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Amazon’s Fallout series has been a massive win, not just for fans of the games but as a clear-cut success story for transmedia strategy. This new blog from MIDiA Research breaks down how Fallout is more than just a show, it’s a masterclass in expanding a preexisting IP into a new format without alienating the original fanbase.

But the article also raises a smart question: how do we evolve transmedia strategies beyond just extensions of gaming IP? Can we build experiences that originate from shows, books, or even podcasts with the same kind of cultural resonance?

Check out the article here:

https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/amazons-fallout-is-another-success-st...

Then let’s talk:

What other examples of successful transmedia storytelling have inspired you? And if you’re building your own universe, how are you thinking beyond a single medium?

This week, I celebrated a time-honored milestone for elite level authors... I earned my first 1-star review for my book. I might sound snarky, but I'm not. In working with authors for several years now, I've learned to reframe how I see so-called "negative" reviews. Here's how:

1. See it as a positive that your message is getting out into the world. If my book gets a 1-star review, it means that it's reached beyond my "circle" to people who don't give a flying fudge what I think. That's not bad. That's good!

2. You can't make everyone happy...and you shouldn't. If you're trying to make your book for everyone, it'll fall flat. It'll be a book for NO one. That person isn't your audience. Life will go on.

3. Striking an emotional chord. 1-star reviews are usually a sign that you struck an emotional chord or nerve. Not a bad thing. When you have a strong stance on anything, you're going to turn some people off. That's okay. It's your story, not theirs. Plenty of other people will resonate. That's who you're writing for.

4. Opinions are like, well, you know... There are books other people love, love, love that I cannot stand, stand, stand. Remember that someone else's opinion doesn't form your identity. Usually, it says more about them than it does you.

5. Sometimes the bad review has nothing to do with the writing at all. You can be a great writer, but someone doesn't like the off-color joke you made. (1 star) They don't like your view on a social issue. (1 star) They don't like that you used the color blue in your cover. (1 star) One of my colleagues shared with me how angry he got at a 1-star review that complained the book arrived with a torn cover. That had literally nothing to do with his skill!

Another colleague shared a great exercise with me:

Go to Goodreads and look up your favorite book of all time. Click on the 1-star reviews. Have a good laugh. (Definitely a strategy I'm stealing next time a client tells me they're afraid of bad reviews.)

How have you handled a negative review or harsh (even unfair) feedback?

Hello everyone, my name is Kenneth. I started my screenwriting journey in 1997 after Batman & Robin was released. I was so disappointed in that movie that, in my hubris, I wrote a screenplay for the next Batman movie and immediately sent it to Joel Schumacher. Understand this, I knew absolutely zero about the screenwriting process at the time, so you can imagine how that went. So, after not hearing anything for days, I figured they didn't like the story. FYI, I still have that script.

So after that, I decided I'd better educate myself a little more if I wanted to be successful at this. My first stop on this journey was The Screenwriters Bible. That book taught me everything that I thought I knew before reading it. Over the years, in between life, I trained myself. I read, I wrote, I dreamed. Two scripts were born from that process. With the advancement of the Internet and AI, I now have the tools to discover places like this, which will hopefully help me to become the person I was meant to be.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I appreciate you all. It is nice to meet you, and I wish us all the best of luck in our endeavors.

Hi! I have a screenplay that I completed not long ago with a co-writer. i'd like to bring the screenplay to life but I could use some advice. How should i go about starting to put a team together? How should I raise funds? Is there a preferred method, site I should use? I haven't made a short film since 2016 and most of the money came out of my pocket. I'd love to hear advice. This film would also be filmed in New York. Thank you!

Hello i’m new to the site. I’m new to screen writing actually I was a nurse for 15 years and then a counselor and I just decided I want to be a writer and I’m doing it and I’m just happy to be here.

After 43 years since I started my journey in audio (I wrote my first song at age 7) and a lifetime dreaming of fantastical worlds—dreams that later found fuel in the magic of cinema—just a few days ago, I finally began production on my very first short film.

Until now, my role in the industry had always been behind the scenes as a composer and sound editor (sometimes also helping out with editing or color correction), but I’ve always written and carried tons of ideas swirling in my head.

Now, thanks to today’s technology and a personal moment in life that allows it, I’ve decided to jump into this (for me) ambitious project. The most unique aspect? Everything is being created in my own studio—using a mix of AI video generation, some stock footage (mainly for reference), AI-generated voices, and sound effects and backgrounds from libraries. And of course, there’s still a human touch: I’m creating many of the visual effects myself using Fusion in DaVinci Resolve, sometimes even After Effects, and I’m also building a few sets in Unreal Engine. The music will be original, composed by me—I’m still hesitant to hand that part over to AI (though I do admit to pulling certain effects like wooshes, risers, and textures from libraries and layering them with sounds I create).

