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Transmedia storytelling in analysis: The case of Final Punishment
Transmedia storytelling refers to both fictional and nonfictional narratives that are expanded across different media platforms, inviting the audience to engage and migrate from one medium to another in order to undergo an enriched experience. As a relatively new and elusive subject, it does not have its own specific methods and methodology of analysis. This was my main motivation to propose a transmedia project design analytical model aimed at outlining relevant aspects that could contribute to understand the process of development of transmedia projects. This article first succinctly presents the referred original analytical model to approach cases of transmedia projects and later applies it to Final Punishment, an award-winning multiplatform series produced in Brazil in 2009 by the Portuguese BeActive – one of the pioneer transmedia production companies. The transmedia project focuses on eight women imprisoned in a fictitious high-security prison in Rio de Janeiro. It was possible to conclude that Final Punishment contributed to the development and dissemination of transmedia storytelling in Brazil because in 2009 the country was just crawling in terms of multiplatform media production. Final Punishment gained notoriety not because of its rather limited amplitude in terms of audience reach (million viewers per episode and 115,000 ARG players is not expressive in a continental country such as Brazil), but for its integrated and well-articulated content unfolded across multiple media platforms in a mixture of portmanteau and franchise transmedia type. The inconsistencies generated by the courageous initiative to produce a mockumentary in a country accustomed to mostly trust everything that appears on media, did not take out the brightness of Final Punishment.