Bart Nuyens

Transmedia Storytelling: A Micro-Level Case Study in Poetics

Royal Institute for Theatre, Film and Sound (Erasmus University College Brussels), Belgium

My paper delves into the specific challenges writers face in developing transmedia narratives and teaching the associated writing skills. The interaction between platforms in a transmedia story functions as a form of conversation or dialogue, with each medium responding to and contributing to the development of the overarching narrative. Despite the seminal work by Jenkins on Transmedia Storytelling, a significant body of literature exists without yielding clear answers on what precisely constitutes a successful transmedia narrative and how creators can best navigate this storytelling approach. As Ryan (2017, p.39) aptly notes, while transmedia franchises are prolific, “the art of orchestrating documents representing various media for a unified narrative experience remains to be mastered.”

In the European audiovisual sector, transmedia concepts operate on a smaller scale compared to their Anglo-American counterparts in terms of both narrative scope and budgets (Renger, 2020). This unique context provides an opportune environment for examining the creative practice of transmedia storytelling at a micro level. To achieve this, I scrutinize a writing workshop led by Flemish transmedia producer Bram Renders, relating it to his own creative approach. Renders successfully adapted the Norwegian web series Skam (2015-2017) into the transmedia experience wtFOCK (2018-2023), which, in certain aspects, surpassed the original. In collaboration and dialogue with undergraduate students in our writing program, Renders explored poetic and esthetic strategies for compelling transmedia projects aligned with their media consumption habits. The workshop emphasized a transmedia approach from the start, investigating the dynamics between native and extended transmedia. I evaluate the methodology and findings of this workshop, comparing them to the creative and narrative strategies employed in wtFOCK, as well as relevant secondary literature on the creative practice of transmedia storytelling. The outcomes not only provide insights into creative processes at the micro level but also offer suggestions for didactic approaches to Transmedia Storytelling in art schools, prompting further questions for future exploration.

Bart Nuyens is researcher at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Film and Sound (Erasmus University College Brussels), where he teaches narratology and essay writing, and coaches undergraduate and master’s students in their final projects. He is a member of the Writing Department’s research group studying recent developments in film and TV dramaturgy. His work has explored the cultural implications of TV series co-productions and their adaptations, narrative complexity, and collaborative authorship. His current research focuses on complexity in Transmedia Storytelling and the teaching of these narrative forms. He is co-editor of the special issue on seriality of the Journal of Literary and Intermedial Crossings (2023). He has also published on the impact of film on the writings of Flemish authors from the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde.