In this interview with Redazione Subvertising, Jeff Gomez talks about the Arab Spring, sits on the Game of Thrones, and parses out Alternate Reality Games.
We have seen an increase of storytelling platforms for emerging countries or countries where censorship is strong and do not allow people express them. Although this is not really transmedia, it is storytelling. Why should any producer or advertiser be interested in those events?
All of us must be interested in such events for two vital reasons:
1) when the walls of censorship crumble and fall, then the audiences for our stories increase vastly. There are new markets, new participants, and new possibilities, and
2) even more importantly, we will get access to new perspectives, new sensibilities, new influences and new stories. So we will become a richer and even more connected people. It’s win-win!
On Bloomberg News, Jeff Gomez points out Disney’s historic first use of the entire Marvel Universe in the marketing of the upcoming Avengers film.
“Disney is leveraging its assets in such an exciting way across multiple platforms,” said Jeff Gomez, founder of Starlight Runner Entertainment, which consults with companies on online strategies. “Our tracking indicates it’s been highly effective. They’re going to reap rewards.”
Starlight Runner Entertainment is happy to announce its collaborative work on Activision ‘Men in Black: Alien Crisis’, led by Transmedia Producer Steele Filipek.
To create a completely authentic “Men in Black” world and tone, Activision aligned with Jeff Gomez and Mark S. Pensavalle’s Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc. to create the story and script of the upcoming videogame. Starlight Runner was selected by Sony Pictures to work in concert with the filmmakers to provide a single voice to the “Men in Black” universe with the upcoming film and related properties.
Forbes’s Michael Humphrey speaks with Jeff Gomez about ‘Prometheus,’ ‘Mass Effect 3,’ and their audiences.
The days of creating story lines in an ivory tower and delivering them to the masses are numbered. Perhaps it will survive in certain genres. But not in those that expect invested, large-scale audiences in the age of Social Media, says Jeff Gomez, founder of Starlight Runner Entertainment.
To understand this, he says, look at two recent examples on either side of the spectrum — the revolt over the ending of the video game “Mass Effect 3” and the viral marketing campaign for would-be summer blockbuster “Prometheus.”
Gomez has no investment in either the game or the movie. (He has worked with the studio behind “Prometheus,” 20th Century Fox, on the movie “Avatar.”) But as one of the important architects of transmedia –defined as the extension of stories across multiple platforms — he has been watching both properties relate to their audiences in very different ways…
Meant to be Seen goes medieval for Battle Castle in part 2 of their interview with Caitlin Burns.
You mentioned a video game component to Battle Castle. How did you use video games as an educational tool?
We knew that Battle Castle is more than a TV Series and that the research and history of these castles would be able to fill more than six hours of television – we wanted to give the audience several ways to explore the world of Battle Castle.
Knowing that there is a lot of really great history and stories, the browser-based and tablet compatible Masters of Constantinople is a fictional tale that allows the player to learn about the castles as well as dive deeper into Medieval history. This compliments the episodes and allows audiences (in Canada and abroad) to weave their way through history and enter into the Battle Castle.
The Future of Story is the topic of discussion in this video interview between Starlight Runner CEO Jeff Gomez and Milan Business Television. Clips from the recent event Meet the Media Guru are interspersed.
Caitlin Burns speaks to Meant to Be Seen, a 3-D Production Blog, on Starlight Runner’s work with Avatar, Tron, and Battle Castle.
It’s easy to assume that when you watch a movie like Avatar or Tron Legacy, there is a central story to follow, and that’s it. Is there more to this storytelling than meets the eye? Please elaborate.
The story is key. It’s fairly simple to understand, the strongest narratives for this kind of work have broad story worlds, so not only is there the story you see for 90 minutes onscreen, there is a past, present and future in this world. There is a richness to the narrative that understands that when someone is out of the audience’s field of vision, they have stories of their own. There are a variety of places where these characters have been before a player picks up a controller and guides them through a story.
Simon Pulman and Jeff Gomez contribute their first article to AdAge magazine, about the innovative use of transmedia techniques in Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’ marketing campaign.
The internet is abuzz over director Ridley Scott’s forthcoming film “Prometheus.” A trailer that debuted at the pop culture event Wondercon in Anaheim, Calif. racked up around 3 million views in less than two days.
In concert with the movie’s traditional marketing effort, which includes the trailer, Scott and 20th Century Fox have pursued a second, more innovative path to publicity. It began unexpectedly at this year’s TED conference, with a presentation by entrepreneur Peter Weyland, who powerfully articulated the challenges facing a society beginning to question its own nature in the face of rapidly advancing technology. Weyland’s talk was one of the highlights of the conference of presentations by thought leaders. The twist, of course, is that Weyland isn’t real. He’s a character from “Prometheus,” played by Guy Pearce, and he was speaking from the year 2023!…
Join Starlight Runner’s Caitlin Burns at KR8V.Asia’s CXO Day on April 6th in Kuala Lumpur where she will be speaking about transmedia.
Jeff Gomez is interviewed by X Media Lab on his inspiration and creativity. This Friday, Jeff will be speaking to digital entrepreneurs at XML Bath in the UK.
1. Where do you find your inspiration for ideas?
I’ve had the great fortune of working with many extraordinarily talented people, in Hollywood, the gaming industry, in education, and especially with my own team at Starlight Runner, hugely inspiring. But my greatest inspiration comes from my interaction with children. Often it seems I have enormously complicated thoughts and emotions, concepts fly through my head that feel impossible to communicate. But then I watch and listen to kids who have not yet developed filters or emotional dampeners. They see and express life simply and directly, and there’s so much truth in this communication. Truly striking when you think about it. That’s how I finally learned to convey the complexities of transmedia narrative. More importantly, it’s what inspires me to persist and think my way out of problems in the face of what sometimes has been enormous adversity.
