Reloaded & Revolutionized: How Internet Fan Culture Influences Showbusiness and Spawns Transmedia Texts
Reloaded and Revolutionized:
How Internet Fan Culture Influences Showbusiness and Spawns Transmedia Texts
(Spring 2008 // Sophomore Undergrad: 1,935 words)
Since its inception, media distributors have regarded the Internet as a platform not to be ignored. By the late ‘90s, the Internet could no longer be viewed as a simple trend and was accepted as an established forum for information exchange and networking. While as recently as the late 1990s, the Internet was in its elementary planning stages, a whole world of conceptual possibility with varied predictions of the future (Haeck 1), in the decade since, the Internet has revolutionized the way such media has to be created, promoted, and distributed. With the advent of a new platform that could change the way that fans collaboratively experience media, it quickly became an asset for creators who longed to shape universes more complex and interactive than two hours at the multiplex or a half-hour a week on the television could provide. In short, recent Internet-based fan culture has demanded a change in the way stories should be told, from the older and more traditional (albeit somewhat limited) linear format to the newer non-traditional non-linear format that utilizes all number of media platforms with the Internet as its diving board and point of entry.
As early as 1995, scholars were pondering the question of who would win the online battle to play host to the number of virtual communities that would soon be rising from the new user-friendliness of the Internet. This early they were still in stages of chaotic infancy, with no clear victor in sight. Which form would these fan communities take? Would they be message boards, would they be chat rooms, would they be e-mail list subscriptions (Armstrong)? While at the time the number of emerging different Internet-based platforms made it impossible to guess, one thing was clear: the Internet was going to be an important tool for later marketing and content flow, and since it enthused its eager users, it was important to be able to harness its strengths and use them for both aesthetic and commercial appeal if one wanted to move forward.
Perhaps the earliest example of some mixture of Internet marketing and Internet storytelling is 1999’s The Blair Witch Project. Over a year ahead of the film’s theatrical release, the film’s creators authored a website that perpetuated the myth of the Blair Witch and its consequent investigation by the ill-fated student filmmakers, without hinting that the events of The Blair Witch Project might be fictional. Indeed, this Internet publicity scheme spawned “[a fan base] you can hold onto longer” than you can with the traditional 30-second spot (Hegeman qtd. in Stanley), which in turn led to the film becoming “one of the most profitable films ever made” (Stanley), no doubt in thanks to its efforts to blur the lines between marketing and storytelling. So far this was viral marketing (defined as “a company’s activities to make use of customers’ communication networks to promote and distribute products”—essentially, usage of new technologies like the Internet in generating word-of-mouth advertising [Helm, 2]) at its best yet. Still, this was only an Internet-created fan base in its genesis, a mere harbinger of things to come.
Transmedia storytelling as a popular format that one might recognize today in truth seems to have begun with the Wachowski Brothers’ Matrix trilogy. Following their Warner Bros box office hit The Matrix in 1999, the brothers went to work on two more installments in what would ultimately constitute the Matrix trilogy, to be released in 2003. Whereas, however, the first installment of the Matrix trilogy had been intended to function as a standalone event, it was impossible for the Wachowskis or Warner Bros to ignore that it had generated a devoted Internet following. These fans were not passively interested in a way to pass a couple of hours; they were dedicated with “dogged devotion” to the width and breadth of the fictional universe the Wachowskis had created in The Matrix (Howell). Even the smallest details were subject to the fans’ inquisitiveness as they unearthed clues to deeper meanings set in place by the Wachowski brothers such as license plates on the passing cars in the films, like “DA203” and “IS5416,” which led to corresponding, relevant Bible passages (Daniel 2:3 and Isaiah 54:16) (Jenkins 99). In truth these tidbits planted in the films by the Wachowski brothers were put there to incite fan collaboration. There were simply too many allusions to too many things for one person to be able to find. With the Matrix trilogy, the Wachowskis had deliberately created a story “so large that it cannot be contained within a single medium,” custom-made for the “era of collective intelligence […] [in which] viewers get even more out of the experience if they compare notes and share resources than if they try to go it alone” (Jenkins 95).
In the beginning, The Matrix may have been simply a film. The decision to expand it into a trilogy, however, came with much more than two companion movies. It spawned a videogame, Enter the Matrix, released on the same day as the much-anticipated Matrix Reloaded in May 2003 (Graser). Enter the Matrix was not a typical companion game made to imitate the events of the films, but rather it was a game engineered with the intention of running concurrently and complementarily to the events of The Matrix Reloaded, not only adhering to but actually contributing to the Matrix canon, including characters and events from The Matrix Reloaded that are never actually shown in the film but are occasionally mentioned. In fact, several new scenes penned by the Wachowskis specifically for Enter the Matrix were shot on the same sets, with the same actors, using the same special effects (Gaudiosi). Similarly, The Matrix birthed a number of comics adhering to its universe, created by the fans and for the fans, commissioned not from Warner Bros but from the Wachowski brothers themselves. These, too, adhered to the Matrix canon, and contributed to the completeness of the world. But perhaps most notable of all these were a series of short animated films collectively titled The Animatrix made by well-respected animators handpicked by the Wachowskis to provide back stories to Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. The final kicker, however, was the massive online multiplayer game, The Matrix Online, which picked up where The Matrix Revolutions left off, allowing fans who would sorely miss the series to use all the collaborative knowledge they had gained in the past years about The Matrix’s universe and apply it to a game that allowed them to remain inside of it for as long as they wished (“Getting Caught Up in the Matrix”). Though this game went live in November 2003, it is still active.
