The Art House

That's a long-standing debate that I've dipped in and out of. Consumers have an issue with CG trailers I think, being honest about it. Some people do - but when there's an awesome piece of CG that cuts through and really excites people, they have less of an issue with it. Game-players often want to see gameplay - that's what they'll part with their money for.

I think there is, but it's only misrepresentation if you actually misrepresent it. The reason they have to put a legal disclaimer on there is so that they don't misrepresent the game. Does that undermine it? Not as a marketing tool - the question is, will it excite someone enough to go and find out more about that game... enough to part with their money.

You probably wouldn't make a trailer from RTS footage. And there's no in-game footage in the World of Warcraft trailer, and that looks incredible.

It's dependent on what the content is, how you present it and what you're trying to say. For me it's about cut-through - you run the risk, if you only show in-game footage, of not being able to cut-through.

It depends on the type of game - but ultimately it depends on the quality of the story you're trying to tell. I don't want my team to be making cutscenes thinking people will just be skipping them, but we're not idiots - we're gamers ourselves, and we know that people will do that sometimes, especially if you're playing through a section again.

I think it's an overall challenge for the games industry, isn't it? To create compelling narratives - is that really what gamers want? Some people do, while others will only play for a bit and then put it down again.

The challenge for us is getting involved at the right time, and the development team bringing us in as a partner who can make that narrative stronger. Not all development teams have got the right people to create great narratives.

Some stuff gets criticised because it lasts too long and goes on for a very long time - that's where the balance is wrong. Something we try to get clients to think about is not making the cutscenes too expositional, so they're explaining the story - because that's not what feature films do. Good feature films aren't expositional, and that's where people's disconnects start happening I think; when it's just telling you to go here, get map X, then back to another place - that's not interesting to watch.

A lot of it is to do with sophistication of understanding what makes film watchable - not just the narrative, but camera work and editing and all those things, and applying it. That's where we come to the table - we have that understanding and expertise that might not exist within a development team.

If we can get involved early... we've done projects where we weren't brought it to comment on scripts, or comment on storyboarding - but we feel the need to do it, because we think it's going to make it better. We'd rather ruffle a few feathers by doing that, than not do it at all and the end product then isn't as strong as we think it should be.