It’s a short animated film founded by donations and supported by the Netherlands Film Found, it’s a touching story, very well crafted directed by Colin Levy and Written by Esther Wouda.
The film has the purpose to promote Blender, a free and open-source software program for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering.
I hope you like it as I do.
Watch it below or go to http://www.sintel.org to download it.
Sorry for being away I’ve been procastinating a lot for this post.
Long story short: In mid April of the present year Film critic and Screenwriter Roger Ebert posted an article entitled Videogames can never be Art . As you can guess the follow article brought a shitstorm to Ebert from people that like video games and watch movies, videogame crittics/journalists, Game developers, Ebert fans, all agreeing or disagreeing with his opinion.
As a videogamer and a aspiring film editor/writer it was interesting to see in which side I was going to raise my sword and hold my shield, but after reading the article closely, it’s kinda disappointing to see that I wasn’t to take place against Mr. Ebert opinion or the people that disagrees with him.
Mr. Ebert article mostly is based his article as a response of a kinda independent TED conference of this game producer (flOw-Flower) called Kellee Santiago.
If you just saw the video, Kellee doesn’t know her ground, only shows her own lack of knowledge on expressing how the games could actually be art. The examples that Santiago uses are Flower, Braid, and dear god something called WACO this aren’t games that have defined the short but big history of video games (Im not implying that they’re bad, except for WACO). She already establish them as art but her evidence is weak, not because videogames doesn’t have that evidence, it is because the ignorance of Santiago that denies videogames any chance of already be a potential artistic expression (if they have that chance).
So Mr. Ebert starts from a really weak place to prove his point and add to that that Ebert dosen’t play videogames by himself, now imagine Mr. Ebert playing games…… nah! he’s too busy for that.
Let’s say that we’re in the early 1900′s and and there we have Georges Melies playing his film to a small crowd and there’s this old grumpy man passing by and saying “Bah! I’m not gonna see that it’s the work of devil! that is not gonna be art ever” Maybe just Mr. Ebert its just in denial that at his age there can be new young forms of works that can became in art, or the denial that something that was born just for pure entertainment could become something bigger and be considered some day as art.
And now that is undeniable the fact films are Art from Robocop to In the Mood for Love to Fight Club of course not all art is good art, but all of them are art, some are for purely making economical profit, other are made to try to express something to the audience, but let’s not forget that also movies we’re born as a amusing entertainment expression.
At the end of this article Mr. Ebert quotes sarcastically Santiago:
“I allow Sangtiago the last word. Toward the end of her presentation, she shows a visual with six circles, which represent, I gather, the components now forming for her brave new world of video games as art. The circles are labeled: Development, Finance, Publishing, Marketing, Education, and Executive Management. I rest my case.”
Wait wait… and movies don’t do that? as I’m concern even book publishing has a similar process, aside from the contents of a work, there’s someone who wants to make a profit from it! Do you think that Producers don’t want to make profit?
"So let's make a movie with a budget of 150 million, but let's not care about the profit since what it's important is to make this piece of art known to the audience"
So in conclusion last week Mr. Ebert admited that he should’ve said nothing about videogames as it follows:
“I was a fool for mentioning video games in the first place,” concedes the critic. ”I would never express an opinion on a movie I hadn’t seen. Yet I declared as an axiom that video games can never be Art. I still believe this, but I should never have said so. Some opinions are best kept to yourself.
“My error in the first place was to think I could make a convincing argument on purely theoretical grounds. What I was saying is that video games could not in principle be Art. That was a foolish position to take, particularly as it seemed to apply to the entire unseen future of games. This was pointed out to me maybe hundreds of times. How could I disagree? It is quite possible a game could someday be great Art.”
1st: I agree with Ebert in the fact that one shouldn’t have an opinion in something that you really don’t know (let’s remeber that Ebert don’t play videogames), but I disagree in the fact that opinions are kept to yourself. It seems that really was a shitstorm upon him by many people, and that if you don’t share the same opinion than most of the people you’re gonna be crushed. Have a Opinion, but only if you have really experienced the subject with all your senses.
For example once upon a time I was with one of my ex-girlfriend and she told me she wanted me to go anal with her, I told her I didn’t like the idea, she asked me if I already done it, I answered no, and she asked how should I know if I like it if I haven’t it done it yet? Get my point?
