Discussion of Movie Techniques Thread. First a Serious Warning from the Cross-media police: games, films, novels.. are all seperate media. Techniques that work well in one will not work the same in a different media, because each medium has its own strengths, weaknesses and different properties. So, This thread does not advocate trying to steal techniques, rather that it might be worth thinking about the effects that these techniques try to achieve, why they wouldn''t work well in the context of a computer game, and if possible how one could change them to work in computer games/ sims etc. There are many different "techniques" and set-pieces for example: The Unaware Character ------------------------ This happens when there is an "foe/prowler/assassin" entering the apartment (location) where the character is, the character cross-cuts? between the foe breaking in, and the unaware character who is doing something trivial. Thus this creates suspense in the audience wondering whether the character will realise what is going on. Why it wouldn''t work (as is) in games. --------------------------------------- It works by giving the audience more knowledge than the characters in the game. If the player was told that there was an assassin near one of the characters that THEY control, then they would either run away, or try to defeat the assassin. --- Can you think of any?

Perhaps a little off topic, but not so much:

www.wordplayer.com has some very good articles about writing movie scripts. A lot of the articles are interesting even if you don't write movie scripts (which I don't).

It might provide a little inspiration and/or info for people in this thread, as it can provide the movie way of doing a lot of things, then as Ketchaval said, you can figure out if it is applicable to games or not etc...

Edited by - Dactylos on June 17, 2001 8:22:37 PM

game is very different about movie.

Movie is made from many scenes for one action, and games is made from one scene and many actions.

In fact, when in a movie, somebody jump over a windows, then it is a scene, but in a game is thinking about the room with windows map, and many action such as jump over windows, or using the door...

quote: Original post by Ketchaval
The Unaware Character
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This happens when there is an "foe/prowler/assassin" entering the apartment (location) where the character is, the character cross-cuts? between the foe breaking in, and the unaware character who is doing something trivial. Thus this creates suspense in the audience wondering whether the character will realise what is going on.

Why it wouldn''t work (as is) in games.
---------------------------------------
It works by giving the audience more knowledge than the characters in the game. If the player was told that there was an assassin near one of the characters that THEY control, then they would either run away, or try to defeat the assassin.

Interestingly, recently I''ve been bemoaning the death of the "true whodunnit", as all modern "mystery" movies and novels present way more information to the reader than to the characters in the book. In a classic murder mystery, for example, the reader would have exactly the same clues and info as the detective, and would be able to make informed guesses and hypotheses as to who was guilty. No more.

Now, to make the "Unaware chracter"/suspense ploy work in a game, the player must be made unaware. This rejects the trivial movie device of showing the assailant apporaching. In a game, the lights could go out, and breathing/footsteps/noises could be heard - perhaps approaching. This also works best from a first-person perspective, because a third-person presents too much environmental feedback and is more difficult to deprive.

The player could be given hints that something was approaching, and even cues such as music and lighting. An anticlimax might then ensue by a friend walking in, but the moment would have heightened the emotional impact of the game on the player. Imagine an avatar in a room, and a slow scraping sound is heard from the door to the left (viva, 3d audio!) in a house that is supposed to be empty. The lights suddenly go out, but it''s not quite dark yet, so there''s about 4 feet of visibility. A scream and a charge... and it turns out to be Charlie, who thought there was an intruder in the house.

Hey, a neat thread I missed!

Actually, the Unaware Character would work as a part of an NIS (non-interactive scene aka cutscene), where because it''s non-interactive the player would be seeing it like a movie. Imagine the game transitioning to the NIS when the character triggers something (goes into the kitchen for instance).

In the bedroom, we see foul demons slowly sliding up the window and slithering in by the dozens. The music crests. We cut to the hallway. Longshot on character''s back. Rising tension as we slowly zoom in. Then, we zoom right into the character, and we''re back to FPS control.

What does the player do? Oh, they run right into the bedroom, right?

So what? Nothing says that the demons are still there . Now, the player is probably spooked, because there''s nothing but the flapping of window curtains in the night breeze. I''d add something like that to what Oluseyi proposed.

I''ve got one that I think would be hard to do:

The Amnesiac Character
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The audience accumulates information that the amnesiac character keeps losing. This lose of information changes the character''s behavior (I hear that Memento is a good example of this.) Suspense depends on the play between what the audience knows and what the character knows, and whether or not the character will come to the audience''s knowledge in time.

Won''t Work As Is Because
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The player is both audience and character.

It could possibly work, however, if the information was detailed or complicated, and gameplay depending on parts of it being unavailable to the player from time to time.





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Just waiting for the mothership...

There's a game that did this very well.Battle Isle Phase Four.It was a turn-based 3D strategy.You were in an empty colony on an alien planet, fighting monsters like those in the movie Alien.During the opponents turn the view would often change to show what a monster was doing in FIRST PERSON.Often you didn't know exactly what you were seeing ... but man that was scary.Especially when you suddenly saw your own characters and the alien ran towards them and -SLASH- ..........

Runemaster

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Edited by - runemaster on June 29, 2001 8:22:53 AM

Didn''t I read recently that American McGee just started his own company that will make games with the secondary purpose of turning the said games into movies? Maybe I was really having a nightmare, i don''t know.
And didn''t I also read on a related note that Wes Craven got given the rights to make a movie based on Alice? Again, maybe I was dreaming, but grr, I *DESPISE* Wes Craven, and so I''m really wondering how he''ll treat what could still *possibly* be a decent game->movie conversion.

-Ryan "Run_The_Shadows"
-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com
"Doubt Everything. Find your own light." -Dying words of Gautama