BIGLENS THE KENT FILM MAGAZINE | VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 | SPRING 2007
GUESS
WHO’S BACK?
EDITORIAL
COVER: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL | PARAMOUNT PICTURES
SO NOW THE festive season is over, we are all about 10 sizes bigger and if you’re anything like me, you’re all feeling like the smallest of tasks is such a huge effort. In fact, in order for me to write this I had to do about 5 or 6 bargains with myself and I’ve already paused at least four times. But do not be tempted to fall into this terrible pit of sloth, it really gets you nowhere and then you spend the other half of the year wishing you’d have made the effort… so what does this editorial have to do with films? Well basically, so far this year we have met many awesome film loving people and had many events that most film lovers would trade their rare ‘had to be imported from random tiny island’ DVD box sets for. But the truth is, we here at Kent Film Society are greedy. We want more… we have a savage thirst for new blood that can only be quenched with film lovers/buffs/geeks, whichever you prefer to call yourself. So if you have not yet signed yourself up for film making, or you are not a writer for this beautiful magazine, or you haven’t even turned up for a single screening; be warned, we will find you, and we bite… very, very hard. So unless you enjoy the thought of a bunch of film geeks (yes, we are geeks) coming and biting the living daylight out of you (if you like that kind of thing then I’m only joking don’t get excited) then read the information on how you can be the proud owner of a Film Society membership card. Nia Childs
SMALLPRINT Edited by Nia Childs and Paul Ockelford Designed by Euan Monaghan If you have a passion for film and would like to contribute to BIGLENS, please email pto5 or come along to one of our weekly meetings which are held in the Shirley Barlow room in Eliot on Mondays at seven. BIGLENS is produced with the support of Kent Film, a society of the University of Kent Students Union. | All information is provided in good faith. | Articles are not necessarily the opinions of the editors of BIGLENS, of the Kent Film Society or of Kent Union. | Everything that is already copyrighted, is theirs. | Everything not, is the intellectual property of the individual writer, so no thieving.
Check out the Kent Film society hub at www.kentfilm.net for society news, BIGLENS movie reviews and all that good stuff.
PICTURE THE SCENE…. A young girl, around the age of 16, is watching a film. The film involves a killer in a mask, stalking a beautiful young woman with more breast than brains. The killer finds her hiding in a wardrobe, his cold, heartless face unmoving as he slashes her up into tiny pieces. The young girl watching the film is now hiding behind her pillow, tears fill her eyes and she cannot watch anymore. Before the climax, she turns off her DVD player and is propelled back into the safe reality of her living room. Now I know what you are thinking- how much of a wimp is this girl? How can she find this lame, predictable movie scary? Seriously, if I knew her, I would point and laugh at her in the street. But let’s look at it from another perspective. This poor creature is genuinely frightened, to the point where she can no longer watch the film. So OK, being realistic, the majority of film viewers do get a laugh out of watching cheesy horror movies, and there is an undoubted sense of ghoulish pleasure that many people get from watching a beautiful girl/annoying whiny boy getting cut up by a serial killer who can’t seem to die no matter how many times he’s stabbed, or run over, or falls off a cliff etc. But surely some films reach a point where the content of the movie is so awful that it stops being entertaining. One important thing to remember is that no matter what motive a film maker has, whether it is money, or to raise awareness, the purpose of any good movie should surely be to entertain? I don’t mean that it has to make you leave feeling happy; you can leave feeling upset and emotional, but if you leave thinking that the film was worth watching, then surely the film has served its purpose. And I personally feel that films that push the barriers of what is entertaining and what is just plain disgusting end up failing in this purpose. I am now going to use the example (rather predictable example for those of you who know me) of Mike Leigh’s film, Naked. The film follows the story of a man called Johnny. He flits from place to place, encountering many people on the pointless journey that is his life, and, oh yeah, he’s a rapist. Now let me explain why this film has made me so angry that I could possibly rant on forever about it. The film shows very graphic scenes of women being raped. I don’t mean off-camera, slightly disturbing art movie, I’m not even talking Last House on the Left, I mean horrific, brutal, vomit inducing (actually nearly did) rape. Now all I want to know is WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYBODY WANT TO SEE THAT IN A FILM? The scenes are not sexy in any way, so they couldn’t be used
