First blog post – weeee

Hi!
I might be speaking to like, zero people right now, but that’s okay, I do that often.
WELCOME TO OUR BLOG!
You might be thinking “what is dis”, but don’t you worry child – I will tell you  what “dis” is, right now.
So… We are taking this course called “Media Convergence”, at Aarhus University in Denmark, and it’s about media franchising and how different franchises expand their audience and brand (and get moneyyyy), by using different media and creating more to the original story. A pretty straighforward example of this could be the Marvel Universe and all its different stories starting from comics to movies, series and games etc. you get it.
BUT – In our blog we will be writing about the different parts of the Harry Potter media franchise. YOU’RE A WIZARD HARRY.
Week by week we will take up a new subject in class and on this blog we will make it our own by relating it to the Harry Potter franchise – and we start with world-building!

HP-Themed Christmas – pleated Christmas hearts

In Denmark, we make our own Christmas decorations every year. We make beautiful, (traditionally) red and white hearts in all colors and sizes. Some of them can be made in the most stunning and intricate-looking designs. I mean, they look incredibly complicated to make but they are not!  You just need the right kind of paper, not cardboard as it’s too thick and unbending, and not regular paper as it’s too thin. We use glazed paper but as I couldn’t really find it in the right colors I used cardboard to make simple design instead.  Usually, it ends up being a huge mess as you get paper and glue everywhere, kids are running around with scissors and about to poke their own eyes out. It’s still fun and super entertaining.

This year I decided to bring all the paper with me to the university with some hot chocolate and cookies, which was incredibly cozy (or full of hygge, as we say in Denmark. We only had colored cardboard, so we made some super simple and cute hearts which you can see on the photo. Since this Christmas is going to be Hogwarts themed, we made the hearts colored after the Hogwarts House colors. I got the idea to print out some Harry Potter themed paper (The Deathly Hallows and Harry’s glasses) and used it with green cardboard to make a heart. You can do whatever you want! I’ll even link to some owl-shaped designs, so you can make Hedwig (RIP).

These are the hearts we made on our tiny Christmas tree

Here’s a video showing how to pleat the hearts:

 

And here are some links to templates that you can adjust the size of in Word and print out:

Owl template and other hearts

You can see how they turn out on the blog I found them on: Owl template source

Other templates  by Rie Wiberg (Alt om Hobby)

Have fun making these and Merry Christmas!

MORE MEMES

MEMES

Pottermore and authorship

So, I recently read an article about the concept of transmedia storytelling and authorship in Harry Potter (yes, I constantly spend my non-existing free time reading random articles [insertion of GIF with Barack Obama doing mic drop] which means that this might be quite a long post. For that I am sorry).  The article demonstrates the various ways in which the development of Pottermore has given an indication of understanding transmedia storytelling and franchising. Furthermore, the article will examine the importance of Pottermore in terms of the development of the Harry Potter franchise.

The article (Pottermore: Transmedia storytelling and authorship in Harry Potter by Cassie Brummitt) states that Pottermore as a product and an experience has become essential for development of the franchise. Furthermore, the product has been used as a strategic concept with the purpose of reinventing the known brand and keep a constant interest and engagement of the fans since it began as a form of communication between the author and the fans (the concept of subcreation and keeping a constant interest of the readers and audience can be further explored in Building Imaginary Worlds: the theory and history of subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf in the chapter Worlds within the World). However, at this point the updated version functions more as a source of information which, according to the article (Brummitt 112), comes at a necessary time for the management aspect of the franchise. Pottermore is not the only strategic attempt to keep the franchise going. It has been mentioned in the post Business aspects within the franchise (yes, it was the only title I could think of) that Rowling understands intellectual property which has been represented in her collaborative creativity and ownership of the characters. Therefore, she has become a part of the attempt to develop other products within the franchise such as the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film trilogy and the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and, thereby, expand the intellectual property of the franchise. These various strategic decisions and “franchise developments demonstrate a willingness on the part of Potter creatives to depart from dominant narratives and iconographies.” (Brummitt 113) Additionally, the article argues that the development of Pottermore manage to reflect the history of the franchise as a complete and the constant changing industrial context that it works within. The development of Pottermore is supported by a much more evident understanding and awareness of transmedia franchising.