2nd: Even if Mr. Ebert keeps his position that “It is quite possible a game could someday be great Art.” How he knows there isn’t already a game that deserve the title art yet?if he hasn’t followed or played the videogames in the history, which it’s a contradiction to the 1st point of my conclusions. So in the end we just are in the beginning of this dissociation again for an ever and forever cycle.
So what do I think of all of this?
Well first let me share with you my definition of art itself… is not very complex and even it’s similar to the one that you’re gonna find in wikipedia which is basically a bridge of communication between a source (artist) and a receptor (viewer, reader, etc.) the to exploit and/or affect one or more of our senses.
Shadow Of Colossus
In that order of idea there have been games that have touched those senses, made me laugh Psychonauts, Monkey Island 2, feel sad The Shakespearian tragedy of events in Final Fantasy Tactics sacrifice yourself and the whole world for the sake of the one you love like in Shadow of Colossus, make me breathless just to watch how wonderful a place has been created Assassins Creed II, Uncharted 2 when you’re on the top of the highrise in nepal or Bioshock as the first time you enter the city of Rapture. Get immersed in the well crafted plots with awesome use of the Mcguffin as Chrono Trigger/Cross, Metal Gear Solid Saga, Vagrant Story, Planescape Torment, Or simply be drown in absolute fear by Silent Hill 2 or get spooky Jumps in F.E.A.R. 1 and 2.
A well Crafted Italia in Assassins Creed 2
My answer is yes videogames are a present and new form of art, they have gain the awareness that can easily apply plot structures used on films, TV and books and also can have the astonishing visual and emotional impact as a photography or a painting or a sculpture and being entertaining being in the process.
Dear reader, first of all thank you for the time reading this, second never underestimate the power of new rising new potential form of art that in the beginning was only aim to entertain history proves my point.
Spacewar!
Somehow in a moment between the cold war and the personal computer revolution, Spacewar!, arguably the first actual videogame appeared. Two spaceships, the Needle and the Wedge fighting each other for the conquest of space. Two players, no score following. and to add more suspense, a big star, sucking the ships into it’s gravity well. That sounds like a lot of story to me, and in a high level of abstraction, with lots of imagination it sounds even better than that.
The introduction of a visible avatar is a relevant thing in videogames. For the first time the player has an object to relate to, a representation of his existence on the virtual world of the game. An avatar which follows his wishes and suffers his mistakes. Also an avatar which specific abilities and weaknesses, thus an empathic avatar.
Here an imitation of the game.
Sorry to our new (and very few) readers, since we haven’t updated since the last week. devant has been very busy at his work and I have been…. yawwwwnnnnnn…
Stay tuned new post will be soon!
For now why don’t you see this discussion about new narrative sto…
I'm the cat inside your head.
Videogames are now a big share in the entertaiment industry. At this point, there are many different topics around the design of videogames, including the now buzzing “game design” as well as the storytelling, inteface design, controls, art etc.
So, as a way for teaching myself a lot more about games than what i know from playing them, I created this section, for studying the facts of video games trough their history while I analyze them and try to code some of the characteristics that make them what they are.
So, I wanted to start with the history and step by step find the triggers of evolution that characterized every important game.
So, what was the origin of video games? First, there was video. Cathode ray tubes , devices that could be used to show electrically generated imagery. Then interaction… to have some sort of presence on the electrically generated imagery, to change the patterns of images and thus creating games. The first game ever done digitally was OXO which was a tic-tac-toe game, full screen in a cathode ray tube, played with a telephone disc. Surprisingly, OXO was a game of artifficial intelligence in which the computer played against the gamer.
I would like to go a bit after that to tennis for two which was played using an analog computer. i found this game of significance because it is utterly simple, there is a ball, a floor, a net and two invisible players. this has many implications in game design on its most simple expression. The game is designed to play by two and there was no computer to compete with. In this shape, the game becomes an interface of interaction; somehow a board to play some mechanic game like the Rock’em Sock’em Robots. Empowering the player with a simulation of something they would not be able to do in real life.
So, then there were controllers, some mean to interact with the game, to give orders to that -then- invisible avatar. There was an objective, to score points, but funnily there was not a count of how many points the players had; but well… when you play alley soccer there is neither and keeping count in the mind does not make it less fun.
