vendredi 29 février 2008

Beowulf - Jeu vidéo







La légende de Beowulf™ : Le Jeu




Synopsis :



Incarnez Beowulf, un héros épique et torturé par la soif de puissance et de gloire. Un tueur et un roi, déchiré par la noblesse et la brutalité qui sommeillent en lui.Vous êtes Beowulf, légendaire guerrier nordique possédant la force de 30 hommes.Arrogant, égoïste, avare d'or et de gloire, vous vous rendez sur les terres désolées du Danemark afin d'y pourfendre une bête assoiffée de sang qui fait des ravages à travers ce pays de glace.Mais le mal persiste… et vous succombez peu à peu à l'attrait d'une renommée grandissante, tout en manœuvrant discrètement pour conquérir le trône danois.


En tant que Roi, Beowulf devra assumer la conséquence de ses actes et de ses ambitions alors que la guerre menace le royaume. Menez vos chevaliers au combat, tuez les derniers Titans d'une époque révolue et exterminez les ennemis qui menacent d'anéantir votre royaume et votre peuple. Quand le moment sera venu et que vous regarderez votre destin en face, vous verrez alors quel genre de héros vous êtes réellement...


NB : Le terme « Carnal » désigne un état second dans lequel se plonge Beowulf afin de terrasser les ennemis les plus résistants. Ce pouvoir sanguinaire est maléfique et il ne lui permet pas de différencier ses alliés de ses ennemis. On peut assimiler le mode « Carnal » à une « Furie »



Caractéristiques


• Une aventure épique, narrant 30 ans de la vie de Beowulf non présents dans le film, permettra aux joueurs de vivre leur propre destinée. .


• Débloquez une armée allant jusqu’à 12 guerriers grâce aux progrès héroïques (en sauvant vos coéquipiers, en tuant des monstres géants …)


• Votre pouvoir "Carnal" vous permet d'effectuer des attaques encore plus redoutables et d'utiliser des armes telles que des piliers.


• Donnez des ordres à vos hommes, changez la position de votre armée et utilisez certaines armes en fonction de la situation et ou des ennemis.


• Utilisez votre armée pour déclencher des mécanismes (comme des portes) et pour faire avancer votre drakkar.


• Les différentes progressions apportées à votre mode «Carnal» vous permettront de les utiliser plus longuement et surtout de ressentir moins d’effets secondaires.


• Vous améliorez vos combos, vos parades et vos aptitudes tout au long de votre progression.


• Les capacités de saisie permettent à Beowulf de s’agripper aux murs, de se battre en corps à corps, ou encore à mains nues contre des ennemis géants et monstrueux.


• Utilisez vos points d'expérience pour recruter des chevaliers, remplacer vos armes et améliorer vos compétences "Carnal".


• Explorez des environnements magnifiques ! Beowulf™ prend vie sous vos yeux grâce à la technologie dernier cri YETI, récompensée pour les titres Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter® et Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter® 2.





UBISOFT PRESENTE LE JEU BEOWULF, UN CONTE EPIQUE MELANT VENGEANCE, POUVOIR ET GLOIRE

Le film de Paramount Pictures et Shangri-La devient une expérience vidéo ludique intense


Paris, France – le 26 juillet 2007 – Ubisoft annonce « La légende de Beowulf™ : Le Jeu » est un jeu d’action/combat tiré du film de “Paramount Pictures” et de “Shangri-La Entertainment”, réalisé par Robert Zemeckis (récompensé par plusieurs Oscars tout au long de sa carrière). Ce jeu est en cours de développement sur Xbox360™, PLAYSTATION®3, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) et sur PC. Le jeu vidéo « La légende de Beowulf™ : Le Jeu » est développé par l’équipe récompensée pour la création de «Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter® » dans les studios de TIWAK d’Ubisoft. « La légende de Beowulf™ : Le Jeu » sortira mondialement conjointement avec le film en Novembre 2007.

