Sunday, October 15, 2006

the future of games and film

"... a medium somewhere between game and film that hasn’t emerged yet"

interesting thoughts about the future of games and film from John Gaeta, who won an Academy Award for his visual effects work in the Matrix movie:
Gaeta is deeply interested in the game industry, which he describes as being in a stage like TV in the 1950s, or film in its first twenty years. “There’s been no ‘Citizen Kane’ in the game industry yet,” which means there’s a long way to go yet.

He observes that Peter Jackson has recently announced that he’ll be producing the Halo movie… an indicator of the idea that films from games may be about to get much more serious. He announced that he plans to “turn his attention to a new medium” - a medium somewhere between game and film that hasn’t emerged yet. Gaeta believes that he’s digging in the right place, that new media will draw in creatives from both film and games.

Asked to speculate more on the future of games and flim, he speculates that the tension between narrative and interactivity will lead towards new art forms emerging. Films are passive narrative - a sculture of sorts - with no rhythym or repetition. Interactive media are all about immersiveness, which often involves reliving the same situations over and over again. Both film and games lay out universes, but games give you a narrative experience without detracting from play. This may lead to a future medium which still has dramatic parts, created by directors and actors, but also spaces - worlds - that can be explored at your leisure… or which can change and reform behind the dramatic scene.
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1033#respond
I wonder if it would be possible to experiment with a low tech approach to this idea - by combining movie like AI effects with game play effects?
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