MI6019 - Storyworlds

You will learn about the subject by attending lectures and seminars, with Storyworld surgeries to help make your project ideas really take advantage of new approaches to storytelling across multiple platforms. The lectures will enable the tutor to discuss the key components of Storyworlds in this context, and reflect upon the core issues and themes of the module.

Each of you will develop your own project portfolio in response to the module materials, which will take the form of a ‘transmedia portfolio’ for a live existing project of your own choice. This project work will be discussed in the seminars and surgeries.

Taught sessions are structured to reflect the core issues and themes of the module. Your tutor will frame the content of each session and outline the aim and outcomes. Tutors begin the sessions by outlining clear parameters, defining the considerations that will enable you to develop your practical work while also developing a critical understanding of principles needed to deliver effective productions. Every module is underpinned by a strong conceptual foundation. The module aims to help you to develop your skills by applying those critical concepts to your own practice. The sessions help to guide you through that development by offering formative feedback as you work through the materials and processes. Guided project work creates an experiential environment on which tutors offer insight.

Outside of the taught sessions, you will be expected to engage with module-relevant reading in preparation for the sessions. An electronic reading list is supplied via the e-Learning Portal, which will guide you towards appropriate resources, although you are encouraged to explore the wider library catalogue to engage with additional sources too. During your independent working time, it is also expected that you will apply the ideas raised in the reading and the taught content to film examples of your own choosing (reflecting your individual interests), and to your own practice. Lecture materials, seminar guidelines and module information will be placed upon the eLearning Portal.

Storyworlds explodes traditional single screen stories across multiple platforms and the lectures provide a broad basis for articulating the best transmedia approaches and in the seminars each lecture is further exploded and reconfigured creating space for discussion of the form and the ideas for the transmedia portfolios. The scheduled surgeries are designed specifically to address the minutiae of individual proposals.
We support your learning by providing on-going feedback (Formative and Summative) through the range of teaching and learning approaches offered. We ask you to submit your work electronically, and we will supply feedback via Turnitin. You will be able to compare your feedback across modules so that you can assess your development as you progress through the programme.

Formative assessment is offered throughout the module, and summative assignments will receive written feedback within 20 working days of assignment submission. Every tutor has set weekly feedback and tutorial drop in hours, wherein you can seek advice on your academic progress.

Where appropriate you may also be directed to engage with our Skills Plus or other resources offered through the University Student Support Services such as Dyslexia Support. Guidance tutorials also provide opportunities for students to discuss, in confidence, their academic progress on the programme.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the key components that make up transmedia storytelling and the principles of the spreadable ‘storyworld’.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

2. Demonstrate how the creative and critical contexts underpin practice in the production of the transmedia project

3. Evidence creativity and imagination in the deployment of your storyworld, with appropriate use and understanding of multiple platforms.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

4. Demonstrate awareness of the ethical differences between creating traditional single screen content and transmedia content.

You will receive formative feedback during the seminars throughout the module as you conduct analysis of case studies, allowing you to understand how your analytical skills and grasp of the subject are developing.

You will also receive feedback on your ability to conduct analysis of transmedia storyworlds during the seminars. This will test your ability to critically engage with the principles of effective multiplatform production in an academic and practical fashion, and this will allow you to demonstrate your understanding of the theoretical concepts raised in the lectures and the readings. Class debates in seminars will also be used to assess your understanding of the week’s topic.

You will be summatively assessed by producing an individual transmedia storyworld portfolio that will be equivalent to 3000 words addressing all MLOs.
The portfolio will contain one transmedia project (defined here as a folio of appropriate short treatments with at least one of the treatments demonstrated in a practical realised extract) addressing MLOs 1, 2 & 3.
These relevant multiplatform extensions of the creative core content source material are chosen by you in order to show your understanding of the concepts of the module as well as developing creative skills in the subject area addressing MLO 3.

The subject source material can be any creative core content from the practical modules that you have contributed to, but the emphasis should be on the most recent and concurrent practical work, if appropriate addressing MLO 3.
The components of the portfolio will be: conceptual idea and how it was formulated, transmedia ‘bible’ considerations and one key multiplatform extension in more detail in practice.
The portfolio will also contain a reflexive section that demonstrates the use of principles drawn from the module reading list and which provides a critical and informed foundation for the project - MLOs 2 & 4.

You will receive written feedback on your final summative submissions which will detail areas of your methodological practice, critical and creative skills, and communicative ability that could be improved in future work. You will also be offered the opportunity to receive further verbal feedback following this formal assessment, so that you can follow up any concerns they have regarding their critical development and future learning.

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Storyworlds offers new ways of expanding your creative content across multiple platforms, in a media landscape characterised by ubiquitous screens and fragmented viewing habits. Stories do not just exist in traditional film contexts; audiences interact with stories across multiple platforms. This module will explore that landscape, and its implications for filmmaking practice. In a subject driven by the tutor’s own research interests and practice, you’ll learn about the place of modern myth making, the pleasures of new media and the importance of fan culture. You will deliver a transmedia story world project creatively expanding on your core content by reconstructing film ideas into new, innovative shapes.
Students say Storyworlds is an eye opening development that transcends its marketing roots, as it prepares you for a whole new set of filmmaking opportunities.