Reviews

The first thing I would like to review is episodic interactive drama video game called Life Is Strange. Life Is Strange follows the story of Max Caulfield, a photography student who discovers that she has the ability to alter time, thus giving her an option to live through situations in life twice with different outcomes ie the butterfly effect. For a long time I've always wanted to make a film that revolved around interactivity and choice, and after seeing this game, I felt the way the story was delivered could be replicated in style and engagement with the viewer . It's a nice change watching a film and having control of its destiny, the outcome of the film will be your ending as you chose that path and for me that makes the viewing of an interactive film a lot more personal. The game itself is very stylised and has a great sound track. The cut scenes are shot like a movie so it's as if you're watching one long movie. A lot of the time you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of your surroundings, even though a lot might not be happening. The sleepiness of Arcadia Bay mirrors Max's personality and as the story progresses and things get weirder in Arcadia Bay, so does Max's life. However one thing I think lets this game down somewhat is the dialogue. There are some really lovely tender moments in it and some dramatic elements that make your heart drop, but general chit chat between characters can come off as not real or genuine, which takes you out of the game slightly. They make up for it though with the music, visual style, and the wow moments when something major happens in one of the episodes. It is a throughly entertaining game and has certainly helped me get my creative juices following for my project.

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The second thing I would like to review is another interactive episodic video game called "The Walking Dead" created by Telltale Games. The game follows the story of Clementine, a young girl and a older man named Lee. Lee finds Clementine after a zombie breakout and their relationship grows throughout  the game. Relationships grow and break as new characters are introduced and your interaction alters the story and the relationships between characters in the game. What I love about this game and how it relates to my project again is the use of interactivity through the game but also how the story arcs and how smooth it runs. It is written so well that we immediately relate to the characters and we care about their well being. For me this is a problem a lot of people find hard when it comes to short film making. You have a small gap to make the audience care about the characters you create so finding the best ways to make them care is very important and "The Walking Dead" game does this brilliantly. The games decisions the game gives are heart breaking because the characters are so rich and have so much depth. There is also a morale element that comes into play when the game is played and at times you decide if someone dies to save the group or you risk yourself to save them. I want to explore the theme of morality in my film and I think this is a perfect project to study as to how the writers go about making you care but also make you question your own morality. It makes you wonder if I was in that situation what would I do, which is what I would like to achieve that for my film.

The third thing I would like to look at is the 1957 Sidney Lumet film 12 Angry Men. I have many reasons for picking this to review, but the main reason why is due to its story telling. 12 men in a room talking. Doesn't sound like much of a pitch at all, but the way the characters interactive and deliver their performances is breathtaking. After watching it i immediately thought that would make a great play, and having seen the play this year I wasn't wrong. It shows so much to film making that you don't need green screen all over the place, or elaborate scenery or shoot outs. If the story is good enough and the actors deliver, there is no reason why you can't create something beautiful. Also the use of cinematography in it breathtaking. If you stopped the film at any moment, the frame it stopped on could be a photo. The use of depth and choreography brings a drama through and cinematographer Boris Kauffman mentioned during production that he started with wide lens and but increased the lenses as the film went on so when the film was near its end everyone had a close up that created a 'nearly palpable claustrophobia'. It is so beautifully composed and is a film all film makers should watch to see how things can and should be framed, and how the camera brings just as much drama as the dialogue and actors bring. That is one thing I feel lets my film making down, so by me reviewing and analysing these type of films will hopefully improve my ability to bring even more drama to my pieces by using cinematography as a tool to build tension and suspense. If you are going to learn, you might as well learn from the best.  

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The fourth piece I would like to discuss and review is the Oscar winning short film "Six Shooter" which was directed and written by Martin McDonagh. Made in 2004, "Six Shooter" tells the story of Donnelly, a middle aged man who just finds out his wife has died. After airing his grievances, he meets a chain smoking kid on a train to Dublin. As the train heads towards Dublin, Donnelly finds out the kid isn't who he thinks he is. The reason why I love this as a short film is because the characters are real. We laugh at the kids jokes and we feel for Donnelly. They draw emotion from the viewer and as I said earlier, having the ability to make the viewer care in a short space of time is very important. It is also quite doable as a film. What I mean by that is while you watch it as a film maker you think, "Yeah I could do that", I love that about all McDonaghs film, In Bruges for example is about two hitman in Bruges. Very simple and doable idea which brings me confidence as a film maker. The way McDonagh writes his dialogue, and the way he gets laughter out of dark elements is throughly entertaining to me and is something I would like to bring into my film idea. A lot of his work comes from real dark elements in human life, but manages to makes us laugh in the process. I can relate to that as my work tends to have a dark spine, but on this project I want to continue with what I'm good at but also add that humorous element to my film. Trying to find the right balance with that is quite difficult but I think I would have the ability to create something simple, nice to look at, and an interesting watch to the viewer.

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The final piece of media I will review another interactive drama game named "Until Dawn". It is a horror game that is a PS4 exclusive and it came out in 2015. The story follows a group of teens that go camping in a log cabin in the woods. During their time in the cabin, a murder hunts the teens while paranormal elements start coming into play. Although the story is quite cliche, the game mechanics and decision making in the game hang quite heavily on the them of morality. For example, there are several points in the game where you have to make decisions which rely heavily on your morals, and the characters morals. You can decide whether you risk your own life to save another character, or run the other direction and sacrifice that character to save your life. For me, this is a really interesting concept when it comes to story telling. We can all relate to morality and we can picture ourselves being in that situation. Would we run? Would we risk our own life to save another? It may be quite easy to answer that but the way the story is delivered and the way the characters characteristics are shown through the story make these decisions quite difficult because we grow to like some characters and hate others. One art of good storying telling is making the viewer care. If the viewer doesn't care, why should they bother what happens to the characters. Why do we care whether Cinderella goes to the ball? We sympathise with her, we want her to beat the odds and find the one she loves. That is good story telling and is something I want to deliver when creating my FYP. Delivering a good story with compelling characters makes the viewer engaged from the start and makes them care about you characters fate.

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