And what really happened at 8pm on the 17th of November 1978?

George Lucas amassed the serious budget needed  to make the Star Wars sequel from the sales of things like little toy figures of the film’s characters: he presciently negotiated this for a pittance: ‘merchandise rights’ had never been that lucrative before, Hollywood must have thought he was crazy to want them instead of his director’s fee.

So far, so tediously familiar to all who know the Lucas legend: but did you know that a Star Wars toy figure that wasn’t even in the original film was responsible for yet another media revolution?

Henry Jenkins was mentioned in the video and is considered a leading figure in this field:

Another leading figure on the transmedia scene is Jeff Gomez:

Power of Transmedia Storytelling from MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo.

The first video featured Peter Hirschberg and Tim Kring

It is called Digital, Life, Design 2010: Audience Sourcing

on Fora.tv

Here’s what Digital Life Design have to say about themselves:

Digital Life Design (DLD) is an inspiring community for the 21st century which features digital innovation, science and culture and brings together thought leaders, creators, entrepreneurs and investors from Europe, the Middle-East, the Americas and Asia.

This session on audience sourcing features Tim Kring (“Heroes”) and Peter Hirshberg (The Conversation Group). – DLD

Tim Kring is creator and executive producer of “Heroes,” NBC’s Emmy-nominated epic saga that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. He has been a screenwriter for a number of television shows, including Knight Rider, Strange World, and Crossing Jordan.

Peter Hirshberg has led emerging media and technology companies at the center of disruptive change for more than 20 years. He is Chairman and co-founder of The Conversation Group, a fast-growing agency helping brands and enterprises with strategy and marketing in a world of empowered and connected audiences and customers. He is also chairman of the board of advisors of Technorati, the leading aggregator of user-generated content in the world, tracking over 100 million Weblogs and 70,000 posts per hour.

The second video of Henry Jenkins is on the Sevenload website:

He is Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.[1] Previously, he was the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities and Co-Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program with William Uricchio. He is also author of several books, including Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture and What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic.

The third video is:

Power of Transmedia Storytelling

on Vimeo

Jeff Gomez is the CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment

Jeff Gomez is an expert at transmedia storytelling, incubating new entertainment properties, strategic planning and production for cross-platform implementation.

As CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, an animation and live-action feature film production company and leading creator of highly successful fictional worlds, Jeff transforms intellectual properties into highly successful transmedia franchises. He also extends niche properties such as toys, animation or videogame titles across multiple platforms, evolving them into high quality persistent narratives, which in turn generate multiple revenue streams for his clients.

Jeff has worked on such blockbuster universes as Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Persia and Tron, Microsoft’s Halo, James Cameron’s Avatar, Hasbro’s Transformers, Mattel’s Hot Wheels and Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory.

Prior to launching Starlight Runner with partner Mark Pensavalle in 2000, Jeff Gomez was a prominent figure in the adventure game and video game industries serving as a producer for Acclaim Entertainment’s comic book division.

He helped create the Acclaim Comics super hero universe, in addition to adapting Valiant Comics super heroes into videogames for Nintendo and PlayStation consoles.

Characters, concepts and game-play Jeff conceived, wrote and produced for Acclaim’s Turok, Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil helped that franchise to gross over $420 million.

Turok was recently revived as a new videogame franchise from Disney Interactive and as an animated feature from Starz Entertainment.

In addition to serving as a brand extension consultant to such corporations as Disney, Microsoft, 20th Century Fox, Coca-Cola, Scholastic, Wieden+Kennedy, Mattel, Showtime, Konami and Hasbro, Jeff has also delivered his seminar, Creating Blockbuster Worlds: Developing Highly Successful Transmedia Franchises, to the MIT Futures of Entertainment Conference, Game Developers Conference, International Game Developers Association, the NewTeeVee Conference, the New York State Bar Association and the Producers Guild of America.

A board member of the Producers Guild of America with over 20 years experience developing, writing and producing content, Jeff has been featured and quoted in such periodicals as Forbes, Business Week, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Investors Business Daily, Publishers Weekly, Produced By, Wizard, and Animation, and he has been profiled on MTV News and American Latino.

As a Latino who spent his childhood in the housing projects on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Jeff champions the concerns of young people with his Never Surrender inspirational seminars and curricula.

He has also recently worked with Operation Respect, the international non-profit education and advocacy organization founded by Peter Yarrow and dedicated to instilling the values of leadership and empathy in young people. He earned a BA in Film Studies and Communication Arts & Sciences from Queens College, CUNY.

The video is posted on the MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo

MaRS is a non-profit innovation centre connecting science, technology and social entrepreneurs with business skills, networks and capital to stimulate innovation and accelerate the creation and growth of successful Canadian enterprises.