Showing posts with label entertainment for girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entertainment for girls. Show all posts
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Emily the Strange: follow up
As Emily the Strange continues her legal battle, I ran across this article in the Wall Street Journal, and well, it sheds some insight (not terribly surprising), that Emily the Strange is trying to go transmedia. The article itself is about a novel being written that will represent the first foray into Emily as a character, being published by HarperCollins.Um... ok Anne. Soundbite accomplished, and certainly, "be yourself" is an important part of the property, while perhaps "be yourself as far away from me as possible" would be more true to Emily's vernacular. I do wonder that regaining Emily's sense of style is considered as important as recovering her memories, and hope that it is treated as the truly healing endeavor that developing the external self can be as one attempts to develop the internal self, a very poignant message for teenagers of all stripes.Written in a diary format with Jessica Gruner, “Emily the Strange: The Lost Days,” opens with Emily attempting to recover her memory and regain her sense of style. Mr. Reger says the book maps new territory inside the mind of his popular character. “In the past, it’s been us describing her,” he says. “This is the first time anybody gets to hear how she talks to herself and her cats.”
Emily has struck a cord with many young girls. “She’s a very strong, distinct character and she’s about not trying to fit,” says Anne Hoppe, executive editor of HarperCollins children’s imprint. “There’s not a lot out there commercially for kids that really says to be yourself.”
It's a brand though, and the goal of this novel is in many ways to sell Emily merchandise as it is to help an audience, to make it a worthwhile proposition that will help launch the wider transmedia endeavors (a movie through Dark Horse Comics is mentioned in the WSJ article) it will have to interest its audience in Emily as a character in her own right, rather than a witty design they can express themselves by donning. They must transcend being as aesthetic symbol that anyone can project meaning onto or into, and find what is going to unite all of those who feel ownership of the character and make sure that she can embody it. It's not as easy as it sounds.
Here's an excerpt from the novel: it's written in diary format, SPOILER: they've captured the teenage girl's use and love and obsession with numbered lists.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Links
So yes, this blog has clearly not been my priority of late, but in the interest of doing SOMETHING, here are some links I've been perusing.
"Strange Girls are the new Manic Pixie Dream Girls" from jezebel.com
"TV, Movies and Magazines: What Girls Gotta Watch" and Read from pbs.com
"Feminist Media in a Time of Economic Trouble"
"Pro-Feminist Media Bias? Show me the Women"
"Media's Effect On Girls: Body Image And Gender Identity"
"Media and Girls" from the Media Awareness Network
girls, women + media project
Reel Girls Media Inc.
Empowering Girls: Media Literacy Resources
Girls Entertainment Network
The Feminist Review
The Feminist Media Project
GameGirl.com
Girl Gamers Unite!
Amazon.com's Great Movies for Girls List
Yeah, they're a mixed bag, but it's something and well, something is better than nothing. Meanwhile, I plan to get at least one post with some more serious looking together by the end of the week.
"Strange Girls are the new Manic Pixie Dream Girls" from jezebel.com
"TV, Movies and Magazines: What Girls Gotta Watch" and Read from pbs.com
"Feminist Media in a Time of Economic Trouble"
"Pro-Feminist Media Bias? Show me the Women"
"Media's Effect On Girls: Body Image And Gender Identity"
"Media and Girls" from the Media Awareness Network
girls, women + media project
Reel Girls Media Inc.
Empowering Girls: Media Literacy Resources
Girls Entertainment Network
The Feminist Review
The Feminist Media Project
GameGirl.com
Girl Gamers Unite!
Amazon.com's Great Movies for Girls List
Yeah, they're a mixed bag, but it's something and well, something is better than nothing. Meanwhile, I plan to get at least one post with some more serious looking together by the end of the week.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Introduction
This is my fifth year working in the media industry. I'm young, I was a kid during the 80s and despite my parents best efforts to curb my TV habits, I grew up on a steady diet of Branded Saturday Morning cartoons. From the California Raisins to She-Ra to The Ghostbusters, I watched it avidly. In college I was lucky enough to score an internship with a transmedia and franchise building job that through hard work has become my job. I've since worked on a wide variety of international entertainment brands for an equally wide variety of studios, corporations and independent producers.