for a lonely night on your own, they are just awful. In fact, I can honestly say that the only person who would enjoy it would be a rapist. I sat and watched this film with about 50 people and I can safely say that during one very graphic scene, I looked around and not one person, boy nor girl, was looking at the screen. It was that horrible that nobody, not even hardcore film students, could face it. So what is the point there? Waste screen time on a scene that nobody can even stomach…that seems fairly pointless to me. One point of view that was offered to me was ‘rape happens; why should we ignore it?’ Erm… well I’m pretty sure we all know that. In fact, as a female who has never experienced it, I can tell you that any girl on this planet would tell you it is probably their number one fear. Talking about it, even thinking about it is enough to give you the creeps. So if a film maker insists on having a rape scene in a film, trust me when I
NAKED | FINE LINE FEATURES
SENSUAL ASSAULT - NIA CHILDS
say that an actress coming on screen and saying ‘I’ve just been raped’ will be enough to create fear in any viewer, so wasting time on creating
“IT WAS THAT HORRIBLE THAT NOT EVEN HARDCORE FILM STUDENTS COULD FACE IT.” a scene that goes far beyond what I would describe as ‘entertainment’ is just pointless. It’s not as if some of us thought rape wouldn’t be that bad,
saw the film and then thought ‘oh, it’s actually really horrible!’ Showing rape doesn’t only insult the intelligence of the viewer, it actually shows a complete lack of respect for an audience that is not going to want to see it. It also does nothing for the plot or the characters. If somebody came on the screen and said ‘this man is a rapist’, we would all hate him anyway, we don’t need to see him actually raping somebody. So now that my rather large rant is over, I want you all to think about one last thing- we all argue for free speech, it is something that we see as a privilege in our culture. Some people believe that anybody should be able to make a film about whatever they want, as this allows the artist to fully explore their creative side without being held back. But think if we lived in a culture where we could actually say whatever we wanted. You could shout racial abuse at somebody for no reason. You could make a film showing how great it is to beat up homosexuals just for fun. Does that really sound like a culture that you want to be a part of? Didn’t think so. So the next time the common argument about film censorship rears its ugly head, just remember the vision of 50 squirming film students in a dark room, wishing that Mike Leigh hadn’t gone too far.
THE MOVIES OF THE WITCHING HOUR NICOLA MARCHANT
CULT FILMS ARE the ones you’ve only perhaps vaguely heard about, and not seen. And you’re probably not going to see them on TV. Unless shown between the hours of 2-3am on Channel 4, or else once in a while on Sky Indie. Most have heard of Tim Curry’s gloriously transvestite clad escapades in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or the fabulous flesh eating zombies in Night of The Living Dead. Some are so painstakingly cult, however, that they really are only known by their cult followings. Far few may know about the many Frank Henenlotter gore-fests, like Basket Case, or Brain Dead, the atrocities of ‘the worst director of all time’ Ed Wood, or Hal Ashby’s sweet little Harold and Maude. These movies are all very different. All romance movies will, inevitably, share the romance blueprint, and all comedies are designed to make you laugh. But ‘cult’, as it is now known to be a genre, is a category that contains films each special in their own right. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is an all out musical, with fishnets, aliens and Meatloaf. Harold of Harold
and Maude constantly fakes suicide, just to annoy his mother, and falls in love with a wonderfully strange, crazy vehicle-hijacking 79 year old love. Tod Browning’s infamous cult wonder ’Freaks’ has deformed circus acts as it’s protagonists. No fishnets in these films. Perhaps, really, for the best. They have nothing in common with each other, really… except that they are just pretty damn strange. Or surreal. Or quirky. Too quirky for that ‘mainstream’ audience to understand. And that’s another thing that makes them cult - they’re usually a straight-to-video affair, failing at the box office - or not even making it there - because normal people just wouldn’t want them. If there’s no guaranteed laugh or scare with a 3 point structure of a storyline… most people don’t want to know. So, because of their electric oddness, these films started to get shown in movie theatres late at night. Because they are so weird, and a mainstream audience is so… ordinary, it only seems natural to screen these eccentric little nuggets at an unordinary time. Cults aren’t
