This is the official blog for the documentary "It's Just A Game" by Jonathan Mcewen, Azaan Zia, and Bhaven Patel.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
This is the preliminary poster for our documentary, so it probably will change before the final product is complete. I created it in respect to the content of the documentary and so I have included pictures of retro games such as Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and more recent games such as Pokemon. Another idea could be that a poster could be made that includes games that have been in the media, such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt.
Grand Theft Auto created by Rock Star is one of the most popular and best selling violent video games. The latest edition of the GTA series Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas set in a fictional West Coast Area. This particular scene shows much violence, such as drawing blood of victims , guns, carjackings and other violence which can cause an influence on a gamer's mind. The game shows much assaults on unarmed and harmless citizens living in the area such as repeated blows with a baseball bat on the victim to draw blood which is graphical. Other violence in this GTA Scene is spraying a person with non-stop bullets at them to carry on drawing blood on the person. Carjacking's are also in the scene as he drags him out of the car in a violent manner and then drives off. Slitting the neck with a knife to draw again a lot of blood from the victim . This may have a influence as some who maybe obsessive with the game can cause them also to extreme behaviour which can lead to them having a part in violence when they stop playing the game.
Manhunt is a controversial and violent video game which was released by Rockstar Games in 2003. Immediately after it's release, the game sparked controversy across several countries because of it's gruesome and extremely graphic nature, and this put the games' developers (Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive) under serious pressure. Rockstar faced worldwide hatred for the game, because of the fact that violence is clearly advocated throughout the game. The game almost encourages it's consumers to take up the role of a serial killer, and embark on a journey that sees them murder different people in an extremely graphic manner.
The explicit nature of the game entices the game players to play it, and the people who play it develop a sense of leadership and dominance over the men they murder in the game. This clearly shows that the content within the game has a serious psychological effect on the game players, because they are injected with a violent and murderous in-game personality that they become intent to succeed and complete the game with. The homicidal attitude of the main character in the game can blur the perception of reality by the player and cause them to make irrational decisions that may and can negatively affect and even kill those around them.
As the in-game footage shows, the aggressive and extremely violent behaviour is presented as being acceptable and simple to perform for any individual. This exact idea that is brought up has negative connotations written all over it, as it is morally unacceptable in society for violence to be advocated in such brutal fashion. The stealth attacks that can be performed during gameplay are incredibly straightforward for any gameplayer to carry out, and gives the predominantly young audience of gameplayers the sense that they are capable of murderous activities from the comfort of their own homes. The ability for the gameplayer to use weapons such as knives allows them to move stealthily with protection against any enemies that he or she may encounter. Using the knife as an example, any gameplayers is able to kill several nearby foes by using it to slash the throats of the men that they meet within the storyline for the game. The ability for the gamer to dominate in stealth situations such as these gives them a brutalizing element to their personality, which is something that can potentially be reflected by youngsters in real life.
Manhunt has been blamed for the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, 14 by his friend Warren Leblanc. Leblanc was said to have been obsessed with Manhunt. This caused the game to be either pulled from the shelves or heavily restricted in sales to the public. This murder is a dramatic example of the seriousness of playing too many violent games, as inappropriate habits can be inherited after playing them. The Pakeerah case caused chaos within the UK at the time, and really damaged many teenagers' perceptions of reality and fantasy, as they were caught in two minds over what should be deemed inappropriate and what is acceptable. An argument against such a violent game as Manhunt could be that the players of the game are inheriting ideas and actions that can potentially put their, and their peers' lives in serious jeopardy. The fact that a large number of the teenage population play video games regularly shows that youngsters are potentially more likely to recreate the actions that they witness while playing games. The access that teenagers have to violent and seriously graphic games can damage their awareness of the seriousness of actions such as murder and abusive behaviour. As the Pakeerah case shows, continuous enjoyment of a graphic video game can lead to devastating consequences, such as actually re-enacting the physical brutality in a local environment.
