What Films Can Learn From Video Games
How the ideas from Fumito Ueda, Jenova Chen, and Hideo Kojima can elevate cinema
If the history of art was a trip around the world, video game history would be nothing but a walk to a nearby town. In fact, it was only in the latter half of the 90s did the video game industry mature and gain ground as a respected form of artistic expression.
Other forms of artistic media-inspired this movement, such as cinema. In the 90s, games like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy VII, and Metal Gear Solid were influential titles that adapted many concepts and techniques from cinema to their plot, gameplay, and cutscenes.
“The human body is supposed to be 70% water. I consider myself 70% film.” — Hideo Kojima
The use of a “cinematographic language” in video games led some film studios to have part of their teams specialize in game development. LucasArts, for instance, developed The Secret of Monkey Island and Sam & Max Hit the Road, whereas Studio Ghibli collaborated in the development of Ni no Kuni.
With over two decades of cinema lending its ideas to the world of video games, does cinema have anything to learn from video games?
My argument is yes, there is! This movement is a two-way street. A sign of video games inspiring cinema was apparent when Guillermo del Toro stated the games such as Ico and Shadow of Colossus have influenced his art.
There are many ways to rethink and reach that untapped potential in films by taking tools and lessons from video games. Below are suggestions on how to do so based on ideas from Fumito Ueda, Jenova Chen, and Hideo Kojima, directors of respected and influential games such as Ico, Journey, and the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
Fragmented, subtle stories can be as captivating and impactful as clear, straightforward ones
“There’s a level of realism you can only achieve through the imaginary.” — Fumito Ueda
There are many works in cinema with more interpretative plots and subtle references, my mind going to the several feature films by Andrei Tarkovsky, including Nostalgia, and short films by Akira Kurosawa from the Dreams collection.
Unconventional narratives can have a big impact on viewers, even if they leave the theater with more questions than answers. The film Mother by Darren Aronofsky shows that well.
However, films like those are far from being able to represent the current trend in mainstream cinema. Rather, the great majority of them make their references very clear, present a predictable plot progression, straightforward explanations about the fictional universe, and, almost all the time, a linear narrative of the events.
While there are also many games in the industry that follow that trend, compared to cinema, there is a more substantial number of titles that invest in an artistic expression free from the commitment of having to so clearly explain the context in which the protagonist is inserted.
Instead, many games focus on immersion or the connection between the player and the main character in a fictional world unknown to both, as in Ico and in the Dark Souls series.
Games usually encourage players to seek answers by themselves, even when there are no obvious solutions. Also, it is not uncommon to find games that force the player to make decisions in the face of uncertainty.
An artistic work, be it in the cinema or in video games, doesn’t need to provide answers, but it can provide an interesting path for searching for them or an enjoyable experience with the problems designed in the fictional world.
Perhaps a “free interpretation” plot format is more readily accepted by the audience of video games because the games also appeal to mechanics to grab their attention.
That is true. However, we cannot forget that there are also many titles with extremely basic mechanics and almost no challenge — but with great artistic and narrative appeal — that work very well in “more interpretive” plots and subtle, fragmented stories.
Some examples: Thatgamecompany games, like Abzu, and many independent games, like Limbo and Gris, use expressionist and surrealistic concepts, respectively, to make beautiful abstract plots.
Perhaps cinema has a thing or two to learn from these games that they are able to offer to a large audience: incredible and captivating experiences with subtle, fragmentary, and metaphorical stories.
Ideas and intentions can be understood without explicit dialogue
“Language is very deceiving. In certain languages, there is certain vocabulary that doesn’t exist in other languages. It totally changes how people feel about things.” — Jenova Chen
Another suggestion revolves around the dialogue of one or more characters in a story.
Cinema has a vast legacy of influential and great silent films, such as The Battleship Potemki by Serguei Eisenstein and Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin. But I feel that, over time, gestures, sounds, and images were underestimated in terms of their power to express ideas and feelings, especially in mainstream cinema.
