(belated) May WIP: when does Gordon Freeman speak?
6 minutes from Protagony: Gordon, a script that has been done for some time and that I actually started editing a while ago, but something - burnout, maybe, or some spark lacking from the script - made me lose enthusiasm for it. I think the script is good, and maybe it was just the pressure to release that sapped my enthusiasm, but I shelved it over a year ago and still haven't returned. waste not want not, though, so here's the first half-ish!
recorded on my phone and lightly edited. anything may change before publication.
Comments (7)
Very interested to see what The Fifth Season snippets you end up using, it's a beautiful book
Can I just say, that I LOVE hearing you talk about video games, Ian. Like, I would gladly listen to you just ramble about games you think are cool, just going "Hey this boss kicks ass", "This line of dialogue is fire", "This piece of music is peak". I know you prefer your content to have a point to it, but I wouldn't mind something indulgent.
I think of videogames as closer to theater than film. Both mediums (videogames and theater) are built on non-realistic elements that leave the audience primed to accept more extreme departures from reality. You've already accepted painted backdrops and stage lights; you might as well accept a dramatic soliloquy. You've already accepted regenerating health and inventory screens; you might as well accept a silent protagonist. I'm reminded of Howard Ashman's lecture at Disney, during production of The Little Mermaid, where he explained how animation could get away with Broadway-style musical numbers in a way that live-action could not: "Music may have more license in the animated film in the same way it does in the theater, simply because the level of reality is different. [...] We know what's happening right in front of us and it's painted scenery and it's not real." So yeah, Gordon Freeman speaks off-camera even though the camera never turns off. The inherent unreality the medium allows for such contradictions. 😄 (Sorry for rambling, I just love thinking about this stuff! Your essay on Abed is one of my favorites.)
Tbh, the actual gameplay time of these games takes a miniscule amount of time, the first game is basically an all nighter from freemans perspective. I'd be willing to bet then that during suspended animation gman probably removed Gordon's physical needs.
Gordon kind of resembles the sort of protagonist you see in video games that are doing that meta thing where the player is actually controlling some entity that's possessing or puppeteering the guy we thought was the main character. He used to talk, he used to be a person, and then the player took over.
This is what I suspect as well. The way I see it, games give you a character to control but you're really just telling that character what to do rather than inhabiting them, and that forms a kind of barrier between you and the character. The first person perspective of the Half Life games means that you and Gordon are one and the same - you can't view him from afar like in other games, so more than him merely doing what you're doing, he's also thinking what you're thinking. Telltale does this by putting people's lives in your hands, Valve did it with the perspective they chose and letting you wander about during cutscenes (which used to jerk you out of the game so exposition could happen).
This is why I'm on this patreon. Love the execution here.