Le jeu vidéo « La légende de Beowulf™ : Le Jeu », plonge les joueurs dans la vision renversante de cette saga réalisée par Robert Zemeckis. Les joueurs incarnent Beowulf, un guerrier légendaire ayant la force de plus de trente hommes et qui est constamment tiraillé entre la noblesse et la brutalité qui sont en lui. Arrogant, opportuniste, avare d’or et de gloire, Beowulf séjournera au Danemark afin de tuer un monstre sanguinaire terrifiant ces contrées glaciales. Mais le mal persiste… Beowulf succombe à sa soif de reconnaissance, en faisant preuve d’un esprit manipulateur, et parvient à conquérir le trône Danois. En tant que Roi, Beowulf devra assumer la conséquence de ses actes et de ses ambitions et ce plus particulièrement en temps de guerre. En tant que Beowulf, les joueurs devront mener leurs hommes, faire appel à des coéquipiers pendant les combats, tuer des titans d’un autre temps et annihiler leurs ennemis qui menacent à la fois le royaume mais également leur peuple. C’est à ce moment là que Beowulf fera face à sa destinée et saura quel genre de héros il est réellement devenu.

« Ubisoft, Paramount Pictures et Shangri-La Entertainment ont travaillé main dans la main afin de développer Beowulf » déclare Gilles Matouba directeur créatif de chez Ubisoft. « Depuis le début de ce projet, nous avons eu accès aux éléments et aux informations relatives au film comme jamais auparavant. Cet accès combiné avec les qualités créatrices et techniques de nos équipes nous ont permis de restituer beaucoup d’éléments du film et de les adapter parfaitement au gameplay, comme le combat viscéral à mains nues, le maniement de l’épée, ainsi que des visuels magnifiques… tout en nous donnant la liberté créative nécessaire à la conception de nouveaux contenus exclusifs au jeu qui ne sont abordés ni dans le film ni dans le conte originel. »

“Le talent des équipes créatrices d’Ubisoft transforme notre vision du film, et en fait une expérience interactive qui permet d’aller au delà de l’histoire classique» ajoute Robert Zemeckis réalisateur de Beowulf. «Nous avons été impressionnés par ce que nous avons vu de la part des créateurs du jeu et nous sommes confiants et persuadés que les joueurs vivront une expérience immersive et divertissante qui ira bien au-delà du simple jeu tiré d’une licence de film »

Le célèbre réalisateur Robert Zemeckis offre une vision de la saga « Beowulf » jamais vue auparavant. Aux temps des héros mythiques, le féroce guerrier Beowulf a vaincu le démon Grendel, provoquant la colère de la monstrueuse et pourtant si séductrice mère de ce dernier, et l’entraînant ainsi dans un conflit qui le fera passer du statut de roi à celui de légende. Le casting de « Beowulf » comprend Ray Winstone dans le rôle titre, Anthony Hopkins dans celui du roi corrompu Hrothgar, mais aussi John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman et Angelina Jolie dans le rôle de la mère de Grendel. « Beowulf » est un film de Paramount Pictures, en association avec Shangri-La Entertainment et une production de ImageMovers.

De plus amples informations sont disponibles sur http://www.playbeowulf.com




Beowulf TM & © 2007 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Shangri-La Entertainment, LLC and Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Game software: © 2007 UBISOFT Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the United States and other countries.



jeudi 28 février 2008

THE GOLDEN COMPASS - Jamie CHRISTOPHERSON

Composer 80mn de musique pour un jeu vidéo adapté d'une super production cinématographique, en moins d'un mois, est un véritable challenge pour un compositeur. C'est un défi qui a été relevé avec brio par Jamie Christopherson. Ce jeune compositeur né en 1975 a déjà à son actif la composition d'une dizaine de musiques de jeux (Les Rois de la Glisse, Pirates des Caraïbes On Line, Le Seigneur des Anneaux: La Bataille pour la Terre du Milieu II...). Mais il ne faut pas se leurrer, c'est un travail titanesque, de 16 heures par jour qui lui a permis de composer un score très thématique et orchestral qui n'a rien à envier aux compositions de musiques de films.



Please Mister Christopherson, can you tell me about you, your training and your background?
I grew up in Los Angeles to a musical family. My dad was a bass player for a bunch of rock bands in the 60s and 70s, and I was pretty much conceived on the tour bus. My mother is an excellent musician as well, playing saxophone, piano and the accordion. She is still a much better sight-reader than I am. In my teenage years I found jazz music and became obsessed with piano players like Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Chick Corea and Thelonious Monk. It was about this time that I discovered film music as well. I would set up a dinky Casio keyboard in front of my television and just improvise music over the visuals I saw. Jazz improvisation and film music really fit well together for me. I also studied classical music theory at Vassar College and then got a masters degree in film music from the University of Miami, Florida, before moving back to Los Angeles.

