their feature characters), may flesh out aspects of the fictional world (as in the web
version of the Daily Planet published each week by DC comics during the run of its 52
series to "report" on the events occurring across its superhero universe), or may bridge
between events depicted in a series of sequels (as in the animated series - The Clone Wars
- which was aired on the Cartoon Network to bridge over a lapse in time between Star
Wars II and III). The extension may add a greater sense of realism to the fiction as a
whole (as occurs when fake documents and time lines were produced for the website
associated with The Blair Witch Project or in a different sense, the documentary films
and cd-roms produced by James Cameron to provide historical context for Titanic).
5. Transmedia storytelling practices may expand the potential market for a property by
creating different points of entry for different audience segments. So, for example,
Marvel produces comic books which tell the Spider-man story in ways that they think
will be particularly attractive to female (a romance comic, Mary Jane Loves Spiderman)
or younger readers (coloring book or picture book versions of the classic comicbook
stories ). Similarly, the strategy may work to draw viewers who are comfortable in a
particular medium to experiment with alternative media platforms (as in the development
of a Desperate Housewives game designed to attract older female consumers into
gaming).
6. Ideally, each individual episode must be accessible on its own terms even as it makes a
unique contribution to the narrative system as a whole. Game designer Neil Young
coined the term, "additive comprehension," to refer to the ways that each new texts adds a
new piece of information which forces us to revise our understanding of the fiction as a
whole. His example was the addition of an image of an origami unicorn to the director's
cut edition of Bladerunner, an element which raised questions about whether the
protagonist might be a replicant. Transmedia producers have found it difficult to achieve
the delicate balance between creating stories which make sense to first time viewers and
building in elements which enhance the experience of people reading across multiple
media.
7. Because transmedia storytelling requires a high degree of coordination across the
different media sectors, it has so far worked best either in independent projects where the
same artist shapes the story across all of the media involved or in projects where strong
collaboration (or co-creation) is encouraged across the different divisions of the same
company. Most media franchises, however, are governed not by co-creation (which
involves conceiving the property in transmedia terms from the outset) but rather licensing
(where the story originates in one media and subsequent media remain subordinate to the
original master text.)