For Lakeshore Entertainment/Lionsgate's new sci-fi thriller, "Gamer," yU+co. accomplished the task of visualizing a futuristic world using motion graphics applied as visual effects. Designing and executing over 568 shots and elements, this ambitious undertaking became one of the most elaborate motion graphics projects committed to film.
Set in a dystopian future where the worlds of entertainment and gaming have merged, humans play other humans to inflict pain or to experience pleasure. In the mutli-player online game "Slayers," players control death-row inmates, manipulating them as living avatars in deadly combat. There's also the game "Society," the non-lethal but no less de-humanizing game world where real people are controlled in gameplay filled with hedonistic scenarios limited only by the gamers' imagination.
For a futuristic film that revolved around videogames, motion graphics became an extremely important narrative device. "'Gamer' provided a perfect opportunity for us to incorporate our skills using motion graphics to help the filmmaker tell the story," says Creative Director Garson Yu.
To enhance the storytelling, yU+co. created a visual look where none existed before, designing environments, billboards, commercials, logos, and graphic user interfaces that characters use to play games and interact with each other.
Both the film's directors, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, have a spontaneous and impulsive shooting style, so only minimal green screen and live special effects shots were created during the filming. After shooting was completed, James McQuaide, Lakeshore Entertainment's Sr. VP of Production and Executive Producer/VFX Supervisor of "Gamer," brought the project to Garson Yu who he had worked with in the past on several other films.
"With "Gamer," it became apparent from page one of the script that motion graphics were going to be an enormously important component for both telling the story and explaining the world," says McQuaide. "They certainly needed to look great, but they had to be absolutely believable. Having worked with Garson many times over the years, there is a brilliant simplicity and, most importantly, an absolute authenticity to everything he does."
Continues McQuaide, "Even though yU+co had never done anything quite like this before, we were confident that they could provide the same for the mountain of motion graphics "Gamer" would require. Needless to say, Garson and his team hit it out of the park."
yU+co. pre-visualized ideas using the existing footage that the filmmakers had just shot and created original motion graphics to fully realize the directors' vision of the future. Within the film, computer graphics and interfaces are integral to the story and carry important story information. Additional graphics serve as set-design, painting a more complete futuristic picture than what the raw footage portrays.
"Although 'Gamer' takes place in the future, we didn't want to make the film too dramatically removed from the context of contemporary life," said Yu. "We began with current popular culture and through our graphics, envisioned the future by building on existing technology."