FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
15 September 2008
Can games have real story and rival the emotional pull of the
cinema? Australia's leading screen arts school thinks so as is
introducing courses that prepare students for a future of filmic
games and virtual story worlds.
The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) has
created two ground breaking Graduate Diploma courses specialising
in Game Design and Virtual Worlds. These are two of the only
courses in the world to explore the link between games or virtual
worlds and cinematic story.
"There are already major Australasian filmmakers like George
Miller and Peter Jackson working at the frontier between film and
games and we know it is timely for AFTRS to integrate games into
our screen directing program." said Sandra Levy, CEO of AFTRS
James Cameron is currently creating games and social virtual
worlds around his latest film Avatar and one of his most famous
films, Titanic. He said at a virtual worlds conference last week
"I've always wanted to let people see what it was like to sail
aboard the Titanic, to really know the ship, the passengers and
their place in history."
The games industry is growing rapidly and now supports a vast
diversity of content ranging from pure entertainment, online social
gameplay through to educational simulations of real life and
situations. Some of the leading practitioners in the world have
helped to develop the AFTRS program including CTO of Relic
Entertainment John Buchanan and Matt Costello who wrote the popular
Pirates of the Caribbean games.
"Games are a key element of the global revolution in digital
content" said Peter Giles Director of Digital Media at AFTRS. "We
have built strong foundations for our games and virtual world
courses at AFTRS over the past four years. Our expertise in
computer animation and interactive writing has been coupled with
our experience of rapidly prototyping digital content through our
Laboratory of Advanced Media Production (LAMP).
Habbo Hotel, Second Life, there.com and HiPiHi are among 50
social virtual worlds which now command more than 320 million users
worldwide. Film and television producers have begun to extend their
engagement with audiences by moving them into social virtual worlds
and role playing games such as CSI creator Anthony Zuiker who said
recently:
"In the gaming area, you want to give people tasks, to shoot
things and upload pictures... You're doing this because you want
these people to be creating their own story and it will be part of
the crime on the broadcast... Even if it's not the actual thing I
shot, I was part of that experience, that community, that
narrative."
Gary Hayes who has created the AFTRS Virtual Worlds course and
led the LAMP initiative said, "It is important when designing any
form of digital content that it facilitates active engagement by
the audience so that, for example, they may become the protagonist
in film-like games or the ability to create their own stories. Our
courses will give students the tools to create this new type of
experience".
The courses will look at the cross-over areas such as
previsualisation for films, virtual scenes that aid the filmmaking
process, real life motion capture, cinematic writing, sound and
music for game worlds and the role of artificial intelligence in
creating rich game experiences.
AFTRS welcomes applications from all areas of the industry for
these exciting cross-disciplinary courses. The courses are suitable
for applicants from creative or technical backgrounds. So if you
have highly tuned writing or directing skills we can help you to
up-skill in games and virtual worlds. Conversely, if you have a
games or virtual worlds background we can teach you the skills in
leading and developing story-rich projects.
Visit www.aftrs.edu.au/games for more info on how to
apply.
For further information:
The Lantern Group
Ph: (02) 9383 4029
