The past week I have had chance to experience a few transmedia
experiences. What they are called or
billed as is as fluid as their content, use of technology and, alas, quality of
all of the above.
The Lincoln Film Society has a program called, Convergence:
Immersive Media at Lincoln Center. Currently the program features Futuremate a hybrid
live performance, film and interactive game experience. Billed as a wickedly funny satire about life,
love and the modern surveillance state, I had a hard time immersing myself. Partially to blame for that was of course the
fact that any “mating” game in NYC will have to deal with the skewed 2:1 female
male ratio. Parts of the experience felt forced, video elements where poorly
produced and although the script had its moments it was all a bit too over the
top for my taste. I felt like an outsider watching with (more or less) interest
a not so great theatrical performance with many gimmicks and I was certainly
not immersed. I think a much better experience could have
been had with better actors and certainly a better balanced audience. It’s
the age old issue, and I’ve been there myself, where people with great ideas
and a great script are not necessarily great directors or actors. This just a hunch...
The Tribeca Film Festival had two
floors of Storyscapes
as part of their Innovation Week. The projects in Storyscapes
incorporated virtual reality, live performance, 3D graphics, music and
gesture-based gaming and they were all participatory. In addition to the five finalist featured
there were quite a few other immersive or transmedia experiences. All of this,
by the way, fueled by massive amounts of Sapphire Bombay Gin to which I fell
prey the first visit and no popcorn in the world could keep up with the gin.
