For my first bit of research i went through three different games to go through their intro cutscene and analize them.
Destiny 2 Opening Cutscene (PEGI 16)
The opening cut-scene to Destiny 2 begins with a wide shot of a city with a large orb looming above as the camera zooms in on a tower. The sun seen setting in the background. Introducing the player into the world they will be playing in and get them immersed.
The next scene begins with facing a character walking down a corridor with the angle of the camera starting at his feet before rising steadily to his face. in the background there are other people walking around and carrying things to add more to the scene. near the end of this scene his ‘ghost’ is seen floating up to his height as they near a door. The concentration of the camera on this character shows that he will be relevant to the players experience to the game.
visuals include low lighting with a flashing orange light signifying an emergency. The sound includes foreground music with the characters footsteps being the only other thing heard in the scene.
The camera then cuts to the back of the characters head as a door opens and he walks through revealing a room with a number of people inside and a large table at its centre with a storm seen through the window at the back. Showing this room as some importance, mostly for players returning from the first game.
In this scene thunder and lightning can be heard over the low sound of talking in the background. Once again the lighting is low except for the flashes of lightning in the background.
The next few scenes are dialogue between the character we had been following and two other characters with all of them being addressed by name so that the player knows who they are and understand that they are of importance, though because this is a sequel to a previous game with the story picking up not long after the first game, most of the player base were returning players so they already knew these characters well.
the dialogue also includes them discussing concerns of defences that were going down for an unknown reason, giving the player the thought that this will be relevant to the main story. the lighting in these scenes were relatively the same with similar background and the occasional flashing of lightning.
In the next scene one of the characters addressed before as ‘Zavala’ turned to face the window at the back of the room looking out towards the storm as a flash of lightning reveals an army of ships heading for the city. Giving the player the idea of the type of game this is with it being heavily action based.
The lighting includes a darker edge of the inside of the tower as the lighting outside is brighter, setting a contrast. The lightning revealing the shadow of ships through the clouds.
The camera cuts to the ships flying through the clouds as they make their advancement to the city. The camera pans across the screen revealing the size of the army as they begin firing missiles off screen.
The lighting is dim with an orange/brown glow signifying a sunset. The ships are shown releasing a black smoke as they exit the clouds. The ships appearing through the clouds give an ominous feel to the player and tells them this is the enemy you’ll be fighting.
The camera changes again to show the missiles heading for the tower showing the player that the army is definitely a threat.
The lighting is the same as the previous scene but is a bit brighter as it is now facing a similar direction as the sun.
In the next scene the Character ‘Zavala’ creates a bubble to protect people which gives the player an idea for what the games action and combat going to be like.
The lighting in this scene has dark edges with a contrast to a violet purple glow from the bubble in the centre.
Journey (PEGI 7)
The intro cinematic begins with a white screen with the faint sound of music in the background. The white then begins to fade and show a close up of sand as the music begins to slowly increase in volume.
The scene then cuts to a view of a small sand hill with the sun visible half way over the hill in the background as the scene cuts to a closer shot showing two objects directly between the sun and the player with a third just off to the side. The two in the suns light have some sort of fabric or flag just visible blowing in the breeze. The music begins to slowly increase in volume. The lighting is consistent throughout the intro with a warm yellow/orange glow.
The next scene pans slowly across the desert showing what appear to possibly be gravestones of some sort. The music continues intensifying with what sounds like wind in the background.
In the next scene, a white object that appears to be a shooting star is shown flying through the sky with the next scene showing it flying over the gravestones shown in a previous scene. The music intensifies more with the star making a whooshing sound effect as it flies.
The next scene gives the player the view almost like a bird flying over the desert between sand dunes, seemingly showing the player the supposed ‘Journey’ they will be making. The music continues to intensify at a continued volume.
The scene then cuts to a figure in what seems to be some kind of red robe, with a close up of their face slowly zooming out, showing the player the character they will be playing as. The music calms and background noise subsides. The camera then pans out and fades into the game giving the player control.
The game then forces the camera to face the direction the character is facing to show the player a hill with three more gravestones two of which having some fabric attached and blowing in the wind giving the player a sense of direction and encouraging them to go up to the top of the hill.
When the player approaches the top of the hill the camera zooms out to show a large mountain off in the distance with two peaks at the top with a white glow in between as the title of the game fades into view showing the player that that is where they need to go. The game then smoothly fades back into the gameplay as you move your character onward and the camera focuses back in.
Death stranding (PEGI 18)
The cinematic intro begins with a slideshow of images showing the player the world the game is set in along with credits similar to an intro for a movie or TV show, the last image showing an upside down rainbow with faint black lines running down it as the title of the game appears above. The lighting shifts which each image but most have a gloominess similar to that of cloudy weather when it’s about to rain.
After a few images, the game then cuts to a scene that seems to show a swampy wasteland. In the distance, you can see dust being picked up into the air by a fast-moving vehicle as the camera begins to focus and follow the vehicle as it moves across the screen. the music continues at a consistent pace and volume with the sound of a vehicle’s engine getting louder as the camera gets close in each new scene.
