Maybe it’s the strength of Nathan Fillion’s performance of “Richard Castle,” or maybe it’s the scope and skill from the writers of “Castle,” but the writer at the centre of prime-time procedural “Castle” has such a distinct character voice, with such a richly detailed backstory, that it almost seems effortless to create a believable website for this character.

RichardCastle.net is the official homepage for Richard Castle, a long-time author who has found inspirado shadowing a foxy NYPD cop. His site contains a blog which sees the writer reflecting on each week’s case, from lessons he’s learned, to sharing easter eggs such as wedding programs and other photos. The rest of the site includes a self-written bio, a Q&A, and a complete listing of his books, including the “out of print” editions that may not have covers (yet), but live on in proper “Castle” chronology. 

I love that the site also links out to Richard Castle’s Hyperion books author page (which to their credit, doesn’t break the conceit) as well as his Twitter and Facebook profile. But the best part of the whole thing is that they keep Castle’s voice consistent and active through every page, so you really feel like this is his site, and that he would say/write all of these things. 

And now, after reading Frank Rose’s “Art of Illusion,” I also appreciate one aspect of “Castle” that has made the show such a true transmedia hit; The world of “Castle” is richly detailed with a very specific mythology and well thought out, which makes world-extension natural and satisfying from a fan perspective. On the surface, “Castle” is another buddy-cop police procedural with a will-they-or-won’t-they storyline at the heart of it. The NYPD cops themselves don’t have too rich of a world of their own (besides New York city itself), they function just as players in solving weekly mysteries, but Castle… Castle is the perfect vessel for multi-platform storytelling. 

It comes down to details… and with TV, we can get those details episodically, morsel by morsel, because it’s not constrained by running time like films. And as those details come out, mythology is built… and it’s up to the creators of these shows to have at least some idea of what these details mean, or else it just adds up to one big shaggy dog story, ala “Lost” or “Prison Break.”

But Castle, as a man with many passions, experiences, friends in low places, high places, memories, talents, and a career, becomes a larger-than-life foil that can’t be contained through the episodic broadcast alone! And because he has all these things, he can name drop something without having to explain it in a big way, and that allows fans to imagine what that thing he named could be. A good example are the old book titles… he doesn’t go into what each old book was about, but fans can imagine. Then, a site like RichardCastle.net takes it that much further by creating a chronology and synopsis for all these Castle titles, allowing fans to go beyond “What’s it about,” to “What could happen”? In my opinion, this is when TV sites work best, and I love “Castle” and all the platforms they branch out to in order to bring one of the best characters on TV today to life. 

(Source: richardcastle.net)

Personally, I really like seeing small sites related to “in-world” properties for shows, and NBC delivers those in spades for much of its programming, including “The Office” and “30 Rock.” Now, I hate to sound like a broken record when it comes to NBC sitcoms, but like “The Office,” I’m not really a fan of “30 Rock,” so while I appreciate seeing these mini-sites, I don’t really get the in-show element they’re referring to.

With that in mind, it does underline a problem that mini-sites like these have as a genre, is that they “preach to the converted,” and don’t seem to be efforts to bring in new audiences to a series. Should they?

I think one of the touchstones for sites like these is the “Oceanic Airlines” site, which was paired with “Lost” on ABC, and fed into that viral rabid-ness that entering “the numbers” into a flight schedule created. However, to achieve that kind of viral-ness with a mini-site is really hit or miss.

I do also like these kinds of sites, because they are relatively easy to create for small web teams, and allow for some creative innovation. I would like to see more “original photography” involved from on-set props to give a little more of a seamless broadcast/online crossover, but for NBC, they deserve props for the breadth of sites they deliver.

(Source: nbc.com)

A look at our transmedia storytelling world, and the (mostly) successful approaches to engage audiences in a deeper way, “The Art of Immersion” by Frank Rose is a must-read for anyone in the creative industry today. Rose accounts for a wide variety of approaches that have met in an intersection of video games, board games, movies, tv, advertising and more, illustrating the reality of today’s entertainment that storytellers must not ignore in order to engage the widest audiences who demand multi-platform engagement.

Rose is a long-time contributor to Wired magazine, a former contributor to Fortune magazine, and a seasoned veteran of the media conference circuit. 

In “The Art of Immersion,” Rose picks the brain of pioneers in immersive storytelling, including Jordan Weisman, a video game designer who likens his work to “Dungeons & Dragons,” Elan Lee, who opines on what kind of entertainment the internet is telling us it wants, Howard Roffman and the creation of a canon “Star Wars” universe, Ian Schafer, CEO of AMC’s digital marketing agency “Deep Focus,” Damon Lindelof, one of the producers behind “Lost,” NBC execs responsible for bringing “The Office” online, “CSI” creator Anthony Zuiker, ad minds behind “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and experts in neuroscience and gaming. 

Overall, the book is an inspiring look at those who’ve attempted to create story worlds, and the pitfalls they faced, and how they were overcome. Big examples Rose examines are the universes of “Star Wars” and James Cameron’s “Avatar,” and looks at reasons why “Avatar” failed as a game franchise while what worked for “Star Wars” and its multi-platform extensions.

When exploring cases in engagement in television, it’s interesting to hear from Lindelof and his fellow “Lost” creators, and how they more-or-less stumbled into transmedia, and how “The Office” turned to the web to whip their fans into a frenzy. 

There are two lessons that I took away from “The Art of Immersion.” The first is the importance that any story, be it one rooted in film, TV or advertising, needs to have a well-thought out mythology — or at least room for one to exist and be invented at a later time… these are the very flesh of where fans will grab on with their fascination, keeping them engaged and engrossed until the storyteller reveals their latest twist.

The other is the need for transmedia producers, and those who adapt stories for online and other platforms, to become stewards of these universes and stories; to ultimately understand the narrative, the themes, and the smallest of world-details in order to wholly deliver this content in a meaningful way to audiences. You need to know the details of the world, but you also need the bigger picture. 

One of the parts I miss about “Lost” in the granular experience of picking apart every little object on screen to unearth new meaning and clues and in-jokes in regards to the show. Many of the clues involved the books characters were reading, from the Others’ interest in Stephen Hawking and Stephen King to Sawyer’s beach readers, including “Watership Down” and “Bad Twin.” (“Bad Twin” is another transmedia element from “Lost,” which was a novel the series published by a fictional author. I never read it, but those who’ve seen the finale may pick up on the symbolic significance of the title.)

So because two of the many amazing writers of “Lost,” Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, are now working on the new fairy-tale series, “Once Upon a Time,” it appears they’re sticking to some of their old habits, and continuing to hide easter eggs for fans to find. As a very casual viewer of “Once Upon a Time,” I was actually surprised to discover many of these when I found the “Storybrooke Secrets” section of their website.

“Storybrooke Secrets” gives away a few of the hidden references per each episode, but then asks fans to contribute the things which they also found in each episode. This is a far more “casual” version of what happened with “Lost,” which instead of unfolding over several forums and blogs and podcasts, is all contained in a tidy space within the show’s official website. But for “Once Upon a Time,” I think it works. Other sites and forums will trade on this information regardless of if ABC has an official outlet for it, but by having it and confirming some of their own secrets, it makes it more of a “first stop” for fans than anything else.

I think that the section could have a better design and more functional layout… as it currently seems to be a glorified photo gallery with a synopsis and user comments. Maybe there would be a way to add more photos and screen grabs pointing out what users have found? Maybe even video clips? However, I do like it a lot, and I hope that when it comes to season two of “Once Upon a Time,” that they build on this.

(Source: beta.abc.go.com)