The concept of Pottermore is quite well thought out. It encourages participation and certain forms of interactivity by the fans of the franchise; the website had a function as a simply community where new information about the secondary world was given by Rowling herself and her “writing was […] tied thematically to the narrative through digital interactivity, in an attempt to conflate traditional methods of reading with virtual opportunities for participation.” (Brummitt 115) However, as mentioned previously, the website has gone through various changes resulting in a more strategic approach with the function of aggregator for the complete franchise. (This is sort of random, however, did you guys know that Rowling invested £8 million in the company Pottermore Ltd. With no particular date of repayment?) The overall construction of the website as an immersive experience for the individual depended on additional material to the act of reading the books added by Rowling; therefore, giving her creative authority (I am of course aware of the existence of other people that have had influence like the marketing team and the administrative employees). The article, therefore, argues that Rowling has played a significant part in creating an identity for the website. Furthermore, the fact that she gives an insight into her process of thought and personal opinions reinforces her status as authority.

The website has not simply an immersive function since it also works as an online source for the Harry Potter e-books and further serves to promote “specific commodities in a media environment featuring Potter products with competing iconographies.” (Brummitt 116) When you access the e-book store the website is divided into the immersive version and the commercial version, however, with the influence of Rowling within both of them. The article further argues that the website can be seen as part of a growing tendency “toward using new media for marketing purposes in the publishing industry” (117) by referring to the “paracontent” theory of Michael Bhaskar which identifies platforms using digital content that have become more immersive. The concept of paracontent in terms of Pottermore gives a broader understanding of the ability of the website to exist as an immersive, social platform and a marketing strategy simultaneously. As a digital publisher, Pottermore is of importance due to the specific strategy used, which can be described as unprecedented. Yes, another random fact about Rowling’s involvement with Pottermore Ltd. Rowling “retained full control over the sale of the Harry Potter e-books and audiobooks after having founded the company in 2009. This resulted in the fact that “[o]nline retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble could list the e-books on their website, but consumers purchasing the products were redirected to Pottermore for the final sale.” (Brummitt 117) So, it has been stated before on this blog that Rowling is quite awesome. However, not alone her willingness but her ability to gain control from influential corporations in the industry of the publishing sphere indicates her influence as an author which extend to her willingness to expand the franchise further and “retain control over the expansion of her intellectual property.” (Brummitt 118) Nevertheless, it should be noted that “[b]y September 2015 […] Pottermore had transitioned to an open-commerce model – the standard industry practice that enables retailers to sell books.” (Brummitt 118) This specific transition away from the initial strategy indicates a change towards a more collaborative authorial approach. Eventually, these changes resulted in the current version of the website which acknowledge the existence of other media companies such as Warner Bros. and Universal. However, there occurs an absence of media relating to the broader aspects of the franchise most noticeably the films. There is a rejection on the part of Pottermore in terms of the wider transmedia franchise and there is an “emphasis on following the narrative of the books, featuring new illustrations that depart from the Warner Bros. films’ iconography.” (Brummitt 119) Therefore, there occurs this insistence on the part of Pottermore to adapt and represent only a single property in the transmedia franchise.

In terms of the desire to create a sense of interaction by the fans and the declaration of centrality of importance regarding the fans, the article argues that there were few means through which the audience could form their own personal experience. Furthermore, the article argues through Henry Jenkins (for more information about his theory on transmedia storytelling http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html or Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide (2008)) that understanding participatory culture is of a certain importance since it gives permission to acknowledge the complexity of interaction between the fans and the author.

