In a series of interviews, ceetv.net will present some of the most interesting speakers taking part in the first ever MIP Academy DO, organized by Reed MIDEM. The event will take place in Moscow on May 12-13, 2013.

As a Transmedia Producer with Starlight Runner Entertainment, Caitlin Burns has worked on intellectual properties including: Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney Fairies, and Tron Legacy for Disney, James Cameron’s Avatar for Fox, Halo for Microsoft, Happiness Factory for The Coca-Cola Company, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon and Transformers for Hasbro. She has also worked with Sony, Showtime, Pepperidge Farm, Scholastic, Nelvana, and Wieden+Kennedy.

She is an elected member of the Board of the Producer’s Guild of America New Media Council. She also consults with the Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund. Her independent transmedia project McCarren Park launched at Tribeca Film Festival Interactive and Screened at New York Film Festival: Convergence.

She regularly speaks domestically and internationally and has presented at Forum Russia, Toronto International Film Festival, Doha Tribeca Film Festival, Kreative.Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Seminario Transmedia & TEDx Teusaquillo in Bogotá, Colombia.

She currently authors the expert column: Context Artist for Createasphere’s Transmedia Coalition.

At MIPAcademy Moscow, Burns will speak about emerging business models for media and how to tell a story that captures the imagination enough to engage audiences that move from film or television to online platforms, mobile phones, tablets, publishing and beyond.

Discussing best practices from around the world, she will describe how productions are finding global audiences and benefiting financially using transmedia storytelling techniques. Stories built with these techniques not only cross national boundaries, finding vastly greater audiences and profits, they last for years, expanding steadily supported by devoted fans.

CEETV’s Maria Ruban did a quick Q&A with Caitlin Burns ahead of the event:

ceetv: Is this going to be your first time in Moscow? Have you worked with Russian/CIS companies before?

CB: This will be my second trip to Moscow, I spoke last year at Forum Russia’s Cinema and Money Day. While I’ve worked on some large international projects like The Happiness Factory and some feature films, like Men in Black 3 with stories and platforms tailored to audiences in the CIS, I haven’t worked with an original property with Russian creators, though I’m excited to see who will be attending MIPAcademy DO and hope to find some new collaborators there.

ceetv: What is transmedia and what is the future of transmedia in CIS?

CB: Transmedia Storytelling a process where elements of a story are systematically told across multiple delivery channels for the creation of a larger, coordinated experience.

The idea is that you can explore a story’s world, that if you’ve loved a film you’d be able to discover new things about its characters, it’s setting, and its themes in a video game or mobile experience that would be a story worth finding on its own. In the past, these extended platforms might not feel worth the effort, just retelling the same story or simply feeling like an advertisement. With Transmedia Techniques, every moment of time you invest and every piece you purchase is designed to be unique and exciting.

ceetv: What is the difference between transmedia and multi-screen?

CB: While multi-screen, or cross-media projects are plentiful, many of them are simply adapting the same material. The same story you’d find on television in a game, or a book that’s simply restating the screenplay of a film in a new device. Transmedia storytelling means that each story on each platform gives you a new perspective, a new piece of the whole story that adds to the narrative’s world. It’s more appealing to audiences because they feel rewarded for engaging on different platforms, and that feeling leads to a wider reach and even larger profits.

ceetv: Can you name the most successful transmedia projects?

CB: Some of the most successful transmedia projects are the most successful media projects in recent memory. Story worlds like James Cameron’s Avatar and Pirates of the Caribbean were built according to these techniques. Microsoft’s Halo franchise has been using these techniques for a decade, and other highly successful productions like Tron Legacy, the television show, Dexter and Transformers. Other projects, like Coca-Cola’s The Happiness Factory campaign have found success with the strategies, as well as non-fiction productions, and even social issue campaigns to promote philanthropic causes.