It’s late. I’m tired. I have to get up tomorrow and teach before presenting Spammer to the Writing with Video class. As part of our final project, we were asked to comment on our creative process over the last several weeks. I wanted to do this in the form of another “video production diary,” but I’m just too tired! I may still post another one with some clips and a “trailer” for the film, but it might not be until next week due to my busy schedule!
Filming was done a couple of weeks ago. Tonight I am done with the editing. How does this make me feel? Good, in some ways. I’m happy with the way the project turned out, although I think it still lacks polish. I didn’t have time to adjust any of the colors or make a soundtrack – those things will have to come later. My goal for this class was to at least have a final, edited version of the film that I could present. I believe I accomplished this.
I had a couple of minor set backs during the editing process
I ran out of hard drive space on the “loaner” Macbook that I’ve been using for the film editing. To solve this problem, I had to basically uninstall anything that wasn’t completely necessary to complete the film. I was working with very large clips to preserve the quality, so that took priority over anything else on the hard drive.
While trying to clear space on the hard drive, I accidentally deleted thirty clips from the film. Luckily, these clips were all still on the camera, but it took me a couple of hours to find them and put them back in sequence.
I also had a problem with the climactic section of the film (where Spammer reveals his occupation to his date). For some reason, every time I tried to edit that clip the computer gave me an error message, and not a helpful one either – it just said “General error” and stopped whatever I was doing. To solve this problem, I ended up having to go back to the source material, reload the video from the camera and start that section over.
Overall, I would say that my process was fairly organized, but I tried to be flexible about things; in other words, I tried to maintain a balance between control and improvisation in all aspects of this film. While I was filming, I focused on controlling the environment, the lighting, the camera angles, etc., but I gave the actors freedom to improvise for the most part. There were very few pre-scripted lines in the film. The entire date conversation was improvised by the actors, and Spammer’s phone conversation was also improvised (I was on the other end of the phone). The only scripted line in the film was Spammer’s final statement to his date about the nature of his job, but even that was partially improvised. My reason for choosing not to script the action more closely was that I wanted there to be a certain element of awkwardness to the humor. I wanted it to seem natural and off-the-cuff. I also wanted the actors to be a little uncomfortable, since that’s how their characters were supposed to feel.
When it came to editing, I had a strong concept of what I wanted to do floating around in my head, but I didn’t make any storyboards. I kept fairly detailed notes during the process so as not to forget things, but these were more technical points. Most of my time was spent synching up the multi-frame sections of the film, which I think worked out very well. In fact, while I think some parts of the movie plod a little, I’m very pleased with the multi-frame parts, and think they were very successful. In particular, there’s a segment where frames of spam messages overtake the screen and Spammer curses as he pounds his delete key to make them disappear. This clip alone took me a couple of hours to get right, but I think it was worth it.
While editing the film, I had two priorities – I wanted to tell the story well, but I also wanted to be efficient with my time. There were a few bits that I had to cut out (and more I may still cut out) that only served to make the narrative drag on too long. My goal was to get the film down to fifteen minutes. I was close (17:52), but didn’t quite make my goal. It’s possible I’ll still be able to shave off those three minutes, but I’m not too worried about it.
Going forward with this piece, I have two goals:
1) to take advantage of whatever criticism I receive in class tomorrow and improve the editing, and
2) to add all the finishing touches (soundtrack, color correction, end credits, etc.
Hopefully, if all goes well, I’ll be able to have the final version online and available for download in early May. I want the film to be available in higher quality than what Youtube allows, so rather than posting it there, I’ll probably make it available as a torrent that people may download through the blog. I’ll have more details on that once everything is finished.
I received an official offer today from the head of the Writing Studies program here at U of I to help develop a new class for next fall, entitled “Writing Across Media,” which I will also get to teach! This was very exciting news, as the alternative was for me to teach a section of Business and Technical Writing, which doesn’t quite align as well with my research interests. I’ll be meeting with a team of grad students and professors over the summer to develop the curriculum for the course which will involve composition in various digital and print media (writing, film, design, etc.).
Coupled with my Desktop Publishing course (which the head of the BTW program gave me free reign over for next semester), this means I will be teaching two multimedia composition/design courses in the fall!
Too bad I’ve got papers to write and assignments to grade, otherwise I’d go out and celebrate! Guess that’ll have to wait until after the semester is over
[This post is part of a presentation on games for the New Media Theory class at U of I. I will try to put some of the information in context, but it is primarily a collection of reference links I will be using in the presentation.]
Early History: From Playful Hackers to Big Money
It all started with “Spacewar,” which was originally a hack created by two researchers in the early 1960s. Eventually, it was adapted into the first arcade game and paved the way for future arcade titles. Home consoles hit the market in the early to mid-70s, but their success was unstable until the mid-80s when Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Distribution of Games: Industrial Capitalism vs. the “Information Wants to be Free” Ethic
The World of Warcraft Terms of Use and End User License Agreement (EULA) is a good example of the standard legal boilerplate that comes packaged with all games nowadays. Important to note is the quote within the Terms of Use that states:
“All rights and title in and to the Program and the Service (including without limitation any user accounts, titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, methods of operation, moral rights, any related documentation, “applets” incorporated into the Program, transcripts of the chat rooms, character profile information, recordings of games played on the Program, and the Program client and server software) are owned by Blizzard or its licensors.”
