For this EMP’s transmedia story, the participants themselves are going to create the story, from brainstorming and through the exercises in the various forms of media. We’ll be following and creating this story all along the way, never knowing where it’s going to go since everyone is making up little bits and pieces and go along with it.
So here are the ideas that we generated in the exercise to create some of the 5 +1 W’s for our story, which we used to for the Setting (When and Where), Characters (Who), Initiating Event/The Problem (What), Goals (Why) and Conflict (How). Each person created two different elements based on these
STORY ELEMENTS EXERCISE
Basil:
Who: Zlatan
Why: Wants to be crowned King of the Solar System
Zharkyn:
What: Deadly storm in 50 minutes
How: Lack of communication (language or means of communication)
Teddy
Who #1: Newborn baby girl
Who #2: 100 year old man
Neha
Where and When: The Canada of our dreams in 2030
Why: A vision of a healthier and more peaceful life
Christopher
Why: They want an endless supply of high-quality coffee
How: They will do it in a bio-diesel powered VW
CATEGORIES
Now, putting the ideas into their respective categories allowed us to start forming how this story is going to unfold. Here’s how they looked placed into their categories:
Characters (Who)
Zlatan
Newborn baby girl
A 100 year old man
The Initiating Event or the Problem (What)
Deadly storm in 50 minutes
Setting (Where and When)
The Canada of our dreams in 2030
Goals (Why)
Wants to be crowned King of the Solar System
A vision of a healthier and more peaceful life
They want an endless supply of high-quality coffee
Conflict (How)
Lack of communication (language or means of communication)
They will do it in a bio-diesel powered VW
WHAT KIND OF CRAZY STORY IS THIS?
So we can see our eclectic mix of characters now: Zlatan, the 100 year old man and the newborn baby girl. We have a 2030 version of Canada as our setting and a deadly storm approaching to give us a definite timeframe. We also have three disparate goals including being crowned King of the Solar System, a vision of a healthier and peaceful life and an endless supply of coffee. Then we have the VW, which could almost become another character, and at least a way for the characters to get around, and a lack of communication to cause some friction and stress.
Now, these ideas beg some questions, such as:
- Why do a soccer player and an old man have a newborn baby?
- Does the story take place in 2030 or does that refer to something in the future or the past that they “dream” about?
- What is the deadly storm?
- Does the King of the Solar System refer to an actual ruler of outer space or is it a nickname or a title of some kind? Is it real or delusional?
- Is the coffee actually “endless” or is it proverbial?
- Is Zlatan the actual famous soccer player or someone else named that?
- Where do they need to get to?
- How will getting to their destination achieve their goals?
Not all of these questions need to be answered immediately, but throughout the course of the story, most of them should be answered in some way. Now, onto the next phase…