Interview: Alina Adams: Digital age
BY CINDY ELAVSKY
Sunday, December 25, 2011
While you might not know Alina
Adams by name (yet), you do know
her by her body of work. She’s worn
many hats in the soap-opera community,
including writer, host, content
producer, developer, etc. She’s
authored soap-opera tie-in books
“Oakdale Confidential,” “The Man
From Oakdale” and “Jonathan’s
Story,” and is also the woman
behind the “Another World” website,
which has carried the show on into
the 21st century even though the
NBC version was canceled in 1999.
Alina is also the writer of Mindy
Lewis Bauer’s Twitter feed
(twitter.com/MindyLewisBauer), the
writings of the popular “Guiding
Light” character, who chronicles the
ongoing drama that’s still happening
in Springfield, after “Guiding
Light’s” 2009 cancellation.
Perhaps most forward-looking of
all Alina’s projects is the development
of enhanced electronic books
which, in addition to standard text,
features video, music, graphics and
links relevant to the story. An
enhanced e-book can be experienced
on tablets, iPads, smartphones and
computers – all you need is an
Internet connection and a free
Kindle app. I spoke with Alina
recently about electronic innovations
and the future of soaps.
Daytime Dial: One of your first
interactive projects in the genre was
to bring “Another World” back via
storytelling on AnotherWorld
Today.com. How did you decide on
the format in which to bring it back?
Alina Adams: TeleNext had put
up reruns of “Another World” on
hulu.com. It was 2009, exactly 10
years after the show had gone off the
air. I suggested we do some out-ofthe-
box thinking.
Instead of just telling people:
“Here are some reruns.
Watch these episodes,” we’ll
update the story. Let’s work
with the characters that were
in the episodes that they were
showing and use the episodes
on Hulu as flashbacks, and
combine text and video in a
completely new multimedia
format.
DD: And then when you incorporated
Mindy with that by having her
refer to “AW” on her Twitter feed,
that was a great tie-in.
AA: Everybody loves a crossover!
You could either pick up new readers
– or in this case, new followers –
or you won’t. It’s highly unlikely
you would lose anyone as a result of
it. So it’s a win-win situation.
DD: Mindy’s “Guiding Light”
Twitter started as a promotion for
the 25th high-school reunion of the
Four Musketeers (Phillip, Beth, Rick
and Mindy), and you guys decided
to keep it going. Back then, it was
affiliated with “Guiding Light” but
you’ve decided to continue it on
your own .
DD: I also love the interactive
quality of Mindy’s Twitter, where
she asks her followers for advice on
what to do in certain situations.
AA: Twitter is terrific that way. It
creates immediacy and intimacy.
DD: Tell me about your enhanced
electronic book “Soap Opera 451.”
AA: I reached out to the fans on
transmedia – Facebook, Twitter, fan
clubs, soap sites – and I asked them
to tell me their favorite, most memorable
moment from the beginning of
soaps until now. I received a wonderful
avalanche of responses. Once
I compiled those lists, I went to
either the actor, writer or producer
who was involved in the scene, and I
got the story of how the scene came
together.
For example, after Linda Dano
tells you about what it was like to
shoot the intervention scenes on
“Another World,” there the scene is
– you can click a button on your
tablet and watch it. I developed the
idea as a fan and as a consumer.
Associated Images:
‘Everybody loves a crossover!’
– Alina Adams
Courtesy
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