#mightymorphinwhite

The main argument I will discuss comes from an article by Jonathan Gray entitled “Transmedia Architectures of Creation: An Interview with Ivan Askwith”. I will be focusing on the difference between the showrunner and the author, and why the showrunner is more important especially for transmedia storytelling.

I have chosen to focus on JJ Abrams as a showrunner/auteur as he is the director for Episode VII The Force awakens. I chose an article from Entertainment Weekly that includes interview excerpts from key creative team members,  which includes Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Kennedy_(producer)) , Star Wars novel Writer Lawrence Kasdan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kasdan), and Abrams. The article is entitled “... JJ Abrams explores “Who IS Luke Skywalker” (Breznican 2015).

Abrams was pulled into helping to relaunch Star Wars because of a key question “Who is Luke Skywalker?”. When he was asked that question his response was “Oh my God, I just got the chills, I’m in” (Breznican 2015). According to Ivan Askwith you can’t just have anybody produce Star wars, here is a quote from Jonathan Gray’s interview with Ivan Askwith “ It’s not enough for someone to be fairly down the creative chain… And if that extension was created by people who were never hired for the specific vision, or to put the first foot forward for the company, it seems weird to let that person make creative decisions” (Gray 316).

Based on Kennedy, it was obvious they wanted Abrams because of his successful track record which includes reboots of Star Trek and the fact that Star Wars really inspired him and is something that deeply resonates with him. I think that Abrams is not just anybody, he is in fact someone hired because of the specific vision of Star Wars and given his previous success, he seems like the perfect fit for the re-launching of the saga. This includes the creative decisions as well as Abram says “There were so many options and so many paths… even when we were in debate… it was always thrilling” (Breznican 2015). He has teamed up with the creative team for Star Wars and is apart of creating the cannon essentially, he gets to argue his points and put forth his creative vision onto the cannon.

So where is the author in all this? Askwith discusses in his interview as he says “I think the notion of an ‘auteur’ makes more sense… the idea of a unified creative vision… especially as transmedia” (Gray 318). As we know Lucas is no longer directly apart of the creative vision as far as we know all though we do know he plays an important role as an influencer. In the end I like to think of this as an analogy one of my colleagues suggested, JJ Abrams is like a puppet master controlling the text (the puppet) and George Lucas is occasionally whispering in Abrams’ ear.  

Works Cited:

Gray, Jonathan. "Transmedia Architectures of Creation." Gray/A Companion to Media Authorship A Companion to Media Authorship(2013): 314-23. Web.