But all of this makes me wonder about the future that awaits those of us working in post-production.

What happens when machines can do more—and do it better—every single day?

Right now, there’s a kind of coexistence between post-production engineers and digital tools. These tools often make our jobs easier, helping us save time on complex or repetitive tasks. But like it or not, AI is here to stay, and it’s moving fast—touching every corner of audiovisual production.

My project is a clear example, and I know there are hundreds more like it. If this is the direction we’re heading in, it means that pretty soon, almost anyone could make a film from the comfort of their home, sitting at their computer. And what’s wild is that the process has become quite linear and integrated. I can now move from script to final scene by following a few (relatively simple) steps:

• Review the script

• Generate the reference image

• Generate the video

• Make corrections or tweaks

• Download it

• Import it into my timeline

• Create and add sound effects, dialogue, and music

• Do the color correction

Done! Scene complete.

So what do you think is coming next? Will post-production, as we know it, be completely replaced by digital tools that just do it all?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

There are rules for the official and unofficial continuation of works (works that belong to their creator) or the creation of different versions (such as from a book to a movie or vice versa). These rules include how to make quality changes, continue, and combine with other works. If these rules are not adhered to, the project will be merely a fan-made work. Additionally, it may cause the original version of the work to become surrounded by poor quality examples over time.

Official Rule / Unofficial Rule

1- If the owner of a character and a work is a company, an agreement must be made with them. (This rule is extremely strict, especially in the animation and film industry. While it prevents the separation of the owners of the work and the formation of sequels, it also ensures that the originality and quality of the work are preserved and that the work is known and preserved worldwide until it is taken up again at the right time.) / If the work's creator is alive, the character and the work should be worked on in a way that is connected to her/his, whether she/he is with the company or not. (The person who knows the work best and can comment on it best is the creator of the work. By proceeding with the scenarios that will emerge in her/his mind, the essence of the work is preserved and both the quality and continuity of the project are maintained. The main point to note is that even if the creator does not take an active role in the project, he/she should still have comments or at least some conditions.)

2- Work should be done according to what the copyright of a work covers. For example, Bambi is originally a storybook. Therefore Disney only owns the animation rights. This year, another company filmed the work as a horror film, and the script was almost completely independent of the book. However, Disney, Marvel and other animation companies also benefit from this. First, they transform the works they publish as animations or comics into a different category (such as movies with famous actors instead of animation) and create different scenarios and stories. This process is also done within the same category (such as producing other animation examples with different stories from the animated work). There is a logical system behind this processes and we can call it "Visual Tone" and "Multiple Story Universes". I will talk about this in another article. / If the author of the work is not alive and there are no posthumous copyright issues (e.g. the sequel to Tintin could not be made after Herge's death due to her family), more obvious changes can be made to the work. However, care must be taken not to disrupt the unity of the story and the author of the work. (For example, after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died, many Sherlock Holmes works were published both officially and unofficially. Although there were changes in time, place and character, they were produced in a way that remained true to the essence of the work and its author, that is, the way everyone knew him.) However, in some cases, exceptional works can be produced, provided that the rules are adhered to. The horror movie Bambi that I just mentioned is an example of this. Especially in works where everyone has adopted the story and character in a certain way for a long time, the production of scenarios in which this change is made has become quite common lately. The main thing that is done is to show the characters in their adopted good or bad states and as the story progresses it becomes clear that they are not like that. Disney's work in recent years is based on this. For example, in Maleficent or Cruella, it is shown that the people we know as evil characters are actually good but victimized people. This process is usually achieved by producing the work in a different category than the one in which it was published (Disney's recent films were an example of the transition from animation to film with actors). However, major comic book companies like Marvel or DC are famous for their examples of the same genre (Dc or Marvel comic book universes).

These two rules are originally based on a Greek paradox: The Ship of Theseus

To summarize briefly, if the original parts of a ship wear out over time and all its parts are replaced with new ones, is that ship still the original or will it be another ship that looks exactly like the original? This paradox still has an important place today. So much so that scriptwriters who want to produce new things from works whose influences are known or who use various works to find an original idea are unknowingly proceeding from this paradox. Although there are many answers to this paradox, we, the scriptwriters, actually benefit from the practical one. Think about it this way: if we were to bring Theseus and show him the ship with all its parts changed, looking exactly the same as the original, and ask him if this was your ship, what would his answer be? The answer he gives will determine the quality of the work and will ensure the continuation of the project. If the answer is "Yes, this is my ship." then this scenario is a quality and workable scenario with the changes made by the scriptwriter. If the answer is "No, this is not my ship." then there are some points to consider. The most important of these is that the character has a different character structure than the one in the work and that the people who are or are not in the work are included in the scenario.

