Creators Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: Chapters 5 & 6

             In the fifth chapter of the Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling, the author explains that the reasons to use a transmedia approach can “fall into two basic camps: the business case and your creative vision.”(41) They explain how transmedia storytelling allows for more opportunities for the storyteller to work with and sell from.  They then use several examples of extremely successful series in Hollywood including True Blood, Twilight, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings.  All of these series were book series and then were turned into either films or television shows.  I am not super into any of these series, but from what I know, because they have such large followings, there are countless different ways that the companies market these stories, the most obvious being the books and film productions, but I’m sure there are also spin off productions, online publications, merchandise, etc.  I think that when a franchise is able to market their stories in so many different ways they are able to do two things, sell multiple different things, and to multiple different groups of people that they may not have been able to reach before.  What I mean by that is that different types of media effect different people in different ways.  So if the book or the movies don’t appeal to someone, the other might.  Also, people react differently to different mediums, so having those multiple different experiences will allow the companies to market different products or messages.  As beneficial as transmedia storytelling can be, it also must be carefully crafted, because “every single element of a transmedia story has to be fulfilling a narrative purpose, without exception.”(43) 
          Chapter 6 takes a step back and looks at the “Basics of Traditional Storytelling.”  This acts as a guide for people who are not already storytellers to catch up so they can effectively utilize the transmedia story telling method.  They go over the importance and use of elements of a good story such as character, conflict, plot, rising tension, setting and mood, theme, and originality.  I really liked their use of examples that a lot of people would recognize such as Romeo and Juliet, and Star Wars, because I think that will help people have a deeper understanding of what they are trying to explain about good storytelling.

Vimeo - User's Rights

         Vimeo is a video sharing website that was founded in 2004 by a group of filmmakers.  It is similar to YouTube, but appeals to a different audience because of the type of material that is featured on the site.  Content on Vimeo is typically much higher quality than on YouTube, and it tends to be filled with more indie films, documentaries and journalistic productions.

I was curious to look into the rights that Vimeo has to use a video, or part of a video that has been uploaded onto their website.  I know in the past, I have seen things about social media sites being able to use content that users have uploaded, typically for advertising purposes.  I wasn’t able to find anything that said exactly what I was looking for, but I did read through their Privacy Policy and most of the Legal section of their website.  I also looked for any issues with users and how Vimeo has used their content and there didn’t appear to be any issues.  Vimeo has a very extensive FAQ and legal section on their website to inform their users of their rights and different licensing options.

Vimeo explains what the creative commons license is, and directs producers how to use it if they so desire.  It is important to note that the copyright owner is the one who is able to decide if they want to apply a creative commons license to their work, it is not the decision of the person who wants to use their work.  They explain the four main possible conditions to the creative commons license.  The first it attribution, meaning that other people can copy, display, distribute, perform, or remix your work as long as they give you credit for the original work.  Next is no derivative works, which unlike attribution does not allow any alterations to be made to your work, but others are allowed to copy, distribute, display or perform it as long as it is verbatim to the original.  The share alike aspect allows others to distribute your work as long as it’s under a license identical to the one that you have chosen for that piece of work.  Another common aspect of the creative commons license is non-non commercial meaning that the other people can not make any money off of their copy, distribution, display, performance, or remix of your work.  Another option that Vimeo points out is the Public Domain Dedication, which means you allow others to copy, modify, distribute, and perform your work without asking your permission.  Vimeo then gives resources for users to further learn about their licensing options.

Vimeo is very clear in claiming no responsibility for any copyright infringement that occurs as a result of a video being posted on their site.  Because you still own the copyright to your intellectual property and whichever content you upload, it is up to you to fight copyright infringements.

The website does not use a DMR (Digital Rights Management) technology to prevent piracy for several reasons.  The claim that the most important reason is because there aren’t any DMR technologies that have proven effective.  Also, using DMR can diminish the quality and accessibility of videos, and is would “substantially increase the cost of hosting your videos.”

Vimeo offers several different options for producer to choose from regarding who can see their video and what they can do with it.  They include an option to add a download button to your videos for people to download onto their computers.  They also have six main privacy settings, which include: 

• Anyone - anyone can view the video
• Only me - only the producer is able to see the uploaded video
• Only people I follow – only people that the uploader follows on Vimeo can see it
• Only people I choose – only people that the producer selects can view it, this will only work if the people you are sharing with are also Vimeo members
• Only people with a password – The producer is able to choose a password for the video and share it with whomever they’d like to, this includes non-Vimeo members
• Hide this video from Vimeo.com (Plus + PRO only) – This allows people to post their video to the web, but not show it on vimeo.com, this also removes it from public albums, channels, and groups