Impact+on+the+Film+Industry

From movie games to movies based on poplar video game franchises, the movie and game industries have a history of interacting with one another. However, these interactions are not limited to the use of licenses in different contexts. When one watches many popular films more closely, it is possible to see that games have changed the way that some movies are being made.
 * Impact on the Film Industry**

As most gamers can tell you, almost every Hollywood action film has some sort of game tie in. And this is by no means a new phenomenon. Early examples of movie games include ET, a game (loosely) based upon the Steven Spielberg movie by the same name. The game is very well known for another reason as well: being one of the worst games of all time. As a matter of fact movie games tend to have a reputation of poor quality in the game industry. Some people wondered why this is. An article posted by [|Escapist] suggests an answer. The article reports on an interview with a game developer who feels that movie games tend to be of poor quality because they are simply pigeon-holed by time constraints to get the game released to coincide with the movies. Movie based games also have a tendency to range in their portrayal of the movie. Some games such as the aforementioned ET have very little to do with the movies upon which they are based, simply putting known characters in generic game designs. Others still, take the plot of the film and either expand upon or extrapolate from it. Such games include the Godfather video game, in which players control a character that is not in the film, but his storyline weaves in and out of that of the films. While some attempt to recreate the films as accurately as possible. All things considered, movie games are a large part of both the film and game industry and is just one example of how these two industries interact.
 * Movie Games**

However, the situation illustrated above is also reciprocated as the film industry also makes films based on video games. There are two types of video games based upon movies. The first are games that deal with gamer culture without being directly based upon a specific game franchise. Examples of this include movies like [|The Wizard], which followed the journey of a young man as he enters a game tournament. It was also the first time Super Mario Bros. 3 was seen by American audiences. Another such movie is [|The Last Starfighter] which is a Star Wars-like story of a kid who is recruited by aliens to fight a war based on his video game skill. The other type of game films are those that are directly based upon video game franchises. Examples of such movies are a Super Mario Bros. movie and the Prince of Persia. Like the movie games mentioned above these films vary in quality and adherence to the original plot. For example, according to video game website [|Kotaku], the upcoming movie based upon the popular game franchise Uncharted may have little to nothing to do with the original game. All in all, the advent of video games gave rise to a completely new genre of film: the video game movie.
 * Movies Based on Video Games**

All this interaction between these two industries have left many to wonder whether this relationship has intrinsically impacted the industries themselves. The answer of course is yes. As seen in many modern films, game production techniques have been used to change the way the film makers conceptualize their films. One excellent example of this is the film Kick-Ass (sorry for the language, I'm just repeating the name). In this film there is a scene that is very heavily influenced by modern games, specifically first person shooters. (Warning: The clip below contains some violent imagery).
 * Games' Impact on the Film Process**

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As is obvious by this scene, the film makers used the first person perspective that is widely used in many of today's modern shooters. This decision was probably made for a number of reasons. For one, they must have felt that this was a unique and exciting way to convey the action scene. This perspective allows for the action to be more visually interesting and exciting. Another reason will be to cater to the demographic they were hoping to reach. Since the film is based on the comic book by the same name, the film makers knew that much of the audience would be gamers as well. This scene allowed them to make the film more appealing to the people they were trying to attract. In the end, game development techniques have definitely impacted the way modern films are made and are a logical example of diffusion between the two overlapping industries.