Qu'est-ce que le cinéma a appris au jeu vidéo ?

Cinema is defined by its ability to communicate visually rather than verbally. A film must be able to lose its dialogue without becoming catastrophic to remain truly a film.

• Directors use visual atmosphere to convey emotions • Image composition shows rather than tells in words • Example of a character ravaged by the horror of war: no need for verbal exposition

Showing has more impact than telling—that's cinema's incredible rule that should apply to all visual arts.

If a film can be watched without images without absolute catastrophe, then it's not really a film by cinematic standards.

At mission 19, the director of Ace Combat 7 felt the campaign was missing something despite the incredible concept of a battle against a giant unmanned aircraft carrier.

Composer Kenji Ichikawa created the Daredevil track so exceptional that the game was delayed waiting for its composition—an extremely rare case where music justified a production delay.

• The camera surrounds the Arsenal Bird with clouds to create visual surprise • The player emerges from the clouds and comes face-to-face with the boss • A moment of doubt is created before the shield falls and the musical drop reinforces the scene

In 80% of playthroughs, the player exits the prepared camera and gets a completely different experience, illustrating how difficult it is to direct a scene when the viewer controls the camera.

• In cinema, the camera is totally free and can make jokes just by moving • In video games, the camera is confined to four fixed angles: first-person, third-person, isometric, and top-down • Every video game ever created uses only one of these four angles

The video game camera is so static and immobile that making a cinematic wink amounts to fixing the camera on a character without changing the angle—a demonstration of this limitation.

The day gameplay was invented, the camera lost all artistic freedom. Actions must lead to victory or defeat, and no artistic attempt can interfere with that.

To integrate cinematic magic into video games, you must be clever as never before since the camera can no longer be a free artistic tool.

Spec Ops: The Line uses the game's color progression to communicate the emotional and moral state of the story independent of camera positioning.

• Game start: very warm orange representing euphoria and mission optimism • Progression: replaced by green of disgust and horror • End: dark blue representing depression and hopelessness

• Complementary colors to make a character pleasant to watch • Clashing colors to signify that a character is evil • Light used to show whether a film or scene is joyful or depressing

Final Fantasy 15 uses in-game day length: early summer with long sunny days contrasts with winter with short dark days at the end, reinforcing narrative darkness despite negative gameplay effects.

During horseback rides, the camera pulls away from the player, tilts slightly upward, and places the character in the bottom right of the frame rather than center.

This composition makes the landscape the main subject of the image rather than the character, creating one of the most beautiful horseback rides ever seen in a video game.

• The game is 95% composed of galloping on a mapless of enemies • Only 5% is dedicated to battles against colossi • The absence of threat allows this compositional freedom

This approach works in Shadow of the Colossus but would fail in Assassin's Creed, Red Dead, or Zelda because these games require a defensive camera for constant combat.

• Journey allows crazy shots because nothing can jump at the player • Shadow of the Colossus takes advantage of calm from start to finish • These games have such low gameplay demands that players will tolerate anything with the camera

In 99% of games, it's about finding the 2 to 3 seconds where the camera won't bother the player and taking advantage of it to do something interesting.

• Calm dungeon without enemies: ideal moment for camera movement • Arena transition in a fighting game: opportunity to explore the camera • Player death: perfect moment for creative movements like in Skate Story

Studios have become so expert that you don't even notice these small moments, even though they're present everywhere in modern games if you pay enough attention.

When the player steps onto a narrow 30cm ledge, they have only one possible path, guaranteeing they'll see the incredible view prepared by the developer.

• First view of the city with clouds in the background impresses immediately • Jump specially designed to reveal the magnificent landscape • Slow motion signaling the player should watch rather than play

In 30 seconds of introduction, the player receives the path, the impression of freedom, and the spectacular backdrop without being able to miss the scene.

• Giraffe in The Last of Us placed in the middle of the corridor, impossible to miss • Woman leaning over her crib in BioShock Infinite—unforgettable exposition scene • Code uses this technique at the scale of an entire level

Every light in the initial bunker corridor is placed to tell the story of massacre: the first illuminates corpses, the following ones illuminate wounded soldiers.

• Room lit on the right to reveal a wounded soldier on a bed • Room lit at the back left with three boxes to create curiosity • Green light at the bottom right unconsciously guiding the player toward the exit

When the player exits the bunker, they see the Commerce Department, then turning left the Washington Monument, instantly confirming they're in Washington DC without needing a message.

• The Capitol in flames at sunset—archetypal image of American fears • Levels dug as trenches to elevate the building • Searchlight beams pointing at the building to direct the gaze

Code contains rare camera transitions from top-down to first-person in the middle of a level without gameplay interruption, which is remarkably executed.

• Gameplay visual aids (red objects to pick up, white walls to climb) are not the subject • Light indicating you should search a room for a golden weapon • Searchlight passing over the door the player should enter

Green light marking the bunker path—the player unconsciously follows without realizing they're following consistent green light from start to finish.

