Transmedia Storytelling

This class introduced me to a totally new medium of storytelling that I was altogether unaware of. I have never watched the complete first Matrix movie. I saw the trailers and caught part of it on television and it did look interesting - lots of action and special effects which I love - but I never had any real interest in seeing it. I just assumed that the content was benign and unrealistic so not a priority. If I had known that the actual production of the film was so involved, I think I would have been enticed to check it out. I love new, creative ideas in any form of media. The idea that this movie was designed to be as interactive as it is is mind blowing. It seems to me that it took a lot of planning and brainstorming to come up with the concept, and then a lot of focus to stay on story using so many different little stunts and mind tricks. I think this concept is doomed to be a niche idea though, because it requires so much intense effort. As we mentioned in class, Hollywood is all about money and a quick turnaround. No one would want to take the chance that the story wouldn't catch the top of the "Long Tail". Our new culture is all about fast turnover, and short attention spans. Deep thought in our culture has gone the way of the cassette and eight-track. When I look at television, or a movie, I am always annoyed that the new stories and plots are so weak and shallow. I am not the most cultured person in the world, far from it, but I am old enough to remember that in order to have a media project of any type accepted for distribution in the past, it had to have some sort of relevant content. People used to like to have to figure out a plot without special effect or shock content. People used to love to be challenged, but not insulted by some writer who thinks his audience is so stupid that they have to be shown every little disgusting detail of a given story. Nothing is left to the imagination anymore. I am such a fan of the old Perry Mason television shows. They had a murder every night, but you didn't have to see a gory body, or hear the degrading of the English language with unnecessary profanity or toilet talk. Why is nothing that has to do with the body no longer personal? Why is sex (not romance) the main focus of the new writers? Why do the new singers have to have big production gimmicks and nudity to sing a song? I guess I am just stuck in the past, but like my friend Alfred Wolf Woesten - a gifted jazz trombonist, composer and symphonic arranger - I lament the thought that my children will never know what true talent is because they have never been exposed to it. They will never know how to appreciate a beautiful melody, or heartfelt lyric. They will never understand how "old folks" can be so content to just sit and listen to a great tune that is simple and nice and has no gimmicks involved. But, I digress. Transmedia storytelling is a fabulous idea and it will live a long time, but I'm afraid that the audience will always be those who want to interact with it, and can appreciate it for what it took to create it, and not by those who are too shallow to conceive of such a thing.