Nearly a year ago now, I had in my mind the intention to further develop the crafting of story worlds through different platforms, and essentially using what can be called the transmedia method to try to create larger scale story premises that otherwise wouldn't have been easily achievable in a small scale project. The idea developed into the early stages of a book where I could create a long, detailed over arching plot to draw from and create alternative narrative threads from this central point. The ideas that formed the foundation and the theory behind this project were heavily informed by and acted as a continuation on from the dissertation I produced on transmedia storytelling. Through this module and the practical work I produced for it, I learnt a considerable amount regarding the nature of world building, and through the production process would constantly be documenting and expanding the fictional world through character back stories, and finding new ways to explore the stories of different characters and settings within a larger narrative.
It wasn't until I had written ten thousand words of my story that I had a full plot outline that I could say had a beginning, middle and end. Meanwhile, whilst this was being developed I was allocating my time to the creation and design of characters, backgrounds and original artworks to aid in the visual development of the world, scripts, and an animation. All of this work was being informed by a story bible that was being updated every time I had an idea or developments were made regarding the plot.
The successes of the project for me were mostly encompassed in the learning experiences brought about by sampling new ways of storytelling, both separately, and in combination with one another. Furthermore, a large amount of organisation to fuel each of the different artefacts I was working on meant that I got to experience the different roles of writer, producer and director, with each role I was undertaking during the planning and creation processes playing off the other in order to be more efficient and piece together the different components.
I learnt a large amount throughout the time spent on the project, in terms of the development of the practical elements, the design of the writing and plot, aspects of the story world that were being developed, communication with external figures and building cohesive story worlds through both practical and theoretical practices and the combination of the two. One of the biggest take away experiences from the project was the breadth of visualisation I managed to create both for the purpose of the animation, and importantly, setting the tone of the story. I attempted to illustrate as much as possible the depth and thought gone into the crafting of the different stories. This was not only a prerequisite for the production of the animation, but I made sure to include preliminary artwork to allow myself a much easier entry point into my own story, through the use of visuals as an aid. The inclusion of this practice made the writing process, and the theory crafting of different stories much easier. For example, I can experiment with various characters and scenes that may result in part of a graphic novel or by sketching out certain environments I can visualise scenes more easily when writing about them in a long form or short story.
Throughout this project, one of the most important assets that was consistently in development, and would continue to be in development is the story bible. This informed each individual outlet that I was working on and aside from the practicality of maintaining it throughout the duration for the project it also encouraged a time and story management aspect that made sure no important details were excluded. Furthermore, the story bible in my opinion does become its own document and artefact that could be reshaped and passed on to audience members or fellow creators with the possibility of expansion and further development of a story world.
At the time of submission, parts of the project remain incomplete and are not up to the standard I set out to accomplish by the deadline date. With that said, part of me understands that this project was an experiment in a number of ways from being the first long story I have attempted to write, the amount of details I attempted to plan and include in the story world was also quite heavy. Furthermore, the large amount of research produced to inform both the cultural implications and visual aspects of the stories told on different media outlets, was a large undertaking.
Once finished to a high standard, the project would be marketed as a type of expansive story world with separate marketable stories emerging through different platforms. The visual material would need to be consistent and this would be documented in the form of a transmedia or story bible, so that creators can pick it up and understand the rules and engagements that exist within the fictional universe of the project. Given the time and resources segments that I would really like to see come to fruition not just with this particular story but stories that I create like it in the future, is either a feature film or an episodic series that can expand on the moving, 'brought to life', visual elements more in the long format that I attempted with part of the novel.
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