Online Content

Although I appreciate these blogs are finished academically, I have found it useful to use them occasionally to think a topic through inside my own head. Although I try to make all my thought perfectly legible and logical, this musing is primarily for myself, in order to get my head round the concepts of 360 commissioning and online content.

The first thing to note is that “online” content need not be particularly different from any other type of content. The internet is a medium like any other, and is versatile enough to handle almost any kind of content we wish to upload to it. (It surely cannot be many years before there is a tactile element added to the internet, where we are able to “touch” and “feel” objects with a sensory glove. When that is combined with virtual reality goggles, we will truly be into the cyber age. Virtual environments will become the norm, starting with gimmicks and pornography, before filtering though into general entertainment, and social networking and eventually working its way into virtual committee meetings, business meetings, retail, education, and government.).

So what sort of “online” content can be provided to accompany a TV show or feature film?

Firstly, there is no real difference between online and broadcast. So we would have the episodes available to watch or download, either at a cost or for free. A realistic business plan would probably look to have either the watch/download costing a certain amount of money, or the payment of a certain amount of money to subscribe to the service.

Secondly, we could have information in a text and picture format considering key aspects of the series: the characters, the locations and the wider environment.

Third, we can have extra audio-visual content: stories surrounding and giving new insight on the main TV story. These can range from a variation on the “deleted scene” to something a little more deliberate.

Fourth, we can have games relating to the show: everything from quizzes to retro platform-style games.

Fifth and finally, we can provide merchandise for sale.

Ultimately however, this will all prove nothing more than a mild diversion and window dressing for the audience. The most popular sites on the web are those which the audience contribute to. So we have Youtube, Flickr and Facebook, as well as sites such as fanfiction.com where the public try their hand at creative writing. We also have the escapist phenomenon known as Second Life, where people create an avatar to represent them, design it as they wish and let it inhabit a certain envorinment and interact with the other avatars.

So how can we incorporate audience content into our website without ever surrendering control of the story, the characters and the core content of the show?

Some elements work better than others. The best selling point of Facebook is the monopoly it has on the internet. This is the kind of site which only works if it is the only one. All competition, like MySpace, Bebo, Twitter, Friends Reunited and Google’s new network called “Buzz”, must be eliminated, preferably by the public simply abandoning these smaller networks. We all want to feel we are a part of a single global community and Facebook has a huge percentage of the global population as members, so setting up an alternative to Facebook is foolish. But we can work within the parameters set there: at the very least by establishing a Facebook group centred around our show and run in a semi-independent fashion by someone who appears to be a member of the public, and a huge fan, but is in actual fact, likely paid by the producers to keep the group active with continually changing content, updates, mailings and discussions.

Second Life is an intriguing one to emulate. Working best in a fantasy or sci-fi show, we can permit folk to create their own avatar which inhabits the world of the show. So to use my caveman premise, we can let the audience create their own caveman and explore the cave environment and interact with the other avatars they meet there. This is a massive thing to run and to keep interest up, so a games company would have to be drafted in to provide the interactive environment and provide continually new challenges for the gamer to overcome.

As long as it was strictly clear that we took no responsibility for the content uploaded, we could have a fan-fiction page available as part of the site, where users could upload their own stories about the characters and the environment. This has been very popular for many shows and films, especially Harry Potter (in the years when I used to peruse the site). Now Twilight has probably taken over as the top spot. But I have never seen this as a part of a film or show website. (Generally I have found the official websites to be very sparse in material and the fan-sites, to be bursting at the seams.)

The same could be applied to you tube and Flickr. Working within the confines of these sites, but embedded on pages in our own site, we could invite the public to upload their own material. We would moderate for relevance and appropriateness, but would have a huge disclaimer up about our lack of responsibility for the content.

We could of course have a message board with several threads for fans to gossip about the show: rumours of upcoming episodes, debate of motivations and characters in previous episodes. Again this would be moderated, but only for appropriate-ness. We would be committed to allowing all content derogatory to the show and all spoilers, as long as everyone was clear we had no responsibility over what was said.

So by the time we have implemented all of this, we have a very informative and interactive website, but the question of extra audio-visual material remains. What form should this take?

This either falls into the category of information, in which case it is simply a film, or it presents something interactive, which is a game. A game can incorporate film and remain a game. A film cannot incorporate gaming elements without becoming a game. The best games allow the user complete control, and a game which only allows a user very limited control is very frustrating. It feels like a very rubbish game and a very rubbish film at the same time.

I’m scratching my brains trying to come up with something that is an interactive film, but is not a game, and the best I can do is a short film with a message board underneath to debate the issue that arose, or to provide a three minute film and ask for the public to film their own sequels. The best will win a prize. This, crucially, can have no bearing on the characters, plot or environment of the main series. The closest it can come is if a character has left the series, and we know he or she is never going to return, they can be thrown to the dogs (I.e. the public) and the public can decide their fate.

Anyway, I could blether on for ages, but there we have it. Some thoughts on online content.