Tue 23 Oct 2007
The whole Hollywood convergence/divergence debate is an evergreen topic that some exec is always yammering on about… Last weekend, I had the pleasure of moderating an afternoon session on games+film during the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal.
There were several brief sessions by various invited speakers, and then we jammed them all up on stage for a group discussion/debate and audience Q&A.
Bernard Perron (Université de Montréal) and Carl Therrien (Université du Québec à Montréal) took a more academic look at the visual fidelity, movement differences between games and film.
Eric Chartrand (EA) described the emotional impact of playing Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.
A2M’s Chris Crowell and Philippe Baude lay out why games are unique and different (eg, agency, success/failure, dynamic camera, etc).
Clint Hocking (Ubisoft) rants on the need for gaming literacy and a formal language of game design.
Bernard, Carl, Eric, Chris, Philippe and Clint engage with the audience.
Anyway, was nice to get such varying perspectives on the topic - and from a more creative point of view (ie, the business side was practically not touched)…
October 28th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
This topic is becoming more and more pervasive; Edge, Develop, and Game Developer allow devote a regular column to what is being touted as an inevitable coupling.
Am I the only one missing the stark difference between film (passive) and games (active)? Or is this Hollywood-Games collaboration doomed to be nothing more than “Choose Your Own Adventure” style films, implemented via DVD “jump to chapter 05 for YES, jump to chapter 06 for NO.”
Thoughts anyone?
October 29th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Had some further thoughts on this topic.
I have been considering the evolution that occurred from stage production to motion picture.
I wonder was there the same clamoring by the stage production executives to “jump on the bandwagon” of the then emerging motion picture industry?
Would there have been calls by the stage production executives to couple and marry the two mediums, in an effort to avoid being left behind?
Maybe this is being harsh. After all, there is intermittent reports of Peter Jackson getting involved in a Halo “interactive movie” so I assume there is some credence behind this venture.
Thoughts?