Exploring the Depths of 'The Matrix'

Have you ever had a dream that you were absolutely certain it was real? Envision that you weren't able to awaken. How would you know the difference between the dream and reality? This is the underlying theme to one of the most sought out transmedia executions the world has ever seen.

​The multitude of ways we communicate in today’s society allows for an alternate depiction in the ways stories are now told. The array electronics, platforms, and the Internet gives us the ability to create and or receive, stories like never before. This digital storytelling allows for a new approach of captivating and connecting with an audience by taking advantage of photos, videos, animation in addition to sound and text.​ ​A way to take advantage of these digital forms is through transmedia storytelling, a method of creating a unique experience across various platforms and mediums, such as television, movies, books, comics, video games and the Internet. By diversifying the delivery of the story, the storyteller can influence a vast audience as well as add depth to the overall plot and storyline.

Jenkins breaks down the process of transmedia storytelling with seven core principles, these principles depend on the production of content which an audience can both participate and engage with through various different platforms and mediums. Where transmedia differs from traditional approaches, is the way each platform is equipped with different storylines unique to each medium, but are all affiliated and associated as parts of a whole to tell the full story.

Worldbuilding

A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best—so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics; its world might be explored through game play or experienced as an amusement park attraction (Jenkins, 2006: 95–6). Within ​‘The Matrix’, the story can be absorbed through the many movies, but to fully experience the complex world of ​'The Matrix',​ consumers must also interact across other platforms and mediums such as comics, short movies, books and video games. Each aspect conveys the story from a different angle, complementing the narrative and contributing to a new understanding from each individual medium.

Spreadability Vs Drillability

Spreadability is the ability in which the audience can actively engage with content via social networks and enhance the value of the work as a whole. One of the governing factors as to why ‘The Matrix​’ ​was so successful in regards to transmedia​ ​is the way it sparks a desire for committed fans to hunt down information and easter eggs hidden within an array of multiple media channels, allowing for strengthened insights into the world. The secret of successful transmedia franchises or complexes is that they make us into ideal transmedia consumers, ones who will in fact construe satisfying transmedia meanings across these media presentations of universes (Lemke, 2011: 587). This quote gains its relevance by investigating the complexity and diversity of the worlds within ​‘The Matrix’. ​The way the story is constructed prompts the fans to then dive deeper into the story, gaining a more meaningful and engaging experience. Having found the information on their own influences the consumer to feel as though they were the original discoverers of this hidden piece of content, thus prompting them to share what they have found and allowing for a greater connection and understanding of the overall narrative. Fans of well-known narratives now have access to many more channels to navigate these worlds and compare their findings with other fans, following online communities and strengthening their love for the narrative.

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Continuity Vs Multiplicity

Every piece of the story is not only associated to each other but they all remain in sync throughout the narrative. So, while the majority of the stories within the world branch out into their own directions, each individual branch is connected to the original content in some way or another. The substance of each branch has its own unique narrative but is autonomous among the rest. This ensures that an audience can immures themselves within each sub-story on its own, or in no particular order while the overall narrative still plays within a defined timeline. As each of the story intersect one another, each of the different variations and mediums have been created in a way not to be consumed chronologically; to do this it would require a viewer to pause the movie, pick up a game controller, and then interrupt that by reading a comic. “As interpreters of transmedia projects, audience does not see isolated parts or systems. They see them in the relationship between themselves and in relation to the context of their own knowledge. Thus, there is not only what they know literally, but what they conjecture, imagine and presuppose. This repertoire rebuilds the road of the sign, and in a way, reveals it. With the interpreter’s constructive participation (semiosis), an image, object, shape, sound or color can say a thousand words” (Gambarato and Malaguti, 2006: 158).

Immersion Vs Extractability

Most of transmedia stories are still being designed as closed system, including both independent and major productions. Although participation is one of the TS pillars, user empowerment is a trend, and concepts such as prosumption and produsage are a hit, it seems that producers nevertheless want to retain control of their projects and user’s contributions are largely restricted yet (Bolin, 2010). This is not the case for ‘The Matrix’, experiencing the entirety of its story cannot be done in a laid-back manner, as the audience must immerse themselves into the multitude of video games for a complete understanding of the narrative as a whole. While characters like Niobe and Ghost have only supporting roles in the movies, our feelings towards them will solely depend on whether we had played the video game ‘Enter the Matrix’ or not. ​In this game the player takes first-person control of these two characters, spending countless hours defending their lives and completing countless missions. This provokes the player to have a stronger connection to the characters, having felt like they had a direct impact upon the story rather than a passive one unlike someone watching the movie may result in a much more cohesive bond.