EL TOPO | TARTAN VIDEO
designed to appeal to the mass nation - a cult is a social group that rejects the culture of the mainstream. You’re not going to find an A list actor bathed in CGI at one of these screenings. Instead you’re more likely to find that the audience are the ones that embody the high powered adrenaline and noise levels of a blockbusting action movie. And, furthermore, they were mainly shown at 12am, midnight, the witching hour. Thus, the idea of the Midnight Movie begins. Midnight Movies started their shtick on TV. They were horror films that gave you a lesson in bad taste. ‘B Movies’ - the films not quite good enough to be the main attraction, the ‘A movie’, and so shown before it. Like the hideously awful support act you have to sit through before seeing the real band. The films, in all their midnight slotted glory, then received equally weird and horror inspired heroines to host them. First it was The Vampira Show, a sexy little vampire with a collection of rubbish horror… Devil Bat’s Daughter, Strangler of the Swamp. Then came Elvira. Think Pamela Anderson gone Goth… with a little more wit. She hosted the
“ROCKY HORROR IS AN ALL OUT MUSICAL WITH FISHNETS, ALIENS AND MEATLOAF.” same breed of low budgeted horror/ sci fis. She also showed no shame in commentating on just how bad they were, as she was showing them to us. The first film to start the midnight phenomenon on the big screen is said to be Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, back in the 70s. A surrealist Western with a tag line of the following: ‘See the naked young
Franciscans whipped with cactus…See the priest ride into the sunset with a midget and her newborn baby… What it all means isn’t exactly clear, but you won’t forget it.’ No wonder it was only shown at midnight. Before Mullholland Drive or Blue Velvet, David Lynch followed the suit El Topo’s midnight glitter with his dark, twisted Eraserhead. So these niche little late night film lovers began to share the experiences with one another, as they formed a particular type of audience, separate from most. Cult audiences truly worship the thing they joined their very cult of. It was not unheard of for these midnight attendees to outlet major reactions to parts of the film they knew so well - participate, even, in it’s dialogue and react to the events on screen. Elvira’s constant interruptions of witty banter was an inkling of what was to come. The rise of audience participation in cult cinema, at these midnight movies. Not audience reaction; participation. Rocky Horror is infamous for it. Audiences have their own set of participation guidelines of which to follow throughout it’s showing. When you hear someone on screen say ’Brad Majors’, you react by screaming out ’asshole.’ For Janet Weiss, you scream ’slut’. you throw rice at their wedding and shelter yourself when it’s raining. You physically react and interact to the events that are happening on screen. No ordinary audience. John Water’s Pink Flamingos was a midnight ’eew!’ fest. Characters copulating on chickens while they are crushed to a pulp, and drag queens eating dog faeces. Audiences would be given ’Pink Phlegmingo’ bags to vomit into, and various shows would place vomit related challenges on audiences as they watched clips from the film. Their followers LOVE these films. I myself am an avid Rocky Horror fanatic, with or without the fishnets. Rocky Horror is still screened around American cinemas at midnight. Everything else, if it isn’t shown like this anymore, has become a bonafide cult wonder. These kind of films aren’t about raking in the audiences, they are just plain weird. And with all the eccentricities and wonderfully crazy characters - it’s no wonder they’re idolised. They even started showing Donnie Darko, the cultiest film to be spawned from the industry in these contemporary times, in midnight theatres across America, just to try to recapture the marvellous experience of it all. And what with the audience participation, the gorgeously exotic cherry on the cult cake, they were definitely more exciting than a trip down the multiplex. The only sad thing today is that midnight movies became more well known… and DVDs got invented. Cult cinema, at the cinema, died down - and now it’s rare to be able to recreate that exact kind of experience that was had in the midnight movie heyday. But of course - the experience could, and should be recreated. It is an essential right of passage for any compulsive film fan with an open mind, and perhaps a touch of insanity. Gather a gaggle of other nut job film lovers, like yourself, and recreate the experience in your very own living room. Shout at your TV and experience that wonderful sensation of oddness. Just don’t forget to bring your stockings and Phlegmingo bags.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING INDIANA TOM BROWN
