Watchmen is considered one of the greatest comic book stories of all-time. Published as a 12-part maxi-series by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 it's still hailed as a masterpiece of sequential storytelling. Now finally after years of attempts to adapt the series into a feature film comic geeks prayers have been answered as it makes its big screen debut on March 3, 2009.Writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins created a world layered with the grime of deceit and dirty little secrets of the tortured lives of has-been superheroes. In a George Orwellian landscape the story unfolds as a murder mystery and delves into the gray areas of what made these characters choose the lives they've led, what brought them together and what broke them apart.
Now, with the upcoming Watchmen movie release, elements of transmedia storytelling has surfaced this past week in the form of THE NEW FRONTIERSMAN, a new web site with chronological blog entries featuring photographic evidence, documents, and videos presented as breaking news. Each blog entry uncovers evidence of the the existence of the governmental program that created the super-powered being known as Manhattan as seen in the this video below.
1Tim Street asked, "Does Hollywood Get Social Media? Have you seen any Social Media Marketing campaigns from Hollywood studios that you think were successes?" Tim shared the video above in his post which inspired me to write this post because I think these Hollywood producers and marketers do get it. As part of a viral marketing campaign to promote the movie, The New Frontiersman is getting social on Twitter, Friendfeed, YouTube, Flickr and Digg and has created the Watchmen widget below to share on Watchmen fan sites.As with each of the social networks The New Frontiersman is sharing updates on each of these networks allowing for comments and conversation. While this online marketing effort is not at a level of LG15 Universe, which incorporates social media audience participation into the storyline, it's still an interesting application of transmedia storytelling by using our current social media networks to extend the narrative across mediums.
Related posts:
- Larry Kless's Weblog: Transmedia Storytelling and the Future of Entertainment
- NewTeeVee Live Panel: Bridging the Gap Between TV and Web « NewTeeVee
- ScribeMedia.Org: Social Entertainment: The Art of Building Communities and Engaging Viewers
- ScribeMedia.Org: Can Social Networks Be An Advertising Medium?
- The Global Couch: EMBRACE THE TRANSMEDIA APPROACH!
