Transmedia and larp

Transmedia and larp was the presentation given yesterday in SRP by +Irena Krčelić. It was quite interesting - it basically showcased some things from the Croatian movie industry. I'm the person who's very skeptical of our movies, however what was shown surprized me as being very promising - and all of it were movie projects I've never heard of.

In that light, larp was seen as the potential transmedia tie-in product - and we explored those possibilities. As movies fund the other tie-in products - board games, computer games, online games, miniatures, TV shows, cartoons, comics, books etc. - why not their own custom-made larps?

It will have a limited audience compared to most other products, but compared to those products and their associated manufacturing and distribution costs, a larp can be produced at a fraction of the price. In a wider context - enriching the movie or other media product and its world is something that could be very powerful.

Part of the challenge would certainly be selecting a movie which could work well with the tie-in larp. A Belgian burlesque movie Tournée by Mathieu Amalric also had accompanying larps during its first screenings in Paris and Berlin, however it didn't attract many players - for most, burlesque is not a comfortable subject to take part in...

However, since this is a rather new direction, larpers can probably afford to pick and choose which movie they'd want to do a larp about... And when that movie gets funded, simply jump on the bandwagon to make it possible (and in process, benefit from various paid courses, out-of-country seminars etc.). Such larps would certainly be viewed as commercial and conforming to a certain storyline, but they'd have funding and they would also benefit from other tie-in products.

If someone asked me whether this was possible at the time I started this blog, I'd say - no way. That's not how larp works. Nowadays? We've never done this before but yes, it's certainly possible...

Or have we? This year we had Tragači zore. It was not a planned-and-funded transmedia project, but it WAS a tie-in to the Zmije Nikonimora book series by Sanja Lovrenčić. And this Tuesday, we had several of our larpers dressed up in their kit at the screening of The Hobbit. A stretch to the more planned and professional tie-ins is not at all that large.