The work on this scene is absolutely phenomenal—these developers understood they were working in a medium where they couldn't hold the camera and became masters of directing the gaze.

Some developers accept taking back the camera, claiming they can do it well enough that it won't bother the player despite video games' four fixed camera angles.

This method works only in third-person because it's the smoothest angle—as long as the character is visible and approximately centered, it works.

• Opening with wide angle to see 30 enemies simultaneously • Camera tightens when you need to see the path to take • Ground placement when enemies arrive to show scale

God of War 3 thought about every square meter of the level to find the best angle allowing the player to see where they are and play perfectly—colossal work and completely unnecessary.

• Camera transitions from wide to tight based on narrative needs • Changing angles to show Kratos lifting a tree with his own hands • Camera hugging the ground to create a tunnel effect in corridors

• Artificial platform created solely to show two visible archers • Decision to keep the camera on the side to signal a platforming zone • Progressive zoom back on the cliff to indicate the boss arrival

The experience gives the impression there's a little cameraman flying perfectly to always have the ideal angle, but everything was premeditated.

All of this could have been done with a simple classic third-person camera without anyone complaining, but the studio chose to do this work because they were one of the greatest studios with one of the greatest games.

In an open world, the player wanders wherever they want, making it impossible to apply the methods of corridor games like Code Black Ops.

Is it time to accept that it's a video game and the camera isn't there to be aesthetic since it's an open world?

• The Witcher 3 builds its entire map like a bowl with relief on the edges • Magnificent castle placed in the middle visible from everywhere, inspired by Walt Disney • Mountains placed at the map's border to never block the view of the central castle

Walt Disney designed Disneyland so the castle would be visible from everywhere because when you can see a fairytale castle at all times, your brain tells you that you're in a fairytale.

The cinematic camera in GTA cutscenes works like real cinema because it changes angle every 3 seconds and takes angles where you see nothing.

• It's accepted because you're never forced to use it during gameplay • Rockstar does generally whatever they want with an aura of creative authority

The exceptional intro with changing camera angles is stylized but frustrating in hard mode where angle changes cause player damage and make the experience unbearable.

For aggressive staging to work, the game must be tolerant and easy enough. Hard modes make cinematic cameras painful rather than magical.

Technically, sound isn't visual, but cinematic staging has evolved to include sound tracks as a fundamental narrative element.

• To show the character's war trauma, a fictional train made of unusual noises rather than a psychiatric monologue • It's simple, short, elegant and works perfectly without verbal exposition

• Cacophony representing a camp (Somalians) • Silence representing the other camp (Americans) • The sound difference immediately indicates the transition from one camp to the other

Video games have almost as much freedom with music as cinema, unlike most games that are 99% ambient music and 1% real song because ambiance works better with gameplay.

The game imposes a 3-day time loop after which a terrifying moon crashes down and kills everyone if the player doesn't stop the catastrophe.

• Day 1 Clock Town: theme without tension, everything is fine • Day 2: faster tempo, missing instruments, dissonant sounds in the background worry but inhabitants try not to think about it

Music balancing the improbable between light and ultra-threatening—both 'run for your life' and 'lie in the sun'—a never-heard-before music that makes you sweat.

Even after 15 hours on the game having done the time loop dozens of times, arriving at the village square and being greeted by this music remains terrifying and doesn't really wear off.

Players communicate only through small sounds (blip, blam, blop) rather than speech, creating a purely musical experience.

• Player sounds always stay in the level's music key • Two players create a unique composition by adding their notes to the base theme • No one else will ever hear this music created spontaneously by two

It's a purely game-specific use of sound that would be impossible in a film because it depends entirely on player interaction.

This method of non-verbal communication through music creates a unique bond between players without words or dialogue.

Dark Souls 1 bosses generally have epic, glorious music resembling hymns of victory.

The final boss's music is entirely different—not glorious but gloomy, indicating that no matter what you believe, it won't end well.

• At this point, it's the first game, the player thinks they're a hero capable of saving the world • The first indication that it can't end well is the boss's music • It's a revelation that precedes narrative discovery

Without dialogue or verbal revelations, the music alone communicates the inevitable fate of emotional defeat rather than mere in-game death.

The clicker sound is so terrifying and unique that it's the only element remembered after 12 years—sound design that's never forgotten.

• Terrifying but memorable sound beyond measure • Sound design contributing largely to post-apocalyptic atmosphere • Creating instinctive fear in the player

• Extraordinary sound design for space • Spaceship passing through hyperspace: protests of the pierced universe • Hull creaks revealing ship immensity through spatial resonance

Good sound design creates an immersive experience independent of the camera, transforming a purely gameplay mechanic into emotional art.

Initially thought that cinematics didn't deserve analysis because they lack gameplay constraints and are technically just film overlays.

