Firefly Living on in Transmedia What is Firefly

Firefly: Living on in Transmedia

What is Firefly? • Short-lived science fiction television show created by Joss Whedon. • Originally aired from 20022003, was cancelled after one season. Since then, has gained a cult -like following and expanded into a multiplatform media franchise.

That includes a film, Serenity… …an online miniseries, R. Tam Sessions…

. . . a novel. . . along with a role-playing game, fan sites and fan fiction. . . numerous comics. . .

. . . with a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), Firefly Online, planned for the future (and this is based on a series that left the air more than 10 years ago!)

The film takes places after the events of the series finale…

…while the comics continue the story where the film left off, expanding the diegesis of the original series and allowing for character development, which was stunted due to the early cancellation of the show.

Firefly is unique in that if it hadn’t been cancelled and continued to remain on the air, it probably wouldn’t have grown into the multi-platform media franchise it is today.

• In the absence of content between 2003 to 2005, fans kept the show alive by producing numerous transmedia works, such as fan fiction, and mounting large support campaigns to spread the word about the show.

• Such fans of television shows serve a “productive, industrial function” (Johnson, 2007, pg. 68) • With “the intersection of television and new media via multiplatforming”, the television industry was able “to begin participating in this new economy of free labor. ” • In order to promote Serenity, the show’s fanbase was “channeled into the promotional sector to foster ‘grassroots’ buzz” about the show.

• In the age of multiplatforming, “television production has been dispersed throughout society as labor performed by consumers”. (Johnson, 2007, pg. 78) • Television consumption no longer exists solely in front of ‘the box’; today, “the consumption of television takes place within the hyperdiegetic worlds of television. ” • The industry utilises fans’ devotion as a form of free labour in order to further expand the show across multiple media platforms, deepening their participation and involvement in it and allowing for the creation of new revenue streams and even new potential audiences.

What made the show so appealing? • The show itself was unlike anything else on TV before. • It was literally a western set in space (aka “space western”). • Characters had a lot of development potential. • Set in a future world where the two surviving superpowers, the USA and China, have combined to become a super world government known as the Alliance. • Joss Whedon: “nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today”.

What made the show so appealing? • The television medium allowed Firefly to develop its large and varied cast of characters across its short first season. • Introducing numerous strong, interesting characters rather than a single “hero” would leave many possibilities for future developments of the television series. • Attempting to include as much content into a film would not be possible, whereas the nature of a TV show allowed for much more character development to be spread out over the course of the series. • Characters’ backstories and relationships with one another could be explored in a way that the constraints of a feature film would not allow.

2005 • Focused on closure of elements introduced in the TV series. • Film was used as it was the only medium with secure funding and legal rights.

Detailed sets allowed for more world building

• Firefly had concluded by the time of Serenity. • The plot of the film did not have to consider an ongoing series.

• Firefly had concluded by the time of Serenity. • The plot of the film did not have to consider an ongoing series.

• • Those Left Behind, 2005 Better Days, 2008 The Other Half, 2008 Float Out, 2010 The Shepherd's Tale, 2010 Downtime, 2010 It's Never Easy, 2012 Leaves on the Wind, 2014

‘We don't have studio executives sweating every decision and that's very nice. ’ - Joss Whedon, 2013 (Joss Whedon: “Every kid who hates grownups became a grownup. ” 2013)

'I always thought of it as wanting as many people to read it as watched it. . . You always want to write for everybody - I don't want to exclude anyone from the party. ’ - Joss Whedon (Joss Whedon: “Every kid who hates grownups became a grownup. ” 2013) 'How do texts create two or more implicit readers? By constructing a sedimentary multilayer text that needs different cognitive skills to be interpreted. ‘ - Scolari, 2009

‘Each franchise entry needs to be self-contained enough to enable autonomous consumption. ’ - Scolari, 2009 “We knew it [Serenity #1] would be a hit, but we couldn’t have expected it to be as big as it was. We didn’t have anything else selling as much at the time. ” - Scott Allie, Editor of Dark Horse Comics (Buffy Season 8 - the Shape of Things to Come? 2007)