Television has evolved to a new level of spectacle as a result of our demand for high quality entertainment in the comfort of our own living room – or bedroom, office, den, kitchen, shower, or where ever you prefer your TV, – and there are two producers most responsible for this.

Probably most known for his CSI shows, Jerry Bruckheimer has been the leader in original TV programming with over a half a dozen hit shows on the air every night in addition to his work in film – Cold Case, CSI, CSI:NY, Miami, Without a Trace, the Eleventh Hour, are just to name a few. His work delivers the audience what they want, when the want, and in a surprising fresh way. However, it’s become known that you can identify the killer in each CSI episode around the fifteen minute mark as a result of the formulaic approach. This kind of TV is not why we’re here.

Another producer by the name of JJ Abrams came along and changed everything with his high quality mystery, Lost. Not only was the pilot the most expensive pilot ever shot, but the series launched with extreme success and captured the imaginations of viewers with the art of withholding information.

Lost explores what might happen after a plane crashes off the coast, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves on a very mysterious island. Through the seasons, the mysterious have grown stranger and stranger, and theories have started to generate from viewers as to what the island is; some say it’s purgatory; others feel it’s a government experiment.

Next up, Cloverfield hits theaters. Not only was the movie produced under extreme secrecy, but the audience got involved due to a fine example of cross-media work from Bad Robot. Several viral sites surfaced, including Slusho.com, which dropped clues as to what the creature might be. Fans flocked to the site and the hype exploded onto the scene. Viewers were able to mix their own Slusho drinks, and learned the history and philosophy of Slusho. Those who delved further into what Slusho might be discovered of it’s appearances in one of JJ’s other shows, Alias. Rumors and videos revealing that the creature is a whale populated the blogosphere and YouTube. During the film, look closely and you’ll see a satellite plummeting into the ocean while viewing the footage from only days before the event, which suggests that this was the catalyst that triggered the attack on New York City. After the release of the film, Myspace visitors flocked to the characters’ profiles, which interacted with each other, and even foreshadowed some of the conversations in the film! Backstory on Rob’s page and comments section pertaining to Rob’s new job in Japan revealed the connection with Slusho, a company offering fruit drinks made from a secret ingredient found at the bottom of the ocean.

And now, Fringe. As a show about fringe science experiments conducted by a conglomerate corporation specializing in technology known as Massive Dynamic, which has a higher level of classified information access than the most government officials, the pattern continues. The show foreshadowed the possible fringe science directions the storyline might explore, including telepathy, teleportation, invisibility, and other top secret experiments including the effects super-sonic noise has on the Earth’s faults, which was rumored to cause an earthquake, and therefore trigger a subsequent tsunami.

In other words, JJ Abrams is bringing something new to TV. With the success of the cross-media Cloverfield project, Abrams has launched a much larger cross-media project than we might have expected. This is just a theory here, but I have the feeling that Fringe isn’t merely another cross-media project, as seen with the availability of Fringe comics, but a “parent” project for all of the preceding projects rather. In other words, Fringe might actually be connected to Lost … a relative; likewise, Cloverfield might be a distant relative as well. With the possibility of a sequel in the air, perhaps we’ll discover some clues pointing to the possibility of JJ’s “family” of projects.

The key to creating a parent project such as this one is to withhold the information, and keep the audience wondering. Build in possibilities. Lost has clearly set up a great number of directions the story could go, but the one most consistent possibility is that the island is an experiment. Is it possible that Slusho is actually a subsidary company under Massive Dynamic? Furthermore, is it possible that Massive Dynamic purposely sent the satellite crashing into the Atlantic in order to awaken the Cloverfield monster? They are, after all, involved in highly classified experiments, which usually result in the loss of human life.

What JJ has created here is the possibility that a series might be a mere piece to the puzzle. Finding the clues is what the new fun is all about. This is done by search what’s called the rabbit holes – the viral websites created to add to the fun, while simultaneously hyping interest in potential viewers, of involving yourself with a project. Take part in the solving of the mystery my searching online for viral sites, such as Lost’s Oceanic Airlines site, Massive Dynamic’s, Slusho, and social networking sites.

Who knows … perhaps Massive Dynamic is also the parent project responsible for the Mission Impossible stories – the question is: what side are they on?

Television has truly reached another level thanks to JJ, and only time will tell if Fringe actually is the parent project to JJ’s prior work. If so, this will have introduced an entirely different form of entertainment. I’m not sure if it’s been coined yet, but it most clearly resembles a cross-media family of projects; each project acting as a relative to the overall family. In the case of this theory, the parent company is Fringe, for it seems to be the source behind everything.

To create your own cross-media family, consider exploring the opportunity blogs offer. It might not be screenwriting at first, but it’s definitely a great way to test the waters for before setting out to write and produce your feature screenplay. To develop your own family of cross-media projects, the first thing you’ll need is a solid concept or two. These concepts should be at a distance from each other so that you can allow your audience to discover the connection. For example, if you were to launch to separate blogs featuring their individual stories, the connection could be made through a throw-away line or item, such as Slusho in Alias and Cloverfield, a relationship between the central character’s friends, or even a central event or company taking place in both worlds, as hypothesized with Lost and Fringe.

Remember, both worlds of story must correlate – the must be one world of story; – if they don’t, then you’ll be crossing the boundaries of your world. If you do cross the line, then you better have a good mystery or explanation to set up for your audience.

Overall, this form of cross-media “family project” storytelling requires a few things in order to work properly.

Viral Marketing
Slusho, Massive Dynamic, and most famously, The Dark Knight all make use of viral marketing … and for a good reason. As jaded Internet users, we’ve seen it all; every pop-up add, every website template, and so on, so the only way to grab the audience or viewer’s attention is to give them something new, quirky, or fun. New might mean video rabbit holes, where viewers have the ability to decipher coded messages. An example of this can be seen at Head Trauma‘s viral site, HTMob

Alternate Reality
One of the best ways to catch a viewers attention is to create the illusion that your story is real. As the writer, you need to believe it is, and you need your audience to believe it is as well. Again, the best example of this can be seen with Head Trauma’s viral site, Hope is Missing.

Connection
Obviously, the last necessary ingredient is the actual connection between your projects. The way you approach this is up to you and your style. Are you subtle? Are you rash?

So all in all, this is an idea of a new form of storytelling – a cross-media project family. Whether JJ and the screenwriters make the connection, only time will tell, but let’s keep our fingers crossed, for it would truly be an awesome experience; not to mention the best way to end Lost ever – from the parent project’s perspective!