Seriality and Subjectivity

In the case of ‘The Matrix’, several mediums add to this ‘synergistic storytelling’ method. ‘​The Animatrix’​ is a ninety-minute collection of animated short films, set within the world of ‘The Matrix’, and crafted by some of the top animators in the world. Although the short films have individual stories, they each find a way to interconnect with one another, such as in ​‘Final Flight of the Osiris’ (2003)​.

In ‘​Final Flight of the Osiris’ (2003) ​one of the main characters Jue must pass on a message to the crew of an ally regarding information about the enemy machines. The opening scenes of the movie ​‘The Matrix Reloaded’ ​gives a sneak peak of the characters discussing this ‘last transmission of the Osiris’, but if the viewer had not seen the additional mediums, they would not have had the same depth as those who had indulged — that Jue gave her life to ensure this information was delivered. In addition, there are also two games which add to the plot,​ ‘Enter the Matrix’, ​a third-person video game​, ​and ​‘The Matrix Online’​, a hugely successful multiplayer game — both set in the world of ‘The Matrix’. In the first couple of missions of ​‘Enter the Matrix’, the player is required to claim the information given by Jue and get it to the meeting we see in the movie. Here is a quote by Gambarato and Malaguti that dissects the reasoning behind hidden stories within multiple mediums that cohesively blend into one: A transmedia project involves a continuous flow of images, videos, texts, sounds and so forth, which are signs able to generate interpretants uninterruptedly. In this sense, our interpretation is part of the story too, once it generates interpretants from the transmedia experience and completes the sign process, the semiosis. The wealth of the sign is revealed in the variability of interpretants that can be generated by the interpreter (Gambarato and Malaguti, 2006: 157). For those who have only scratched the surface and only watched the movie, they miss out on this broader narrative; but for someone who has been involved with transmedia, this seemingly insignificant part of the plot would have played a significant role in the plotline, following the plot across three different mediums.

Adding to the array of multiple mediums is comics and books. The Wachowskis (creators of ‘The Matrix’) collaborated with highly sought-after animators and comic book writers who were known for their distinct styles. These artists expanded on an existing framework by creating a collection of short comic book stories set in the world of ​‘The Matrix​’ and were released as webcomics. A number of books were also published, ranging from ​‘The Art of The Matrix’. ​This book gives readers an in depth look at the first Matrix film’s background, containing drawings, storyboards, and interviews with the film crew. Other books included ​‘Like a Splinter in Your Mind: The Philosophy Behind the Matrix Trilogy’​, and ​Philosophers Explore The Matrix​’.

Conclusion

All together, the animated films, movies, video games, comics and books combined all add to the story and enhance parts that may have otherwise been viewed as insignificant within the story world; in doing so the whole narrative becomes more persuasive and engaging. The various types of media involved in the transmedia of ​'The Matrix' ​creates a meaningful, more in depth experience for some fans, likewise we should take into consideration that while some may find joy in diving deeper into character backgrounds and searching for connections across the franchise, other fans can be left out with this approach. Nevertheless, the number of stories branching out to other forms of media to offer a more exclusive product is growing rapidly as the Internet and technology advances. This is exciting for fans, and those creating and selling it.

References

1. Gambarato, R. & Malaguti, S. (2006). Objects of Desire –Methodology for Film Analysis in the Sense of Peircean Semiotics and Intermedial Studies. Kodikas/Code: Ars Semeiotica, vol. 29, n. 1-3, 157-176.
2. Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
3. Bolin, G. (2010). Digitization, Multiplatform Texts, and Audience Reception. Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, vol. 8, n. 4, 72–83.
4. Lemke, J. (2011). Transmedia Traversals: Marketing Meaning and Identity. In A. Baldry & E. Montagna (Eds.). Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Multimodality: Theory and Practice. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Multimodality (pp. 576-596).