I made a playable imitation of tennis for two that you will probably not enjoy playing (since this kind of games are now boring as hell).
Sometime in 2008 I went to the theater to sadly see how one of my favorite classic movie series was murdered. Yup I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Now I can rant about all day the reasons why I hated the movie, how the plot was weak, how they just fucked up as Die Hard 4 (I really loved those moves too) etc… But to be honest, everyone knows that it really sucked. Even the actor Shia LaBeouf admitted not too long ago (This year’s Cannes Festival) that “was an unworthy entry in the series”. Not even Cate Blanchett (Who I love) appearance couldn’t make the movie worthy of something.
We won't have this Indy again.
So life goes on and in 2009 I got (won actually) my PS3 and weeks later a really close friend of mine lend me a copy of this game called UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE. Before I continue here’s some background of me for the ones who doesn’t know. I’m really a big fan fan of videogames THE END. But for a lot of reasons I had to skip the PS2 and PS3 generations and got stuck with PC gaming. Even so I was really interested in the news of the other platforms (Except Nintendo because I really don’t care about them right now.) so I heard about this game with his hype but it but I didn’t pay attention to it until my friend gave it to me. And damn those excellent reviews back then where right. It was and is an excellent game which right now I’m not gonna review it, for those you can read the Destructoid.com or Kotaku.com they do a hell of a work in reviewing.
So if I’m not going to rant about the movie or talk deep about the game; what the fuck I’m writing about? We’ll stick with me for a moment.
When I borrowed Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, took me about 3 to 4 days to finish it, I was completely hooked, and from the boat first scene till the so criticized last boss but fulfilled ending . I felt the same immersion and emotions that reminded me watching the classic Indiana Jones Trilogy. So much this feeling long lost was present again and weird yet… in a videogame.
First of all you can say that UNCHARTED has an excellent cast, yes CAST, I’m not going to refer the actors of UNCHARTED as “voice actors” but as cast, because they give so much live to the characters, that from the first scene you forget that they are polygons moving as people, and believe that they are actually people. The characters in UNCHARTED aren’t a stereotype they are a archetype, they’re trying not trying to impress us saying “HEY! WE’RE HUMANS SO BELIEVE US, OK?” they just don’t call for attention and simply they face every situation as they naturally can.
Elena Fisher. One of my favorite characters ever.
But characters are not only ingredient in the formula to make game or film enjoyable, there’s also the script, without a good script there isn’t good dialog lines, good plot turns etc. we couldn’t have those well crafted characters. Amy Hennig is the writer and director of both Uncharted entries. Henning is known for her work in the Blood Omen – Souls Reaver Series (Great Games), it is not perfect (what story is it?, Indiana Jones was it ?) but by playing Uncharted you see that at least Naughty Dog (Developers of the game) do a enormous effort to trying to produce a game with a story of high quality add to the mix the excellent artistic direction, photography, soundtrack, and in the in the result is going to be not only a great adventure game, but also an excellent adventure story that shouldn’t be missed.
And if isn’t enough Naughty Dog last year released a sequel called UNCHARTED2: Among Thieves, which surpassed in every way (story and gameplay) the first game. With new characters a new plot, amazing thrilling scenes from the beginning to end. When I bought the second game, I was simply astonished how I was welcome back to this world, like sometime the original trilogy of Indiana Jones did long ago.
Indiana Jones 4 failed where Uncharted was successful, The fourth Indy movie tried to be a forced fan service for cash (nothing new), Indy and the Last Crusade (the 3th movie) was the end of Indy Adventures, when you saw the chracters of mr. Ford, Connery, Elliot and Rhys-Davies riding in their horses trough the dusk everyone I asked who liked those movies felt the same way. Instead Uncharted brought a set of well done characters which story doesn’t try to only be a fan service, but a adventure story translated so a new and old generation of viewers and gamers could enjoy.
Please Be welcome to the Gap -also known as … some love boat- A Blog By Nicolás Coronado (fDevant) and Hernando Noreña (Elyk.van) for the sake of commenting and studying different topics on Visual Storytelling in every media we find ourselves thinking about.
This is somehow about screenwriting and game design… but it will probably take it’s own shape.
