Cross Screen Experiences - Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Doing it Right

Pre warning : 

• The article below contains minor spoilers for those who have ONLY been watching MCU Movies.
• The article below will be focusing on what is currently being done in terms the delivery of multiple screen types and how its unlike what we might already be seeing (be it in terms of implementation or scale).
• The article below will NOT be focusing on what else can be done .. (though i might write something on this in future)
• The article below will NOT be focusing on story line establishment between movies ( on a charcter introduction scale)
• I am not game for any arguments on "this was already done by xxxx". By reading the article below you should understand that i acknowledge that some of the things mcu are doing have indeed already been done. 
•  I am however open to any debates on how anyone else is doing it better. 
•  I am also open to any suggestions on things they aren't doing at te moment however like i said this might be covered in a future article on what else they can do
• This article will not be discussing how things should have happened (comic fanboys be warned) . MCU is a different Universe. Any fanboy should already know that there are multiple universe's even within the comics... Thus timelines are not relevant. ITS A DIFFERENT VERSE! Though I will say i strongly object any attempt to make Miles Morales the new flagship spidey of MCU :D
• This article will not be discussing how Iroman 2 (sort of) sucked :P
• This article is being written by someone (well.. me) with 11 years experience in the mobile contents industry ... I might not be any Yusry Halim Or Yusoff Haslam... But I still consider myself as someone who knows his craft :)

And now... on with the show...



Those who do not know me might not know that the organization i work for is a major player within the malaysian (mobile) content industry. You might notice the bracket i purposely put in front of mobile. The significance of the bracket is that the industry has evolved in such a way that, while i am indeed working actively in the mobile portion of contents, for many contents there is no longer class restrictions.



A few years back we started hearing about OTT. The concept of OTT or Over The Top was to deliver contents that could be enjoyed across all layers and mediums available to consumers. From small screens (ur mobile) to mid screens (pcs) to large screens (tvs). Enjoying contents on the go on your phone, pausing it and continuing on different screens to cater the fast pace society. For a very long time i was being brainwashed by the industry to believe that this was the next evolution in the contents industry. Contents without boundries. We are starting to see more of this gaining popularity even locally... Astro On The Go, HyppTv.. hell... lets give them a chance and even credit Escape .

MCU certainly changed my point of view on the evolution of contents. Its not that i think OTT is not relevant. Its that MCU changed my perception on how/what the relationship of the screens should be. Torrents, Digital & Satellite tv and the likes of itunes are already allowing cross platform viewing. You can just as easily purchase something on itunes (for example) and view it on all your devices. Games are also enjoying cross platform experiences now a days. Angry Birds being a fine example of a game being splashed on all screen types

But what MCU is doing for the contents industry is years ahead of what anyone else is doing (at least effectively). They are providing a new seamless and continues engagement for the public at large to continue to enjoy contents via different (preferred) media types. The show does not begin and end in the cinema any more ... but flows smoothly allowing the user to experience it continuously. But what does that mean ?

The "movie" begins before the movie. If you remember, during iron man 2, agent Coulson needed to leave mid movie for another assignment that would later be revealed in the credits to go and check out Thors hammer. This is significant to Thor's movie where SHIELD already established their presence around the hammer.. They didn't need to take 15-20 minutes to explain how that happened. And the audience loved it...

But that's not all.. Digital downloadable pre-movie contents (in form of comics) are also sold before a movie comes out,providing solid back stories to movies months before the next movie chapter is released. (Age of Ultron and Antman prelude comics being the latest) Of course marvel was not the first to do this thus one might argue what MCU is doing is not new. Heroes and Lost both delivered their own form of comic and web views. It was even done on Bay's Transformers (1,2&3). So lets see what else MCU is doing

After the movie, short mini clips were developed and released to show how the events changed things. A short mini clip released after the Avengers for example showed how some civilians scavenged a Chitauri weapon after the battle of New York. It was a war.. and there WAS aftermath... MCU showed this! But thats not all...They did it again on a larger scale.... 

We all remember the iconic death of Phil in the avengers. But not everyone knows that there was later a new hashtag trending #coulsonlives. And indeed he lived, spear heading a new spinoff tv series Agents of shield that gave the audience more insight on the operations of shield and their relevance to mcu even though heroes existed while effectively subtly introducing us to another known threat to the Avengers...The Kree via project Tahiti and in season 2 the Inhumans (also known descendants of the Kree)

Did it end there? No! While agents of shield were having their first season run, we saw the repercussions of the battle of London (Thor 2) and how the Agents Of Shield survived after Shield was disbanded in the aftermath of Winter Soldier. It spun the whole series into chaos (in a good way)

The flow between everything (the prelude comics, the tv shows, the online snippets, and the movies themselves) was so fluid we didn't have to wait 2 years between movies like the others made us. (Sorry Transformers, LOTR, Starwars, Fast and Furious). We were able to continuously enjoy the contents all year long. And for those who have not watched Marvels Agents of Shield (but watched Winter Soldier).... You have no idea what ur missing. I'm not gonna lie. Some episode were mediocre at best. But the final arc of season one was nothing short of EPIC.

This new form of small, medium and big screens (redefining them as mobile/pc, tv and silver screen) is what should be the new standard for contents development and delivery. Delivering fresh & different contents across the different screens that compliments each other giving the users/audience a continues uninterrupted year long experience rather then dishing out the same contents on each device for them to view and forget.

I only hope one day i can be involved in providing such a pleasurable & engaging contents experience as done by MCU.