Behind the Door

What might be on the other side of two black holes eating each other? It takes a lot of exploring and endless dreaming to find the answer… Gamers like to know what's on the other side of things, big and small, like a door, or a cave, or a treasure chest or the path through the forest. The experience of the storytelling is powered by the mystery and ascension of discovery, both inward and outward. There is a certain “something” that connects the player in a virtual world. 

The gatekeepers of the movie industry struggle to understand why we game, and what ultimately describes a gamer. The label of "gamer" is quaintly misleading. When you watch a child play, they are discovering their reality and spinning a narrative along the way. They are playing with physics and the rules of the world, creating a moment to moment narrative that unexpectedly, delightfully, joyfully expands. Play in a videogame is imagination and childlike in wonder, play is very grownup in a sophisticated virtual experience. A gamer thrives in the communion with the world. There is an intoxication in the not-quite real, the slightly impossible—interacting with the intricate constructs and the make believe, and affecting that reality. The impossible becomes possible, the improbable becomes real.   

If you listen in on a videogame movie pitch, the tone in the room often dictates that play is childish, that gamers fit into a simple mold that leads to a complete disregard for thoughtful moviemaking and a disrespect for the source material. There is unfortunate disconnect where a fruitful opportunity thrives.

Consider playing a videogame akin to playing a guitar, or playing a part in the movie, an exquisite dialogue with art and story. To understand the tribal beats is to make a movie unique to the musicality of gaming. A gamer’s desire to experience a made-up world and affect the multitude of outcomes can be framed within a screenplay. A slightly surreal touch hiding in the corners. A blossoming bit of magic inside the familiar film storytelling.