“DA-DA-DA-DA... DA-DA-DAA.” YOU JUST COULDN’T ASK FOR A MORE ROUSING THEME TUNE”
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK | PARAMOUNT PICTURES
THIS ISSUE OF BIGLENS is a little bit heavy: rape, gory vomit inducing cult violence, boring things about soundtrack... In fact, I was tempted to continue the tone and write a piece on paedophilia, but I might save that for the next issue. So, in a world full of war, terror, suffering, and Adam Sandler, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one antidote: Indiana Jones. Yes, the hat-wearing, whip-cracking, wise-talking piece of rugged manliness is surely the real ultimate solution. If ever I’m feeling a bit down or (more often than not) a bit bored, all I need to do is whack out the all-conquering Indiana box set and my endorphin levels go through the roof. But what is it that makes Dr. Jones so appealing? Well, pretty much everything, and anyone reading this who doesn’t appreciate Indiana, well... suffice it to say you may wake up tomorrow in a bed full of snakes. Yes, I am threatening you. Let’s start with his attire. His fedora hat is surely the most iconic and recognisable piece of head-wear in film, and anyone who says they don’t want one is a liar. Then there’s the leather jacket: timeless and ultimately cool. His khaki trousers and beige unbuttoned shirt complete the look, and he even manages to make a bull whip seem like a must-have fashion accessory; surely such a feat is deserving of respect and admiration. In fact, his original hat, jacket and whip all reside in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, such is their importance. You could even say, and I’m positive that Indiana would agree with me, that they belong in a museum... He is dashing yet rugged, sparkling but grumpy: essentially, Indy is no-nonsense. Yet the irony is that all of the situations he gets himself stuck in are completely nonsensical: how often are you having your heart ripped out or drinking from the cup of Christ? It’s this conflict between the circumstances he finds himself in and the manner in which he goes about overcoming them that creates such wonderful moments. What would you do when a randomer shows off his impressive sword skills in expectation of a long, well choreographed fight? Why, just get out your gun and shoot him of course. It’s so simple! In fact, the story behind this scene is that it actually was intended to be a
long, well choreographed fight, but Harrison Ford was suffering from dysentery, and, in true Indiana style, uttered the immortal words to Stevey Spielberg: “Why don’t I just shoot the fucker?” While we’re on the subject, let’s talk more about Mr. Ford. Just before playing the man with the hat, he’d starred as Han Solo, the coolest character in Star Wars (until Jar Jar appeared, of course). Surely he couldn’t craft an even cooler character than Han? Oh yes he could. He somehow manages to pull off being an everyman whilst also being anything but ordinary. Indy looks as though he’s been there before, done it all, and bought nigh on a thousand souvenir Nazi t-shirts, and it’s all thanks to Ford. The perfect illustration of this occurs in The Last Crusade where an indignant Sean Connery (what a partnership!) exclaims: “They’re trying to kill ush! ...thish ish a new experiensh for me.” With a knowing glance toward the
camera and a grumpy-come-ironic delivery, Jones Jr. mumbles: “It happens to me all the time...” There is, needless to say, another major factor in his greatness: simply: da-da-da-da...da-da-daa. You just couldn’t ask for a more rousing theme tune, and if you did you’d just be greedy. It’s impossible not to join in when someone starts singing it, and this is one of the reasons we love Indiana: it’s contagious. John Williams’ iconic score allows us to get carried away in the adventure; certainly, it is no coincidence that I own an Indiana Jones style hat... (Me too! – Ed.) On a more serious note, though, there is a hugely potent and dangerous side to Indiana Jones. The other day, after another viewing of Raiders of the Lost Ark, I was innocently browsing ebay, when I came across a replica leather Indiana Jones jacket, made by the very same company who made the originals! I was but a single click away from spending a considerable £150 of my student loan on what is probably the coolest piece of clothing I would ever own...in fact, writing this is making me go back onto the seller’s page... And this is why I’m excited about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Admittedly, I was sceptical at first, but I have faith in Spielberg. He knew what he was doing when he directed the first three, and as long as he continues to not take it too seriously (a fatal error made by so many other films in the same genre), there are going to be millions of wide, toothy grins across the nation. At the end of the day, how can it not be great? It’s Indiana Jones!
