ufva presentation 2015 - video games - final as presented
TRANSCRIPT
Mario vs. Aristotle:
The Impact of Video Games on
Traditional Film & Television Narrative
Who is Keith?
Who is Bob?
Your Quest Givers
Keith Giglio
Newhouse School at Syracuse
University
@KeithGiglio
Robert Bryant
Writers Program at UCLA
@thumbcandy
Part 00: Overview
WRITERS AND NEW TECHNOLOGY
The Printing Press
Radio
Silent Movies
“The Talkies”
Animation
Television
Movies over 100 years old
TV almost 70 years old
Video Games almost 40 years old
WE ARE IN A GOLDEN AGE
Talkies changed the movies…
These platforms changed games
Video Games Evolved...
CLICK HERE
The Lines are Blurring...
Variety:
Variety recently wrote “television and gaming
have supplanted movies as platforms for
iconoclastic works of art ranging from Mass
Effect to Breaking Bad.“
What Have Movies/TV Taught
Games?
The Importance of Story
The Importance of Uniquely Familiar
Neil Druckmann inspirations
STRUCTURE
He recalls the studio’s creative director Sam
Lake banging his head over trying to perfect
game narrative beyond Max Payne’s movie
format, before taking inspiration from TV shows
like Lost.
“It was during that time that the big series started
to come out with HBO and whatnot, Lost for
instance was one where people were buying the
boxsets, and then watching the episodes at their
own pace. Some are binging through it, some are
watching one a day, some are watching one
every other day or once a week, but all at their
own pace,” he explains.
Episodic Storytelling
Sequels and Spin-offs
Make Us Care
Ingmar Bergman
●His work took us beyond film’s native
emotions and brought his lens to bear on
more complete range of human
experience
Despair
Torment
Shame
Alienation
Bergman’s Generation
Fellini
Truffaut
DeSica
Rossellini
Kurosawa
Paul Schrader
Bergman “probably did more than anyone
to make cinema a medium of personal and
introspective value.”
“personal and introspective
value”
How Have Games Changed
Movies and Television?
Video Games are 43 years old
Pong (1972)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
Three Generations of Creators
There are creators working today whose
parents play(ed) video games
Pixels (2015)
No respect for the game medium
No respect for game culture
No respect for the audience
How It’s NOT done
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Street Fighter (1994)
Mortal Kombat (1994)
Doom (2005)
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)
Turandot sequence demonstrates real
puzzle for the audience from Ethan’s POV
What’s a “Game?”
A game is “an [interactive] experience
defined by rules.”
- Anna Anthropy
“Show, Don’t Tell.”
“Don’t show me. Let me do it.”
“Game Mechanics”
• Moving
• Jumping
• Exploring
• Solving
• Herding
• Shooting
• Bartering
• Planning
• Nurturing
• Dancing
• Playing plastic
guitars
Key Game Mechanic
Exploring
Game Writing = World Building
Exploration
Of physical space
Of narrative spaces
Physical spaces
Snowpiercer
Inception
Interstellar
1980s = The New Hotness
Michael Bay, et al., are a generation of
filmmakers raised loving and making music
videos.
“The tyrrany of the cut.”
“Screen Geography”
Younger “gamer” directors are respecting
space again.
More coherent action sequences.
Players HAVE to know where they are.
Narrative spaces
Video games
Long tradition of extratextuality
TV & Movies
Easter eggs
Recaps
Recaps
“What did I miss?”
(or questions)
Exercise
Character Choice??
Level Design
Breadcrumb - Myst is lost
Levels - Snowpiercer, Edge of Tomorrow
DLC
Up the action -
Storytelling devices
Action!
Worlds are blurring
Wrap up