tell their story – 30%


For this task you are going to “tell their story.” What I mean is that you will develop a transmedia story for a character from an already established brand (e.g., Doctor Who, Star Wars, The Defenders, Harry Potter, Twilight, The Uglies, and Star Trek) who hasn’t been explored beyond a reference or minor appearance. It’s fan fiction on steroids because you will be telling his/her story across three different types of communication.

This part is worth 20% of grade.

type 1: the trading card – 5%

For this part of the task you will create a trading card that acts as a profile for your character. The trading card should be composed of the following parts:

Front: Image of character and name.

Back: Information about character that is chunked, queued, and filtered well.

  • Another smaller visual image helping tell more of the character’s story or personality.
  • General information – height, weight, age, birthplace, where the character lives, special powers (if he she/has them), affiliations, and/or anything else you think might apply or be better to include for your character.
  • Synopsis of character – a short and general story of the characters’ origins, power, personality, struggles, and/or anything else you think might apply or be better to include for your character. Think of this as the taste for diving deeper into the story (at least 150 words).
  • Up to you – Have one more bit of information. The type is up to you but it needs to be given a heading.

Trading card dimensions – 3 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ or 5″ x 7″

type 2: the movie trailer – 10%

You will create a 1-2 minute movie trailer for your character. The trailer should take something mentioned in the trading card and expand upon the idea. It should suggest that the movie will focus on this particular aspect of the character. For your trailer, you can use found material, you can remix movies that already exist, or you can use actors to create a trailer using footage you shot.

If you decide to focus on Ronald Bilius Weasley, for instance, you could take footage from the Potter films and mash them together to make new meaning and a new trailer.

type 3: imagine a video game or an encyclopedia  – 5%

For this part of the task, you will storyboard a video game or create an encyclopedia for your character. For the video game you will describe the overall goal of the game in relation to your character and be specific about two levels or subgoals for the game. I will be looking for how well you explain your ideas and communicate your points. The following are the parts you must include for the video game:

  • Overall goal (400-500 words) – provide a brief description of the video game and the game’s overall purpose in relation to the character, the genre, and artistic style. What is the moral of the story? What are the takeaways? Describe why you chose that style. You can include imagery and show games of a similar style. Just make sure to justify your moves.
  • Storyboard – fill out the storyboard as completely as possible: storyboard word doc template.

For the encyclopedia, you will create a resource focused on terms and objects and concepts related to your character. The entries in the encyclopedia must be your own and use your own descriptions> They should focus on your character and the world you are creating for him/her though you certainly can take elements from the larger world you take the character from. The following are the parts you must include in your encyclopedia.

  • Title page and title
  • Introduction to Encyclopedia (400-500 words) – provide a brief description of the encyclopedia and the encyclopedia’s overall purpose in relation to the character and his/her story. Why is this encyclopedia important? How does it contribute to the world?
  • Two categories – organize your encyclopedia so it has two different sections. This means that the encyclopedia has two different foci.
  • 10-20 total entries – the entries can be persons, places, and things contributing to your world and/or explaining parts. Each entry should be at least 300 words.
  • Parts of entries – the entries should include pictures and be divided into at least two sections. Make sure to have the same sections repeated in each category.
  • Example – wookiepedia

This part is worth 10% of your grade.

communication analysis

Here you write an essay explaining why you did what you did and how you applied the theories we learned about. You also need to show how each type of communication contributes uniquely to the transmedia story. Your analysis should have a clear thesis and make an argument about your transmedia story with supporting evidence. Make it clear why what you did was important to the franchise and how the communication choices you made helped propel the story.

Your analysis should be between 4-6 pages (1000-1500 words) and should be free of grammar, punctuation, or spelling mistakes. It should maintain a formal tone and use critical thinking. I expect a well organized essay with smooth transitions between topics!. Your analysis should use at least three different sources from our course readings to support the claims you make in your analysis. Last, your citations must be done correctly in-text and end-text in MLA format. Your analysis should be composed of the following:

1. The analysis

2. Works cited page