SKAM A TRANSMEDIA CONVERGENCE OF THE REAL AND THE FICTIONAL
Minor Transmedia for Creative Industries Alba de Rueda Vรกzquez
ABTRACT
Skam is a Norwegian series that was launched in 2015 and that gained great importance in both the national and international outlook at the premiere of its second season. Due to the success achieved by the reality of their stories, their seasons where consumed all around the world in original version. Communities were created to translate the episodes into many different languages so that everyone could consumed it. Much has been said about the series, about its montage and its stories, about how it was created and who appeared on it. This is why is interesting to know what makes this reality-series transmedia and how they achieved the mentioned success.
KEY WORDS: Transmedia, reality, nature, cross-media, teenagers, social networks, interaction, diegesis convergence.
IND 01
introduction
02 statement
03 what had been said about Skam
05
DEX 17 conclusion
18 advise
19 resources model analysis
INTRODUCTION The concept of Transmedia Storytelling was introduced for the first time in an article called Technology Review, written in 2003 by Henry Jenkins A transmedia narrative is understood as “a particular narrative form that expands through different systems of signification (verbal, iconic, audiovisual, interactive, etc.) and Media (cinema, comics, television, video games, theater, etc.)” (Scolari, 2009, p. 24) Therefore, when we talk about a transmedia storytelling we talk about a universe that can be consumed as a complete experience, exploring different media and stories that converge on a mothership or we can just stay in some of the stories that compose this universe, because each of them must be able to be consumed as a complete product. In consequence, Henry Jenkins (2005) defines it like this: “Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.” Once the concept is presented it is easy to see how many of these narratives invade our culture today. Marvel, Harry Potter, Star Wars, even Barbie are just some of the many cases that we can currently find. But the concept of transmedia is not based only on storytelling, as are the two case of the three examples mentioned, but it can be used as a marketing tool or even a journalistic one. The fact of doing something transmedia is that gives it a value and a wealth that makes it excel over everything that is not. That is why audiovisual industries are increasingly opting for Transmedia productions, from the greatest convergence of diegesis to the most everyday and simple stories... This is where the study theme comes in. Julie Andem and Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) created in 2015 a series that narrates the daily life of teenagers from Oslo, focused on particular problems such as social pressure, sexual abuse, mental illness, homosexuality, friendship, relationships and religion. The complete series is divided into 4 seasons, each one dedicated to a specific character Eva, Noora, Isaak and Sana, in respective order. The curious and what has made this series succeed is not only the achievement of the spectator’s identification with the characters, but the way it’s narrated. We speak in this case of a broad narrative both transmedia and cross-media. This is why the Seven Cores of Transmedia Storytelling model is suitable for analyzing this successful series.
STATEMENT
In a world where the Science Fiction is so present and where the special effects and the shocking are so important, Skam, bets on naked and real stories, also on a raw and undecorated montage. All of this, using transmedia storytelling and presenting the viewer its own reality is what has made it so successful.
01
02
WHAT HAD BEEN S
Lorenzo Mejino, a Diaro Vasco online newpaper writer, made a review of Skam in 2017:
Emelie Bengtsson, Rebecka Källquist & Malin Sveningsson published a paper for Nordicom Review (Journal from the Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research): “The motives described above are in line with common motives for watching TV series: entertainment and social interaction. However, even though overall motives for watching Skam were similar to those for other TV shows, by its special design, Skam offered new prerequisites and incentives, especially with regard to the motive of social interaction. What is different with Skam is not so much the motives for watching but rather how these motives are actualized.” (Bengtsson, Källquist and Sveningsson, n.d., p.71)
“I have to acknowledge my surprise at the quality of the performance of the series, which, theoretically, should not interest me at all because of my age, but the big series are the ones that break the barriers of their initial goals and Skam did it from half of the first season, being one of the proposals that I have enjoyed the most this year, which I would have never expected or assumed.”
