MOVIEMAKER.COM SPRING 2020 61
S CREATIVE
DIRECTOR on
Assassin’s Creed,
I spearheaded
the creative on a
fast-burgeoning video game fran-
chise. I learned to juggle insanely
complex endeavors and to lead
massive teams. But my biggest
learning wasn’t about game de-
velopment; my breakthrough was
in realizing that the mythology
we were building transcended the
medium we were producing.
We live in world of flourish-
ing distribution platforms and
industry-wide upheaval. Stories
are no longer a way of breaking
from the mundane, but a door
into another universe that one
can inhabit through a myriad of
media: The time of the Story-
world is upon us.
How does a modern storyteller
go about navigating this new
reality? I would argue that the
solution to segmented audiences
lies not in producing bigger,
flashier films, but in crafting
worlds that are designed to tran-
scend the medium they inhabit.
To catch a first glimpse into
this insight, we need to go back to
the 1970s and the first installment
in the Star Wars universe. The
resounding success of this film
was not due to its stellar effects—
though they undeniably helped—
but to its ability to plunge the
audience into a massive, coher-
ent, and wholly original universe.
Moviegoers felt they were catch-
ing a glimpse into a much larger
world, and they wanted more.
At the time, the only way to
dive back into the world
George Lucas had created was
to get in line to watch the film
again, and to absorb as much as
possible about the world fromevery single scene.
Which the audience did,
fervently.
But in an age of massive enter-
tainment franchises, and with au-
diences now able to pull media at
will from their connected devices,
people have come to expect the
ability to extend their experiences
beyond a single medium. In fact,
before they’ve even left the the-
atre, fans are already on their
phones, researching this detail
and that about characters and
events from the film. These
details often lead them to a novel,
comic, or video game.
Film has become an entry
point into a larger world and
vice versa. One could even argue
that fans’ relationships with the
universes they love are closer
to consuming a service than to
using a single product. So why
then not think of these worlds
as living organisms, rather than
static one-offs?
What would this shift mean for
the modern filmmaker and the
companies that produce films?
And does this signal the end of
small and intimate character-
driven films? I don’t believe so.
I believe the impact on shift-
ing one’s focus to a Storyworld-
centric approach is twofold.
Firstly, it falls squarely on me-
dia companies to decide whether
they wish to continue identifying
with the media they distribute,
or switch to viewing themselves
through the lens of the narratives
they produce. In other words, it’s
about being a television studio vs.
a Storyworld studio. The former
can possibly become irrelevant
in the future, as audiences shift,
and new technologies emerge.
The later will always be relevant,
as stories are and will alwaysbe a part of the human experi-
ence. The shift from a medium-
centric entertainment model to a
Storyworld focus opens the door
to exploiting multiple media in
building a universe.
This approach is at the heart
of Reflector, the company I co-
founded. And it is the philosophy
through which we are crafting
our first Storyworld: Unknown 9
is an ambitious paranormal uni-
verse unfolding through novels,
comics, podcasts, video games,
shows, and digital media.
Secondly, it’s up to creators
to shift their approach. The focus
should be on crafting an original
framework for their Storyworld,
then drawing from its specificities
to create unique situations for
their characters. Take two iconic
action films: Die Hard and
John Wick. The former is a near-
flawless action movie that has
stood the test of time. The second
might not be the better film, from
a purely cinematic perspective,
but it has transcended its me-
dium in a way Die Hard never
did, because its characters andnarratives are drawn from its
wholly unique world, with its
own rules and mythology.
Whereas Die Hard has spun
a number of sequels featuring
John McClane in increasingly
improbable situations, the
John Wick franchise can draw
from the rich world it has spun
from the beginning. One could
easily imagine a novel, comic, or
video game set in the world of
John Wick... with or without its
title character.
Are we then destined to an
industry populated only by epic
science fiction franchises and
flashy action films? I don’t believe
so. One need look no further than
the recent entry into the Batman
Storyworld. Joker provided audi-
ences with an intimate and com-
pletely novel look into an existing
mythology through the subjective
lens of a complex character.
So perhaps the shift from
singular tentpole productions to
deep Storyworlds is also a shift
from ever-larger and oft-forgetta-
ble one-offs... to more enduring
character-driven pieces. MMA
WELCOME TO
STORYWORLD
BY ALEXANDRE AMANCIO