Research Paper on Transmedia Storytelling: New Way of Communicating in the 21st Century

Introduction

Transmedia is the art that emerged in the 21st century as storytelling and interacting narrative (Moloney, 2011). Through commercial communications, transmedia storytelling has dominated the market with more fabulous followers and fans becoming interested and pampered by the trending product. Transmedia is a media platform that offers fans with an arena to participate, immerse, and understand the movie content to a greater extent. It is, therefore, a new method of storytelling in the 21st century that gets fans talking and discussing the product. One of the profound achievements is the participatory experience that the fans gain through the transmedia encounter and usage. Fans explore more about the product and get to understand the content of the movie, such as the characters and the storyline. The saturated audience creates the growth of the product. Transmedia has, therefore, been defined as the branding of the various narratives experiences that come to existence through the social media platforms hence engaging the fans and get them to contribute to the understanding of the product content.

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Story

Money Heist is a movie that involves stealing millions and millions of monies from the Bank. Eight thieves assume hostages and lock themselves on the Royal Mint of Spain (Sachwani, 2019). Through the directions given by the professor, the masterminds of all plans, they manipulate the police and their systems to execute the projects. The police are unable to rack them since they are using a high-level technology that is not easily understood. The movie is divided into thirteen episodes, and in episode one, the professor recruits seven criminals to execute the grand heist plan in the Royal Mint of Spain Sachwani, 2019). In episode two, the professor meets the hostage negotiator named Raguel. The professor gains insight on how to perform the grand heist.

Episode three is followed by the policing, and after seeing the face of the robbers, Raguel becomes suspicious that the gentleman she met at the bar could be the person behind the entire criminal plans (Netflix, 2020). One of the mistakes the criminals made was to make life during the plans against the first rules of the game that there was no lovemaking. As a result, in episode 4, Raquel experiences a personal crisis with the ex, and in the preceding episode, undercover police sneak with the medical team, allowed in by the thieves. As the condition of Monica gets worse, the professor celebrates it. However, in episode seven, the professor gets into a severe risk of being exposed to the police (Netflix, 2020). In the thirteenth episode, the thieves compel the hostages to either take freedom or money.

Money Heist attracted an all-time 7.4 million customers between January and March 2018, and it is expected to attract more customers between March and June 2020 when the other series will be released (Puentes, 2020). Through the movie, Netflix has gained unprecedented growth worldwide using live streaming. Money Heist became the top performer with 60% stock in the S&P 500 2018 (Puentes, 2020).

In transmedia, the narrator gives the fans increased experience rationally and emotionally. Transmedia expresses a single idea in many different ways s that those who participate gain multiple encoding of the same purpose. The initiative reinforces the consumers' impact and makes the idea more effective. Different channels, a non-linear brand initiative, emerges where several channels communicate the self-contained elements of the movies or intended brand differently hence creating a more extensive brand in the entire world (Munoz, 2016). What was small with fewer fans at the beginning gain higher viewers and generated brand and knowledge communities with a greater understanding of the product elements. As a result, the fans become obsessed with the brand from a community to individual levels of engagement. In this regard, transmedia provides an excellent opportunity to tell the story about the movie and engage the audience through participatory experience, and highly interactive encounter.

Suitable Transmedia Tools

There are several social media platforms through which the money heist movie can be aired, and the viewers get to understand more about the movie content. Through the various transmedia tools, the video can get transmitted, and the fan can watch as well as share their thoughts, expressions hence participating in the understanding of the content.

Social Networking Platforms

Social networking platforms have gained prevalence over the past decades, and in the 21st century, many people are using them for socializing. Such social networking platforms include Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Flickr, among others. According to Forbes (2016), social media platforms are suitable marketing tools that also advance and contribute to the storyline. Social media platforms attract a higher percentage of customers, media marketers, and media makers. Hence, media platforms create smart brands that interest audiences to distribute, pronate, and produce the content as they deem fit for their consumption. The Netflix promotional campaign aired through the Twitter account got 34,355,956 people watching during the first week after the release (Sachwani, 2019).

