Film and video games have an interesting and long relationship that spans back decades. Over the years video games and the film industry have been converging so that they now heavily influence one another. In the 80’s and 90’s, when graphics cards weren’t the best, video game creators focused on storytelling through creating captivating characters, plots and worlds. Later, in the mid 90’s through to 2010 video game creators began to borrow ideas from the film industry and as a result, 3D games started to become available on the market. Now, games and the film industry influence each other more than ever before, with video developers utilising more film and storytelling techniques used by the film industry than ever before. The aim of this post is to explore the ways in which storytelling techniques used in film can be applied to video games, and vice versa.

A good example showing the use of actors in earlier games and their evolution is the Command & Conquer video game. See the trailer for a remastered game below. It shows comparison between the earlier and more recent versions.

Examples of Film Techniques in Video Games

Video Developers Use a Number of Film Techniques, Including:


Cinematography. i.e. the use of different camera angles, is now used in video games very similar to what we have in films to enhance viewer experience.
Cutscenes. These are very similar to film’s use of cutaways or flashbacks and they are used to provide more information and backstory to the viewer/player.
Voice acting and motion capture are both film techniques that are now used in video games, to bring characters and stories to life in a way similar to film. Some well known voice actors include Troy Baker, a voice actor who has lent his voice to many popular video games, including BioShock Infinite, The Last of Us, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. And also Nolan North, a prolific voice actor appearing in a wide variety of video games, including the Uncharted series, Assassin’s Creed, and Destiny.
• Video games and movies both have a score and music throughout the movie/game, this is to enhance the emotional impact of a scene and draw the viewer in, making the scene feel more realistic.
• Trailers. The film industry release trailers of their latest releases and in recent years, video games have employed promotional video production services to do the same thing, to show gamers what the game involves and the story behind it. Trailers for video games is something we have seen for years now, but it wasn’t always, this is another technique adapted from the film industry.

Examples of Video Game Techniques in Film


Film has impacted video games, but video games have also impacted on the film industry. There are lots of examples of this, such as:
• Branching narratives are used in video games and his technique is now being applied to interactive films and programmes that allow the use to choose what happens next in the story.
• We already have 3D films, but the use of interactive elements in video games, such as VR or AR technology), could be incorporated into films.
• Video games include achievements and elements that a user is able to unlock as they play. This also has the potential to be applied to film, for example, a movie could reward repeat viewings with additional content.
• The recent Star Wars TV series “The Mandalorian” used Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 (UE4), which is best known for being used in Fortnite, to create CG mock-ups of scenes because it created more realistic backgrounds that the standard approach of using greenscreen.

Conclusion


The film industry began to impact on the way in which video games creators developed their games decades ago and for a while, video games were taking many techniques from the film industry to enhance their players experience.


More recently, the film industry has started to see benefits from utilising some techniques from video creators and have began implementing these. Now, the two industries, which were once completely separate, have converged to become extremely similar in many ways due to the many benefits of sharing techniques.


The two industries are most likely going to continue becoming more converged as they continue to learn from one another and share ideas and techniques that benefit both industries. While they share some ideas, there are things filmmakers do that game developers don’t and vice versa, therefore, we can expect to see even more overlap in the two industries going forward.