I have previously mentioned that I have no shame nor guilt in comparing the Harry Potter franchise with that of Star Wars. I have completely no shame or guilt and, therefore, I am going to compare them again in terms of authorship. Yes, you read correctly. I simply have to before ending this post despite the dreadful length of it already. However, the complete franchise has constantly been

Harry Potter Festival in Odense

There are various different ways of expanding a franchise onto multiple platforms within media. As mentioned in previous posts on the blog, this franchise has shown the ability to adapt to the concept of transmedia storytelling with a good foundation in terms of world-building. There is, however, also the whole aspect of J.K. Rowling having an understanding of intellectual property and, thereby, the importance of thorough strategies within business. Nevertheless, the success of the franchise simply does not lie within the concept of adaptation which was expressed in Rowling’s understanding of importance of expansion to various media platforms and the advantages that follow.

Furthermore, the franchise has managed to embrace the concepts of drill ability and spread ability which give an undeniable advantage at a time where media convergence has a vital function. Successful media have little choice than to find various ways to spread across multiple platforms. This franchise has managed exactly such considering the fact that it is quite transferable from one platform to another and has managed to achieve international recognition. Rowling has created a complete second world (however, with a few inconsistencies that we will make sure to remind her of) where participation has been given a good amount of space. This can be seen in the various media platforms to which the franchise has expanded.

I should, however, make it clear before continuing with this post that this one was not exactly planned and, therefore, I will like to apologise in advance for the possibility of me written without any clear direction of where I am going with this (and yeah, I am completely aware that I should always have a clear purpose and direction. However, I am a complete mess most of the time, so bear with me here).

One of the more untraditional approaches to expand to other platforms are for example stage plays, as mentioned previously on the blog. However, this is not about author-based expansions within the franchise. This is about when we are supporters of the franchise participate to create an expansion. Last night I watched a certain show called Aftenshowet on DR1 where there was a feature about a certain festival. Yeah, you guessed it. The Harry Potter Festival in Odense.

We might not have mentioned it anywhere on the blog itself but the franchise turned twenty this year and the festival did as well. It is needless to give any indication of the effort being put into this festival every single year and this time there was no such exception. There were so many various activities from small to massive such Harry Potter concert and the opportunity to make your own wand. Every possible detail from the world of Harry Potter was created such as the Diagon Alley as shown by the picture below:

It gets even better. Yes, I am very serious right now. The concept of costumes is taken to that level where you might find the most insignificant charcter from the franchise amongst the more influential ones. See, that is the kind of commitment I am talking about. Furthermore, there were two students from Aarhus University who were interview about their Harry Potter podcast (pretty awesome, right?!) which they use to discuss the franchise (they have both read the books more times than I – just to clarify that is quite a number of times). However, the ability of the franchise in term of embracing the concept of drill ability gives the opportunity for individuals to continuously discover various unknown aspects of the franchise. If such is combined with the concept of spread ability, it cannot go complete wrong, right? Well, obviously not in terms of this specific franchise. Seriously, that woman is one smart cookie.

Fan communities associated with the Harry Potter franchise

I have a confession. I haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books. I have only watched the movies. DON’T JUDGE ME OKAY. I KNOW I AM A MUGGLE.
Anyway, this means I don’t have as much knowledge about the whole thing as my fellow co-bloggers, on this blog, have. Nevertheless, I will do my research which is very convenient with what I am going to write about here and now… ‘Cause that iiiiiiis… FAN COMMUNITIES – that exist out there in the world (wide web). I thank the internet for enlightening me on the following information I will provide you with.

First of all, I just want to say: DAMN THERE ARE A LOT OF FANSITES. A lot of sites include fanfiction as well and that just shows that Harry Potter fans are being kept busy which J.K Rowling is happy with that.
I am just going to take A FEW sites and highlight what is special about them (a full list can be seen here: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Harry_Potter_fan_websites)

• mugglenet.com

This site has a lot of features and from a few quick clicks, it seems that there are a lot of staff members updating and running the site. “The World’s #1 Harry Potter Fan Site”.

