Archive for December, 2009
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
Are you Game?
Granted, I’m just trying to wrangle a new career path in order to justify getting an Xbox 360 for Christmas, but writing for computer games has greatly interested me for years now.
At the beginning of December, I managed to gain a place on a Writing for Games training scheme run by Screen Yorkshire and indie games company Team 17 (who created Worms and the just released Alien Breed Evolution pictured above). For the next few months, I’ll be learning how to plot, develop and actually script a narrative for game which, whatever I come up with, will be about running around and blasting aliens.
That’s the interesting part for me and what makes it so different from writing for other media. Whatever this game turns out to be, this game will always be a ‘run and gun’ - but it’s the writer’s role to provide the context: Why are you shooting the aliens? Where are they shooting the aliens? Who is shooting the aliens?
That sounds like a lot of fun to me, for now - the main focus of a game should always be the gameplay, shouldn’t it? But there seems to be a battle brewing between narrative and gameplay on its way. Upcoming games such as the impressive-looking Heavy Rain which are focussing on emotional impact in its audience could open up new levels of interactivity and emotional immersion in a story. If it sells (fingers crossed!)
Even though the cut scenes were clunky, the story for the original Resident Evil had enough to keep me going. Mind you, most of the backstory for that came in the little booklet that came with the game, rather than it. But did that matter?
I found this short and funny video lecture by Daniel Floyd at Screw Attack on Storytelling in Videogames. It succinctly puts across the potential problems as well as the positives of interactivity in big release games. But, to me, it also puts across why writing for games is an exciting new venture as the rules haven’t quite been laid down yet. I’m going to give it a go anyway. Just as soon as I’ve saved Gotham from the Joker in Arkham Asylum 
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
My favourite bits of movies from 2009.
I’m half-way through several different blog posts but, as it’s Christmas Eve, I just fancied talking about stuff I liked this year. Rather than do my own abitrary ‘best of’ list, these are the bits from the films I’ve seen in 2009 that have really stuck with me.
This will contain *MILD SPOILERS* but I’ll make every effort to try and make sure I don’t give more away than watching the trailers. If you’ve seen the films I’ve listed, you’ll know the bits I mean anyway. In the order I saw them…
1. ‘The Swimming Pool Scene’ from Let the Right One In
Also one of my favourite books of late (and one I’d read before I saw the film), the climax of Let the Right One In turns one or two sentences from the novel into a real gasp-inducing ‘how did they do that?’ set piece. But what really grabbed me was the emotional bond it suggested between innocent Oskar and once-innocent Eli. Bonus points as well for the additional coda (not in the book) that had me snuffling and trying to ‘get something out of my eye’.
2. ‘The Birth of James T. Kirk’ from Star Trek
As the Star Trek timeline is re-written forever, in his opening set-piece JJ Abrams also managed to create a perfect blend of action, emotion, sound and fury. Whatever your thoughts on the whole film, George Kirk trying to hear about his newborn son as he valiantly stays on board the USS Kelvin to enable his crew’s escape sets the tone that audiences needed - that Starfleet Captains have to be double bastard-hard. I don’t think the rest of the film ever reaches the heady heights of this opening gambit…but what an opening.
3. ‘GERTY trundles in’ from Moon
The others on this list aren’t necessarily my top five entire movies of 2009 - but, without a doubt, MOON is my movie of the year. This also made it hard to choose just one moment from it as director Duncan Jones had Sam Rockwell doing too many cool things. However, the bit where robotic assistant GERTY (benevolently voiced by Kevin Spacey) shows whose side he’s really on is probably when this movie became something else for me.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I really recommend this film and hope you like it as much as I did!
4. ‘Wikus escorts Christopher Johnson’ from District 9
I don’t think I’m alone in being surprised by this film. I think a lot of us were expecting more a of a satirical edge where District 9 seemed much happier becoming an action film. Not necessarily a problem, mind you. While I wasn’t always on board with the film, the transformation of MNU operative Wikus into the shamed-protector of a ‘prawn’ called Christopher Johnson became an exhilarating showdown that still hit me with strong characterisation - particularly the bit where, in desperation, Wikus plays ‘catch’ with an incoming projectile. I gasped.
5. ‘So long, fellahs…’ from Up.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I’m sure you’ve all heard about the opening sequence that stunned an audience into blubbering submission. But that’s why I’ve chosen the bit immediately afterwards, the joyous catharsis of cranky Carl not giving in and taking off. This scene is the key moment in all of the trailers and marketing for this movie so we’d all seen it a thousand times already but this is my final choice because, once we’d been hit with the bittersweet context, we needed this scene. And it was brilliant!
* * * * *
I’ve limited myself to five, but I should throw in an honourable mention to Paranormal Activity too. The ending is as scary as you’ve heard (and taught me that I don’t scream so much as yell ‘WAHEY!’ when I’m made to jump in fear - how embarrassing 
) but the bit the bit that really creeped me was the pay-off to boyfriend Micah’s experiments in catching their ‘intruder’s’ footprints in flour. Yikes.
I know I’ve missed a few out, so what were your best movie bits? And, to all who want it, I wish you a very merry one!
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
POLL: Batman Begins vs. The Dark Knight
An important topic, I know. The Dark Knight made more than twice as much as Batman Begins at the box office and TDK received 100% approval from top critics on Rotten Tomatoes where BB received a ‘mere’ 83%. But, while in several aspects, The Dark Knight was superior, re-watching Batman Begins last week made me think that maybe the first film was actually the more complete, solid story.
Sequels generally gain bigger audiences as more people find themselves drawn to the bandwagon. Equally, the more popular something becomes the more alluring the backlash bandwagon becomes as well. When a film is not actually the best thing in the world ever, as some critics seemed to claim, then it’s easy to feel let down - even if it’s because a film turns out to be a four-star film rather than a five-star film.
From a nerdy writer point of view, I think Batman Begins had a more cohesive story but with clunkier moments of dialogue whereas The Dark Knight had a much livelier, funnier and more emotive script but with a story that struggled to do too much. But let’s get down to brass tacks…
I’m sure a number of people reading this will argue that surely Heath Ledger steals the show in The Dark Knight. I agree - however, you could also argue that this is to the detriment of the film. Batman Begins villains Ra’s a’ Ghul and the Scarecrow might be lesser known to non-comic fans but I think their use in the film really served the story - story that was very much Bruce Wayne/Batman’s.
So fresh, scary and eye-catching was Nolan/Ledger’s take on the Joker, that he couldn’t help but dominate the film - but beyond what was needed from the role. Would Harvey Dent’s evolution into Two-Face have had more of an impact if a slightly less iconic villain had been the catalyst and saved the Joker as sole villain for film three?
Nolan is not the greatest action director but I look forward to his evolution. Having said that, comparing the Batmobile chase of the first film (a masterful sequence in terms of plot, visuals, sound and editing in my opinion) is far more impressive than the Batpod truck chase in the sequel. While it was impressive to hear that they really did flip that massive truck in real life, it didn’t feel that impressive when I saw it on the big screen.
But this is intended as a debate rather than me telling you why one film is better than the other. I really like them both. But my general thought is that Batman Begins is better than the sum of its parts whereas The Dark Knight’s core concept buckles under lofty intentions and amazing moments.
So please vote below. In the event of a tie, I am willing to concede that Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes as the character of Rachel might be a deciding factor 
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