Can Video Game Trailers Ever Be Art?

          The camera pans out to reveal the lifeless face of a little girl staring back at us.  In the background, slightly out of focus, we see a man on fire, flailing his limbs in what is likely a combination of the human body’s natural response to being set ablaze and his fruitless attempts to extinguish the flames.  Behind him, we see a man swinging a baseball bat at unidentified assailants.  Thus begins the official trailer for Deep Silver’s upcoming zombie survival game Dead Island.  As Giles Lamb’s haunting score progresses, we realize that the action is occurring along two timelines: the reverse-chronological action of the little girl’s final moments and the linear progression of events leading to the pivotal moment where the two intersect.  When juxtaposed alongside the strictly chronological version of the trailer we see the importance of both editing and music in creating atmosphere and emotional resonance.  The exact same footage of events is cut together in different ways to produce two different sets of emotional responses from viewers.  In the reverse trailer, the mournful violin sets the stage for unavoidable tragedy in the face of insurmountable odds, and it ends with the father and daughter pulling away from one another.  In the linear trailer, the music suggests something altogether different.  When we reach the crucial moment where the father reaches for his daughter in slow motion and lifts her in his arms the music seems, if not hopeful, at least comforting.  When the father grabs hold of his daughter at 0:59 the music accentuates the emotion across his face, which seems to be saying: It’s going to be all right. Daddy’s here now.  I’ve got you.” 

Freeze Frames and Frozen Minds

          Hariman and Lucaites (2007) define journalistic icons as those “photographic images appearing in print, electronic, or digital media that are widely recognized and remembered, are understood to be representations of historically significant events, activate strong emotional identification or response, and are reproduced across a range of media, genres, or topics” (p. 27).  World War II, Vietnam, the Gulf War and America’s (ongoing) conflict with Iraq each produced a multitude of iconic images that continue to resonate within the country’s collective consciousness.  There’s “The Kiss” by Alfred Eisenstaedt; Joe Rosenthal’s February 23, 1945 photo of the American flag being raised at Iwo Jima; Eddie Adams’ image of South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Laon executing Viet Cong Ngyen Van Lem during the Tet Offensive in 1968; Nick Ut’s 1972 photo of nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim running naked after her village was struck by napalm; David C. Turnley’s 1991 photo of Sergeant Ken Kozakiewicz crying over a body bag containing his friend Andy Alaniz – killed by friendly fire; Koji Harada’s carefully framed photo of the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein; the premature revelry behind the “Mission Accomplished” photo-op; the searing images from Abu Ghraib – “the hooded-man” Satar Jabar, Lynndie England dragging a naked prisoner by a leash, and Charles Graner giving a thumbs-up over the corpse of a previously tortured man packed in ice. Missing from this list, however, are any iconic pictures of our ongoing war with Afghanistan. 
          What does that mean? Any war is, of course, too complex to be reduced to one photo, but it certainly seems significant that photo journalists have been unable to capture an image that catches the attention of American audiences.  Could this mean that audiences are so apathetic that their response to the steady stream of war news coverage and commentary has been numbed?  Is it, as Dahlia Lithwick suggests, “that if you see enough ‘iconic’ photos of a man in a hood with electrodes, they lose their ability to turn your stomach?”

Work Cited:

Hariman, Robert and John Lucaites (2007). No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. University of Chicago Press.

Designed to disturb: Prevention through agitation

          The use of shocking imagery in advertising is tricky business; though both demand attention, they can threaten to overshadow or obscure the intended message. There is a fine line between disturbing and visceral imagery designed to translate an immediate emotional response into a behavioral change or call to action and grotesque imagery that oversteps its boundaries and leaves the viewer paralyzed with disgust. This type of imagery — often used in public interest campaigns focusing on the dangers of cigarette smoking, alcohol and substance abuse, human rights, and the ethical treatment of animals — is certainly provocative. But what does the use of such imagery do to the credibility of the advertiser? And when all is said and done, is the use of such imagery even effective? Take a look at the advertisements pictured below. Does the imagery compel you to reflect on the issues at hand or recoil in horror?  

Do you see what I see?

A picture is worth a thousand words, which means a picture divorced from text that places it in its proper context can be exaggerated in the collective consciousness or understanding of an online community.  Said another way, if one simply has a picture and does not have text in the form of words to explain the picture, then the events depicted in that picture could either exaggerate what happened or undermine what occurred to those who view it.  In addition, because it is understood that individuals bring their own emotional baggage and cultural background to viewing an image, there is always the possibility that what is being presented will be misinterpreted with or without its proper context.  This gets complicated even further when one considers how the arrangement of images can alter their meaning.  For example, the Kuleshov effect is an editing technique pioneered by Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov that demonstrates how an “expressionless” face, when cut together with alternating shots of random objects, can be said to signify different emotions.  Look at the photo below.  Without text situating it within a proper context, how will you know what to make of it?