• the-leaky-cauldron.org

With a less wide variety is this website – yet still with a lot of different pages to look into, including essays that are fan written. This page seems to be more fan oriented.

• harrypotter.wikia.com

And of course, there is this one, the wiki to your Harry Potter. “Welcome to the Harry Potter Wiki, an encyclopedic resource and community gathering spot for all things related to J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. Whether you’re looking for info on Fantastic Beasts, the book series or LEGO, we are the #1 Harry Potter fan database that anyone can edit.” – pretty much a site for everything!

Other than this, there are a lot of Facebook pages alllllll about Harry Potter. I will mention two of these here:

• Hogwarts – Great Hall

With 22,426 members and counting, this group has some administrators and it runs on some ground rules that everyone must keep. According to the description of the group, members can be settled into their different houses and earn points for the House Cup! Furthermore, to become a member, the “applicant” has to answer some questions related to the rules and Harry Potter, a way to make it easier for the administrators to accept new members into the group.

• Mischief Managed 18+

This group has 12,529 members and when you apply to become a member, they too send you a couple of questions to make sure the rules of age are being kept. Compared to the bigger group “Hogwarts – Great Hall”, this group does not seem to have the same rules but only the description – “A Harry Potter group, fun for everyone! Please make sure you read the Pinned Post and have some fun!!”.

What these communities show is that the franchise works as a form of encouragement especially for younger children. In recent studies, it has been argued that children boost their confidence by reading the books. Furthermore, the community of the franchise provides a safe space and opportunities for personal expressions and support.

Most fans of Harry Potter would agree that the characters offer a great example of how friendship and a close community should be which is exactly what you get as a fan of the franchise. You get to be a part of a community where there isn’t the same amount of judgment of your character as in real life. You stop judging people because you realize that there is more to a person than you think. You have to look away from the prejudice around you. The four houses in Harry Potter face different prejudices that that might not be true. When muggles learn that I am a Slytherin I am often faced with shock, however, in the world of the franchise, you are treated well regardless of your house colors. Life can be hard for some and the world of Harry Potter often functions as an escape from the struggles of life.  So, while the fandom works as a sanctuary it is also a place for people to depend on each other.  E.g. the “Hogwarts – Great Hall” leaders, in the form of  headmaster and headmistresses, professors, and prefects, support the members of the group. So not only does the fandom offer psychological support but also a sociological community with Rowling as our queen.

In honor of World Mental Health Day: please support the people in your community and remember that you are AMAZING!

Share the love <3

A few years after reading Harry Potter I realized that J. K. Rowling might never again publish another HP-related book and I don’t think I’ve ever been as disappointed as I was in that moment. No follow-up? No Marauder stories? How are we, as fans, supposed to keep something as important as HP alive in our hearts without being able to dream our ways into the halls of Hogwarts? Especially considering that HP helped a lot of fans out of depressions and sadness (Evanna Lynch!). Now fast forward to the year 2012, Rowling releases Pottermore: a website with background stories of the characters, the artifacts, the locations, and everything else you might imagine. I can still remember my thumping heart as I opened the website, took the house sorting test and was sorted into a house. The dream of every Potterhead became true. Rowling made it possible for her fans, whether you’d just seen the movies or read the books, to go to the website and share snippets of facts and play your way into each chapter of HP (literally as an interactive game, following the chapters of the books, existed at the time on Pottermore). Suddenly fans could not only delve deeper into the story but also share their patronuses and house colors with others.

