Professor Henry Jenkins joined us last night as the speaker for the 511 seminar. He presented a thought-provoking discussion-based version of his The Revenge of the Origami Unicorn: Seven Principles of Transmedia Storytelling lecture. (Part 1) (Part 2)
Professor Jenkin’s Intro and Backchannel transcript can be found after the jump.
Introduction:
Henry Jenkins describes himself as “prolific as hell.” What more is there to say? As the prime mover behind the burgeoning study of participatory culture, as the founder and former head of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, as a director of Project New Media Literacies, and in untold other capacities, Henry Jenkins continues to be “prolific as hell.” Currently, Henry is a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts shared between the Annenberg School for Communication and our own School of Cinematic Arts.
Backchannel Transcript:
‹Teddy› http://www.henryjenkins.org/
‹Katara› Digipen? More like Digisucks
‹KylaG› I guess that means we beat out Carnegie Mellon, too.
‹emily› http://henryjenkins.org/2010/01/announcing_transmedia_hollywoo.html
‹Jeremy› Yep. Though I don’t think CMU really has a Game Design undergrad program. Undergrads can take Jesse Schell’s game design class, which is excellent, but there’s not much else for them.
‹notbatman› did they do any ranking of the grad programs?
‹Teddy› http://mirrorsedge.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/grimage1.jpg
‹Teddy› Star Wars in Soul Caliber
‹Jeremy› I’ve so wanted to see a production of both Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guldenstern at the same time. :0
‹Jeremy›
‹Querl Dox› There was a theater here in LA who did it in rep a season or two ago, I beleive.
‹ndef› That is such a cool idea.
‹Querl Dox› Actually, just closed. Google “The Porters of Hellsgate”
‹Jeremy› Ironic. I can’t believe I just missed it. That’s something I’ve wanted to see since about 1992.
‹Teddy› http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Macbeth
‹Teddy› http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1928/1199428667739lb3.jpg
‹Jeremy› Terrible image quality, but I have this if anyone wants to see it: http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superman-books/173-1.jpg
‹Jeremy› better: http://i35.tinypic.com/2ch2jqa.gif
‹notbatman› the mario bros movie was awesome. there is nothing wrong with it. it’s a perfect movie
‹KylaG› Oh really?
‹KylaG› http://cardboardmonocle.com/blog/fxsuits/goomba.jpg
‹notbatman› are you trying to prove that mario bros was a great movie
‹notbatman› with great casting and an excellent plot?
‹KylaG› Something like that.
‹notbatman› http://files.nintendic.com/nintendo-ds/smbmovie01.jpg
‹Jeremy› http://www.ken-tucky.com/LEGO/WORKS/97100e.html – Ghibli Legos
‹Jeremy› more http://www.ken-tucky.com/LEGO/WORKS/0103e.html
‹Jeremy› scroll down
‹KylaG› Awesome.
‹Querl Dox› That is all sorts of awesome.
‹Teddy› The Scarlet Pimpernel named the LOL
‹Querl Dox› I loved that atmospheric ceiling in the lower picture. Too many of them have disappeared from theatres.
‹Querl Dox› http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/hemanbig1.jpg
‹ndef› http://www.sequentialtart.com/images/0907/rtod_2_full.jpg
‹ndef› Sorry — bad timing.
‹ndef› http://the-adventurers-club.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/22/buffy_the_comic2.jpg
‹leroy› alternate Masters of the Universe: http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s255/gallery1988sf/He-Man/JasonHernandezIAmTheMasteroftheUniv.jpg
‹KylaG› Hahaha.
‹Querl Dox› Extending Avatar into programming:
‹Querl Dox› http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=46905675faa24faeb59e201341cce45a&w=900.0
‹Jeremy› Very nice
‹Jeremy› Does anyone know the name of the famous renaissance painting of a large gallery full of paintings. I remember it being an interesting transmedia work, but I can’t remember much else.
