The relationship between films and games has to be more than financial, says VP of creative for Rockstar
Rockstar's vice president of creative Dan Houser has stated his belief that the ever-contentious concept of transmedia has to this day only been a failure.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Houser suggested that taking IP across a number of mediums is becoming tougher as consumers become more savvy and demanding in their tastes.
"No one has done it very successfully yet," insisted Houser. "Virtually all movies made from games are awful, while many games made from movies are also pretty horrible. This will change, but with an ever more discerning audience, the goals of taking something from film-to-games or game-to-film have to be more than financial."
Houser remains optimistic about transmedia, however, and argued that if a creator of a game or film has a faith that their product has potential in other mediums that is not directly related to making money, it could indeed work.
"Too often, however, the aim appears to be to cash-in on the success of a particular game, book, pop singer, website, etcetera, and that usually produces mediocre results," concluded Houser.
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The example in the article is not really transmedia. Transcending media is when one medium adds to the other medium's story. The media then become part of something bigger.
Simply releasing a movie based on a video game does not add anything to the existing video game. It's all about adding something to the experience in regards to depth of the story line.
http://dominic1978.com/blog/what-is-transmedia-heres-what-its-not/
To second Dominic, Dan Hauser doesn't seem to completely understand what transmedia is. In a transmedia story, the narrative and storyworld are carefully developed beforehand and the media the audience uses to experience them are deliberate, organic extensions of that story.
The misunderstanding, however, could be on The Hollywood Reporter's fault, however. The original interview question seems to take for granted that transmedia is merely exploiting a property cross-platform:
"Another hot topic these days is transmedia -- what are your thoughts on the role video games play today in launching new properties that span all sorts of entertainment?"
Either way, the idea that transmedia is simply exploiting content across multiple media has, almost literally, got the cart before the horse.
Here's an interview with Inga von Staden, who understands transmedia as well as anyone in the world:
http://www.nealromanek.com/i-ask-inga-von-staden-what-is-transmedia/
