Digital Synergies: Making Collaboration Work

An NMK event report from March 2001. By Colin Kirkpatrick

In the brave new world of interactive TV, broadband internet, wireless applications and games consoles, it is not just types of media that are converging, but production teams too. The creation of multi-layered, non-linear, cross-genre digital content requires skills and personnel from established media, such as television, and new media, such as the internet. But when it comes to finding partners for converging-media projects, old and new media professionals can make for uneasy bedfellows.

As in any relationship, the two parties often start out with the wrong idea about one another. Interactive content consultant Stephen Jeffery-Poulter jokes that people who work in new media view their television counterparts as self-indulgent, egotistical luvvies who spend their lives swanning around on location, while those on the film and TV side cast web developers as geeky upstarts whose one desire is to take great film, degrade the quality, reduce it to the size of a postage stamp and slap it on the internet.

In reality, Jeffery-Poulter maintains, the two sides can learn a lot from one another. Film and television producers, for instance, are the acknowledged experts when it comes to engaging with audiences, creating compelling narratives and developing characters and personalities. New media creatives, on the other hand, have an unrivalled understanding of non-linear navigation, user interfaces, personalisation and programming environments.

Mick Sawyer of digital media agency Xymbio is a former television producer who has been working in interactive media for 10 years, and has seen interest in bringing television expertise into the new media industry soar. He feels that many web operations do not invest enough time and energy (not to mention money) in editorial management — something that has always been of paramount importance in TV — and that this is an alarming oversight for an industry in which content needs to be contstantly updated. With their understanding of narrative form and the power of the visual image, TV professionals are adept at deciding not only what to include in a media project, but also what to leave out, and this greatly improves the experience for the end user.

These views are echoed by Tony Steyger, formerly of Victoria Real, and now head of broadband production studio The Bridge. He believes that the editorial failings of many new media projects can be attributed to the way in which production teams are structured, with creative directors, account directors and senior designers all in charge of separate aspects of a project, but nobody claiming responsibility for the overall vision. Because of this, there is a tendency for new media companies to be consigned to a back-end, 'heavy engineering' role when they work on parallel broadcasting projects, while their television collaborators assume editorial control of all content.

Another thorny issue for cross-media production teams is the question of finance, as neither side is likely to be familiar with the business models employed by their partners. New media creatives, for example, are used to dealing with the additional costs incurred by technical problems during production, but for television producers this is "like going out on a shoot and having to pay towards the development of the camera", according to Mick Sawyer. Moreover, converging media projects are not cheap to produce: while platform providers are fond of repeating the mantra that 'content is king', most of their budgets are spent on technical infrastructures, rather than content development.

On the flipside, converging media offer independent TV production companies an opportunity to explore alternative funding models to the traditional, top-down 'feast or famine' commissioning model of the broadcasting industry. Tony Steyger believes that TV producers can learn a lot from their new media partners about the ownership and funding of interactive projects, and envisages a world in which producers can establish their ideas online, and perhaps secure funding from sources such as corporate sponsors, before they approach broadcasters to negotiate commissioning and rights.

So, what should prospective partners do if they are considering working together? First of all, they should think about collaborating on a smaller project before moving on to larger productions, advises Stephen Jeffery-Poulter. Look at current projects and think about how these could be extended onto new platforms, or work out how to add new functionality to old completed projects. If you are a television producer, dig out all your old scripts, pilots and non-commissioned material and assess their potential as interactive applications. Before you do anything, develop a coherent joint strategy and come to an agreement over rights, ownership and expenditure — and ensure that both parties have this in writing. Finally, if your initial project is a success, you can think about working on a large-scale development together. It could be the start of a beautiful friendship.