Multi Platform Content Course Apply Before 19 May

We are well underway now with Australia’s (and possibly the world’s) first Multi Platform Content Graduate Certificate. AFTRS is also offering the same, even more turbo charged course for the 2nd half of this year (16 weeks part time starting July 12). This post looks at the course thus far with some student example, gives links in how to apply and more detail from the main AFTRS site at the bottom.

Note: This post was cross posted from the course’s Transmedia Design blog

Tell me about the current course

This course was created out of strong demand from both industry and students internally wanting to develop beyond traditional linear and learn about cross media design and production. Starting in February of this year it was the first time AFTRS has run such a dedicated transmedia design award course and it has borrowed a lot of learning from the 5 year presence of the LAMP initiative in the school for the content.

Without burying too deep in the detail here are some high level snapshots of what the nine students half way through the first course have been doing on Mon and Weds evenings (6.15-9.30pm) and (once every 3 weeks or so) a weekend incubator:

• Face to face expert seminars, workshops and one-to-one training across business, service design & production, communities, distribution and storytelling techniques, technical insights, mobile/arg/virtual worlds/open social/TV/brand extensions – the list goes on.
• Completing a range of challenging and detailed assignments including: audience research and analysis, design and service trends, story with linked business concepts, funding submissions, cross briefing of campaign ideas, game concepts etc:
• Immersing themselves in three weekend incubators individually and in teams developing a) A multi platform, social media advertising campaign b) A transmedia TV extension or wrapper (more below) c) A technical prototype of a brand new game or social media mashup (more below)
• Planning their main production for the course and learning about the treatment, functional and design spec and business planning behind their unique, individually original project which will be investor/funding presentation ready.

Who has taught so far on this Course?

Amazingly in the first three months they have been instructed and lectured to by some of Australia’s top multi platform producers and thinkers:

• Sam Doust – Senior Producer, ABC Innovation, teaching service design and tech. Leader at the ABCTV innovation team
• Kelly Chapman – Transmedia Producer and Director of KCDC productions, teaching about the business and production of transmedia content. Producer of Spooks, Emmerdale and Lost property extensions as well as feature films
• Jennifer Wilson - Director of The Project Factory & Chair Mobile Industry Australia, specialising in mobile, client and business and industry trends thinking
• Martin Walsh – Head of Digital Marketing IBM, teaching about self distribution, measurement and monitoring and social media. Previously Head of Digital at Microsoft and keynote speaker recently at SPAA
• Jim Shomos - Forgettherules.com on episodic storytelling, generating business, creating at the edge
• Laurel Papworth – Social Network Strategist & Marketing Magazine’s Head of Social Media Industry Australia, teaching online communities and social media campaigns
• Lisa Gray - Head of Multi Platform Content at The Feds, about client relationships, creative briefs and marketing
• Katherine Blashki - Director of Research and Education at AFTRS, about transmedia storytelling
• Catherine Gleeson - Head of Platform09 Design and AFTRS Foundation, showing case studies in transmedia design process
• Nathan Anderson – MD of Envelop Entertainment and AFTRS Masters Candidate in Transmedia, new forms of storytelling and game theory
• Gary Hayes - CCO of MUVEDesign and Course Coordinator / Lecturer Multi Platform at AFTRS, teaching almost everything but focus on transmedia design, virtual worlds, augmented reality, trends and social media. Previously 8 yrs Senior Dev Producer at BBC, Director of LAMP@AFTRS and Head Virtual Worlds at The Project Factory

“AFTRS is looking for creative people who want to extend their skills to producing 360 degree entertainment. A multi platform strategy is now an essential part of any pitch to broadcasters, funding bodies or investors and this course will give you the tools you need to do this. If you have skills as a content creator in the broadcast industries or are a filmmaker, writer or producer this course is designed to leverage your skills into the multi platform world.”

Why do this Course?

• Learn about the key technologies used to facilitate multi platform content and where it is going in the future
• Initiate, document, pitch and prototype an innovative multi platform project
• Extend professional skills in audience focused content creation
• Study in an engaging environment that is responsive to student needs
• Learn about technical specifications, information architecture and how to work productively with developers and designers
• Enhance your opportunities to work in the industry as a member of the core creative team
• Explore the potential to extend story across platforms using new entertainment formats
• Design participatory services that provide a role for audience to play
• Learn about new business models, Web 2.0, social networking and emerging multi platform entertainment formats

Something from the students?

All students have set-up word press blogs and other CMS’s as well as simple html sites and even create a simple game world in Unity – most came with basic web skills but have hopefully been given the confidence to take control of the distribution of their ideas and implement much more of the backend themselves. A few students are blogging openly about the course and here is Monica and Luci on two recent pieces of AFTRS Multi Platform work.

