Beat Girl (2013) is so much more than just a film. This product is an example of interactive storytelling which unfolded across multiple media platforms. Beat Girl began its social media journey on Pinterest, of all platforms. In fact it was the very first scripted story to be told on this platform. Fans were able to use this medium to engage with the protagonist, through a photo novel approach.
In today’s rapidly interconnected world, stories have the ability to start in one medium and flow into another. Transmedia storytelling is a highly powerful tool, which can expand the publicity of a product across many audience groups and media forms. After pinterest, Beat Girl progressed to Wattpad, where it shaped a new form as interactive diary entries. This was followed by a novel by Jasmina Callay, which triggered a wave fan fiction spin offs which were later republished as e-books.
More? Beat Girl found a new following on YouTube through its mini-series, which was later recreated as a 5-part TV series. And just when you thought all bases had been covered, a mobile app was developed to even further engage the fans.
And after all that IMDb only gave it 4.5 stars out of 10… I’ll leave you with the trailer:
Featured Image: “Earphones and Arrows” by keith ellwood, licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Lazy Susan. 
Hey Susie. This is crazy cool, I hadn’t even heard of it before your post! It’s pretty crazy that is was specifically scripted to use Pinterest as a storytelling tool. Do you know if it was telling the same story or adding extra elements to the mystery? If you could have done ANYTHING extra, maybe explore the possibilities a transmedia experience could lead to, not only for media but society. How can we use transmedia experiences to drive public perceptions? And is this power positive or manipulative? Both? For example, this article http://www.academia.edu/30643828/Transmedia_Storytelling_Impact_on_Government_Policy_Change talks about how it can impact government policy. While this article https://www.inc.com/bill-carmody/transmedia-marketing-is-the-future-of-brand-storytelling.html explains the need to create an immersive (and highly persuaive) brand experience with transmedia. Transmedia storytelling can help us achieve social, political and commercial goals – definitely a power we should harness.
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Hi. Beat girl is undoubtedly a good example of transmedia storytelling. It represents how the participatory culture and the flow of content across channels enhanced by the advent of the Internet contributes to the promotion of the movie. I also love you meme which successfully sums up the whole process of transmedia of this film, which substantially makes your post more memorable. I suggest you could have a look at this article, which specifically analyzes how Pinterest helped to promote Beat girl – “the first scripted series to be told on Pinterest”.
https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/convergence-building-pinterest-with-beat-girl/
You mentioned that the film only got 4.5 stars out of ten on IMDb, so I would love to hear your opinion on it. Do you think it deserves more?
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This was an excellent example of transmedia storytelling. I would have never thought of Pinterest as a platform for storytelling. It’s unique how this branched off into different media platforms such as Wattpad, e-books, YouTube, mobile apps, and movies. Do you think that Beat Girl works to make a coherent whole through each of these mediums or are they separate story lines and fan fiction? I have never heard about it before but it is interesting to see the impact it has made to evolve into this multimedia story.
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What a cool example! All the platforms used for Beat Girl seem to go against the obvious media uses we tend to talk or think about in regards to transmedia, so it’s awesome that you found something really unique to talk about!
I would love to know more about which platforms you think were most successful in building the world around Beat Girl or engaging audiences, and what each platform brought to the story-telling process.
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Hi Susan,
Your post, “Transmedia? Beats me”, explores a fascinating and unique example of transmedia storytelling, one I had not heard of before reading your post. I really like the layout of this post, specifically in terms of how you break up text with relevant images to support what you are stating. In addition, your post is very clear and concise, which is assisted by the chronological journey to which you explain the various media channels “Beat Girl” has appeared on. I also loved the incorporation of your original meme, this further engages the reader and provides a deeper understanding of your example, in relation to how this product has progressed through multiple delivery channels. In regards to your post, I would suggest referencing one of the readings associated with the lecture for that week. For example, when exploring the notion of transmedia storytelling, you may refer to the following source, “http://www.stateofdigital.com/complete-guide-transmedia-storytelling/, which explicitly explains the concept to reader’s, ultimately providing an in-depth understanding to those who may not be familiar with the term. In addition to weekly readings, you may also like to incorporate an additional source that may explain how “Beat Girl” is an example of transmedia storytelling. The following video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWMRcaezZCE, clearly summarises the films progression. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blog post and believed the film, “Beat Girl” is an excellent example of modern day transmedia storytelling.
Brittany
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This was a perfect example of a trans-media story, it worked a lot like the example of The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, that I gave in my post about transmedia, minus an internet platform.
Over all this is a nice and punchy blog post and engaging enough to keep the readers attention. however I would like to suggest that you could have tried to make it funny in some way, that would have been better.
Ijumaa.
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