go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens to untangle all of its mysteries. But in the meantime, you can scour Star Wars-themed products on grocery shelves and retail stores to look for more clues."

Adam Rosenberg:  "Like many of the stories coming out in the run-up to The Force Awakens, Uprising exists in a strange place. There's 20 years of history separating Return of the Jedi from the December film, which is a lot of time for any one piece of fiction to cover."

Owen Duffy:  "The original card game has 20 million players worldwide. Now, its publishers are revisiting its leading characters’ origins in an effort to get bigger still" ...

David Zax:  "San Andreas director Brad Peyton talks about how a childhood rooted in imaginative play has helped him succeed in film."

Adrian Covert:  "Think Star Wars made most its money off the films? Think again!"

Charlie Jane Anders:  "Worldbuilding is the bedrock of science fiction and fantasy. We obsess about it constantly, because characters and plots are often only as compelling as the worlds they inhabit. We've decried bad worldbuilding before -- but what makes worldbuilding great?"

Lauren Davis:  "Earlier this month, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling released a short piece of prose that offered a quick look at Harry Potter and his Hogwarts classmates as adults. The response indicated that fans are still hungry for stories of the wizarding world—and perhaps it's time for someone other than Rowling to give it to them."

Karim Ahmad:  "Consider: your film exists in a storyworld. The time, the place, the characters; you’ve created all of it already. A community of stories, ready to be told. "