Cutting
to the Chase:
Cinematic Construction for Gamers
Editor's
note: This paper was originally published in the 2000 Game
Developer's Conference proceedings
Game developers
are right in the middle of inventing our art form, and the rules are
vague. Some of us assume that we must also invent our own system of
dynamic visual expression, because those rules seem vague as well. Judging
by the embarrassing ignorance displayed in some of the titles I see,
a number of developers seem to think that there are no rules at all,
just because they never heard of any. So it may come as a surprise to
learn that the so-called "language of film" emerged as a solid
body of knowledge around 75 years ago and has changed little since.
You don't think a movie director's real job is doing lunch, do you?
This article
is a primer aimed at designers and artists who need to incorporate cinematic
sequences within their games in order to drive a story or heighten the
impact of their title, and who have little knowledge of how to proceed.
We will rapidly and superficially cover a lot of material since it's
impossible to teach a film course in such a short article, but it doesn't
matter. My purpose here is merely to bewilder readers and generate enough
curiosity to send them scurrying for more information in the literature,
referenced below.
I'm a
veteran moviemaker and game designer who likes games that tell stories.
The organization of the following material reflects my own personal
views about the best way to use cinematic elements in games. In other
words, the information is heavily biased. Your mileage may vary.
Fundamental
Ideas
Until
motion picture technology was invented in the last third of the 19th
Century, no one had any idea that movies were possible, to say nothing
of how they would work.
1.
The Shot
Without something recorded on film or video (or possibly a series of
esoteric commands in a game scripting language) there is no possiblity
of motion picture entertainment; so individual moving images are the
primary cinematic material. They require design in and of themselves.
In 1895, the Lumière Brothers strung up a bedsheet and charged
startled Parisians real money to watch a train lumber across it. For
a naïve audience it was a thrilling sight. At that moment it was
possible to believe that cinema would forever consist of a single shot
and nothing more-something like a recorded stage play, with continuous
uninterrupted action an essential requirement for intelligibility.
2.
The Cut
By 1902, when Edwin S. Porter filmed The Life of an American Fireman,
moviemakers knew better: an audience can be induced to understand a
collection of separate film shots-snippets photographed at various times
in various locations and connected only by direct cuts-as a continuous
experience. Uninterrupted action was not only unnecessary, but a hindrance.
3.
Film Theory
A problem remained, however. Not all shots would cut together. Some
combinations worked better than others. And some cuts produced spooky
effects beyond what anyone had imagined, suggesting great expressive
power waiting to be harnessed. The language of film developed in the
first decades of the twentieth century in order to develop a set of
rules for making shots that will cut successfully, without confusion,
and deliver emotional impact.
Here are some of the discoveries the early moviemakers made:
- The
Kuleshov Effect: Shot of an actor cut between shots of soup, a
body in a coffin, a little girl playing with a toy. Actor never changes
expression, but the audience perceives hunger, grief, fatherly love,
due to simple juxtaposition.
-
Artificial Landscapes: Placing the White House in Moscow.
-
Synthetic Woman: Image of a woman from cuts of one woman's lips,
another's legs.
-
Parallel action: Events distant in time and place, with different
actors, are understood as separate parts of the same story.
The important
lesson was, as Hitchcock observed, "movies are life with the bad
bits cut out."
Cinematic
Elements
Here is a short collection of important film elements. It's far from
complete, but will suggest some of the possibilities and pitfalls of
moviemaking...
1.
Actors & Acting
Motion picture entertainment is recorded, but acting dominates, which
is why we have movie stars. Casting and acting, however, are too complicated
to discuss in this article. So let's acknowledge the topic and move
on to purely cinematic ideas...
2. Images
& Staging
Framing and sizing individual shots turn out to be important considerations
in making a movie, as does the orchestration of camera and actor movement.
Some primitive observations...
- Early
filmmakers wondered whether changes in the apparent size of actors
in different shots would make audiences think they had grown or shrunk.
Well, no, that doesn't happen, an important discovery leading to the
close-up.
- The
focal length of lenses dictate perspective. Filmmakers quickly learned
that wide angles exaggerate motion and depth perception, while narrow
angles reduce both.
- Lighting
is important for a sense of three-dimensionality and for emotional
color. Harsh lighting makes actors look angry or distressed, soft
lighting makes them seem romantic.
- Stage
scenes to look good on camera. Move actors within a shot for emphasis.
Notice that actors tend to stand closer together in a movie than they
would in a real social situation. Notice that no one notices this
artifice.
- Roughly
speaking, big image changes carry more power than little ones. If
one actor takes a swing at another, the bigger the fist moving through
the frame, the better.
- Shots
have a life of their own. Something should happen in each one. Without
an event, a shot is dead.
3.
Cinematic Expression
Notice that by atomizing the events of a dramatic sequence into discrete
shots chosen, framed, and cut together with care, filmmakers can intensify
the movie experience in a number of important ways. For example...
- Flow
of Time-Dull: "Shoe leather" moments can be reduced
or eliminated altogether, while events too rapid to be appreciated
can be extended to maximize their impact. Overall, a satisfying pace
can be generated mechanically by timing the cuts.
- Dramatic
Emphasis: What's most interesting about a given moment in a scene
should be onscreen right now! Often, a close-up is important to read
an actor's mood or intentions. An actor seen alone emphasizes his
or her emotional state. An over-the-shoulder shot emphasizes the enclosing
social situation. An insert (a close-up of hands or props or almost
anything that doesn't include the actor's face) is often as expressive
as anything else. Examples: a match lights a fuse orr feet slamming
on the brakes when a driver spots a woman hitchhiking.
- Ecstatic
Point of View: Film generally doesn't tell a story from any particular
set of eyes. The camera is a disembodied ghost roving wherever the
best shot can be found. How did the camera get outside Apollo 13?
How can it fall 13 stories with some unlucky villain and live to tell
the rest of the tale? Well, it just does so effortlessly, because
the audience is more interested in expression than mechanics. When
drama demands, the camera easily adopts an actor's POV, but it's rare
to do it for more than a few seconds.
- Camera
Elevation: Low camera means that the character is in charge; A
high camera means that fate is in charge.
- Suspense:
When the audience is informed about the nature of a situation, that's
suspense. Let's say we frame two people talking at a table. If we
cut to an insert of a bomb ticking away underneath it, we have suspense.
If someone jumps in a taxi and tells the driver, "The airport!
Hurry or I'll miss my flight," and we follow with shots of heavy
traffic, that's also suspense. Keep the audience involved by keeping
them aware of pitfalls and goals.
4.
The World Of Left & Right
In reality, we need a sense of navigation to understand our position
and velocity through three-dimensional space. Wondering about north,
south, east, west, up and down is important for our health and well-being.
By contrast, in film everything is reduced to left & right. It takes
a while for most people to grasp this slightly disturbing idea, but
it's true. Directors must be aware of the many aspects of this principle.
For example...
- The
Establishing Shot: Ashot that shows everything in place in a scene,
so the audience can see important spatial relationships.
- The
Stage Line: An imaginary and elastic line running between the
two most important elements of an establishing shot. Don't cross it
by accident!
- Coverage:
If an establishing shot depicts two actors facing each other, Alice
looking right and Bob looking left, then the close-ups that cut properly
with the wider shot must preserve the look directions. Oh, and actors
never look at the camera.
- Camera
Progress: In a chase, movement must generally proceed in the same
direction from shot to shot. (Obvious exception: the complex truck
chase coverage in Raiders.)
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Cinematic
Style
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