16th March 2004, 11:35 PM
Just for fun we'll pick a game at random that has a cool context and somewhat human characters (makes casting calls easier).
DooM
Premise: Marines are sent to investigate Mars colonies sudden stop in communication. All are wiped out but one who discovers that Mars contains the gate in to hell itself. Using weapons of mass destruction, he destroys the evil incarnate and... Fill in the blank. He could die on Mars or get back to Earth for a happy ending. I would actually prefer he stays in hell as a demi God. Kinda Shadowman-ish. But whatever.
Okay. There's a basic premise of a story, it's cut and dry. Now, I would like anyone here to write (in novel format) about 60 to 80 pages of this story and whatever else you want to add. From that we'll break it down and create the script. The script will be a fresh start and a translation of sorts from the novel format story which will reach about 100 pages for a full feature film (figure about a minute per page)
I can tell you right now, that by the time you get to about page 20 (or sooner); you'll be making up shit that NEVER happened in any DooM game. You will do this because video games are not movies and trying to create a movie from a video game while preserving the elements of the video game is impossible. You'll end up creating sub plots and twists and new characters and all kinds of things. Why? Because if you didn't, the script would be boring as hell and no one would be able to stand reading it.
That's why screenplay writers stay away from video games. Even in a massive RPG like Final Fantasy there's still very little story.
A perfect example of what happens to a film based on a video game is House of the Dead. The game literally has no story; it's about two investigators named Player One and Player Two who find themselves thwarting evil armies with guns that reload when you fire off the screen. So some guy thought "I'll make it hip and put young people instead of the investigators" and some director said "It should be like a dark music video" and some film music engineer said "We'll use rap music!" and the result is a mish mosh of about 6 or 7 thousand different ideas at once that all equals out to a bunch of krap.
Another example on the opposite end of the spectrum, what if they get it PERFECT? Tomb Raider the Movie had an actress casted who can look and act like Lara Croft. Pro! It had a set designer who worked hard to recreate the look and feel of the levels in Tomb Raider games and a DP that actually tried to emulate the video games flow of action and plot! Pro! It was Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean)! PRO! It actually had a story that would even fit as a separate video game of the Tomb Raider series! ***PRO!!!***
The PERFECT translation! And... No one liked it. Yunno why? Because Tomb Raider is a COMPLETELY REDICULOUS RANDOM STORY THAT NEVER MAKES ANY SENSE. It never had and never will have any kind of story. Ever. Because it's a video game. Not a movie. Video games always use pieces of movies to fix the holes in their plots since as I said; the story is built around the code. Example: Code - Third Person action adventure using distance weapons to fight enemies which are placed in and around levels to block your progress. Many rooms and areas within the levels need to have the player figure out a puzzle before progressing. All levels are based on A to B scale in that once you reach your destination, the level ends and you're granted access to the next one.
Story: You play as a girl with the super human powers of money (Batman) who looks for ancient artifacts (Indiana Jones) and oh, what the hell -- fights Greeks, Russians, sometimes monks and when the time is right she'll lay down a yeti or two. All while driving snow mobiles down K-12 and firing off her biggest guns; Those Triplex Wide Double F titties that occasionally get stuck to her lips that are almost twice the size of her head.
She'll fight Sharks (Jaws) and any other crazy animal you can think of and use cool gear and gadgets (James Bond) and rely heavily on her double pistols (any John Woo movie).
Now let me ask you... are you going to pay real money to see a movie like that? Not when there’s a good movie still around to spend money on. Movies like that, like xXx, Torque and what not, have a very niche demographic; 12 year old boys with attention spans of infant mice. Not my cup of god damn tea.
DooM
Premise: Marines are sent to investigate Mars colonies sudden stop in communication. All are wiped out but one who discovers that Mars contains the gate in to hell itself. Using weapons of mass destruction, he destroys the evil incarnate and... Fill in the blank. He could die on Mars or get back to Earth for a happy ending. I would actually prefer he stays in hell as a demi God. Kinda Shadowman-ish. But whatever.
Okay. There's a basic premise of a story, it's cut and dry. Now, I would like anyone here to write (in novel format) about 60 to 80 pages of this story and whatever else you want to add. From that we'll break it down and create the script. The script will be a fresh start and a translation of sorts from the novel format story which will reach about 100 pages for a full feature film (figure about a minute per page)
I can tell you right now, that by the time you get to about page 20 (or sooner); you'll be making up shit that NEVER happened in any DooM game. You will do this because video games are not movies and trying to create a movie from a video game while preserving the elements of the video game is impossible. You'll end up creating sub plots and twists and new characters and all kinds of things. Why? Because if you didn't, the script would be boring as hell and no one would be able to stand reading it.
That's why screenplay writers stay away from video games. Even in a massive RPG like Final Fantasy there's still very little story.
A perfect example of what happens to a film based on a video game is House of the Dead. The game literally has no story; it's about two investigators named Player One and Player Two who find themselves thwarting evil armies with guns that reload when you fire off the screen. So some guy thought "I'll make it hip and put young people instead of the investigators" and some director said "It should be like a dark music video" and some film music engineer said "We'll use rap music!" and the result is a mish mosh of about 6 or 7 thousand different ideas at once that all equals out to a bunch of krap.
Another example on the opposite end of the spectrum, what if they get it PERFECT? Tomb Raider the Movie had an actress casted who can look and act like Lara Croft. Pro! It had a set designer who worked hard to recreate the look and feel of the levels in Tomb Raider games and a DP that actually tried to emulate the video games flow of action and plot! Pro! It was Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean)! PRO! It actually had a story that would even fit as a separate video game of the Tomb Raider series! ***PRO!!!***
The PERFECT translation! And... No one liked it. Yunno why? Because Tomb Raider is a COMPLETELY REDICULOUS RANDOM STORY THAT NEVER MAKES ANY SENSE. It never had and never will have any kind of story. Ever. Because it's a video game. Not a movie. Video games always use pieces of movies to fix the holes in their plots since as I said; the story is built around the code. Example: Code - Third Person action adventure using distance weapons to fight enemies which are placed in and around levels to block your progress. Many rooms and areas within the levels need to have the player figure out a puzzle before progressing. All levels are based on A to B scale in that once you reach your destination, the level ends and you're granted access to the next one.
Story: You play as a girl with the super human powers of money (Batman) who looks for ancient artifacts (Indiana Jones) and oh, what the hell -- fights Greeks, Russians, sometimes monks and when the time is right she'll lay down a yeti or two. All while driving snow mobiles down K-12 and firing off her biggest guns; Those Triplex Wide Double F titties that occasionally get stuck to her lips that are almost twice the size of her head.
She'll fight Sharks (Jaws) and any other crazy animal you can think of and use cool gear and gadgets (James Bond) and rely heavily on her double pistols (any John Woo movie).
Now let me ask you... are you going to pay real money to see a movie like that? Not when there’s a good movie still around to spend money on. Movies like that, like xXx, Torque and what not, have a very niche demographic; 12 year old boys with attention spans of infant mice. Not my cup of god damn tea.