• Major conference trailers have nothing to learn from cinema • Specialized studios creating exceptional works with dialogue, colors, and music • Rarely made by the main studio or in the game's engine

When gameplay is so understated that the camera becomes free—like in games where the player mostly chooses dialogue—ambitious studios make real cinema.

Dialogue-focused cinematics like Detroit: Become Human deserve complete cinematic analysis because they apply all cinema's staging tools.

• First shot: character's jacket revealing it's a machine • Second shot: manipulating a coin showing non-programmed curiosity • Conclusion: if it's a curious machine, it might have consciousness

The game's entire plot is revealed visually in 3 seconds of introduction without dialogue: the question of whether machines have consciousness.

• Elevator: character's impatience watching floors pass • Coin: freedom and oppression theme • Glowing circle in head: machine; raised eyes: impatience/humanity

Incredible exposition in a single image: glowing circle confirming machine nature but raised eyes showing impatience—contradiction revealing possible humanity.

YouTube channel 'Now You See It' analyzes how rectangles in cinema signify character confinement or captivity.

• 5 seconds after the elevator, the player is called for a hostage situation • Building neons reinforce the impression that the character is trapped • Rectangular composition visually imprisoning the character

Every scene of Detroit can be analyzed as a film scene—the game puts more staging effort than most released films and lasts 12 hours.

Despite respect owed to Quantic Dream, it was their job—write an interesting story AND stage it, unlike most games with 100 other responsibilities.

• 95% of dialogue uses the over-the-shoulder angle—cinema's default angle • Cinematics aren't made by hand but generated by a program • The system automatically places the camera over the speaking character's shoulder

• Cinematic team can't do better without major map changes • Map team too busy to accommodate better cinematics • Ubisoft's ridiculous release schedules don't allow perfection

No one blames Ubisoft for this approximation—everyone recognizes that a game with 200 km², 150 quests, 20,000 lines of dialogue, and 200 hours of content has other priorities.

It's all the more impressive when a game like The Witcher 3 with the same scope CHOOSES to make extraordinary staging efforts anyway.

• Map of 150 km² • Constant combat • Horse as transportation • 300 very interesting quests

• Character presented as a thick brute terrorizing the region • First encounter: drinks from a bottle with the previous kingdom's coat of arms • Office filled with clues: armillary sphere, Novigrad paintings, bottles, empty flower pots

• Armillary sphere: not a brute's tool • Novigrad paintings: attachment to the North • Bottles everywhere: alcohol problem • Empty pots: someone cared here but left

The first time the Baron is framed, all important elements are in the same shot: his intelligence, his betrayal, his alcoholism, his lost loved ones—nothing is said in words.

One of The Witcher 3's best cinematics—dinner at Oriana's with a wealthy resident hosting luxurious parties.

• Wide shot shows two groups: humans on one side, vampires on the other • Oriana not on the right side—suspicions reinforced • Oriana's innocent comment adds doubt to her intentions

• When Oriana defends her hospitality, she positions herself in the middle of the image • Placement shows she's not in either camp • When she makes her remark about opposites, she's framed by the rule of thirds

This scene can be fully understood without sound—just by watching the visual spectrum and character placement. It's a perfect example of cinematic staging.

When The Witcher 3 was released in 2015, only one of the four major gaming sites found staging important enough to discuss in their review.

• Consumers don't prioritize staging • They expect quests, playtime, gameplay, and story • Staging efforts interest only 1% of players

The kind of devotion where you truly pour your blood into a project knowing that blood will only interest very few people is rare and remarkable.

It's all the more impressive because this work isn't necessary to make a good game, yet it's still done with passion and excellence.

At Red Dead 1's end, the main character is caught by thirty opponents with no escape and simply decides to face death by opening the barn doors.

• Cinematic launches—the player puts down the controller • Game activates Dead Eye mode allowing precise and fast shots • Player thinks: oh god, I can save him!

• Player lines up shots from every angle • Realizes they only have 8 bullets against 25 opponents • Understands in a second that it won't end well—the cinematic tricked them

Film directors dream of making scenes involving audiences this much, developers dream of making cinematic scenes—this scene is the perfect example of film and video game fusion.

A friendly race of blue aliens just discovered rockets and started exploring space with a chaotic space program.

• Each explorer is the only living creature on their assigned planet • Each with an unfun job (catastrophes, ruins, deaths) • All motivated by a thirst to understand and responsibility to the program

• Each explorer plays the same song from their planet • Each represented by a different instrument • The player can locate them by listening to their signals

They don't just play the same song on different planets—they play together despite space's immensity. It's a beautiful scene only video games can create, rewarding player curiosity with magic.

Question of whether there's enough time to discuss Pacific Rim the game—suggestion to save this topic for another time.

• Video games learned from cinema how to show rather than tell • Developed unique techniques overcoming limitations • Created a new visual and sonic language

• Collaborative musical freedom impossible in cinema • Player agency combined with cinematography • Dynamic immersion based on exploration and discovery

Video games transformed cinema's lessons into something new—an art where camera, music, and player create together an experience no film can match.