[squarejawhero]

If I don't post SOMETHING, I'll feel rather dumb. 56K or no, here goes.

I'd just like to know more about your background, as I was rather impressed with some of your direction within the game, as well as your filmic and televisual influences. As I like to bang on about constantly over here, I'm a storyboard artist and although I had some qualms (hold that camera still a second, boyo!) I thought the direction was far better than I'd usually expect for a game. Good use of hookups insofar as I could remember, and no nasty camera flipping which often occurs with third-person titles, or at least nothing that had me wanting to write nasty letters to the director of Develop about the state of the industry. j/k

So, tell me more about the planning of the structure of Farenheit, whether storyboards were used (naturalmente... ok, I'll quit the French ), the experiences of those on board (including yourself) and if they come from backgrounds outside of games and your own influences including directorial and visual styles.

I can see some David Lynch in there, that's for sure, a touch of X-Files... I could go on, but you tell me... I'm interested! Great game.

[squarejawhero]

Secondly, just thought before I sign off, in my own industry games are rather frowned on as being rather amateur - in all aspects. Yours is one of the games I'd recommend to those who think that, despite it's rather abrupt turn into rather standard territory during the third act. Do you hold yourself back to any standards, similar as to how we would in television and film? When it comes to producing narrative product, I'm sure you're aware than in television at least there are "no-no" areas. I admired much of the restraint in Farenheit, particularly the sex scenes which, despite the vaseline-smeared lens (heheh), actually didn't detract from the game in the same way similar scenes as the one in Mafia do.

[David Cage]

Hi,

In fact, I worked a lot on the script (more than 2000 pages over one year of writing...).

I only storyboarded the key scenes where I had a very clear idea of what I wanted. I intentionally refused to "over-storyboard", just because I wanted to be really free to make the directing at the end in our directing bench. When you storyboard, all the team just works on what is supposed to be seen (which is optimal in matter of production) but then you have no freedom to change your mind. So I asked everyone, graphic artists and animators, to make their stuff work with any angle. They absolutely hated me for that, but I think it helped the quality of the final product.

Regarding the experience of the team, no one had real experience in the movie industry. We all had a very strong cinema culture, but we discovered what worked and what didn't by doing it. The directing tools were so fantastic that we could easily try things.

My influences in cinema include Fincher, Shyamalan, Wells, Kubrick and others. And of course, David Lynch (who isn't influenced by these guys anyway?..).

[squarejawhero]

Despite working within animation and on a Christian action-adventure project, I try to work in as many David Lynch and Fincher references as possible in my own work.

Heheh. I might not be joking.

Anyhow, I can understand your reasons for not being too rigid, but if I was to be brazenly honest, storyboards are more of a planning process that something to be stuck to during filming. Essentially, I'd say you're basically directing during the editing process. But Farenheit doesn't seem much like a game where the player directs the action, not to the extent as to how Valve planned HL2.... Did you not study anything at all how to work a camera within the context of a scene? Multicamera setups are tricky beasts to use without confusing.

I mean, there's a lot of very good material out there which shows excellent ways of doing things... I'm not saying that you didn't do an excellent job - to be frank, I think you actually surpassed yourselves with no experience in this area! I'm just intrigued by how you pulled it off through trial and error. You were very wise in keeping characters relative to eachother within the context for a scene, for example, which is essential to avoiding directorial mishaps.

If you want to further your ability, I'd recommend reading Shot By Shot, by Stephen Katz. It's completely indespensible, and you'd learn a lot from it to bolster your direction even further.

And don't truck about too much! Were there any particular scenes which caused you any grief during their direction?

Lastly, with regards to your influences again, anything specific? C'mon, don't be frightened.