In this age of digital video and computer-genereated sets and actors, we are all accustomed to seeing movies that never passed through the lens of a camera. What’s more, we are starting to get used to the idea (albeit slowly) that these virtual environments can (and should!) be as realistic as possible, so much so that, on occasion, the viewer is fooled into believing they are seeing “real” images and characters. Meanwhile, demand for “story” development is continuing to grow in the gaming industry. Gamers are often no longer content to simply be deposited in a 3D environment and start killing everything that moves. Game developers are now expected to “engage” the user through scripted intros and cut-scenes. Not surprisingly, the writing and voice acting in these movies and games ranges from decent to laughable. Something I find really intriguing though, is what’s happening in the margins of both these scenes. There’s a weird bleed-through effect happening in several places, where games are being used as a source of cheap 3D animation, and dialog and sound effects are being dubbed in, to build a storyline. For instance, a serialized animation called Red Vs. Blue uses characters and settings from the game Halo are being used to tell an entirely different (and more absurd) story then the one within the game. A friend of mine works at G4 TV, an all-gaming cable network, and helps to produce a show called Portal, that explores a very similar theme, using characters from Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) to build a new and different storyline. Finally, there’s these guys, a group of UCLA film students producing short films for their website. Not all the films are about games, but the one called “Nintendo” makes great use of some really old-school videogame characters to tell a really, really odd story. Of course, all of this is reminding me of an old Woody Allen movie and perhaps some future Mike Meyers projects. But whatever, it might not be the most original idea ever, but if it leads to better writing in movies and/or games, then I’m all for it!