The world of Harry Potter went from being restricted to the books and movies into something much bigger. Now if you open Google and search the words “Harry Potter” what you’re going to find is something incredible: hundreds, if not thousands of Harry Potter pages and groups dedicated to sharing Harry Potter and through that unite every Potterhead. Not only are these pages full of new information and facts and utter love for HP, but classes are also held, assignments made and graded. You can learn the arts of transfiguration and potions etc. Even people who’ve never been near HP can now understand and laugh at HP. Here I share with you a few fun things that you can show to others about the Harry Potter world:

1. On Pottermore, you can get sorted into your Hogwarts’ house and Ilvermony House

Yes, it’s okay to be a Slytherin. No, we are not the bad guys.

     2. You can identify your patronus and get chosen by a wand on Pottermore

Based on these wands people have started creating their own. It’s also possible to order beautiful custom-made wands (check out Alivan’s wands)

 3. Harry Potter in 99 seconds, for anyone who’d like to know the series

4. Here you have three funny memes (I miss Obama and Biden as much as Snape misses Lily)

 

On that note, let’s end it with the famous words of Dumbledore: “Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you.”

Drilling my way down town

So you know that urging sense of curiosity you can get after or while watching a movie or reading a book, and you just feel like you NEED an answer?
Or you feel like it might be super very interesting to dig deeper and draw connections from one theory to another?
Do you love finding answers to certain questions about books or movies?
And do you feel drawn by these?
Are you hungry? – totally irrelevant but probably true (I’m hungry).

Is your answer to all these questions “yup!”?

Then, you know… You’ve been played. (in a good way though). That’s exactly what the creators of such media franchises, including Harry Potter, want you to do. It means spending more time on exploring the franchise.
A fancy word for this is “drillability” and the more you can “drill” into information about a certain book or series of movies and satisfy your thirst, the better for the franchise and it means that they are successful in creating depth in the constructed world.

Let me give you a couple of examples from the Harry Potter franchise and how some really weird questions can be answered only because there has been room for some form of in-depth researching by fans:

What if someone on the Quidditch Team caught the snitch other than the seeker?
– If someone else in the Team, besides the Seeker catches the Snitch, it is known as a foul and leads to the forfeit of the Match. This is known as “Snitchnip”.

How do you get into the kitchens at Hogwarts?
– Tickle the pear in the picture of fruit.

What color are unicorn babies?
– Gold.

How did Voldemort loose his nose?
– The more and more horcruxes he created, the less human he became.

Other than this, maps and schemes that are put together with information from different books or movies to create new information also show drillability, like this scheme showing what is to be found in the first floor of Hogwarts:
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Hogwarts_Library :

COOL, RIGHT?!

Wait a minute…What?

I am content with things changing over the course of time. It is quite inevitable if you think about it which leaves me with little choice other than to accept the changes, does is not? The Harry Potter franchise is no exception in terms of change considering much have changed the last two decades.

Apparently, at this point in time the interest in the franchise seems acceptable regardless of age. However, I seem to recall that back in the day (Wait, how old do you have to be in order to use that phrase? Well, never mind. You get the point) that was not really the case. I think, we can all agree that at some point we have pretended not to publicly acknowledge the slightest amount of interest in something because of the norms of society. Yeah, I thought I could not possibly be the only one. Yes, I have been the person on the bus, at an age that will remain unknown, who has tried so unsuccessfully to hide the cover of a book due to what we could call embarrassment.

Here is the thing, though. The franchise has always been defined as fantasy which one, of course, could argue is a genre for children. However, Game of Thrones is fantasy and that is NOT for children. Furthermore, I have never really had any shame in reading Game of Thrones. So, it must be the covers of the books that make the difference, right? Rowling probably though that if she wanted to expand on the audience, she would just cross that bridge when she got to it. I have always been told that you should not judge a book by its cover (seriously, I should probably stop using those idioms, but it is most likely not going to happen. So, I am sorry in advance). However, that does not seem to be very accurate, apparently. Rowling made certain changes to the various covers over time and then suddenly being in your twenties does not matter that much. I just think that one does not simply (I should maybe apologize for the reference, but I am not going to now or for the next one coming up) change the covers of the books and then age no longer matters considering the fact that such changes have no effect on the actual material, which should be what matters. But apparently, I know nothing. Nevertheless, it is a very strategic move considering the fact that it surely must have worked.