How and why did you come to music/ VG music?
When I moved back to Los Angeles I was working at a company that produced sound effect and music production music called the Hollywood Edge. One day I met two composers (Bill Brown and Mikael Sandgren) who worked in the same building that were writing music for videogames. I was shocked when I heard how far along game music had come since the days of blips and beeps. That’s when I realized that videogames might be something to look into.

What kind of music do you enjoy listening the most?
I listen to all kinds of music, depending on my mood of course. In the car I usually have the radio tuned to the local jazz station, as it helps me relax and take my mind off of other things. I buy a lot of soundtracks and listen to present and past masterpieces, trying to absorb more techniques and styles of film music. My wife listens to a lot of mainstream pop and rock music, so when I hang out with her I get to hear what is “new and cool” (I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing really).

Do you consider yourself as being part of a “school” of composition? How would you describe or characterize your own musical style?
I am a bit of a chameleon when it comes to film music. While I do like to maintain my own style for all of my compositions, I like to always try new things. At times my music can be very minimal, at times it can be very romantic, and at times it can be very modern and dark. I like to think my music is a direct reflection of the project I’m working on (film or game). That being said, I gravitate towards melodic and thematic writing using live instruments and organic textures. When I do use synths and plug-ins, I try to use them in organic ways.

How do you choose a project to work on?
Sometimes the projects I work on are the direct result of a previous relationship I have with someone else, who calls me for the next project. Sometimes I hear of a cool project in advance and track it down and try to get my music into the hands of the right people. I’ve got some people acting as agents for me a well to help with finding the next project. I’m fortunate that I am able to pick and choose projects a bit more now in my career.



How do you compose? Do you have a method of working? How do you proceed? What technology and what software do you use?
My method of composing varies slightly depending on the demands of each project. I use all of the familiar tools available to most other composers, including computers and samplers, pencil and paper, and often composing themes in the shower. Usually I start a project by developing all of the major themes and melodic fragments, which usually come to me at the oddest times and places. Sometimes these thematic ideas are easy to come by and sometimes I have to sit at my computer for hours and hours until something comes. Then the next step is to program my musical template with the computers in order to achieve a particular “sound” that I have in my head for the project. This takes quite a bit of time at the beginning, but speeds up the process greatly later on. I think of this as similar to a painter choosing a color palette before beginning to paint on the blank canvass. Having a limited set of tools can be very liberating, so I try to limit the sounds I want to use.

How and why did you accept to work for THE GOLDEN COMPASS’ Video Game?
I got involved in the project at a very late stage in the game. I accepted the project because the material really intrigued me, and the production team gave me a lot of freedom with the music. Another determining factor was that there was a budget for a live orchestra recording, and I will usually jump at any opportunity to use a live orchestra! Despite having only about 4 weeks to write over 80 minutes of music and my wife having a baby due around the same time as I was to deliver the finished score, I took on this project with a real passion to write some grand orchestral music.

Was there a selection? Some demo competition? What was the process of being hired on that?
I pitched a bunch of my music to the sound director and he though right away that my music would be a great fit for the game. The selection process was pretty smooth for me this time.


You have neither seen the film, nor listened to the Alexander DESPLAT score, before you compose it. How did you work, and with what request from the crew? Did you been in touch with Alexander DESPLAT?
I never talked with Alexander Desplat or any of the music team from the movie before writing my score. My score for the game is completely original from the film music.

Did you read the book before to inspire you? Why?
I did buy the books but the project happened so quickly that I never got a chance to read them before writing the music! The visuals and storyline were enough for my imagination to take over though.

You have created an 80 minute piece of music in less than a month. How did you deal with the stress? How did you organize your work on a daily basis?
When you are faced with such a fast deadline, you have to just put your personal life on hold and devote all of your energy to a project. I worked 16-hour days on the project, and had a wonderful group of people helping me out. Part of the process was coming up with all of the themes for the game first. I had two friends who would take some of that thematic material and write some additional music as well, so that certainly helped. My orchestrator and conductor, James Sale, helped out immensely at the final stage as well. You just have to assemble a team of people that you trust and then put in the hours.