Emulator Zone is one of many sites that hosts emulators, which are software applications that mimic various video game consoles. Some of these sites also host “roms,” which are disc images files of games that can be stored on a computer and run using emulators. Sites like this frequently come under fire from game publishers for hosting reverse engineered software and other copyright protected material, even if they are explicitly hosting “abandonware” or games that are no longer in print. In response to the popularity of the “abandonware” movement, some of the major game publishers have begun to offer backwards compatibility on their consoles and are making older games available for paid downloads. The Nintendo Wii is probably the most notable currently for including downloadable games from five old consoles (Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Turbografx 16, and Neo Geo) with rumors of more being included in the future. Gametap is another officially licensed service, where people can subscribe to gain access to a library of older games from several consoles. The only drawback for the corporate licensed archival sites, though, is that their libraries tend to be limited due to legal issues.
The Pirate Bay (whose website claims that they have just moved all of their servers to Sinai due to legal pressure in Europe, although this could be an April Fool’s joke), are a P2P file-sharing search engine, who represent a bastion of the “information wants to be free” mentality that initially surrounded gaming culture.
Modding, Hacking, and Repurposing: Artistic Expression or Malicious Copyright Infringement?
Cory Arcangel is a New York-based artist who has done a lot of work with old video game cartridges. One of his first pieces, “I Shot Andy Warhol,” was a modification of the game “Hogan’s Alley” from the Nintendo Entertainment System, and was created by directly cutting and soldering circuitry in the game cartridge. Arcangel replaced the characters from the original “shooting gallery” style game with easily recognizable pop culture icons.
Arcangel is also famous for his “scrolling clouds” exhibit – an installation piece that features three large screens displaying slow-moving clouds from the original “Super Mario Bros.”
Finally, there is his “Super Mario Bros. Movie”
Arcangel has escaped legal problems due to the fact that he exclusively uses old games, and his hacks/mods generally only appear in local art exhibits.
Most machinima does not actually alter the original code of the game, and therefore would not be considered hacking or modding. Based on the language of most EULAs, however, game publishers automatically own the rights to anything produced using their software.
MMOs: Bridging the Gap between Corporate Ownership and Communal Space
In spite of corporate ownership, player’s have a great amount of control over their world in MMOs. Some companies take a more open stance than others in relation to player input. Several attempts have been made to develop a “gamer’s bill of rights” covering issues of gameplay, fair use, virtual ownership, etc.
One of the more open virtual worlds, Second Life, has recently settled an ownership issue in court (Bragg v. Linden)
Another issue at stake in MMOs is the right for players to capitalize on their achievements. Developers take varying stances on this. Blizzard is notoriously iron-fisted regarding people attempting to make money off of their game. They generally cite the use of “bots” or automated programs that players can use to control their character and “farm” resources, but even in cases where bots are not used, they generally ban players who attempt to resell their virtual “property” outside of the game.
The Study of Games: Ludology vs. Narratology
Keane mentions some of the conflicting views on game study in his article. Initially games were studied in relation to other media – particularly film. This approach, known as narratology, focuses on the narrative aspects of the genre and imports aspects of film and literary theory. In response to what some researchers refer to as academic colonization by narratologists, the field of ludology was developed to study games as unique systems requiring unique theories and research methods.
Fandom: Perpetuating Virtual Worlds through Community
In relation to the points made in “Playing on the digital commons,” Stephen Keane explains that virtual worlds are perpetuated by the community that forms around them. This includes virtual worlds established in games, film, books, comics, and any other media (particularly serialized media).
Games as Films and Films as Games: the Cycle of Remediation
As Keane points out, games and films share a mutually beneficial marketing relationship. On a deeper level, they also remediate each other in terms of form and content. Games borrow narrative and visual conventions from film (chronology, cinematic camera angles, lens tricks, etc.), while film owes much of its special effects developments to video games.
These FMV cut-scenes from Resident Evil for the Sony Playstation exemplify the problems with this particular remediation of film – the difference in style from the rest of the game as well as poor acting, costuming, and props all serve to break up the game narrative
Here is the introduction to the Nintendo Gamecube remake of Resident Evil, which also uses cinematic effects, but maintains the visual style of the rest of the game through 3D rendering.
The use of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) like “I Love Bees” is a marketing strategy in which the release of a movie or game is foregrounded by the creation of a website (or a network of websites) that draw the user into solving a series of puzzles, riddles, etc. that introduce or perpetuate the narrative of the game/film.
Games and Identity: Embodiment vs. Representation
First off, I’d like to give major kudos to Sheila Murphy for using the word “rad” in the opening paragraph of this article. Why did that word ever fall out of popular use? Let’s work on bringing it back into the vernacular, folks!