Business aspects within the franchise (Yes, it was the only title I could think of)

J.K. Rowling must, unquestionably, have done something right. When you think about it that is pretty evident considering the fact that she has the possibility to walk away from a franchise worth billions of dollars, but seriously who does THAT!? It should, therefore, be somewhat difficult for you to deny the critical acclaim and commercial success of the Harry Potter franchise whether you have acknowledged the creative and innovative aspects of the franchise or have completely decried the franchise for the lack of synergy compared to the Star Wars franchise which could be argued to have been better suited to the needs of the media institutions in terms of being perceived as a product. However, such an opinion requires you to prefer the latter franchise over the former. This happens to not be the case here hence the choice of subject for blog.

And yes, yes you read correctly. There has been no mistake. I did just make a comparison between Harry Potter and Star Wars and I did so without the slightest amount of guilt or shame and I shall do so again if such would be required of me.

But in all seriousness, the concept of multiplied content productions began to occur during the 1980s and at the end of the decade franchises had developed successfully. However, nothing never really goes as planned, right? Before I continue, nevertheless, I would like to clarify that the decade of the 1990s was terrible in SO many different ways and this was represented within media institutions as well by scepticism about the potential of synergy. So, this concept of franchising in some way was unavoidably headed towards difficulties. Marvel Entertainment would probably acknowledge such…obstacles, shall we say. The franchising of the X-Men comic book property did not exactly get off to the best possible beginning. This indicates that failures in the 1990s were restricted to fashion and music. However, I am getting off subject here. The Harry Potter franchise is the essential to the whole purpose of this blog after all. I should not get started on the failures of the 1990s anyway because I would not know how to stop again, so I will not.

So, why was the attempt to franchise the Harry Potter book property within different media institutions so successful? Well, the foundation for the success can be argued to lie within the reception of the books themselves considering the fact that a poor performance of the books most likely would have caused multiple failures across other media platforms. However, it is not the concept of adaptation from well-written and detailed books to the well-executed films that can take the sole credit for the success because adaption of books has obviously been seen before. The success goes beyond the simply concept of adaptation. It comes down to the correct business strategy and understanding the importance of valuable intellectual property which Rowling certainly has managed throughout the years.

Additionally, Rowling is quite persistent, determined, and one smart cookie (I am sorry for the idiom, I am really hungry).  After difficulties with getting someone to read the first book of the series, which is quite essential really, such attempt finally succeeded and resulted in her selling the film rights for the first four books back in 1999 to David Heyman. However, I did mention her understanding of intellectual property which was represented within her demands. She presented the demand of collaborative creativity in terms of her involvement in adapting the books. Furthermore, she refused to give the rights of the characters to Warner Brothers which deprived them from developing non-author written sequels. The refusal further resulted in the lack of complete monopoly of intellectual property, which had become increasing central as a corporate strategy.

This close involvement of the author in many different aspects of the production such as the story consultation and casting has given certain advantages to the expansion to other media platforms such as video games and Pottermore. The latter is the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment, and news company founded by Rowling and is a global digital publisher of aspects within the world of Harry Potter. The website features, amongst other things, Rowling’s thoughts and several pages of unpublished text. This gives the possibility for the author to expand the world that she has already created thoroughly. Furthermore, it gives the possibility of world sharing through different platforms. The expansion to other media platforms has resulted in a two-part stage play called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child which I could write about for quite some time, not because it has been critically acclaimed or given the staple of approval from Rowling. I could continue because I think the stage play is an attempt to maximize exploitation of franchise production and a strategy to feed the repeated selling. Yes, I obviously do not particularly like the play. However, the thought of producing prequels to the original films is quite interesting and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was honestly pretty good. The film gives the feeling that the authenticity remains intact.