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----ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces
Call for Papers
This edited collection, due to be published in September 2001, aims to explore different aspects of the relationship between video games and cinema. It will consist of approximately 12 articles of about 6,000 words each, plus an introduction and glossary written by the editors. The editors will contribute one article each to the collection.
The opening sequence of Toy Story 2 purports to be located inside the PlayStation game based on the film. The Matrix presents a world in which everyday ‘reality’ turns out to be a computer- generated illusion, a fantastic game-like world in which the right programme can turn anyone into an action superhero. Top-selling games include titles based on blockbuster movies: blockbuster movies take on some of the characteristics of games. Influences run in both directions. Lara Croft, iconic digital heroine of the top selling Tomb Raider series, is about to feature in a Hollywood blockbuster: will the real life version live up to the spectacular dimensions of the original? A new Star Wars film immediately generates a clutch of new games, as do many children’s films and horror movies, titles in development including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Evil Dead and The Blair Witch Project.
What happens in the interface between big-screen and games console or PC? Is there a merging of languages (vocabularies, strategies, genres) as games influence movies and movies influence games? What is the impact on films? Are some really becoming increasingly like games, as some commentators suggest? And what about games? To what extent do they draw on the characteristics of Hollywood movies, beyond the realm of just the direct spin-off title? Or have these convergences been overstated? To what extent do films and computer or video games offer their own distinct approaches and pleasures?
Games often depend on recognized film genres, milieu and stars for branding and marketing. Some aspire to a film-like quality of graphics and action. As such, computer or video games might appear simply to be extensions of the big screen product. But games also offer different experiences, especially in the realm of their much-touted ‘interactivity’. To what extent can the tools of film analysis be applied to games? What particular pleasures (and frustrations) do computer games elicit? How do these compare with films? Do games depart from the narrative forms used in cinema? How might the interactive nature of games impact on factors such as the gendering of on-screen avatars? What issues of production design mark games off from the cinema?
What are the driving forces behind the interface between cinema and computer-game screens? To what extent is it driven by business strategies to maximize profits within integrated media corporations? Is it a product of a new generation weaned on digital media? What are the implications of interactive gaming strategies for the future of cinema? How might the ‘emotion’ chip of PlayStation 2, and other developments, make gaming a more distinct experience? How do games designers deal with the capacity limitations and other parameters of existing formats; how might these effect the degree to which games can offer cinematic qualities?
These and other related issues will be explored in ScreenPlay, a collection of essays exploring the relationships between contemporary cinema and computer games.
Suggested subjects include:
Relations/similarities/differences between films and games generally, or in specific case-studies of individual titles/genres Issues relating to particular forms/aesthetics (e.g. use of narrative, special effects, music, point-of-view/third-person perspectives, etc.) Particular game/movie genres Viewers vs. users, etc. Industrial factors, corporate connections, etc Potential for closer integration, future hybrid forms, ‘interactive cinema’, etc.
Articles should between 2000 to 5000 words in length, following MLA guidelines. The deadline for final articles is May 30th 2001. A contract to publish this collection has been obtained from Wallflower Press, London.
Please send a 250 word proposal to the editors by 1 December 2000:
Geoff.King@brunel.ac.uk Tanya.Krzywinska@brunel.ac.uk
Brunel University Film and TV Studies Lecture Centre Uxbridge Middlesex UB8 3PH
=============================================== From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List CFP@english.upenn.edu Full Information at http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/ or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu ===============================================
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