None of these things were specifically demanded of the Wachowskis by Matrix fans. There would have been no uproar had there been no Animatrix, had there been no Enter the Matrix, had there been no Matrix comics or The Matrix Online. The simple and somewhat ironic fact is that until the Wachowskis’ expansion of the story of The Matrix across the various media platforms, these fans probably would not know what they were missing because until then, it simply did not exist. Many would say that the continuation of the franchise was unsuccessful. Critically, both Reloaded and Revolutions were panned (Jenkins 96), perhaps because the films at times seemed disjointed to those who had not actively participated in the Matrix’s fan culture. To be certain, there is more than one reference in the latter two films to the events depicted in Enter the Matrix and The Animatrix. (One prime example of this would be that one of the shorts, The Kid’s Story, tells the tale of a teenage boy who learns the secret of the Matrix and is saved from certain death by The Matrix’s main characters Neo and Trinity. This event is discussed in the film, but never explained, leaving many to infer that it was simply a case of poor storytelling whereas in reality, it was only that they had not heard that part of the story. It is arguable, however, whether this additive knowledge is contributory to or detracts from the final product. To be sure it influences it aesthetically in its own way, but this aesthetic influence appears to have confused many.) This, however, does not detract from the fact that fans still eagerly participate in Matrix culture. What is probably most important to note about the Wachowski brothers’ and Warner Bros’ experiment with The Matrix trilogy and its multi-platform storytelling is that it was brought about in response to a high user demand, and the high user demand was brought about essentially by networking. By getting together to pool their “collective intelligence” about The Matrix, fans collaboratively discovered a world more complex than a casual viewer could ever be expected to find.
In this way the fan culture and the creator culture are synergistic. Early on in the story of The Matrix the fan culture became the creator culture, as more and more the Wachowskis named Matrix missionaries from the crowds and told them to spread the word. In a sense, this fan network strengthened the Matrix franchise, turning a one-off film into an entire science-fiction universe, and in turn the Matrix franchise strengthened the network, one that began in 1999 with a younger Internet and countless disorganized fan sites and evolved by 2003 and through today into a massive, webbed, interconnected, and non-linear storytelling experience. Without the intervention of the Internet and its vast and varied fan culture, it is entirely possible that The Matrix would never have become as expansive as it is today.
In the early 2000s, nobody responsible for the crafting of this multi-platform experience had much of an idea what to expect. What was certain was that The Matrix in 1999 had, against all expectations, been a huge moneymaker and box office success. In their decision to change their storytelling technique, the Wachowskis and Warner Bros were taking a calculated risk. Nobody could have been certain whether their efforts would be a magnificent success or whether they would fail spectacularly. In the end the numbers were high and both Matrix follow-ups raked in seemingly endless ticket sales from curious spectators, despite an overall lack of user satisfaction. People still bought Enter the Matrix and The Animatrix in record numbers (“The Matrix Reloaded: Variety Profile”; “The Matrix Revolutions: Variety Profile”). As mentioned above, The Matrix Online, a pay subscription service, continues into this very day, still generating revenue and still moving the Matrix universe beyond the films; it even went so far as to kill off one of The Matrix’s major characters, off-screen where any casual Matrix viewer would have been unaware. Yes, there have been financial benefits from The Matrix’s interaction with the Internet—but each success story is coupled with an equal failure (see 2006’s Snakes on a Plane). Most importantly, however, the notion of utilizing all available platforms and relying on a network only the Internet can create to tell a story is one that continues into the present, adding that je ne sais crois to any given franchise, peppering any fictional vision with a smattering of reality through interactivity. Even now what is possibly the most elaborate alternate reality game (a virtual construct of a fictional world allowing any willing players to participate in real time and real space in real events) ever designed is in progress as a form of promotion and enhancement for Warner Bros’ upcoming release The Dark Knight (Lee). Nothing is certain with this relatively recent and ever-expanding platform they call the Internet, except that there is nowhere to go with it but forward.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Arthur, and John Hagel, III. “Real Profits from Virtual Communities.” McKinsey Quarterly 3 (1995): 126-141.
Gaudiosi, John. “’Matrix’ Vid Game Captures Feel.” Hollywood Reporter 6 Feb. 2003.
Graser, Marc, and Cathy Dunkley. “The Matrix Mantra.” Variety 19 Jan. 2003.
Haeck, Stephan H. “About the Nature and Future of Interactive Marketing.” Journal of Interactive Marketing 12.1.
Helm, Sabrina. “Viral Marketing – Establishing Customer Relationships by ‘Word-of-Mouse.’” Electronic Markets (July 2000).
Howell, Peter. “Year of the Cult Film.” Toronto Star12 Jan. 2003: D01.
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2006.
Lee, Chris. “Teasing Batman.” Los Angeles Times 24 Mar. 2008.
Stanley, T.L. “High-Tech Throwback – Marketing of ‘Blair Witch Project.’” Brandweek 27 Sept. 1999.
“Getting Caught Up in the Matrix.” Boston Globe 26 Mar. 2005: C1.
“The Matrix Reloaded: Variety Profile.” Variety.
“The Matrix Revolutions: Variety Profile.” Variety.