World building and transmedia production have given me a chance to work in: Comic Books, Film, Animation, Publishing, Online and New Media, Television, Marketing, Merchandising, and Finance to name a few. Most importantly I've seen the people who bring all these groups together trying to hold the fabric of a narrative and a business franchise together. I've seen my opinions validated, discussed, addressed and put into production, and with not a little pride, I can say that my work has affected international properties that my daughter (almost 2 years old now) watches.
One of the biggest things I have learned from these experiences is that the way to make change in these mammoth endeavors is to speak your mind. Most of the battle to make an intellectual property is a battle of ideas, and those who make an impact is those who make themselves heard. The other part of that coin is that you need to be able to back up what you say if you're going to do it justice.
When you work in popular culture, which I often have, and you aren't careful with your research it's not just your colleagues who will tell you if you're wrong, you will have an army of fans trolling you to within an inch of accuracy. A franchise is only as strong as it's fan base, and in order to validate fans one has to be aware of a story's history and future. Fans will be true to a property that is true to them by giving them a solid story, compelling stories and characters and aspirational themes.
And this brings me to the purpose of this blog. I've grown up with all sorts of franchises, Batman, GI Joe, Star Wars, Transformers, a pantheon of interesting stories but when I stop and think, the vast majority of these franchises are tailored for boys. There are plenty of people out there outlining how things made for girls promote unrealistic ideas of femininity, that they sell girls short and don't show a depth of story or theme. Not to demonize everything pink, fluffy and dipped in glitter, nor to glorify stories that are often violent and oversimplified, my greater question is where ARE the stories for girls?
It's not like girls have no spending power, there's money to be made, and the expense of a well-made franchise based on a strong narrative through line is no more expensive than one hastily slapped together and frankly, the stronger the narrative, the longer its staying power. The purpose of this blog is to ask the question, what makes a successful girl's property and what can creators do in order to create quality properties for girls?
I intend to profile successful girl's properties from the past and present, talking about what made us love them, and how to create laudable, highly successful franchises to spark the imagination of new generations of girls.
World building and transmedia production have given me a chance to work in: Comic Books, Film, Animation, Publishing, Online and New Media, Television, Marketing, Merchandising, and Finance to name a few. Most importantly I've seen the people who bring all these groups together trying to hold the fabric of a narrative and a business franchise together. I've seen my opinions validated, discussed, addressed and put into production, and with not a little pride, I can say that my work has affected international properties that my daughter (almost 2 years old now) watches.
One of the biggest things I have learned from these experiences is that the way to make change in these mammoth endeavors is to speak your mind. Most of the battle to make an intellectual property is a battle of ideas, and those who make an impact is those who make themselves heard. The other part of that coin is that you need to be able to back up what you say if you're going to do it justice.
When you work in popular culture, which I often have, and you aren't careful with your research it's not just your colleagues who will tell you if you're wrong, you will have an army of fans trolling you to within an inch of accuracy. A franchise is only as strong as it's fan base, and in order to validate fans one has to be aware of a story's history and future. Fans will be true to a property that is true to them by giving them a solid story, compelling stories and characters and aspirational themes.
And this brings me to the purpose of this blog. I've grown up with all sorts of franchises, Batman, GI Joe, Star Wars, Transformers, a pantheon of interesting stories but when I stop and think, the vast majority of these franchises are tailored for boys. There are plenty of people out there outlining how things made for girls promote unrealistic ideas of femininity, that they sell girls short and don't show a depth of story or theme. Not to demonize everything pink, fluffy and dipped in glitter, nor to glorify stories that are often violent and oversimplified, my greater question is where ARE the stories for girls?
It's not like girls have no spending power, there's money to be made, and the expense of a well-made franchise based on a strong narrative through line is no more expensive than one hastily slapped together and frankly, the stronger the narrative, the longer its staying power. The purpose of this blog is to ask the question, what makes a successful girl's property and what can creators do in order to create quality properties for girls?
I intend to profile successful girl's properties from the past and present, talking about what made us love them, and how to create laudable, highly successful franchises to spark the imagination of new generations of girls.
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