Manhunt is relevant to our documentary project because it shows that excessive hours of playing it can have a detrimental effect on youngsters' lives. As the Pakeerah case shows, teenagers can become obsessed with playing these violent games and will learn morally unacceptable actions from it that they can re-enact in real life. The obsession that teenagers have with gruesome games such as these can lead to serious consequences, as can the obsession with any game to a certain extent. For our documentary, we will be categorising the negative aspects of obsessive gaming and showing different reasons for why it can be damaging for the minds of youngsters. When explaining the negative impact of addictive games, we will be presenting the violent content that games such as Manhunt contain, linking to the concept of our documentary as we want to explain a message about obsessive gaming.
Rise of the Video Game is one documentary we've found that explores the past, present and future of gaming. The third episode of the documentary "Level 3", highlights the violence in video games and how it could be desensitizing the youth to violence in real life. It also talks about how the government uses war games to recruit young people into the army.
"America's Army was born and an even more sensitive debate arose as to the morality of recruiting young men for real war through the fun of a video game. Were games desensitizing us to the very real pain of violence and war? And more importantly, were video games leading us on a march towards virtual war?"
"For the first time, game designers had to grapple with a difficult question — how long before a game was nearly indistinguishable from reality?"
The documentary Louis Theroux - Gambling In Las Vegas is an investigative documentary in which broadcaster Louis Theroux follows the high-rollers in Vegas who are the experienced and most addicted of gamblers in the city. The documentary aims to present the view that the risk-taking lifestyle of the high-rollers is a damaging aspect of their lives, however different features of the documentary make it clear that they are definitely unaware of the serious consequences that their addiction can have on them. As well as following the daily routine of the serial gamblers, Louis Theroux visits the managers of the casinos in Vegas in a bid to discover their view on the issue and their take on the lifestyles of these people.
In the beginning the documentary Theroux is shown driving along the famous Las Vegas Strip, and explaining through the use of a voiceover his intentions for the documentary. As the car steadily progresses along the road, low-angle shots are used to show the extravagance of the famous hotels and casinos on the strip. The low-angle shots used are as if they are from the viewpoint of a passenger in the car glaring through the window, giving the audience the feeling that they are witnessing the tall buildings on the strip through their own eyes.
Opening Scene
Throughout the documentary, slow fades are used to progress to the next part of the documentary where a new point is made and different features of the gamblers' lives are explored. For example, after Theroux has directly interviewed one expereinced gambler as he gambles on the routlette table, the camera slowly fades to black to progress to a scene showing Thereox contemplating his day in the casino. The gambler being interviewed explains why he feels he can not be removed from the casino if his earnings are extemely low, presenting him as being daring and not fearful of his gambling habits getting the better of him. The fact that the camera fades to black after this moment represents the gambler as being not aware of the possible consequences that may meet him if indeed his earnings at the roulette table are poorer than he expected. This representation of the experienced gambler is supported by the slow fade to black, as the tense moment in which it happens is used to make the audience consider what may happen to the gambler as a result of his casual attitude towards his habits.
Gambler Interview and Fade (6:10 - 8:25 is the area of focus)
Gambling In Las Vegas uses the 'Fly on the wall' convention of documentary, as the camera is alongside Theroux at all times, capturing the lifestyle of the 'hardcore gamblers'. The camera pursues the gamblers through their hotel suite and local casino, thus capturing their actual daily routine where they gamble fearlessly inside the casino and go along with the thrill of the challenge and consequences of their addiction. This documentary technique for filming is used to expose the reality and seriousness of the gamblers' daily actions, and is essentially designed to invade the privacy of these people in an attempt to present the view that they continue with their consequential behaviour with a daring conscience. However, the actuality of the camerawork in the documentary is not always portraying the gamblers in a negative light, as Theroux presents humour during his exploration of the casino in which they play in. Theroux engages directly with the two experienced gamblers as they socialise with their gambling associates and friends in what seems a pleasant and outgoing manner.
