Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
16.3 VISUAL NARRATIVE AND THE CAMERA
How is the position and framing of a camera view involved with the visual narrative or story of an event?
Think about a sporting event for a minute. The rookie is facing the veteran. Half the spectators are expecting
the veteran to succeed, and the other half of the crowd is hoping the rookie will show up the overconident
veteran and beat him at his own game. This game is televised nationally, and somewhere in the TV production
facility of the stadium, a director is deciding what camera shots to use while the story of this time-honored
contest unfolds.
Now, sit down in the director's chair and ask yourself: How would I tell this story? If you read back
through the description, you will see that four shots have already been described: (1) the face of the rookie,
(2) the face of the veteran, (3) the fans of the rookie's team, and (4) the fans of the veteran's team. Since the
story is just beginning, you can keep the framing wide and also let the observer see the full body shots of the
rookie and veteran, as well as groups of fans in the crowd shots.
As the competition escalates, it is a good time for a closer shot. Television directors of sporting events,
of debates, and other kinds of contests will move the camera in closer and closer to the faces of the partici-
pants as the competition becomes more intense. “Tight” shots, or shots framed very close to the face, will
build tension in the observer's mind and transmit the drama of the event. And so it goes—the director's job
is to choose the framing, camera angle (or position), and movement of each shot and present them in an order
that allows for the narrative story of an event to unfold to the observer. With media such as episodic television
and feature ilms, the shots are usually made out of order for the convenience of the production crew, location
availability, and other factors. After all the shots are accumulated, they are assembled by the editor into a
progression that tells the story. This technique has been used for decades to create narrative stories, and it is
still a widely used methodology.
But, what of virtual environments? Now, we can invite the observer into the Bates Motel or the Temple
of Doom to create his or her own subjective experience and narrative in that space. We can populate the
environment with cameras driven by artiicial intelligence (AI), or “camera creatures,” that respond to our
gestures by lighting and framing the scene and characters within it [4].
Just as the novel and cinema created new ways of telling stories, perhaps games and the virtual environ-
ments that hold them will create a place for narrative to evolve into something else [5]. Janet Murray calls
this new form of storytelling “cyberdrama.” She observed the existence of a “game-story” and deined the
new genres as “the hero-driven video game, the atmospheric irst person shooter game, the genre-focused
role-playing game, and the character-focused simulation” [6].
In your preparation for making a machinima, you need a good understanding of the visual language of the
camera and the structures that narrative can take so that you can break the rules and still have a coherent inal
product. In the structure of a play, you begin with “stasis” or a balanced equilibrium in the environment [7].
To drive the narrative and give us a story to follow, the element of “intrusion” is introduced: war, plague,
religious leader, and so on. What transpires after that leads to the dramatic nature of the narrative, allows
for the intertwining of character plot lines, and eventually allows for some sort of climax and conclusion or
“ending.” These are the general guidelines of a linear plot utilized by plays, ilms, and some video games,
but they do not completely apply to 3D environments. When you create a narrative-based 3D environment,
there is the “narrative of exploration” experienced by the visitor, there is the “narrative storyline” that guided
you to create the environment, and there is the “event narrative,” which is continually created by the events
and actions of the avatars within your environment. You may choose to make a machinima that follows
any one of these narratives or possibly all three. What kind of machinima you choose to make about a
narrative-based 3D environment is up to you. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Imagination rules the world.”