‹Querl Dox› http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace_Denslow
‹ndef› Fictional franchises: http://elothtes.pbworks.com/
‹KylaG› http://www.fanfiction.net/movie/Avatar/
‹JoeOsborn› I find the tie between this worldmaking referred to earlier and procedural content interesting. Dwarf Fortress contains the codified procedures of a fantasy world of the Adams brothers’ making, for instance.
‹JoeOsborn› Some content creators make a broad swath of content or a Silmarillion or whatever, but the computer lets us define the underlying rules that can generate those kinds of stories.
‹JoeOsborn› Er, define and execute.
‹KylaG› I’m not sure a system like that is useful though, without at least some examples.
‹KylaG› Because you may know what a system *can* create, but it doesn’t necessarily show you what it *does* create.
‹JoeOsborn› And DF is constrained heavily by the assumptions of its creators regarding the behavioral instincts of dwarfs, elves, humans, squirrels, zombie elephants…
‹JoeOsborn› Oh, i see — well, the examples are playthroughs, right?
‹KylaG› Yeah, that’s what I mean.
‹ndef› And I would argue that world building is (extremely) important, but it’s not as important as storytelling — characters, conflict, narrative arc, catharsis, empathy.
‹JoeOsborn› Importantly, you can even send your generated world to somebody else (it’s a mere file), and they can add to your instance of the universe
‹KylaG› Like, if I was looking at the “worlds of Dwarf Fortress,” I wouldn’t get a good sense just from the generation tools.
‹JoeOsborn› Our life has those things without an authoritative storyteller; there’s no reason DF can’t contain them (and it does, in fact).
‹KylaG› I do agree though, that it’s really cool.
‹KylaG› And an interesting idea.
‹Jeremy› The movie Max is pretty much about Hitler as a transmedia artist.
‹JoeOsborn› Or at least, it emerges them. Yeah, it’s curious — game systems as metamedia, I guess.
‹JoeOsborn› Also important to note that ‘game’ is used here as shorthand for ‘executable bundle of processes/data’, not game in the sense of a game that we usually play on that software/hardware platform
‹JoeOsborn› IOW, there is an infinity of games you can play with the software application ‘dwarf fortress’ or ‘simcity’ or ‘mario bros’ or whatever
‹JoeOsborn› Personal goals, etc. OK, I’ll drop it now <_<
‹Jeremy› http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle
‹KylaG› http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8EA7EbFX4k
‹KylaG› Thoughts – casting of Gyllenhaal (or however you spell it) as the Prince: worse or better than casting of The Last Airbender?
‹Jeremy› As a freshman in highschool, I agreed with that opinion of Dickens.
‹Jeremy› It would’ve been nice if ANY of the main characters were Persian.
‹JoeOsborn› It’s fine, they have some tan makeup
‹KylaG› The woman looks somewhat vaguely ethnic.
‹JoeOsborn› right? right?
‹JoeOsborn› we’ll fix it inpost
‹JoeOsborn› *in post
‹KylaG› Apparently Gylenhal was too good for tan makeup.
‹JoeOsborn› I wish they had just used Jordan Mechner’s brother in pajamas
‹Jeremy› http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2605345/
‹KylaG› Okay, nm.
‹Jeremy› Not very Persian
‹KylaG› At least she got tan makeup.
‹KylaG› Unlike Gyllenhaal, who’s so white it’s blinding.
‹KylaG› Even in the trailer.
‹Jeremy› http://kotaku.com/5069676/prince-of-persia-inspired-by-jordan-mechners-kid-brother 100% Awesome!
‹She-Ra› It’s just like the Airbender movie, when it’s so apparent that Sokka and Katara and the only two white people in their Inuit village
‹KylaG› It’s a little disconcerting just to watch, actually.
‹Jeremy› Just noticed that there’s a Winterbottom review on that Mechner page.
‹KylaG› Sweet/
‹KylaG› I found that X-Men pic larger, if anyone cares to see:
‹KylaG› http://www.uncannyxmen.net/images/article/relationship/relationshipmapv1_files/gif_1.gif
‹KylaG› Aw man, we missed a slide about Yahtzee/Zero Punctuation?