By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Both Videogames the Movie and the upcoming eight-part documentary, Unlocked, the World of Games Revealed are a passion project from filmmaker Jeremy Snead. With the former, he focussed on certain aspects of an industry that he knew he could comfortably cover — history, culture and business — but as for what’s next, the seeds were already planted and to see the idea grow was required.
“I met a couple of producers that asked me what to make next if I could take my pick, and that’s where Unlocked started,” said Snead.
This new series will become available online Dec 15, through iTunes, Google Play, Steam and Amazon and a physical release with bonus material is being planned. The topics explored present more than a look at videogames impact upon society. It has celebrity correspondents who are genuinely interested in the subject they are presenting. To decide on what topics to explore was not easy for this producer. The list was huge. To match the right person to look into that particular aspect of an industry or part of the culture was not always easy. To decide on having eight topics explored throughout the eight episodes felt right, according to this director, and he joked, “How long do we need [to tell the story] without lingering too much without making it a Ken Burns 15 hour style docu-series?”
“It was difficult to boil down the huge list down to eight,” admitted Snead. “I’m a big game history nut, so for me, we could spend two full episodes just on that, but I knew there’s only a certain group of folks who like that and others who won’t.”
This director did not want to make another “talking head” documentary. He believes there’s a better dynamic feel and realism to a product when there are two or more people having a conversation, and thoroughly enjoying themselves. The bloopers at the end of each episode during credits attest to what this producer wants, and part of the joy comes from a personal connection Snead has with one of the segments as its explored in the series.
When he was young, his appendix ruptured and he was rushed to the hospital. He was required to stay there for three weeks to recover and for a child, that’s a long time. “My parents asked, ‘What do you want to help pass the time?’ I said I want my NES, and I was able to play Mario and Zelda — all my games. It really helped. Knowing that it’s happening now [through organizations like Child’s Play], I knew this application of using games to help long-term patients had to be covered,” said Snead.
“When exploring who would be good for this documentary’s look at rehabilitation and therapy with videogames in hospitals (through a lot of research), we landed on Zelda Williams. We know she’s passionate about that and she’s a gamer. It was a natural fit.
“We never knew when we were approaching these celebrities if they would be interested. We wanted to connect the dots with the topic with the best host and we really lucked out. Michael Rooker did a lot of motion capture for Call of Duty Black Ops, and I wondered if we could connect him with our shoot about performance capture. It went on and on that way until we got our whole lineup,” concluded Snead.
During Videogames, the Movie, this producer did reach out to a few Hollywood people, publicists included, whom he knew were fellow gamers or geeks. Sean Astin appeared in the original work, and during the process, the two became good friends and when pre-production began for Unlocked, this grown-up Goonie was quick to say, “Count me in. I’d love to help you produce.”
Sean helped with the talent brought in to make this documentary happen and offer advice. According to Jeremy, he knows the business really well this director can not thank him enough.
The segments are thoughtful, educational and insightful. After previewing the product, Astin believes the show needs to be screened at universities and schools. Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) offers up a lot of thoughtful discussion in his segment which looks at the future of gaming and virtual reality (VR).
Snead recalls the pitch when meeting up with Randy Pitchford, co-founder of Gearbox Software, to discuss filming at the office for Unlocked. At the time, not every segment was locked down, and when those two talked, Randy (also an amateur magician) mentioned he’s friends with Jilette. One conference call later, the thoughts expressed by this performer about how magic tricks and video games are close cousins — both are engineered to deliver an entertaining experience to folks with a willingness to suspend disbelief — convinced this filmmaker to bring him on board.
“All of his conversations with Randy and with Palmer Luckey (The founder of Oculus VR) are really interesting because he’s such a philosophical guy. He really goes deep and does not ask the generic questions,” said Snead.
This segment in what the future of gaming holds includes Jillette asking what does the story mean and if there’s a physiological impact on the player? The answers provided may seem brief, but to touch upon the future will require further study, and if this documentary does get presented in academic circles, perhaps new reports can emerge to explain the changes this industry needs to make to keep up. Very little has been said about the side-affects of experiencing VR through headsets. Some folks experience headaches or dizziness because the receptors in the brain have to re-calibrate after experiencing the illusion of motion.
Storytelling is very important in today’s videogames because if an intellectual property is popular enough, it will be adapted into other mediums, like comic books and movies. Tomb Raider is an example of a past success, and Assassin’s Creed is coming up at the end of this year, along with the conclusion to the Resident Evil series in January 2017.
The future is with augmented reality and virtual reality. The sixth and eighth episode explore this topic so some degree, but with technology advancing by leaps and bounds in a short amount of time, to keep up is tough. Snead recalls the attempt with Google Glass to improve the world around us and it came and went. Gabe Zichermann and Matt Walsh talks about the gamification of life, and Snead believes it’s already happened and is progressing at such a rapid rate all around us. He said, “We’re the frog in the boiling pot. We don’t even realize how fast its happening, when we look [pop our head out] in 10 years, everything will be completely different again.”
For Unlocked to remain current, sometimes even exploring the explosion of interest in ‘augmented reality’ games getting people outside, namely with Pokémon GO, will require backtracking. “When this game came out, that was probably 4 months after we have wrapped shooting. We’ve interviewed Nintendo, but it’s one of those things where anytime you cover anything in the videogame industry, especially in a documentary, it’s kind of like melting ice cream a little bit,” laughed Snead.
“You have to shoot the footage, edit it, and release it as quickly as possible telling the story you want. It’s an interesting conundrum to hurry up … We treat this product with a paint brush of entertainment with our celeb hosts, our animated videos, the music and the montages created. We respect the audience that Unlocked is being made for.
“If we end up making a season two, we’ll back track to everything we missed and pick up from there.”