Transmedia

The term ‘transmedia’ is often associated with the theory of intermediality and this idea that within media texts, there is room for intertextual references that can relate back to the original content, furthermore creating a deferred narrative through different media texts, this can be a story from a book being continued in a film and then being carried on in a game (Storsul and Krumsvik, 2013). Jenkins describes transmedia as a form of storytelling, each medium does what it does best – so that a story might be introduced as a film, expanded through television, novels and comics (Storsul and Krumsvik, 2013, p.177).

An example of transmedia in motion, is Arkham. Arkham Asylum a fictional place that resides within Gotham, fans are well acquainted with this institute for it’s a place the main protagonist Batman and many of his antagonists from Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and the most known villain Joker has visited on many occasions. The first sign of intertextuality is the asylum itself, it has been seen in many comics from Batman: The Last Arkham, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, Black Orchid, Arkham Reborn, Batman: The Man Who Laughs to even Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, were readers learn of the origins of the asylum but has then gone on to be the title of the series of games Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight. Arkham Asylum is also referenced in a huge amount of the Batman related films; from Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and many other films.

Arkham Asylum in film

In this case the mediation of the video game, is the series of comics that were created after its release, the series Batman: Arkham Asylum links the plots from the first game and the sequel Arkham City. By doing this, the story is being continued on another platform, allowing fans to see more of what happened in the space between these two stories.

Arkham Asylum in game

When playing the video game, fans are physically engaging in what Batman can do; the weapons he uses in fights, the moves he can do, the fans can choose whether he does the side missions or carries on with the main game. The achievements that are won after creating records or reaching a certain score is also rewarding for the fans and I can say this as an active acafan of this series. Now that there is a comic book series created around the game, the fans won’t be physically active in the consumption, in the way they were when playing the game but by reading their consumption is still active.

Bibliography:

Storsul, T. and Krumsvik, A. (2013). Media innovations. Göteborg: NORDICOM.

Wikipedia, (2015). Arkham Asylum. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkham_Asylum#Origins [Accessed 17 May 2015].

Gender in subcultures and fandom:

Within society there are objects that have been gendered, like Action Man for boys and Barbie for girls, aftershave for males and perfume for females, boxers for men and frilly knickers for women, however in this modern society were more and more people are openly breaking the gender binaries, these social ideals are slowly being broken as androgynous males begin to perform femininity and androgynous females perform masculinity.  On the other hand it’s not only down to individuals who are breaking the gender roles, no, there are cisgendered females who still perform femininity yet play video games likewise with cisgendered males who perform masculinity yet watch My Little Pony.

The lines are blurred between Bronies and Furries..

In the article Of ponies and men: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the Brony fandom, Robertson talks about the negative outlook on this male dominated group, with this assumption that there is something sick, wrong, or ‘creepy’ about the way that Bronies subvert expectations surrounding gender, age, and the consumption of media (Robertson. V, 2013, p:27) .

Cartoons are targeted specifically for their target audiences, which are generally children and preteens because of this audience are able to relate to the storylines and characters. On the other hand certain cartoons that are targeted for these age groups have jokes that are aimed at adults or even contain intertextual references that a child would not understand. For an example in one particular episode of Regular Show they paid homage to the opening sequence of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion by creating a similar title sequence using a montage of clips of the shows main characters, to a child it’s nothing more than a montage of clips but to an young adult or someone who has consumed this product they would make the connection.

The Ponies

Knowing that the audience relate to the text, it seems taboo that men enjoying and relating to a show aimed at girls, as is the case with Bronies (Robertson. V, 2013, p:27), makes you ask yourself, what does a grown man have in common with a group of adolescent ponies. In the documentary Bronies, one Brony talks about how he has learnt from the stories, as in episode there is always a dilemma that the ponies find themselves in and the skills used to get out of these situations can be applied to real life circumstances (Putlocker.is, 2015).

A wild Brony in his natural habitat.

Bibliography:

Ezproxy.bcu.ac.uk, (2015). Birmingham City University – Sign In. [online] Available at: http://ezproxy.bcu.ac.uk:2879/content/17/1/21.full.pdf+html [Accessed 9 May 2015].

Putlocker.is, (2015). Watch Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony Online Free Putlocker | Putlocker – Watch Movies Online Free. [online] Available at: http://putlocker.is/watch-bronies-the-extremely-unexpected-adult-fans-of-my-little-pony-online-free-putlocker.html [Accessed 9 May 2015].

Robertson, V. (2013). Of ponies and men: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the Brony fandom. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 17(1), pp.21-37.

