Inspiration from Gaming?

Ollie here

Something that i have noticed is that many games are basically interactive films, they have all the same conventions as most films do (depending on Genre) the only difference between them is that a game is virtual and you get a say in what goes on. so i thought it would be an interesting idea to see if i could draw some ideas from this relatively untapped source of inspiration. however as these are games it will be difficult to talk about camera work seeing as they are mostly all either POV or 3rd person view.

Modern Warfare 2
This game is of a modern war theme (funnily enough)and contains many of the same aspects as hollywood blockbuster action movies. although it is not striclty of a thriller genre it contains use of orchestral non-diagetic music to emphasize any mood at the time/situation. MES in this game is fairly typical: lots of Guns and macho men. however i do really like the use of sound so this may be something to draw from.

Left 4 Dead 2
This is a Zombie survival game and so it contains conventions of horror which are closely linked to thriller at times. this game mixes diagetic sound and creepy non-diagetic music to draw the player into the environment. also a really interesting feature of this game is that all special events have their own distinct theme music. also each special infected (mini-bosses) make distinct noises so that the player can distinguish what is happenning by ear, which i feel is a really interesting and unique way to put across diagetic sounds. obviously we wont have zombies in our actual Coursework but adding in special Sound FX is definatly worth considering. below are some examples of the different infected noises:




Assassins Creed II
This is an interesting one, an adventure action hybrid set in renaissance Italy. it incorporates mostly diagetic noises of the italian public congregating in markets with the sound of the main characters footsteps. it also likes to exaggerate weapon noises, for example there are very audible slashing noises when the character draws a small dagger, so this is clearly just to emphasize violence and make it seem more interesting to the viewer/player. Because we are thinking of including a knife prop in our intro this could definatly be considered as an idea. The game also provides a non-diagetic backing track for chase moments and exciting parts of the storyline.