Steffen Krüger and Rustad from the U made a pre-publi the article publish New Media in 201
“As discussions o indicate, sex, alc use, for example, they would appea audience’s socialnamely, as self- ev idealised and slig cets of early adult perspective on th that does not pas rather wants to pr by painting a true (Krüger and Rusta
SAID ABOUT SKAM
d Gry Cecilie University of Oslo, ication version of hed in Television & 17
on the webpage cohol and drug are presented as ar on the users’ / -media accounts, vident, somewhat ghtly ironized fathood. The show’s hese issues is one ss judgement but rovoke discussion e-to-life picture.” ad, 2017, p.7)
Maite López, films and series critic of No Submaries maganize, published a review in 2017 about Skam and she concluded like this: “Today in No Submarines, we add Skam also to this list of cult series. There might be many series starring by teenagers but few manage to convey a message as positive and encouraging as the series of Julie Depot.”
Vinícius Guida, from the Federal de Juiz de For a University, Brazil, wrote an paper about how transmedia worked in the public Norwegian television when Skam was launched: “The ability with which the team handles and suits to the customs of the public, propitiated by the creative freedom allowed by regulated models of public communication, creates a complex ground to be explored by the public. The series produced on low budget was able to attract young people to the television and to promote engagement of the public.” (Guida, n.d., p.11)
The Seven
Cores of Skam
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MODEL ANALYSIS
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Skam series, as mentioned above, has four seasons focused on a particular character’s point of view. As the seasons progress the stories become harder, as they deal with more delicate issues and situations. Season one is narrated from the point of view of Eva, a young woman dealing with social pressure, toxic relationships, dependence and loneliness and that discovers feminism and friendship. Along with his story, are presented to his friends Noora, Sana, Vilde and Chris, as well as her boyfriend Joonas and their friend Isaak. The second season is about Noora and her relationship with William, a boy who ends up being her boyfriend when they are completely opposite poles, it narrates a passionate and intense love. The most recurrent topics of this season are love, friendship, food disorders, self-esteem, physical and sexual violence and, in a mild way, the refugee crisis in the Norwegian outlook. Isaak is the protagonist of the third season, narrates the relationship that has the boy with an older person and the problems that it implies. The season focuses on the issue of homosexuality, intertwine it with sexual identity, mental disorders, friendship and above all, homophobia. As a final dish, the fourth season presents Sana in a deeper way, as young Muslim woman who faces her personal image, cyberbullying, forbidden loves and the religion itself. It is also explained a little more the celebration of Russ and tells a little history of some characters who for one reason or another do not have their own season. These four seasons, they had a welcome and a number of fans so immense, inside and outside the country, that many countries decided to remake the series, respecting the narrative line but changing names and adapting the history to the culture of each country. Learn more
WEB
Character’s Instagram profiles
Television
YouTube
Instagram series profile
Skam is a web-TV series, which means that it has mixed traditional serial consumption, one chapter per week, with a more current consumption based on social networks and transmedia narratives. Although at the beginning it seems a little chaotic consumption the dynamics is simple. The series uses a web page that contains all the content viewers have to consume in a week. From Monday to Friday the producer is hanging clips from twenty seconds to two minutes, along with screenshots of chat conversations and social media posts. The weekly consumption of all these small parts make the viewer have a broader view and understand the history much better. At the end of the week, all the clips are gathered in an episode that will hang on both the Web page and the series linear programming. They also use playlist on Spotify, to bring closer The spectator’s taste of each character or the season. They hang content on YouTube about their own stories and even about how the series was made. Learn more
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skam r THE NETHERLANDS skam nl Season 1 (Isa) => 09/16 - 11/25 (2018) Season 2 (Liv) => 04/28 - 06/29 (2019)
UNITED STATES Skam Austin Season 1 (Megan) => 04/28 - 06/29 (2018) Season 2 (Grace) => 03/22 - 05/24 (2019)
FRANCE Skam france Season 1 (Emma) => 02/09 - 04/06 (2018) Season 2 (Manon) => 04/13 - 06/22 (2018) Season 3 (Lucas) => 01/25 - 03/29 (2019) Season 4 (Imane) => 04/05 - 06/07 (2019) Season 5 => (2020)
SPAIN skam españa Season 1 (Eva) => 09/16 - 11/25 (2018) Special => 01/01 (2019) Season 2 (Nora) => 04/01 - 06/03 (2019)
Information retrieved f
emakes
from Skam Wiki (Fandom)
