The First Facebook Movie: "Him, Her and Them" - Facebook As A Distribution Platform & Non-Linear Viewing Experience

written by: Gianluigi Cuccureddu

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Published on Tuesday, 15 February 2011 11:34

Interesting transmedia project, as described in detail by Simon Pulman on Transmythology. The film is written and directed by Hal Siegel and produced by Mike Knowlton of MurmurCo. It aims to add a social layer to the experience of watching a movie, similar to what Zynga has done with gaming. Check out the film’s website here and Facebook page here.

Read the analysis Simon made and tried to answer a couple of interesting questions.

What intrigues me the most is this part of his analysis:

However, Facebook’s ubiquity also poses some problems for creators because there are so many options – and distractions – on the platform. Jade Raymond of Ubisoft spoke at DICE last week about the move from undivided attention (think going to a movie theater) to multitasking to partial engagement to continuous partial engagement.

I think that summarizes the Facebook experience very well – usually users are looking at a profile, or playing a game, or chatting to friends, all while watching television, or eating, or traveling on a train or plane. This goes on for most of the day. Thus, it seems logical that if a “Facebook film” like Him, Her or Them demands too much attention from users, it will fail as soon as a chat window or Zynga notification pops up. It’d be much better to feed the user bits of story in drips and drabs over a longer period, bringing them back for a few minutes at a time.

How is transmedia going to fit on platforms that are also used for 1001 other purposes? Everything is interconnected, and silo'ing Facebook for a movie is just one part of the equation. 

Within transmedia, not only the concept needs to be taken into account, but also the (social) environment around it, the interaction with the concept and the interaction and purposes of the networks themselves.

Thanks to@gip89 for the tip!