This is an example of how the violence of modern video games has affected chief attornies in America. The American lawyer Jack Thompson is involved in an argument over the violence shown in video games with Tony Romando, who is the editor of a gadget magazine in America. Thompson criticises the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on an American news channel and aims to inform the national audience viewing the channel that it is crucial that violent games such as San Andreas are not to be made available for youngsters under the age of 18. Thompson vents his frustration about the violence of the game and says that legal action must be taken against developers such as Take Two Interactive, who are responsbile for the making of San Andreas.
This video is an example of how gaming can get out of hand. The video has been circulating around the internet for several months, and it highlights many reasons why gaming can cause violence among youth. It is a clear example of the effects that the serious habits of gaming can have on youngsters, and represents a certain group of 'hardcore gamers' as being too seriously associated with the games that they play.
Warning - This video contains explicit language and obsessive/violent behaviour
The Moral Kombat documentary (2007) directed by Spencer Halpin shows the audience the current violence going around in video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series, and Halo two of the biggest and most selling violent video games. The Documentary explores and analyses the violence in current games and the effect it is having on obsessive and hardcore gamers. In the video there are a lot of rapid shots used of different video games violence and extreme graphics of violence such as the usage of blood being drawn of victims, guns, knives, grenades, and other weapons that cause violence to be extremely graphic when playing these games.
Close up and medium shots are used at experts such as Jack Thompson and Bob Mckenzie to get their view points and these graphic games are playing in the background to back up their views on these video games and the effect on the society. They reflect on the youth generation and impose several high figure people who have been affected by violent video games such as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who had carried out the Columbine High School Massacre under the influence of the 1993 video game “Doom”. The genre it conveys is violence that is represented in the games they show such as Grand Theft Auto and True Crime: Streets of L.A. This documentary can be an ideal documentary to follow and analyse more closely and can use some of the conventions of this documentary to help us with our own documentary because it is very similar and be used to help us with our documentary, for e.g. some of the games they represent in the documentary.
Islamaphobia uses concepts such as interviews and montages to put across Naziya’s views, e.g. beginning montage of political leaders (George .B.W, Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair etc) and then 9/11 and July 7th. Naziya isn’t ambiguous about what she is trying to find out and states her intention from the beginning (her task is to find out what Islamaphobia is). She has interviews with people on the street in the local area, (Greenford & Southall) and meets professionals (Anshuman Mondal) which back help to back up her points. She also has montages of news cut-outs of islamaphobia.
This can help us as we can see how these concepts are used in the a non-professional context. It also makes it easier as we can see how they are input in a documentary.
The main purpose of our documentary is to explain the serious effects that obsessive gaming has on teenagers' lives, and inform their parents that what they are doing is affecting them greatly. We will be exploring the negative aspects of excess hours of video gaming, and how it is not healthy for these youngsters in a mental way. The negative aspects will look into facts and statistics on people who have been effected by too much gaming in some way, backed up with video clips taken from some of the most violent, graphic and sexually explicit games of the modern-day. The positive aspects of gaming will be shown through the joy that gamers have when playing games alongside oen another, (this will be shown through the multiplayer gaming idea where a friend can play against another friend in a purely friendly and competitve manner). Another positve example of gaming is that it is used for social interaction, and teenagers enjoy playing it with their own peers for enjoyment an dsatisfaction and relief from stress.
Interviews
For our documentary, we will be interviewing people from different professions who we feel are appropriate and suitable for answering the questions we have planned regarding video games. The ideas for potential interviewees for our documentary's interviews are to have firstly and foremost, either a professor from a University, or a gaming expert. The reason for why we feel we should be using this person is because they will be an educated and wise person who can provide us with intellectual and unique views on gaming, and we are able to get an insight into what the knowledgable people of society feel about the topic.
Also, we will look to possibly interview game developers and experts in the field of gaming, to hopefully find out their views on the growing obsession for these games, as they will be the person/people who have created them. The benefit that this has for our documentary is that it helps us gain a view that is not just our own and biased, and we can use the view of the developers whatever it may be. Finally, and most importantly, we will be interviewing 'hardcore gamers' who play games constantly for several hours, to find out their own personal opinions on the topic and how parents perceive their gaming habits as being totally bad for their mental health and education.