After a few similar scenes, the camera then cuts to an ahead view of the vehicle which seems to be a sci-fi adaptation of a motorcycle. The motorcycle passes the camera as the background shows a large crowd of birds flying in the same direction seemingly afraid of something.
The motorcycle then stops as the camera turns to focus in on the main character showing what many people will recognise as a familiar face of a famous actor named Norman Reedus which may encourage many people to play the game as he is a beloved actor. The lighting begins to grow darker as denser clouds fill the sky.
The next scene shows the player character (PC) turning behind them to reveal the large flock of birds that are seemingly fleeing as an upside-down rainbow can be seen in the sky in the background. The next shot shows a close up of PC’s hair as a drop of rain hits him and seems to turn his hair grey, giving the player the thought that the rain might be bad.
The PC them puts his hood up and begins to drive away from the oncoming rain. As the PC drives of the screen, the camera pans down slightly to show a patch of mud as a humanoid hand print appears as a screech is heard. This gives the player a dreaded feeling that they may have to deal with invisible humanoid monsters throughout the game.
The camera then turns back to the PC as they abruptly stop at the edge of a cliff with no visible way forward. The camera then turns to show rain rapidly approaching as birds begin to fall from the sky with one falling right beside the PC as the camera focuses on it, showing that the rain seems to rapidly increase the ageing speed on anything biological it touches showing the player that this may become a primary obstacle during gameplay.
The camera then turns to show dear making a jump across the gap which the PC then promptly attempting to do the same. with success before a figure appears abruptly in front of him and causes him to crash as he attempts to swerve out of the way.
The camera then changes to a side view of the motorcycle as it scrapes across the dirt before stopping, seemingly hanging of an edge.
The camera then refocuses of the PC as he gets himself up just in time to see the motorcycle fall of the edge of a cliff leaving the player stranded as the cinematic cuts and the player gains control of the game. Minimal dialogue of mostly the PC saying no consistently as the motorcycle falls off the edge and a few curses after. The lighting was fairly consistent throughout the cinematic intro with it only being darker at the beginning of the cinematic with the PC driving through the muddy wasteland.
Camera angles and shots.
Close ups (extreme to medium)
Close ups are meant to show the character close to the audience. Close up shots help in dramatic scenes and shows the characters emotions well.
This is an extreme close up, showing the audience for the first time the effects of rain in the game with it having an ageing effect.
This is a medium close up showing the characters face and emotions.
Mid shot
A mid shot shows the character from the torso upwards and helps show the audience information if there isn’t much emotion and is often used in scenes with dialogue where only one character is seen and makes it seem like the audience is a part of the dialogue.
Long shot (extra to wide)
Characters can usually be seen in full in this shot to help the audience see them and the environment around them.
Two Shot
Two shot angles have two people as the main focus of the screen and not too far that would make them long shots.
Over The Sholder Shot
These shots are often and most effectively used in coversations and focus on the person currently talking and is often reffered to as a third person perspective.
High and Low perspective Shots.
In a low angle shot it is meant to make the character in focus seem more powerful than the viewers.
A high angle shot is meant to make the character in focus look smaller and weaker than the viewer.
Eye Level Shots
Eye level shots focus on the characters eye level as they observe their surroundings.
POV Angle Shots
POV shots use a characters point of view from how they see things.
Establishing Shot
Establishing shots are used to show a location or scenery that only last a few seconds at a time.
Master Shots
Master shots are used to show a big group of people that star as main characters like in the MARVEL movies who have a few.
Aerial Shots
These can be shot in a pov of a plane or drone that works as a long shot and establishing shot that covers a large area.
Game Outcome
Pegi ratings
https://pegi.info/what-do-the-labels-mean
This website links to the official PEGI website which explains the meaning for each of the age ratings applied to a video game.
In the brief it states a game should have a PEGI 18 rating which means i have free range in what i can include in the game, for example heavy violence and gory graphics. This will also influence my target audience as it will have to be people over 18.
Another requirement was to have the game based in the north of England.
Short and quickly drawn draft for the storyboard
Evaluation idea. Original idea was to have the camera following the bird in the cutscene but after looking at my research and videos of aerial views i decided to have different angles to make it more interesting.
Research
I have chosen these select photos because they show different angles and different terrain and views i can use for the cut scenes aerial views. They Are from a drones pov flying over the lake district which is in the north of England so it keeps up with the requirements in the brief.
I was originally going to use the video and draw over each panel to make my storyboard but after some time i realised it was going to take to long so i then changed it so that i would use the original video and just add in my characters but due to the large number of panels in the video i once again realised that i would fall too short of time and not have much to show so i am now using pencil 2D to make my storyboard as it is quick and effective though i believe i may still run out of time before i make more progress.
Due to the fact that i did not time myself properly for this final outcome i do not have a proper storyboard to show. I have however realised that i need to plan out my time much better and will do so in my FMP by writing a scheduel to make sure i have certain parts of it done at a specific time.
Digital art 