While watching Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, I was impressed with the protagonist, a young Frenchman who, without saying a word, could express his intentions clearly to both the viewer and British soldiers in the middle of war. It was then that I realized that what impressed me about this film was, in fact, extremely common in video games.
I can find an example of how we see this in games in INSIDE, which built wonderful stories with no text at a level of excellence comparable to some short films. In Half-Life 2, the protagonist (Gordon Freeman) does not utter a word, but easily inserts himself among the other characters who “speak for him.”
In The Last Guardian, also developed by Team Ico, not only does the protagonist speak in a language incomprehensible to the player, but he and the player establish, throughout the narrative, a very special relationship with a fantastic animal, Trico, with no intervention of natural language. It is possible to know when the animal is happy, sad, hungry, injured, lonely, suspicious, angry, and how much he likes or dislikes you in the absence of dialogue.
Jenova Chen, in Journey, takes this concept to another level when proposing an online contact between players without them being able to speak or write.
“Designing a game can be like a Japanese garden. It’s not what you put in but how much you take away.” — Jenova Chen
In Journey, communication takes place via sounds, movements, and enigmatic ideograms. However, it’s amazing how the communication flows, and the players can help each other and go through incredible adventures without talking. The narrative itself does not need words to be indescribably beautiful.
Perhaps movies should learn from these examples and other games on how to speak through images and musical notes versus relying heavily on dialogue to get a message across.
This doesn’t mean that we need to return to the era of silent cinema, but that there can be more value to moments of dialogue by exploring other avenues of expression. Certainly, films with very few lines or lines in untranslated language can also bring powerful experiences like we see Team Ico’s games.
Making the camera an interactive feature in films
Traditionally, films put your audience in a predominantly passive situation. Occasionally, audiences may pause, rewind, and advance a film for narrative purposes. This is the case with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. In addition, viewers simply watch and react (with laughter or tears) to a millimetrically planned sequence of footage.
On the other hand, games are defined by their interactive relationship with their audience. However, many titles have employed cutscenes, which are nothing more than “short films” within games. These are scenes in which the director limits (totally or partially) interactivity with the player, bringing them closer to the role of a cinema viewer.
As noted by Damien Mecheri in his book (The Works of Fumito Ueda):
“Within pre-calculated shots (both in 2D and 3D), challenges remain similar to those of performing arts, which take place on a fixed stage, and film, in which viewing angles and editing have the final say on what the audience will see. Games that allow a certain freedom in the camera movements, on the other hand, require extensive planning-the visual work must be perfect no matter where the player looks.”
However, even in these cutscenes, some games establish interesting interactive features that could be further explored in cinema. One of them is the possibility to rotate or move the camera during cutscenes while the characters move and talk.
In visual arts, a similar concept was used to reconstruct paintings in 3D. This type of visual perspective control has even been applied in digital transmissions of musical presentations through a 360º camera. Here’s an example:
Think of the possibilities this type of camera could bring, as well as the possibilities for the viewer to switch cameras themselves during a cinematographic narrative.
To give one last peculiar example of in-game cinematics, which I found interesting, was the possibility in Metal Gear Solid of switching from third-person to first-person view during cutscenes. Hideo Kojima used this technique to show what is being targeted in the eyes of the protagonist (Snake) during the cutscenes.
These and other types of interactions during a film can enrich the experience in audience interactivity without making the film a game. These interactions are not introducing any mechanical factors relevant to the narrative. In other words, it will remain impossible to control the characters in films, but it gives viewers multiple perspectives to explore.
Final Thoughts
Turning to ideas and concepts from Fumito Ueda, Jenova Chen, and Hideo Kojima, there are three points that are present in video games and that can elevate films:
- Subtle and fragmented stories;
- Images and sounds well embedded into the narrative;
- Interactivity with camera perspective.
There are but a few ways to create a more engaging experience in films. The video game industry owes a lot to the cinema, in terms of visual art, script, and more. However, it is possible that by the end of this century, cinema directors and creators will be turning and thanking the creative minds behind video games for improving their craft.