Documentary Outline
The documentary will begin with a disc tray of a PlayStation 2/PlayStation 3 console being opened and a disc being inserted into the disc tray. A medium close up will be shown of a disc being put into the disc tray of the console and the disc tray being closed again, which is done to give the audience the sense that they are starting a game (relating to our whole documentary on video games). The audience of our documentary will have a retro gaming feel as they see the disc tray being closed with a game disc inside it, as we are drawing their attention instantly to the disc being put in - making them feel like they are about to begin a gaming adventure of some sort. The song that will be used for this intro will be "Has It Come To This" by The Streets, as it relates to the laid-back, lazy lifestyle that young men have at home, where they simply play console games all day and have no fear of the consequences of their actions in their lives. The artist Mike Skinner from The Streets says "This is the life, playstations, 64's", which of course links to our documentary as we are focusing on the effects of video games on yougnsters.
The voiceover of the documentary will be of the "Voice of God" style, where facts and statistics on gaming are going to be explained over cuts of news articles relating to the issue. After the facts of serious gaming from youngsters have been explained, there will then be a series of video clips showing the most hardcore of gamers playing games, focusing on the intensity of their faces and seriousness. The clips will show games on shelves in shops, the game discs and covers, stacks of games, as well as gamers playing them. After this, a reconstruction of an interview with a 'hardcore gamer' will be shown, where the person's face and uppper body is not shown and there is no light on their face - this is done to keep their identity secret. We will be showing the view of the actual gamer, who represents the passionate gaming community, and they will say whether or not they agree with the idea that teenagers are playing video games at home for too many hours.
Then, the voiceover will question whether excessive hours of video gaming is taking over the young generation, and an interview with an expert on gadgets/gaming or a pshychologist of some sort will be shown, showing his views on the matter. There will then be clips of violent video games shown, such as Manhunt and GTA: San Andreas, and the voiceover will say how these games have taken over the innocent minds of teenagers nationwide. The views on these violent video games from the expert/professional will be shown.
After this, we will show clips of retailers who sell games, such as GAME or GameStation, and find out the views of the manager of the stores. The reason for this is to find out whether or not they have policies where they cannot sell 18+ games to people under 18, as nowadays many retailers are known to allow youngsters play games of a violent or explicit nature that they should'nt be. We will be questioning the manager of the store on how these youngsters gain access to these games over their age even if their strict in-store policies are set.
We will conclude the documentary by saying through the voiceover that parents should monitor the serious gamging habits of their teenage children, as it is having an effect on their minds and their education. We will inform parents that the teenagers are underperforming in education and feeling a great amount of stress as a result of many hours of gaming, especially violent/gruesome games which damages their young conscience.
The documentary "It's Just A Game" is an in-depth exploration of the video gaming phenomenon that is entering the bedrooms of millions of teenagers nationwide. The purpose of this documentary is to investigate the serious gaming habits of youngsters in the UK, and attempt to discover what the effects of obsessive gaming has had on their young lives, as their parents will undoubtedly see. "It's Just A Game" is a shocking and mind-blowing insight into the way in which Internet gaming and console video games have taken over the once-so free and innocent minds of youngsters, and deeply affected their young lives until the point of absolute disbelief for their parents. This extraordinary documentary explores the unimaginable, explains the unbelievable, and enters the crazy world of online gaming and video games.
"It's Just A Game" has a serious message for the parents of the teenagers, a message that needs to be delivered to them instantly to avoid this growing culture in the UK: "Please do all that you possibly can to swerve these youngsters away from this potentially youth-ruining addiction". The hobby of gaming for these youngsters has become an obsessive and addictive culture, where their mental health, daily lifestyle, and educational achievement has been seriously affected. "It's Just A Game" will deliver an insight into the violence of some of these games, and the explicit nature of these video games that have amazingly been called "a method of social interaction" by many well-known game developers in recent times. The game content for the online and console video games of the modern-day is simply inappropriate for the teenagers of our country, and we will be investigating this in the informative documentary that we hope will make an impact on teenagers and their parents.
