Duty Bound
Call of Duty talent director Keith Arem on controversy, casting and Hollywood's new games model
I've been working on Saint's Row for the past 8 months or so. That's a phenomenal project. Since Danny came in, and Lenny Brown [director of creative and business development], they have really provided a strong focus for the company to increase the performances in their games. They saw what I'd done on Modern Warfare and asked me to get involved in their projects. Over the past couple of years we've been focusing on all of their triple-A titles and really bringing out stellar performances. Their focus has been to concentrate on quality and coming from that background they've allowed me to do what I do best because they understand it.
It's a big buzz word.
It's about telling the right story on the right platform. Films are primarily a linear passive media where you don't engage the medium and you watch for two hours. Mobile content has a smaller screen and limited technology but has the benefit of being mobile and connected. A console game is interactive and tries to deliver a cinematic experience over 14 hours. Development cycles, technology, budgets are drastically different.
You can't simply regurgitate the same story across all platforms. The compelling story that works for a two hour film can be the tent pole that every studio wants. That can allow the game to be an interactive experience that doesn't just focus on the 90 minutes of story. And then you can fill in the back-story or all the rest of the world. And the mobile experience can be connected to other users - take advantage of what each medium does best.
Most of the projects that have been considered transmedia have simply been a film that's been ported to a game that has a website. You can't regurgitate the same story across all platforms
Unfortunately most of the projects that have been considered transmedia have simply been a film that's been ported to a game that has a website. And there's a mobile app for it. It becomes very flat because what makes the film special is the creative team that made that product. It's not the same people doing the game or the website, they have a different budget and development cycle. My focus has been to develop true transmedia properties where you can tell the backstory in one, the sequel in another and they all work in conjunction but are mutually exclusive from each other. Approach them individually and allow the fans to discover them.
Well the classic one was released 30 years ago - Star Wars. That was the original transmedia example. A universe that could sustain multiple sequels and prequels., And how many video games, online experiences and merchandise? Because it became a really fleshed-out world. It's interesting because a lot of films only fall within an event of a short amount of time, so there's not much of a world behind.
The Matrix wanted to be a true transmedia franchise when you look at the Animatrix that bridged between the sequels of the films, the games that also had exclusive content that continued the story. Unfortunately I think the execution and the overall guidance of that franchise didn't hold up to audience expectations but you can see that the world is trying to exist on all the different mediums.
It's interesting because when most of the decisions come from the team themselves and it's a decision that everyone comes to, knowing they are going to make this. Going in on those decisions everyone's going to be aware that there is going to be some sort of controversy behind that. And I think in the end what's creatively best for the project and what's going tell the story and what's really going to give the team the satisfaction of enjoying what they're working on is really the primary focus. So when we decide to execute on an idea that's been approved both by the developer and the publisher we're pretty committed going in. So knowing that we're going to be dealing with that some times we sort of have to be very careful in announcing that. We knew that the No Russian level was going to be extremely controversial and obviously what happened in Russia and a lot of other areas was a sign of that.
When you see it actually come together and you hear all the voices and you see what the team bought to that, it's very brutal. It's a difficult experience for anyone to go through. At the same time, creatively, when those decision are unanimous between the team we try to make them as engaging as possible. Unfortunately we're pretty much committed once we make that decision because the development cycle is so far in advance of the releases of the game. Sometimes we become desensitized to the fact that this is going to be so controversial and when it comes out we have to remind ourselves that people are seeing this for the first time and they're also taking in the complete experience for the first time as opposed to seeing it in the various stages of production.