Friday, September 18, 2009

Harry Potter and World Building

In his response to Bordwell's critique of transmedia film franchises, Jenkins discusses how certain films and genres could, infact, benefit artistically from transmedia practices like intricate, exploratory websites that build the film's world and corresponding profiles on social networking sites.  Jenkins briefly mentions Harry Potter and its transmedia nature but instead mentions how the wealth of information Rowling provides her readers in many cases detracts from the mystery of her series by leaving fans less to wonder about and talk about.  I disagree completely.  I believe, instead, that Harry Potter benefits from a transmedia approach just as much as Jenkin's believes Dante's Divine Comedy or Tim Burton's films would.

Harry Potter is an incredible example of the type of transmedia franchise that is richer because of its transmedia nature. The Harry Potter books and movies are not just exciting narratives.  In her books and the corresponding movies J.K. Rowling creates an incredible and complex world that's charm lies not just in the unfolding of a well crafted story, but in the description of magic wands, games on broomsticks, and intricate histories.  As an adolescent obsessed with the Harry Potter series I thirsted for any and all information I could get about this fantastic world.  I bought Rowling's short books about magical monsters and quidditch, and this extra information did not give me less to imagine about when I read the books or watched the movies.  Instead they gave me what I felt was a greater understanding of a world I was enthralled with.  Visualizing the movie on the big screen, also, did not lessen the participation of my imagination with the books.  However, visualizing fantastic things like the battles between Harry and Lord Voldemort and quidditch matches was exciting and fun.  Every day in middle school I would log on to mugglenet.com to hear about the latest Harry Potter news, search through the archives and lexicons to familiarize myself with all things Potter, and talk in the chat rooms and discussion boards.  Harry Potter was a very social experience for me, both online and off.  I went to release parties with my other obsessed friends, dressed as a wizard with a lightning scar on my forehead and fake glasses.  I was incredibly excited when J.K. Rowling's website launched and I was able to read about a new wizard every month and learn interesting back stories.  My adolescent experience with Harry Potter was truly a transmedia one.  It was literary, cinematic, on the web, and social.  Harry Potter even influenced the way I dressed.  I had a Harry Potter polo that I sometimes wore.  I believe that this transmedia experience was an awesome way to experience the world of Hogwarts and wizards.  This world was too complex and rich for an avid fan to sufficiently explore in 7 books and movies, and if J.K. Rowling came out with another booklet of backstory today I would be on line at the bookstore to buy it.  As for Jenkins' issue with the epilogue, there is so much even the most nuanced reader and viewer of the Harry Potter series does not know about J.K. Rowling's carefully constructed world.  Simply knowing vaguely how the characters in the future end up does not detract from our imaginative experience.  We all knew Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny would end up together anyway.  J.K. Rowling could release seven more books, presenting us with more and more information about her world and we would still be left to imagine and fill in the blanks.

Finally, not every movie needs to be a transmedia experience with an overload of information the way Harry Potter is.  Part of the beauty of Casablanca is not knowing if the lovers will ever reunite.  If we were given an epilogue that explained the character's subsequent passionless and unfulfilling marriage to each other the magic of their love story might be destroyed, and the message of the movie would be entirely different.  Although we may crave to know more, and to know what happens next, it is not expedient to the artistic purpose of the film for us to do so.  Nevertheless, many narratives would benefit from a rich, transmedia model.  Fantasies like Harry Potter are prime example.

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