I would like you to pay attention to the fact that these rules should always be adhered to, but they should not be adhered to too tightly because there is a side of a work presented to the world that is independent of its author. For example, V for Vendetta is originally a comic book, but its film has an equally important place. Despite this, the author of the work did not like the parts of the film that were different from the work and did not want his name to be on the film poster. Interestingly, even if the author did not like it, the film still has the feature of being a cult film today. This shows that with a correct script, it is possible to produce a quality work that is independent of the main work. Another example is N. D. Stevenson's different treatment of Nimona in his own comic book as an animation. Stevenson also ensured that She-ra, who was connected to He-man, was reconsidered, and in my opinion, a groundbreaking work emerged.

Another example can be seen in universes such as Marvel and DC, where there are multiple universes. Each universe includes versions of the characters with different stories than their first works. However, there is a point to be noted. The DC and Marvel universes progress with an extremely deep-rooted and solid infrastructure. Thanks to this, they are able to have such independent universes in a quality manner. The best part of these multiple universes is that they were made under the supervision of the creators of the main characters, such as Stan Lee. In this regard, there are two films that I can perhaps call the pinnacle of the animation industry. One of these is Spider-Man: Jump to Spider-Verse and the other is Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans. Almost all the universes have played a role in these two films, both actively and passively.

When all these are considered, it is observed that the presentation of various types of works to the world is a difficult but extremely deep and complex system. One of the biggest difficulties in this regard is to show the work to those around us in the way we see it. This issue forms the basis of Wittgenstein's philosophy. The main problem of lack of communication between people is that they cannot transfer the pictures in their minds to the other party without any changes and therefore cannot observe the same thing.

Another problem is about fans. I am also a fan of many of the works I have covered, but there is a bad side to doing too much fan fiction on a work. Too much fan fiction done without adhering to the rules I have listed above causes especially discontinued works to be overshadowed in popular culture, to be misunderstood and, to be honest, to be treated in a way they do not deserve. Although it may not seem like a big problem at first glance, unfortunately, this is a mistake. First of all, falling into such a situation harms the entire originality and independence of the work. If everyone starts to accept the work in its fan fiction form instead of its original form, unfortunately, this situation causes the original work to lose its importance and even to be overshadowed. This means both deceiving others and violating the copyright of the work. If you are not careful, there is a risk of being buried under a huge avalanche of fan fiction instead of one or two pieces. Fortunately, with the copyrights and the emergence of quality works in compliance with the rules above, this situation does not happen often. However, there is always a danger especially for works that do not have a sequel (I think that works that are expected to be continued, such as The Owl House, face this danger). Another problem is that it discourages those who want to produce quality and official works on this subject. While it is inspiring to approach a work from different perspectives, on the other hand, if you are not careful, it can complicate things and cause the scriptwriter to have doubts and lose their enthusiasm. Marvel and DC have many works, both their own and in the fanfiction genre. However, as I mentioned above, their deep-rooted and solid infrastructure and the universe system they have established within themselves ensure that they are not negatively affected by this and always improve.

The introduction of a work to the world is through these means. In fact, if it is considered universally, all works are actually a singular and parallel universe cluster in the same environment. Therefore, a relationship can be established both within themselves and among themselves. My aim is to consider these as a larger project but to base them on a universal reference, that is, a common point for all of them. When you look at it, I want to combine all the animation/film works that have existed since 1923 and those that have not yet been animated/filmed with a beautiful story. I may seem like I want to make a utopia, but I assure you that I have no such intention. I just want to reveal how our own universe has a reality and the reality of the film industry, especially the animation industry.

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well!

My name is Jordan Desmurs, and I’m a line producer working between Los Angeles and Paris. I specialize in budgeting short films across both the United States and Europe. Typically, I collaborate with small to mid-sized production companies, as well as occasionally with independent filmmakers’ associations.

For budgeting and scheduling, I work with two main software suites:

— Movie Magic Budgeting & Scheduling (primarily for US productions)

— CeltX (often used for smaller-scale productions, usually in France)

In addition to budgeting, I also assist with the creation of pitch decks (tailored to meet streaming platform standards) and script formatting when needed.

If you have any questions or would simply like to connect, I’m always open to meeting new people and discussing future collaborations.

Looking forward to speaking with you soon!