Murphy establishes several dichotomies in her article: gamer vs. viewer, embodied player vs. avatar, author vs. user, etc. These all relate directly to an individuals identity as a player of video games. Game identity is largely about the player-character’s relationship with navigable space and the other non-player-characters they come across. Identification with a character requires that the player be in control of that character – cut-scenes interrupt player control and limit the player’s ability to identify with the character. Camera perspective also plays an important role in the player’s ability to identify with a character. Player’s identify more with first-person character representations than third-person ones.
The screen (and Murphy also implies speakers when she mentions audio in games) is important in terms of player-character identity, since it is the window through which the player views the character. Game controllers are also an important part of the “immersion” experience, providing the means to control action on-screen and also providing “force feedback” to introduce tactile sensations in response to in-game actions. At the time this article was written, the Nintendo Wii was not yet out. Here is a site dedicated to Wii related injuries and property damage – talk about issues of emodiment in digital media! There are people are getting whacked in the face! I’m sure they felt pretty damn embodied then!
Some Questions for Discussion
What do you think about the “information wants to be free” mentality? How does this relate to terms like “free labor” and “gift economy” that tend to circulate regarding new media economics?
Is there any validity to Coleman’s and Dyer-Witheford’s concept of the “digital commons” when all the spaces to which they refer are explicitly owned by game development corporations (including everything created by users – refer back to the WOW Terms of Use)? (This even applies to Second Life, which, according to this post on Terra Nova re: the Bragg v. Linden lawsuit, is not owned by users, but by Linden Labs)
How does the question of ownership of digital property effect player’s interactions in virtual worlds (particularly MMOs)? How does it effect player-character identity in MMOs?
How does the “information wants to be free” mentality relate to Keane’s concept of fandom?
Corporate game developers have a love-hate relationship with the hacking community that initially spawned their industry. Is it possible for these two conflicting mentalities to continue to exist? Is there a possibility for games to be both open source “digital commons” and still be commercially viable?
Recent trends in gaming include gamer’s making physical actions in order to control their avatar on-screen – Nintendo and Sony both have motion-sensitive controllers. How does this relate to Murphy’s thoughts about identity and embodiment in games?
References
Coleman, Sarah, and Nick Dyer-Witheford. “Playing on the Digital Commons: Collectivities, Capital, and Contestation in Videogame Culture.” Media Culture and Society. London: Sage, 2007. http://mcs.sagepub.com.
Murphy, Sheila. “‘Live in Your World, Play in Ours’: The Spaces of Videogame Identity.” Journal of Visual Culture. London: Sage, 2004.
Keane, Stephen. Cinetech: Film, Convergence, and New Media. New York: Palgrave, 2006.
Also, my swimming stats for today were 1000 yds in 30 min and 1100 yds total. I was mildly hungover today after a wild night of drinking with a lit major and a gang of video game programmers (shout out to Volition), and considering the fact that I’ve swam every day this week, I decided not to push myself
As promised, here are a few stills from the shoot today. I also threw in some shots I’ve taken over the last week. Sadly, a lot of the footage from today was taken on the camera I borrowed from the art department, and they didn’t give me the proper cable to transfer the footage to my computer, so you’ll have to wait to see that shit. Don’t be impatient! You’ll see it soon enough
I’m not going to tell you what this is. You have to guess.
Fine, I’ll tell you. This is the NASA channel. I filmed it by putting the camera lens flush against the TV screen.
LOL… more fun with the NASA channel.
I let my apartment go to shit this week to set the scene for today’s shoot. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not anal retentive about cleanliness, but I’m not a big fan of stinky kitchens. I’ll be glad to get all of this cleaned up!
This is not the NASA channel, but it’s the same idea. Just random TV interference.
Here’s Volen looking studious in front of the computer. Since I couldn’t actually show the computer due to my prop situation, I decided to get several minutes of footage of just his face that I can edit in with computer screen closeups to make it look like he’s working.
The sunlight through the trees and the powerlines and whatever the hell else is in the way (a building, I guess?)
Spammer is getting ready for his big date. He’s a bit nervous, so he’s gotta rehearse his greeting in front of the mirror (don’t want to make a bad first impression, eh?)
Another rehearsal shot.
He decides he doesn’t like the way this shirt looks. What to wear, what to wear?
Spammer takes a work break with his good friend Jack. Jack helps make the frustrations of work seem much smaller…
Is it a bug? Or a virus? Or maybe a satellite shooting a laser beam?
As soon as I get the footage off of the other camera, I’ll post some more stills. Until then…
I started a new page on this blog for my current film project. On there you can find all of the pertinent information about the project. I will be posting regular updates on my progress here in the blog, as well as keeping the information on the “$P@MM3R!!1!” page up-to-date. I presented the project today in class, and it was suggested that I cut the length down to fifteen minutes, so that will be a serious consideration. Also, the word is going out to some potential candidates for the two lead roles, so I should hopefully start hearing back about that in the next couple of weeks. Anyway, keep checking here for updates, and keep your eye on the new page over the next couple of months!