Cult Media

Since I was a child, I was always interested in horror films, one franchise in particular stood out of all of the films that I have watched and this is all because of one character, Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal Lecter is a character created by Thomas Harris and the world first saw Dr. Lecter in his book Red Dragon but I first saw him in The Silence of the Lambs when I was about eleven, it is the second film in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, starring Anthony Hopkins as the Forensic Psychiatrist by day and cannibal by night. Even though I watched The Silence of the Lambs as a pre-teen, it wasn’t until I was eighteen that the fascination Hannibal Lecter grew. In 2013, NBC aired an TV series which follows Dr. Lecter as he Excepts his homicidal tendencies, Dr. Lecter is every bit the gentleman, with his impeccable wit, astonishing intellect, gourmet palate and eye for the more refined aspects of life (NBC), seeing Mads Mikkelsen play Hannibal was a new experience for me, I grew accustomed to associating Anthony Hopkins with the character and usually it’s never easy to accept that someone new can play your favourite character that was portrayed by your favourite actor but from seeing Mikkelsen’s first appearance in the trailer for the series, my doubts were dropped and I was sold.

Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter

My love for the series has become so huge that it’s not only a case of owning the DVDs but buying other merchandise. Shirtpunch! Is an online store that sells one time only t-shirts and I have seen myself on that site countless times, ordering any Hannibal t-shirt that pops up. It doesn’t stop at t-shirts, no, I have brought figurines of Hannibal Lecter and the Whendigo, stickers and even a human shaped heart toy, with the words Hannibal stamped across it in white font. Part of this need to buy all of this merchandise is partly due to the fact that I am a collector and collecting things within a fandom is a hobby of mine however it is also to show my devotion to this fandom and to show other fans my devoutness. Patrick McGoohan believes that cult programming attracts a fanatical following and that they have something which fascinates their acolytes who view favourite shows time after time without diminishing enjoyment (p. 99). I agree with this quote for I can admit that I too have when back and re-watched Hannibal on many occasions, some times watching for the on screen interactions between Hannibal and Will, sometimes viewing for the cinematic art that each episode consists of and sometimes listening to the soundtrack that plays throughout the piece. Regardless of my reason behind re-watching a particular episode or clip, my enjoyment of the show only grows more and more. The trilogy is a cult text for it has not only been adapted from a book and into a film but has also been turned into a TV series but it’s not only up to Hollywood directors to produce something, fans have also become producers and have created many things comics, games, cosplays, fanart and of course fanfiction.

A fan comic created by mlysza

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(Note: The above comic was created by Tumblr user Captainshroom)

(Note: The Above comic was created by Tumblr user fuckeduphannibalcomics )

Bibliography:

‘“Get a Life!” Fans, Poachers, Nomads” in Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. London: Routledge

Pp 85-109 in Hills, M. (2002) Fan Cultures. London: Routledge

Jensen, J. (1992) ‘Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterization’. In Lewis, L. A. (Ed.) The Adoring Audience. London, Routledge, pp9-29.

NBC, (2015). Hannibal | NBC. [online] Available at: http://www.nbc.com/hannibal [Accessed 7 May 2015].

NBC, (2015). Mads Mikkelsen | About | Hannibal | NBC. [online] Available at: http://www.nbc.com/hannibal/about/bio/mads-mikkelsen [Accessed 7 May 2015].

Exploring subcultures

Subcultures are a huge part of society and have been for many years; from the Hipsters in the 1940’s to the Teddy Boy’s in the 1950’s, Skinhead’s in the 1960’s to the Punks in the 1970’s, subcultures have been a huge aspect of my life and will continue to be till the day I pass on.

Punks are one of the more notable subcultures, it thrives on destruction and chaos but this was only possible because the style itself was so thoroughly ordered. The chaos cohered as a meaningful whole thus creating this notion (Hebdige, pp. 364.) of rebellion and the idea of destroying the society, people were taught to conform too. The prominent features of a punk have to be the trashy cut-up clothes and spiky hair, the pogo and amphetamines, the spitting, the vomiting, the format of the fanzines, the insurrectionary poses and the ‘soulless’, frantically driven music. The punks wore clothes which were the sartorial equivalent of swear words, and they swore as they dressed (Hebdige, pp. 364.) the cycle was endless in this subculture. Ever been called a punk because you were being naughty or your clothes were a little messy, well now you know why.

Growing up I found myself in a subculture, unlike Punks with their more out there behaviour and clothes, my style within this subculture was more subtle. It all started when I first watched The Lost Boys, I was a child of eight and I wanted to be like my Auntie, so sneaking into my Great nans living room on that school night, my mind was open to a world of things I never knew existed. This was the beginning of me finding a subculture.

