How Far Would You Go?
How far would you go?.....is the title of a powerful short documentary inspired by the launch of the genre breaking PlayStation 3 title Heavy Rain.
Directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Neil LaBute, the seven minute short was filmed in London, LA & Paris and asks leading luminaries, ‘How far would you go to save someone you love?’
Respondents to the question include: Nic Roeg, Hanif Kureishi, Nicholas Hoult, Samuel L Jackson, Stephen Frears, Peter Bogdanovich, Jean Marc Barr, Chris Weitz & Ben Chaplin.
Heavy Rain,out on February 26th, is a dark, immersive and emotionally-engaging experience created by Quantic Dream's David Cage, who also posed the central question.
The game takes many of its cues from film-noir thrillers and decisions taken within the title are emotionally charged with added importance, the smallest of actions can have drastic and unforeseen consequences.
Breaking with traditional game conventions, the game play is based around story, emotional involvement and the player’s decisions and interactions, rather than high-scores, combat and competition.
The short documentary is co-written by author Dan Crowe and produced by Tim Harms and Katrina Pavlos. The documentary examines the role of emotional decision-making in storytelling and explores the central theme of Heavy Rain, which gives the documentary its title.
The documentary has been commissioned to explore the ever-converging worlds of film and gaming and to highlight the processes that storytellers go through to imbue emotions through their respective mediums.
Example questions that have been posed include:
How does emotion inform your work?
Are you braver in your work than in your life?
Would you inflict pain on another to achieve true love?
Can anger be used creatively?
Looking back over your life thus far would you say you fall in love easily, or not so easily?
Heavy Rain's Writer & Director David Cage states 'In Heavy Rain you don't watch the story, you play it with unprecedented responsibility over the fate of the game's characters the whole DNA of the game has been created to provide an emotional experience unlike any other. It dares you to tackle subject matter and themes rarely touched upon in video games'
Neil LaBute commented on the experience of creating the documentary, "It was fascinating to sit and listen to the intimate thoughts of so many people that I’ve admired-both professionally and personally-for years.
Constantly surprising, each of 'the witnesses' were refreshingly candid as they discussed creative elements from their work and how deep the emotion of love runs through their own lives.
I thought a simple approach shot in a stark 'interrogation' style--would mimic both the style of the game Heavy Rain and would also be a very successful way of capturing a series of snapshots from the lives of these fascinating working artists from around the world."
The documentary is available to download free from 19th February at www.heavyrain.com.