Rebel Alliance -- A small band of sci-fi geeks leads Hollywood

Here’s a fantastic feature in Fast Company magazine about the new wave in marketing and franchise building via transmedia with quotes from “Firefly” creator Joss Whedon, “Heroes” creator Tim Kring, “Heroes” co-executive producer Jesse Alexander, and “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof, among others.

They chat about the future of franchises by letting them thrive across multiple platforms (TV, movies, comics, books, games, widgets, blogs, etc.), the importance of passionate online fans and an amusing shout-out to the “Star Wars Holiday Special.”

This is EXACTLY the kind of article that inspires me to do more with the work I'm doing on my own -- whether it's book trailers or comic book to merch pitches.

Here's a short excerpt about Whedon here:

And there is one member of the Geek Elite -- their Jedi master -- whom they all point to as their inspiration. "That's the genius of Joss Whedon," Grillo-Marxauch says.

For Whedon, it all comes back to his own years growing up as a fanboy in Manhattan. "I don't understand creators who aren't fans," he says. "My experience as a fan was, things that I loved, I loved very hard -- Marvel Comics, science fiction, Dickens, Shakespeare, Sondheim. The things I was a geek about, I was a serious geek about."

When Buffy started to take off, in 1997, Whedon went to where the nerds were: the Internet. Trekkies and other hard-core sci-fi and fantasy fans were among the earliest settlers on the Net, in newsgroup discussions, early bulletin-board systems, and online games. Whedon's tales of mythological empowerment tapped a new wave of Webby misfits. "They were starting to build clubs, and I was able to get feedback," says Whedon, who maintains an active presence on fan sites devoted to him, such as Whedonesque.com. "I could do a show and go online and see what people thought of it right away," he says. "That's a crazy feeling."

"Joss would email fans of the show, have a Web site where they'd gather, have parties where he'd meet with them," says Alexander. And the more involved the fans got, the more they fed the aftermarket. "I've always believed that the only thing that's important is back end," Whedon says. "I don't care what they pay me as long as there's back-end money, because back-end money is success. Back-end money means people liked it. If someone pays you a huge amount up front, all you get is pressure." But he is quick to add a caveat: "If I don't have a purpose for repurposing -- if there's not a reason to tell a story that way -- then I avoid it."

Read the full interview here:
Rebel Alliance -- How a small band of sci-fi geeks is leading Hollywood into a new era
(Fast Company magazine)