DENMARK SKAM. DANISH PLAY Season 1 (Eva) => 09/15 - 11/04 (2017) Season 2 (Noora) => 09/14 - 11/02 (2018) Season 3 (Isaac) => 09/29 - 10/-- (2019) Season 4 (Sana) => (2020) BELGIUM wtfock Season 1 (Jana) => 10/06 - 12/21 (2018) Season 2 (Zรถe => 04/27 - present (2019)
GERMANY DRUCK Season 1 (Eva) => 03/24 - 06/08 (2018) Season 2 (Noora) => 12/21 - 03/01 (2018) Season 3 (Isaack) => 03/15 - 05/17 (2019) Special => 06/14 (2019) Season 4 (Sana) => (2019) ITALY Skam italia Season 1 (Eva) => 03/29 - 06/08 (2018) Season 2 (Eleonora) => 10/15 - 12/24 (2018) Season 3 (Isak) => 03/15 - 06/07 (2019)
But, what makes Skam so interesting? With no doubts, the convergence between fictional and real diegesis. This means that the series incorporates the fictional people of fiction into the real world, linking both universes. It does this in a very simple way: if the characters are partying at 3:00 in the morning, the post or stories on social networks will be hung on real day and time, as if it were happening at that time. This creates an even stronger connection between the viewer and the characters, because by breaking the barrier of fictional the viewer raises the idea that the characters in the series are equal or even more real than the viewers. To explain why the concept of transmedia enters in terms of what refers to Skam the model of the Seven Cores of Transmedia Storytelling can be used in a very clear way. Using it to enumerate a series of concepts or actions that make a content (audiovisual, branding or journalistic) transmedia. The concepts are as follows:
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SPREADABILITY VS. DRILLABILITY Henry Jenkins defines Spredability as the “capacity of the public to engage actively in the circulation of media content through social networks and in the process expand its economic value and cultural worth.” (Jenkins, 2009) This is easy to observe in Skam series since all of it is based, as mentioned above, in the cohesion of the traditional with the current, which means it use social networks to get closer to its audience. But it is not only the fact of approaching, the series leaves a content so current, interesting, close and, above all, real that the audience feel the need of interacting, not only with the profiles of the series itself, but also with those of the characters. The audience itself brings credibility and value to the series in the moment they share and interact with the characters as if they were real. The spectators themselves expand the story, give it both cultural and economic value to the series, as they take it to those places it hasn’t been able to come by itself. Regarding to Drillability, taking it as a concept of deep exploration on the spectator’s part, is easy to relate it with Skam, the viewer continually finds the opportunity to delve into the content, from the fastest way: by following the content that is posted weekly on the website, up to the broader research by observing and deepening the content that the characters themselves provide, or even by looking at what is discussed in social networks. It is always possible to discover things from the strongest fans, because they see things that
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CONTINUITY VS. MULTIPLICITY “Transmedia franchises do indeed seek to construct a very strong sense of ‘continuity’ which contributes to our appreciation of the ‘coherence’ and ‘plausibility’ of their fictional worlds and that many hardcore fans see this kind of ‘continuity’ as the real payoff for their investment of time and energy in collecting the scattered bits and assembling them into a meaningful whole.” (Jenkins, 2009) Which means that franchises or in this case the Skam series bring to The spectator a continuity in all the expansions or platforms that makes sense, is logical and maintains the history and aesthetics of the main product. Logically, Skam needs to do this so that its viewers can navigate from the Web page to the profiles of each and every character without getting lost in the story and following the narrative thread of what is happening in the series. As mentioned above, this is something that they do quite well, not just because they have excellently connected social networks with the web, but they use that diegetic convergence to bring out the story of fictional diegesis and continue it in the real one. The multiplicity of Skam is relatively simple, understanding it as it “allows fans to take pleasure in alternative retellings, seeing the characters and events from fresh perspectives, and comics publishers trust their fans to sort out not only how the pieces fit together but also which version of the story any given work fits within” (Jenkins, 2009) It can be said with total rectitude that this is observed in the remakes that many countries have
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IMMERSION VS. EXTRACTABILITy This is the quality that made Skam to have such a great success. The ability to make people feel the connection to the story, they have created stories so real and everyday that identification is assured. “In immersion, then, the consumer enters into the world of the story, while in extractability, the fan takes aspects of the story away with them as resources they deploy in the spaces of their everyday life.� (Jenkins, 2009) This is exactly what Skam did and they achieved it in a very curious way. The creator wanted the series to be as naked and real as possible, so she decided to travel through Norway and interview many students in their high schools, she documented how the lives of those young people really were, she took piece by piece of everything that surprised her or called a little her attention, mixing all, she created the stories of Skam in the most natural y real way she could, which certainly gets people to enter into the story and feel it as their own. (Guida, 2018)