Monica is capturing some of the work she is doing on her external blogspot site “Notes on Multi Platform“. She is tracking some of the evening sessions with myself and guest lecturers such as a great post on “Finding Your Audience“- based on Kelly Chapman’s talk as part of Multi Platform Business. The last weekend incubator was to actually realise a small prototype as part of a much bigger proposition. So we had great examples & concepts of locative and marker augmented reality, drupal communities, flash games, wordpress blogs etc: Monica and her team member Tali decided to go a slightly tricky route (for non programmers) and try a mashup. Although aware of the issues of coding multiple services together using APIs – Monica and Tali focused on the key need for the service then built a simple live on the web prototype. Monica writes on her World Wise post:

For you to be able to imagine our application we developed some bits: an RSS to search only in specific feeds, TweetBlender: a WordPress plugin, a Flicker widget, etc. The idea is for this application to be used in a searchable interactive interface which will allow citizens, journalists and activists, to find relevant human rights information in ways in which they can contribute, either by becoming more informed or more involved and able to donate time, energy and money to a cause. The result is here http://transmediadesign.org/hera/ but I don’t know for how long, so I took a few screenshots:

Luci is capturing some of her ideas on her existing blogspot site which itself is a great resource for DIY filmmakers “Yet Another Struggling Writer (& Indie Filmmaker)” – her recent post was on the second incubator project that the students teamed up for which was to design a localised TV transmedia project for the show “V”. Jennifer Wilson and I made sure that all students really thought hard about the reasons for the service and of course how to grow ‘relevant’ community and audience. In other incubators they developed completely original ideas but for this one it is important they develop their ‘multi platform’ adaptation skills and other students looked at transmedia extensions to existing linear properties including Madmen, East West 101, Being Erica & ABC News. Read Luci’s in-depth service design post here and as an intro she writes

My team (myself, Jane Arandelovic and Alex Bathur) identified a common problem for the local TV networks that screen overseas content here in Australia after the US air date. The audience most likely to become fans tend to seek these shows out online or on DVD prior to the Australian broadcast. For networks, such as Channel Nine, the problem of securing audience loyalty to their channel, when the same content is available online through someone else, is similar to the question of how filmmakers can turn file-sharers into loyal purchasers. We used the television show “V” as an example. This is a sci-fi series that began screening episodes in the US last November, while it wasn’t till March 2010 that it broadcast in Australia. Our goal was to increase ratings of the show on Channel Nine despite the delayed broadcast. We took the position that we were standing in late 2009 trying to work out how to win over viewers (rather than mid way through the series as it is now).

Wanna Apply?

So if you are Sydney based and want to be instructed by some of the top professionals in this neck of the woods, develop your own transmedia ideas and be ready for the industry as it moves towards multi platform, multi screen, multi form distribution, then sign up for the course.

There are a range of pages about the course on the main AFTRS site but to get lots more info, express interest and provisionally apply here are some links:

1. To apply straight away, register on the AFTRS portal first by going here
2. To see more high level stuff about the course go to Graduate Certificate in Multi Platform Content
3. To read a more detailed page that lists course structure, outcomes and modules etc: go to Multi Platform Content Award Course Detail

If you would like more personalised information about this course please email Peter Giles as your first port of call

Tags: ABC, ABCTV, advertising, AFTRS, application, architecture, AUDIENCE, Australia, backend, BBC, Catherine Gleeson - Head, Chair, Channel, Chapman, CMS, Community, Distribution, Education, Emmerdale, entertainment, ENVIRONMENT, Explore, Factory, feature film, February, Flicker, Foundation, Game, Gary Hayes, Gary Hayes - CCO, generating, Initiate, innovation, Jennifer Wilson, Jim Shomos - Forgettherules, Katherine Blashki - Director, KCDC, Kelly, lamp, Laurel Papworth - Social, leader, Learn, Lisa Gray - Head, Magazine, marketing, Martin Walsh - Head, MMO, Mobile, Multi, MUVEDesign, Nathan Anderson - MD, networking, online, Peter Giles, platform, producer, producers, Production, Project, proposition, research, Senior, something, SPAA, storytelling, strategist, Struggling, Television, transmedia, TweetBlender, Virtual Worlds, Wise, Wordpress

Related posts

• Mastering Multi Platform Content (5)
• Study Multiplatform and Games Virtual Worlds at AFTRS (0)
• Mentors Finalised for LAMP VII: Story of the Future (0)
• Speaking Transmedian – Kelly Chapman at SPAA (3)
• Open Source, Social Collaboration Tools – Next State of Play Seminar (0)