The explosive interest in and rapid expansion of the interactive entertainment community holds great promise for experience-based storytelling–and Hollywood and Madison Avenue are taking notice.
In response, the Visual Effects Society (VES) and the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM Siggraph recently presented a program titled “Experiential Narrative in Games and Film,” which dissected the convergence of games, entertainment and advertising. The event was held at the Entertainment Technology Center in USC’s Digital Cinema Laboratory at the Hollywood Pacific Theater.
Speakers brought experience in multiple media to the table. They were David Goyer, writer/director, whose credits include The Invisible, Batman Begins, Dark City, and the Blade trilogy; Tom DeSanto, executive producer, Transformers: The Movie, X-Men, and X-Men United; John Gaeta, visual effects supervisor on The Matrix trilogy; Habib Zargarpour, Electronic Arts’ game designer on “Need for Speed: Most Wanted,” which features a BMW in the leading role; and Jonathan Ackley, a LucasArts alumnus. Richard Taylor, cinematics director at Electronic Arts, moderated the discussion. Loni Peristere, co-founder of Culver City-based Zoic Studios, was a meeting producer and participated in the discussion.
The general consensus from the panel was that filmmakers and game designers should work together to create a seamless experience where one medium informs and enriches the other. This would involve combining the emotion and drama of film with the interactivity of video games to create stories in which a viewer can participate as well as watch. Peristere observes that the games will continue to become more sophisticated as the CG world moves toward real time photoreal rendering.
But what is the model of the future? One that is already happening is the development and release of movie-based video games that hit the market around the time of the film’s release.
“It’s natural to try to extend a successful film,” says Gaeta, who won an Academy Award and BAFTA Award for visual effects on The Matrix. “But the trend of trying to create a successful property from one media to another has had some hiccups.”
Specifically addressing the creative side, he points out that a film’s creators play a large role in the success of a film. “But we’ve been separated from the [game development] process,” he says. “Part of the problem is that directors have not been direct participants in the game.”
“It’s about communication,” agrees DeSanto. “I don’t think there’s ever been a good synergy between film and games because they [operate as] two creative creatures.”
“The time to nail down all the relationships [between filmmakers and game developers] is in prepro,” asserts Gaeta. “[Prepro] is the privotal point. I totally believe the directors and writers have probably the best insights into [the characters and situations].”
Goyer says that character and story are critical in a successful movie-based game, but while video games today often have the image of the characters in a film, they are not always about the characters. Another inherent problem, he suggests, is that “development windows are not long enough to do a proper game,” keeping in mind that a film has already been greenlit when game development begins.
“In order to make a really good game, you need three to four years,” says DeSanto. “[It will be an issue] until video games shorten their development time.”
EA’s Zargarpour, an alum of Industrial Light + Magic and the feature world, where he is a two-time Academy Award nominee and two–time BAFTA Award winner (both for The Perfect Storm and Twister), relates, “I found making a game requires as much time as making a movie; most people don’t realize this.”
Success is also about proper use of the benefits of each medium. “For any entertainment technology to survive, it has to have a niche,” says Ackley. “When translating a property from one to another, you need to look at strengths and weaknesses of a new medium. To be successful in interactive, the true art is knowing how much control to give.”
Like movie-based games, there is also strong interest in branded games. That business model has been shifting in recent years, driven by increasing demand.
“Three years ago you used to have to pay advertisers to put ads in games; now they pay us,” observes Zargarpour, whose “Need for Speed: Most Wanted” featuring a BMW won the ’06 VES Award for outstanding real time visuals in a video game.
The relationship between game developers and advertisers is an important one, he relates, as clients pay close attention to how their product is portrayed. “Each car company has a different idea of what they want,” he explains, noting that this includes how much damage–and the type of damage–that the developers can inflict on a vehicle in the course of the game. As an example, he explained that on a BMW, windows were allowed to crack, but they could not smash. Ironically, he says, “you can explode a car in a movie, but you can’t in a game.”
Automotive advertising seems to be an obvious fit for video games, which frequently include chase sequences. Yet speakers acknowledged that the industry is looking for fresh ideas and new genres–including those for the less frequently targeted female audience.
Among those being looked at are games with portals to the Web. Panelists seemed to think this was a particularly interesting model for advertising to explore, as it could result in product placement as well as product involvement. It was suggested that on a Web site, one could learn more about–and even purchase–products that are featured in games. “It’s about commerce,” suggests DeSanto. “If people feel the dollars are there, it will happen.”
These advertiser opportunities were also viewed as something to consider for another suggested model, what Gaeta calls a “hybrid” film–that is, a game where the player can affect the outcome. With story choices that a player can make, he observes, “think about how many movies can be constructed in one environment.”
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More