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WORLDBUILDING “The concept of world building seems closely linked to the earlier principles of immersion and extractability since they both represent ways for consumers to engage more directly with the worlds represented in the narratives, treating them as real spaces which intersect in some way with our own lived realities” (Jenkins, 2009) Skam has not created any world for itself, but uses the real world, the reality of a normal life in Oslo, it took every detail and showed how life works there. So it have not been required to create any different universe, ours was already rich enough. is observed in the remakes that many countries have created using the fame and success they obtained in Norway.
SERIALITY “We can think of transmedia storytelling then as a hyperbolic version of the serial, where the chunks of meaningful and engaging story information have been dispersed not simply across multiple segments within the same medium, but rather across multiple media systems.” (Jenkins, 2009) We talk here about the ability to continue and engage the viewer with a story that can be continued with the Transmedia perspective. That is to say, the story can be expanded in different formats or platforms, but that each one of them must be able to be consumed as a complete product. Skam has a weekly episode, which we can call mothership, which is surrounded by social networks of the characters, and conversations in chats; each one of these can be consumed individually and tell different but complementary stories, and also they can be used to add to the main story. But they are always compressible on their own. 15
SUBJECTIVITY “A third function of transmedia extensions may be to show us the experiences and perspectives of secondary characters.” (Jenkins, 2009) a
Skam has no way of allowing stories to be counted from different point of view, since each season tells a different story as mentioned previously.
PERFORMANCE There is a difference between Cultural attractor and Cultural activators: “Cultural attractors draw together a community of people who share common interests - even if it is simply the common interest in figuring out who is going to get booted from the island next. Cultural activators give that community something to do.” (Jenkins, 2009) The only power the user has is to comment the episodes, and interact with the characters on their social networks. Also they have some Wikis.
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Conclusion The entire analysis done previously shows that Skam has many of the characteristics that make a product fit into the category of Transmedia Storytelling, although there are things that could still improve in this regard. Skam has been, and continues to be thanks to its remakes, a series with great success for being so pure and real. A played with transmedia narratives to get closer to their audience and make them interact with the series. This mixture of transmedia and reality is what has made it succeed. As for the original version, objective of showing the country and to protest mitted, as is the case cism. It has been a series of success leaving asispecial effects and visual. It has opted the natural, a simand has given history and the Without any city has been made it
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Norway, to achieved the reality that there is in the some issues quite comof homophobia or raable to achieve a lot de the fantastic, the the recreation of the for amateur actors to ple composition importance to the dialogues. doubt, his simpliwhat has succeed.
ADVIsE
As recommendations, it would have been quite interesting to create a little more interaction between the spectator and the protagonists, giving the possibility of chatting with them by WhatsApp or Telegram as have already some series. Also, to create a place on the Internet, or within the same website where the fans could share opinions or situations would have been interesting. Have created an informative section for the international fans, where were explain the national issues mentioned in the series would have brought it more worth, because many of these issues are not known internationally and to understand some clips of the series you need to know what they are. If they had provided that information or a content cure they would have saved the fans time to understand those issues, as Russ Buss thing or the Norwegian immigration crisis. Finally, having a different perspective on the stories could have been interesting two, because different points of view make situations more understandable. There are plenty of characters to do it. Not necessarily in another season, but in clips or post on Instagram or YouTube.
