FTV Project 1: Discussing The Transmedia Franchise

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In the film and television studies unit of this course, we have been discussing the transmedia franchise. A key part of the transmedia franchise is brand extension. If your original text is a success, fans can be hungry for more content. Producing more creative content in a different medium allows you to potentially expand your audience, as well as allowing the corporation that produced the original text to diversify their revenue streams, as we have discussed in lecture.
For this project, you will take all of what you’ve learned thus far about film and television and use that knowledge to come up with an idea for your own text that engages in transmedia brand extension and deals in some way with drug use or abuse. This means you will find an original text, preferably one you are very familiar with, and imagine extending that text into another medium (so, making a Twin Peaks film that tells a new story, for example, because Twin Peaks’s original text is a television show).
You may choose an original text that is a book, graphic novel, comic, podcast, video game, film, or television show. The text you propose could be a feature film (generally 90-120 minutes, exhibited in cinemas or OTT) or a television show (half hour comedy or reality show, or hour-long drama; broadcast, cable, premium, or OTT)—but it *must* be in a different medium from your original text. We will go over medium specificity in lecture—be sure to refer to your notes for this project, but at minimum be aware that broadcast television shows and OTT shows are both considered television shows, and TV and OTT movies and films that show in theaters are all considered films for the purposes of this assignment.
Because this is not a project that asks you to actually create the text that you brainstorm, your ideas are not limited by expense or time. You are still limited by your own knowledge, though—be sure to choose an original text and a medium with which you are quite familiar.
What you’ll need to turn in is a truncated pitch of your ideas that does the following:
Paragraph 1
clearly identifies and briefly describes the original property you are extending (including its medium),
gives a 1 sentence, high-level description of your text (genre, character, basic conflict),
Paragraph 2
goes on to provide a more detailed description of your proposed text, including character(s), genre, and a skeleton outline of major plot points, including how the text deals with drug use or abuse (you don’t want to detail the entire story – give an overview with enough detail to intrigue, but not overwhelm, the reader),
identifies and discusses how your text builds off of the original text while also clearly doing something new and different,
Paragraph 3
reflects upon the ways in which your text engages with current events and/or cultural anxieties (why will this text be relevant to viewers today?),
specifies where people will be able to watch the text (cinema, broadcast channel, cable channel, premium channel, OTT service),
discusses why the medium is a good fit in terms of medium specificity (why did you choose your particular medium – what can it allow you to do with the text, and why is that important?),
Paragraph 4
identifies the audience for your text and what they would specifically find appealing about the text and why,
and clearly explains how/why your text will have commercial appeal (why would someone give you money to make this? how, specifically, is it going to generate money?).
Your idea must be your own. Do not copy the ideas from your discussion section or a real film or tv show. Doing so will earn a failing grade. Proper grammar and style are expected. Meet with your TA or go to the COM Writing Center if you expect problems or have questions.
Make sure to cite any sources you look at to find information on audience, or the network or service through which people will be able to watch your text if it is on television or an OTT platform. Sources like Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, or Entertainment Weekly might be helpful, as might Wikipedia. You wouldn’t do this in a normal pitch, but we want to see the work you have done. Cite the source in text (i.e., According to Variety) and include a list of links at the end of the paper. Links do not count toward page length.
Length and format: Pitches must be 2-3 pages, double-spaced (no less than 2 pages, no more than 3), using double-spaced Times New Roman 12 pt font and 1” margins. Papers that do not use correct formatting will be penalized; papers that do not meet the minimum length requirements will earn a D or lower; papers that exceed the maximum will be similarly penalized.
Due date: due at the start of lecture on Thursday, 2/22, hardcopy
In a nutshell: write a 2-3 pg proposal for a transmedia brand extension. Extend an existing brand, such as Twin Peaks, into another medium.
Grading Criteria
Generally speaking, project 1 is assessed using the following grading criteria:
A-range:
superior work that
is clearly written and well-organized,
follows the paragraph guidelines on the previous page to clearly articulate each required component,
and meets the formatting and length requirements for the assignment.