ABOUT THE PANEL DISCUSSION:
Two progenitors of broadcast TV’s rapid expansion into the digital world provide narrative and back story for the development of NBC’s crossover series, Heroes.

As moderator Henry Jenkins notes, in the last few years, there’s been a fundamental shift in the habits of TV viewers, from watching shows broadcast at a specific time, to consuming those shows and related content through a variety of media at any time of day. Jesse Alexander helped usher in this transformation. He says Heroes was “conceived to take advantage of every possible media platform to tell stories, to make the brand viable and important in the world.” Nowadays, to generate such “AAA franchise content,” creators must incorporate “transmedia into the DNA of (their) concept.” With Heroes, this has meant spinning off DVDs, greeting cards, comic books and webisodes with distinct narrative threads, and providing spaces online where core enthusiasts can opine on plot and character.

The networks have recently jumped on the transmedia bandwagon, after watching fans, especially the youth demographic advertisers covet, flock to websites dedicated to serialized shows like on Heroes. “NBC used to say, just do a promo,” says Mark Warshaw. But now, eager to wring profit from this phenomenon, NBC has set up a department to develop the series’ online presence and other ancillary features. Network involvement in transmedia has pros and cons. “They’re applying the same production standards to transmedia as to a $120 million dollar series. We need to move at the speed of the Internet, but they’re moving at the speed of network TV.” Warshaw, who’s responsible in large part for originating these non-broadcast features, cleaves close to the series “bible” while creating “a network of channels for every kind of Heroes fan.” Certain minor broadcast characters play central roles in webisodes, and are “used online to plant the seeds for future developments in the TV program.”

Because the series is available online (via both legal and illegal downloads), Warshaw reports with delight that Heroes is “a huge international hit.” Before the program appeared in France, producers arranged a pre-broadcast event, and drew an audience that filled the largest theater in Europe. Show creators are trying to tap that global excitement and “create an anthology show based on heroes from around the world, in different time periods.” Ultimately, Alexander and Warshaw hope to plumb the deep emotions and interests of a widespread fan community, and somehow “glean the most important information” from them to help shape offline and online content in a broad sense. Look for a mobile game and a novel down the road, but don’t expect crass merchandising, say these panelists. Alexander notes, “As soon as a brand looks like it’s selling out, it can crash and burn. With all the new potential revenue from internet and ancillary exploitation, there has to be oversight by our team to make sure it has the Heroes stamp of approval.”

NOTES ON THE VIDEO (Time Index):
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.