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RESOU Bengtsson, E., Källquist, R., & Sveningsson, M. (2018). Combining New and Old Viewing Practices, Nordicom Review, 39(2), 63-77. doi: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2018-0012 El Cañonazo. (n.d.). SKAM: los secretos del éxito noruego. Retrieved May 25, 2019, from http://elcanonazo.com/skam-serie-transmedia/ Elizabeth de Luna. (May 29, 2018). What is SKAM? A Beginner’s Guide [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFcpM2CnWcM&t=332s Fandom. (n.d.). Skam Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia. Retrieved May 29, 2019, from https://skam.fandom.com/wiki/Skam_Wiki Gabelas, J. A. (2017b, January 20). Skam: rutas adolescentes en la órbita transmedia. Retrieved May 25, 2019, from http://educarencomunicacion.com/2017/01/skam-rutas-adolescentes-en-la-orbita-transmedia/ Google Sites. (n.d.). SKAM Series. Retrieved June 15, 2019, from https://sites.google.com/view/skam-series/p%C3%A1gina-principal?authuser=0 Guida, V. (2018) SKAM: A Narrativa Transmídia na Televisão Pública Norueguesa. ComuniCon 2018 from: https://www.academia. edu/37855831/SKAM_A_Narrativa_Transm%C3%ADdia_na_Televis%C3%A3o_P%C3%BAblica_Norueguesa Jenkins, H. (2010, December 12). Revenge of the Origami Unicorn: The Remaining Four Principles of Transmedia Storytelling. Retrieved May 29, 2019, from http:// henryjenkins.org/blog/2009/12/revenge_of_the_origami_unicorn.html Jenkins, H. (2010, June 21). Transmedia Education: the 7 Principles Revisited. Retrieved May 29, 2019, from http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2010/06/transmedia_education_ the_7_pri.html Jenkins, H. (2010b, December 12). The Revenge of the Origami Unicorn: Seven Principles of Transmedia Storytelling (Well, Two Actually. Five More on Friday). Retrieved May 29, 2019, from http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2009/12/the_revenge_of_the_origami_uni.html?rq=seven
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URCES Krüger, S., & Rustad, G. C. (2019). Coping with Shame in a Media-saturated Society: Norwegian Web-series Skam as Transitional Object. Television & New Media, 20(1), 72–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476417741379 LadiesUnicorn. (April 19, 2017). ¿Como hay que ver Skam? [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6HbytZXnvw&t=246s López, M. (2017, September 1). SKAM: la importancia del diálogo y la empatía en su narrativa. Retrieved May 30, 2019, from https://nosubmarines. com/2017/09/01/skam-serie-critica-temporada-1-2-3-4/ MediaMorfosis. (October 26, 2017). SKAM Case Julie Andem / Mari Magnus [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=i6gCzxrtIPs&t=308s Mejino, L. (2017, January 9). Skam (Noruega) . La última sensación viral mundial. Retrieved May 30, 2019, from https://blogs.diariovasco.com/series-gourmets/2017/01/09/skam-noruega-la-ultima-sensacion-viral-mundial/ NRK TV. (n.d.). SKAM. Retrieved June 1, 2019, from https://tv.nrk. no/serie/skam Scolari, C.A., (2013). Narrativas transmedia: Cuando todos los medios cuentan. España. Deusto Skam Webpage Norway. http://skam.p3.no/om/ Skam. (n.d.). Om serien | Skam. Retrieved June 1, 2019, from http://skam.p3.no/om/ Vildoza, A. (2017, September 27). SKAM: los secretos del éxito noruego. Retrieved May 25, 2019, from http://www.transeuntes.net/2017/09/27/skam-los-secretos-del-exito-noruego/
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skam