Issues in Empathy - Alignment

In an effort to find more examples for a website I'm working on I'll be writing about movies for a few weeks. Everything I'm writing will be about Murray Smith's Structure of Sympathy. My next few entries might become repetitive. I've only three elements to work with after all. Once I have that site up and running I'll post a link.

What's interesting about the movie "Conversations With Other Women" this week is how it plays with the element of Alignment. The screen is split in two for most of the film. Either half is focused on of the protagonists at all times.

The story of the movie is that two former lovers meet at a wedding by chance and slowly recognize one another. There's a great deal more in the film so I encourage my readers to give it a look. I'm keeping the synopsis brief so we can move on.

Recall the definition of the Structure's Alignment: How often a character is seen on camera. A film is a journey. The more time we spend with a character the more likely it is we, the audience, will come to like that character.

This film uses strong Alignment to keep the audience in tune with both of its protagonists. We're given glimpses into memories of one character on their screen while watching the reaction of another on the opposing screen. We really get the whole story because of the split screen. Sometimes this makes following the action difficult but this experience has yet to be matched for me.

The picture above is a great example of what I just explained. The picture is of the two characters in the present (left half) and the past (right). On the left we see Aaron Eckhart's expression and how this re-union is making affecting him. The right screen shows how the two of them were as young lovers. This shot is both interesting and confusing. The audience isn't told whether it's Eckhart or Elena Bonham Carter who's looking back on this. Is it Eckhart recalling fond feelings as he debates whether to surrender to them? Or is it Carter enjoying the memory as we see the conflict on Eckhart's expression? We're left to decipher it on our own.

This film gives an interesting take on how to present characters and story. Smith's Alignment is here proven as the definitive method through which we follow characters in film. Having the screen split in two was interesting but overwhelming or confusing at points. I'd like to see what other filmmakers do with this concept down the road.

I'm Mad and this is what I've gotten into today.

Character Arc - inFamous

Cole McGrath is the protagonist of inFamous, pictured left. I've only just played through the game; courtesy of my roommate lending me his PS3 and game. During my play through I found that Cole goes through one of the most interesting character arcs I've seen in a video game.

Cole's character is pretty straightforward. The everyman with a great event thrown in his lap that pushes him into the extraordinary. Basic comic book structure, which isn't to say it's bad but standard for this kind of thing. What was interesting to me was that in the early game Cole is very vulnerable. For a guy who can shoot lightning he can't take much punishment.

After a few hours though I started acquiring new powers and increased my health. This led to Cole being somewhat more versatile but I still relied heavily on the cover based shooting system. It isn't until much later in the game that Cole gets his defensive powers. What struck me as interesting is that the more creative powers appearing later in the game characterized Cole.

This isn't unusual in video games. The more fun and effective powers being held off till later makes for a better difficulty curve. There's just something about the way the upgrades were implemented in conjunction with Cole's low starting health.

Low health at the beginning meant that enemy attacks were always something to be feared. The player has to be careful with their fledgling hero. This seemed to reinforce the fact that Cole was inexperienced and that his powers were maturing. As the game progresses Cole gains more power and learns new abilities. Eventually I ended up playing how I originally envisioned: running around heedless of bullets and attacking at will.

The progression was more engaging than my usual game experience because of this. The gameplay corresponded with what was happening in the game world. With this addition to inFamous' already immersive game I could really lose myself to the game for hours at a time. If any of my readers are on the fence about giving one of last year's top games a shot; do it.

I'm Mad, and this is what I've gotten into today.