The social media platforms overcome the challenges of one-way communication that is encountered in the traditional media platforms such as TVs, art, and radio (Paiano et al., 2017). Since social media platforms allow the customers to speak their minds without any fear, it becomes easy and plausible to get timely feedback without any bias. Besides, social networking sites allow customers from many parts of the works and geographic set yup to interact and socialize hence targeting the world over fans. The number of people that can be reached is not limited to the location or time, and this makes it possible for a single decision to gain worldwide attention within a short duration of time. The requirements are very few, with the audience requiring only to have data bundles and either a laptop or a smartphone. In the 2qst century, almost every person has a smartphone, and this makes it possible and cheap to use social media platforms. Hence the platform is inexpensive and allows a wide range of people to use it with less cost.

Due to its appropriateness, cost-effective, and the full range of customers that the platform attracts, the Money Heist movie story will be transmitted through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The social networking sites will provide the customers with a platform to comment, share posts a discussion about their exciting and intriguing points of the movie.

Video-Sharing Platforms

There are several video sharing platforms through which the movie can be shared, and people get to watch at their convenience. Customers widely use Video-sharing platforms, such as Vimeo and YouTube. The likes and the views that a product receives are used to gauge the amount of audience that is actively watching. Hence, the owner can get to understand the extent to which the product is liked, enjoyed, and attractive to the fans.

For instance, YouTube gives the audience an option to like or dislike; hence with the number that disliked versus the number of the liked, one can gauge how much the clients were satisfied with the product. The highest liked and viewed video becomes the highest in terms of trending and moat watched in their entire world. It also offers a platform where the fans can leave their comments, creating a thread. Any other fan can also read and comment hence contributing to the development of the thread and the storyline. The fans are free to make comments on whatever was exciting and the characters that had the highest contribution, among many other things.

Video Game

Video games create their autonomous entity and experience that accompany properties that feature the movie content (Ecenbarger, 2016). Video games have gained popularity in the wake of technological development. Money Heist can utilize the video games tool to gain transmedia experience. The advantage of video games is that they allow the audience to experience a sense of experience by having an encounter with the character. Although it displays content that is inherent in the movie itself, the audience who have watched the series in other tools can also still find video games to be engaging and exciting.

Besides, video games offer unique content suitable for children and young adults who can not access other social media platforms and video sharing sites. Hence, the children can also watch the movie in a version that is easy for them to understand and comprehend. The challenging part of video games is that people might feel bored when watching. Hence, the Money Heist series will be transmitted through video games to allow young children to view the story and create an immersive and engaging experience.

The Website

Websites are suitable because they cover a wide range of content on-page. The user has the option to navigate the entire site and view whatever content is appropriate. The official website on which the Money Heist movie will be watched is Netflix. Netflix is an online platform that allows customers to view the video with some little amount of subscription. Although it can be costly to invest in the subscriptions, the user gets to enjoy a variety of movies rather than the one of interest. The site offers a selection of videos that the user can select from and enjoy. Besides, the official website keeps updating the subscribers about the upcoming releases in the future hence allowing people to prepare adequately.

The site provides a one - on - one contact and interaction between the producer and the user, thus giving time for appropriate feedback suitable for changes that suit the customers. Other sites will get the movie content from the Netflix official site and will hence gain access to the second-hand movie. An official website provides a first-hand, credible movie content that is not distorted. Such experience offers the audience the best and authentic participation. In this regard, the user enjoys more benefits than can be achieved in any other transmedia platform available.

In this regard, the use of Netflix will be an appropriate and effective media tool that will attract a vast number of people. The clients will enjoy the many benefits while the company will as well gain the encountered benefit.

Comic Books.

A video can be put in writing and the expressions depicted through stylistic devices such as smiles. A book contributes to the transmedia storytelling in that many people get to read and understand further the storyline. However, reading does not express either the emotion, problem, event, thought, or the topic through an image, statement, sound, or writing. But a book has to undergo a thorough review to be published, and even after publication, people can still provide reports about their contention. As stated by Gurel and Tigli (2014), storytelling is an expression of the emotion and general aspects of the product through writing, among other elements. In a book, storytelling is advanced through the reviews that people who read the book give in the online platform such as Amazon, among others.

Event

Events have good precedence in the past, being highly effective in gathering many people. In the past, Netflix organized an event the character named La Casa de Papel got people talking when the promotion campaign was first launched into the market. The series has become the most brilliant storytelling in the world. The event was organized in the airport where it was streamed live using big screens where people could watch even from a distance. Experimental marketing...