VARIATIONS ON A THEME - DAMIAN WRIGLEY RIGHT NOW, I’M sitting on a comfy couch in Mungo’s, using the wi-fi, sipping an ice cold beer and generally enjoying the hustle and bustle of the place. The music is relaxing, no one near me has any BO to speak of and all of this is putting me in a rather relaxed, good mood. Apart from having my pint refilled without having to get up, everything is coming together to deliver an enjoyable experience. Yet, despite all this, it wouldn’t take too much to turn this into a bit of a nightmare. The music could change to what I believe is called ‘techno’, my beer could get spilled or a group of neo-Nazis could waltz in and sit opposite. If just one small element changes, my afternoon goes from being all warm and pleasant to being about as spectacular as this years’ Golden Globes. This is one small and rare area where the real world of everyday life can be transferred to that fictional and oh so wonderful make believe world of film. To deliver a really great movie, everything has to be perfect – honed until it is a masterpiece Picasso would be jealous of, and more impressive and awe inspiring than the Eiffel Tower. If just one of the vital elements is off, then it risks becoming like the local multi-story car park, impressive in its own right, but not quite the same. Now, I haven’t the word count or the inclination to write about every element that goes into making a movie, despite the fact I’m in a bar by myself, I honestly have a life, so instead I’m going to pick on just one element, but perhaps the one which is the most important of them all – the soundtrack. Lets right now get it clear – this is about the musical score which peppers the movie, and not the single which some silicone chested floozy is releasing to accompany the movie – because that’s about as important to the artistic integrity of the film as Cornwall is in influencing the world of fashion. A film soundtrack wields more power then the European Union; it can turn benign and boring films into something worth watching and bring even the most accomplished directors and producers into the doldrums. It’d be pointless to try and list the best scores and musical composers, because the sad truth is people don’t really care who wrote the music to accompany a film, no body is going to go and see a film based on the knowledge of which music man was hired – it simply doesn’t happen. And do you know what? It doesn’t really matter. These guys get their recognition from others in the field, if they weren’t any good they wouldn’t get hired, you just need be safe in the knowledge that the director is making a good choice. Overall, you really 10
shouldn’t notice the music, it should blend in like milk in coffee. Clearly this sounds ridiculous, but, before you think the beer is affecting me too much – read on and let me work some word based magic. The music, in order to be fully effective has to work with the film, at the right moment in order to get the point across, to make things that much more exciting, scary, memorable or whatever. When that shower curtain was ripped back in Psycho, sure it was scary, but 90% of that was down to the music flowing through you like an intravenous drug – it was marvellous. Play that same clip with the Top Gear theme inserted and suddenly it becomes about as scary as a sunny Sunday afternoon. Every time you now go swimming in the sea, you are accompanied by the Jaws theme, and that film is only terrifying because of that tune, you know it; without it, and old Spielberg
“YOU SHOULDN’T NOTICE THE MUSIC, IT SHOULD BLEND IN LIKE MILK IN COFFEE” would have been able to make some more cash by selling cuddly toy sharks. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it was only the music, Star Wars without its theme would be like France without wine, still nice
JOHN WILLIAMS | MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST
but missing that special something. Is there then, a classic film that doesn’t have a classic soundtrack? No. However, that list only contained films with big and memorable tunes; lets look at War of the Worlds, we all know it was a run of the mill film, the Ford of the movie world – not going to let you down, but not going to blow your mind either. Yet, its soundtrack was exquisite, you, all of you, don’t know the tune, but no body does, you just know it worked. And worked well. The same is true of most big budget films nowadays, because the importance of the music is well recognised. Quite simply, music makes things better. It’s why summer barbeques are accompanied by Jack Johnson, dinner parties with Jamie Cullum and house parties with The Killers. It just fits, and provides context to a backdrop. The men who craft musical scores for films are just geniuses, they write without having seen the final product, yet it is them who create the overall feel and tone for a film. Imagine that same summer barbeque accompanied with some thrash metal, you’d end up having a food fight; what about that house party with some Mozart? It’d turn into a discussion on politics. When the right music is inserted, you won’t notice – but, if the wrong music is composed, you will. Perhaps then, the message here really is, that subverting your audience isn’t always a bad thing.
