Technical Notes on Video:

Video length is 1:58:29.

David Thorburn Director of MIT Communications Forum, introduces the moderator, Henry Jenkins.

At 2:32, Henry Jenkins begins.

At 3:23, Jenkins plays a video tease of the series, Heroes.

At 4:25, Jenkins introduces the two speakers, and asks them to describe their roles in the production of the series.

At 6:10, Jesse Alexander begins.

At 8:19, Mark Warshaw begins.

At 10:32, Jenkins asks a series of questions about the series, and transmedia. These questions involve:

Whether downloading and other ways of viewing shows have altered the way producers think about television in the 21st century;
What the breakdown is between broadcast and non-broadcast viewers:
How receptive the networks are to serialized dramas, as opposed to episodic dramas;
The importance of backstory, and when it’s appropriate to break out of the narrative timeline;
The role of transmedia content in a TV series;
What kinds of things producers embed in the show;
To what degree the global market plays a part in the series;
How casting from other cult media factors in.

At 1:09:26, Jenkins invites audience questions. These include:

How the producers balance between the storyline and fan response;
Whether transmedia storytelling works from an economic perspective;
How writers are assigned to characters and stories;
How to balance the intense preferences of fans with the needs of the series;
How the creators think about telling stories outside of film;

At 1:46:34, David Thorburn asks about whether the writers have some reservations about the scale or proliferation of their various platforms, and whether in fact it’s not that easy to jump between media forms.