Jeff Gomez

CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment

Storyworlds: The New Transmedia Business Paradigm
23 minutes, 10.6mb, recorded 2010-02-23
Jeff Gomez

You probably know about the success of the storyworlds of Avatar, Tron, and maybe even Magic the Gathering, but have you noticed what they have in common? They were all developed using an emerging process called transmedia. Jeff Gomez explains how you can design a consistent narrative for these storyworlds that spans many platforms. That's the new transmedia way; to design a storyworld from scratch with a plan that unfolds the story over different media. A transmedia producer works with teams of publishers and authors to manifest different interconnected storylines over different platforms.

Jeff distinguishes transmedia from the old school way of telling a story: a movie or book comes out, followed by the release of a game or toy “tie in.” In his opinion, this offers a pale imitation, a mere reminder of the primary experience of the “original” story. In the old paradigm, the original story has a fortress around it, The best that other media can hope to do is reflect it, without detracting from the original experience. 

Transmedia, on the other hand, is a process of first creating a mythological universe, a storyworld, where new stories are told, not just re-told or adapted. The aim of transmedia is to uniquely exploit the media platforms used by each piece of the narrative. A “storyworld” deserves a serious systematic approach. It requires a certain grand vision in order to paint a fictional world using a diverse pallet of media technologies over a longer time. According to Jeff, the combination of a strong narrative using multiple platforms gives room for fans to light torches and claim ownership over their favorite parts of the storyworld. In his experience, this intensifies the fan's loyalty and maximizes their engagement.


Jeff Gomez is a transmedia storytelling expert and a cross-platform strategic planner and producer. He is President & Chief Executive Officer of Starlight Runner Entertainment and a board member of the Producers Guild of America. The Producers Guild has recently recognized a new role, that of Transmedia Producer. Mr. Gomez started out by earning a BA in Film Studies and Communication Arts & Sciences from Queens College, CUNY.

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