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CINEMATIC GAME? OR INTERACTIVE FILM? PAUL OCKELFORD
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THIS MAGAZINE HAS, in the past, devoted many pages to videogames made of films, and the often atrocious films made of videogames. Hopefully the retina irritating savagery of botched game-films is coming to an end. Behold the rise of the gamefilm. Or filmgame. Or whatever you’d like to call these hybrids that throw curveballs at the admittedly dynamic definitions of various visual media. We’re getting to a point where productions classically defined as games are sharing so much with film that the distinctions are becoming blurred. One such ‘game’ is Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Perhaps the most important aspect of recent games that allows them to overlap with the domain of
UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE | NAUGHTY DOG
“BEHOLD THE RISE OF THE GAMEFILM. OR FILMGAME. OR WHATEVER...” film is the use of well constructed narratives. An analysis of Uncharted will show a coherent narrative greatly advanced from the linear stories often found in video games. The plot introduces and develops characters in the same way that some film does. And is not without the devices of suspense, parallel narratives, delayed revelation, inferred cognition and foreshadowing often employed in literature and film. It also allows for a study of point of view narration in a way that most films cannotalternating between over the shoulder third person from the protagonist’s point of view (gameplay) and that of privileged observer (cut-scenes). The power of the third generation consoles (Microsoft’s X-Box 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3) allows rapid generation of the most lifelike graphics yet. With the ability to
render humans and environment to a high standard in both the gameplay and the cut-scenes allows the use of uninterrupted transitions between the two, whilst the increased random access memory of the consoles eliminates the need for loading periods allowing the game to play it’s entirety without a single significant interruption, much like film. This advancement in technology has created a situation where cinematographers, or cinematic directors as they are known in the industry, take on the task of capturing the action of the game by setting ‘camera’ positions and adjusting lighting in the game and so on. Unlike animation, where all that is animated is what is to be transcribed to film, games like Uncharted are captured in virtual worlds. When the viewer is shown a particular frame, the environment is in existence behind the camera as well: if one were to rotate the ‘camera’ it would reveal a fully rendered set, akin to location shooting. Cinematographers are not the only crew that these games have in common with film. Third generation games are projects with directors and producers who do much the same job as they do in film. But it is the presence of actors that most fully associates the games with film. Uncharted features characters animated by computers in much the same way as recent animated film releases. The human movement is all captured using motioncapture technology. Actors in suits with recognisable reference points act out the motion which is captured by cameras attached to computers. In this sense the performance of the digital characters in the game are exactly how human actors performed them in the studio. The cut-scenes take this notion of acting in the game further. The three main characters are all voiced by talent that have also portrayed characters in live action television and film as well as animated television and film. This is essential because, in essence, the cut-scenes in Uncharted are film. The making of a cut-scene involved a director directing the live actors on a motion capture set acting the scene and speaking their dialogue. Captured by the computers, the actors’ movements and even facial expressions were overlayed with the animated character. What we see in the game is not something that has been drawn, but something acted out by live actors. The scope this allows the game director to convey emotion and aid the narrative through expression is therefore only as limited as it would be in film. Yet another overlapping that can be explored is the use of the score. The composer employed for Uncharted has composed 14 films and only the one game. Listening to the score as a stand alone piece, it would be easy to mistake it for a film score. Its use in the game is directed just as it would be in a film to convey the emotion of the scene and foretell events forthcoming. It is interactive, responding to what is on the screen in the same way it does in conventional film. Besides the game itself, there are other aspects of the product and its marketing that place it in the realm of film. If we look at the physical product, games have been distributed on the same media as films for many years now. The Playstation 2, the X-Box and now the X-Box 360 all use DVD for distribution, whereas the 13
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closer to being games. A recent article about the advancement of the Blu-Ray technology stated that future film releases on the media would include interactive portions of the film. A specific example given was the use of the remote control by the viewer to ‘shoot’ at characters in the forthcoming release of Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. Does this interactivity prevent the actioner from being regarded as film?
UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE | NAUGHTY DOG
Playstation 3 employs the new medium of Blu-Ray disc for the same. Both are synonymous with retail film distribution. As the debate about the future of film distribution moves onto electronic distribution through downloads, streaming and the internet in general, the third generation consoles include large internal hard drives internet capabilities to enable the same distribution. Social perceptions of games and film are driving a merging of the two. The employ of individuals in both industries necessitates new games’ inclusion in the internet’s foremost authority in film project documentation: the internet movie database, or imdb. com. (VG) after the title is the only signifier, and is given the same relevance as (TV) after the title of a film made for television. Games may not be distributed through cinemas, but neither are many films. Games have, however, been given the same status as films in cinemas, with trailers for games flanked by film trailers. The availability of games in rental shops such as Blockbuster and retail shops that previously specialised in film shows a social awareness of the similarities between the two. Inclusion of features of games in traditionally film oriented publications, such as Empire’s feature on Drake, the star of Uncharted further affirm this. So far, I have been looking at games moving closer to being films, but there is research to be done regarding films moving
WATCH FILM. MAKE FILM. WRITE ABOUT FILM. LOVE FILM. SOUND FAMILIAR? AND YOU HAVEN’T JOINED THE FILM SOCIETY YET? PLAINLY THAT’S JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Here’s what you’re missing: •
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