Not long after watching The Lost Boys, I began to watch even more horror films from Nightmare on Elm St to From Dusk till dawn and regardless of the genre whether it being a Psychological horror or a Slasher film, one thing remained the same, my ever growing love for horror. Now, horror itself wasn’t the subculture that I belonged to, no, horror only created the pathway to the life of an Emo. T-shirts with skulls, pink zip earrings, black hoodies with an assortment of prints, converses and Infinity on a High by Fall Out Boy, is what followed when I reached the age of twelve.

Already I was beginning to find myself as an individual in a society full of subcultures. As an adult, my style revolves around the colours black, red and white. These three colours are associated with horror films and have a sense of familiarity connected to them so that whenever I wear my fandom t-shirts whether it’s from Hannibal or Child’s Play, I’m instantly reminded of all the memories I had when I was watching these films and that’s why the fandoms I am in impact on my style.

Bibliography:

Hall, S. and Jefferson, T. (1993) Resistance through Rituals: Youth subcultures in post-war Britain. Second Edition. London: Routledge; Hodkinson, P and Deicke, W. (2007) Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes. Abingdon. Routledge

Hebdige, Dick (1979) Subculture in Guins, Raiford and Cruz, Omayra (2005) Popular Culture: A Reader. London: Sage, pp355-371.

Celebrating fans / Fan communities / Fan consumption

Whenever the word Fandom is brought up there is one thing that comes to mind, unity. Fandom is the unity of fans who like a particular film, artist, book etc. and generally surround themselves in the overall culture, collectively creating their very own subculture. There isn’t always a positive association with the word fan, as Joli Jenson states in Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterization, Joli says that “The fan is consistently characterized (referencing the term’s origins) as a potential fanatic. This means that Fandom is seen as excessive, bordering on deranged, behavior”.

Continuing with this vague point, I am going to indulge you all, with a more in depth look at fans and in particular I have chosen the fans from the Tokyo Ghoul Fandom as my example however before I begin, I will like to give you a brief background on Tokyo Ghoul, if you haven’t already heard of the Anime adapted Manga.

Tokyo Ghoul has been given the genre  Dark Fantasy but has been seen as a tragedy by many fans, we follow Kaneki Ken a University student with a love of books and a shy personality but Ken isn’t only shy but naive and this naivety it’s what turns this Manga into a tragedy from the very first chapter. In a world that has been divided into three: with Ghouls, beings that resemble humans down to skin on their backs yet feast on humans to survive, the CCG (Commission of Counter Ghoul) a Force created to hunt down Ghouls and ensure the safety of the Humans and lastly the Citizens of Tokyo who are nothing more but entertainment to the Ghouls.

So what does our protagonist have to do with this world? Well that naivety I spoke of earlier lands Ken in the center of the chaos created by the Ghouls and the CCG and as the story progresses we see a much more dynamic change in our protagonists personality/behavior/appearance.

Look at that for Character Development

Now that you have a brief idea of what this Manga is about, I will continue with my example of fans. On page fifteen of chapter one hundred and forty-four, there is a panel that shows an image of Kaneki, with the words Erased written in bold across his eyes. On the next page there is a black suitcase besides Arima Kishou, one of the most highly skilled CCG Investigators. Investigators all carry a silver briefcase with them, once activated by a push of a button the briefcase will transform into a Anti-Ghoul weapon crafted from the Kagune (an predatory organ inside of the Ghoul). Fans took into consideration that being a Ghoul Investigator the case besides Arima could contain Kaneki whereas other fans believed he was still alive. With no word from Ishida Sui explaining the change in pace in the Manga, fans began to debate and discuss what they believed the outcome to be by using forums to talk about their thoughts on the Manga’s ending.

Arima Kishou

In some cases the fan may become a producer and begin to create Fanfic’s, Fanart’s or even create Fan films. Going along with the topic of Tokyo Ghoul, there were some fans that created Fanfic’s with an alternate ending or continuing were Ishida Sui left off. For an example, NanakiBH a writer of Tokyo Ghoul Fanfic’s wrote a One-shot titled Fall Into a Dream, this story was created as post chapter one hundred and forty-three, were kaneki is brought into the care of Tsukiyama Shuu. NanakiBH had produced their own interpretation of what could of happened after Kaneki’s demise, as a fan they didn’t give up on the hope that he was actually alive and so created the story as a way to express what they believe could happen from their own personal headcannon’s and assumptions.

A screenshot with the summary of this Fanfic

Bibliography:

Jensen, J. (1992) ‘Fandom as Pathology: The Consequences of Characterization’. In Lewis, L. A. (Ed.) The Adoring Audience. London, Routledge, pp9-29.