How do you collaborate with scriptwriters and game designers when you’re conceiving your music? You used video capture, video footage and screenshots to compose your score. How did this help you? What kind of other material did you have at the beginning of the project?
I was given a lot of videos and images for this game, as well as the basic plot description and character descriptions. The sound director for the game would also give me some vague descriptions of what the music should sound like for certain characters and levels. He liked to talk in non-musical terms to get his point across, which is certainly the best way to talk to a composer I think!

What did you want to express or to convey through your music for this game?
I wanted to express a sense of mystery and depth to the characters in this game. While this is a children’s game, I approached the music from a lot more sophisticated angle. None of the characters are painted with a one-sided brush, as each character has a lot of depth, and I tried to reflect that in my score. Lyra is a prime example of that.




What orchestra and what size did you choose for the recording session? Did you use some electronic sounds in your score with live music? If yes how? If no, why?
Did you choose special instruments for the scores? (ethnic, folk, army,…)

We were fortunate enough to have a 65-piece orchestra performed in Los Angeles through the local 47 musician’s union. These are the best musicians in the world, and play on all of the major motion pictures. On top of that, we did have a lot of percussion programming and additional instruments recorded. One instrument we used for a character was the cello for Iorek’s theme.

You choose to compose thematically. Why? Can you tell me about the themes you created for the video game? May you describe us all your themes? May you explain us why you chose to deal with them in such a way? Your score uses themes according to the role played by each character (Iorek, Lyra). Please may you explain us how and how you did that?
For this game, the sound director requested that I come up with themes for each of the main characters, specifically Lyra and Iorek. Sometimes the player can be Lyra or Iorek, and sometimes the player can be Lyra riding Iorek. Because of these options, the Lyra and Iorek themes needed to be written in such a way that they could be played at the same time (to switch). This worked out perfectly, as Lyra usually has the higher flute instruments and high strings, while Iorek is represented by the percussion and low cello. When the two themes are played back together the result really sounds great. Another major theme worth mentioning is the “compass” theme, which come in and out of various cues in the score. This is the fantasy element of the score, with a hint of dark mystery, and there is even a little “clock ticking” element that I had designed for me.

You seem to pay a particular attention to Lyra. Why? How is this translated in your score?
As my wife was about to give birth to our first daughter, I felt a special connection to the Lyra character. She also has a lot of depth to her character. She has a bit of innocence, mystery, sadness and adventure all rolled together. Characters that are multi-dimensional like that are really fun to write music for, as the music can be multi-dimensional too!

Can you tell me about the writing process for a VG (relation to pictures, loops, etc)
Everything I wrote was for in-game music, which meant to loop things. We did multiple stem variations of intensity levels to get more flexibility out of the music implementation as well.

Will there be a soundtrack release of the Golden Compass Video Game music? We are still working with a few companies to get a soundtrack released. No news yet.

Do you play VG yourself? What games, what platform, and since when?
I have an XBOX360 now and play when I can (which right now is not very often). I’ve played videogames ever since the days of Atari 2600 and Intellivision!

Do you have any anecdotes about the process to tell us, funny or interesting things?
Another funny story happened during the orchestra recording session in LA. As I mentioned, we had an intense time schedule where we had to record a lot of music in a short amount of time. As it approached the last hour of our session, we were running slightly behind so I had to put the pressure on my conductor and players. We started running through takes very quickly and often taking first takes (which only LA players can pull off). For the last 20 minutes we had to record a piece of music that constantly changed time signatures (3/4, 7/4, 5/4, etc.). We had a rough time getting through that piece, but I planned to save the toughest piece for last so they could see the light at the end of the tunnel. We slowly made our way through the music, section by section until we had about one minute of material to record in the last five minutes. As seconds ticked away, the orchestra contractor came into the control booth and said, “I think we need to push into overtime”, in which my sly response was, “We have 1:20 left Leslie, we will do it. Watch the clock”! So, as the seconds ticked towards the hour, the musicians played the last section with amazing precision. The last note was struck with 5 seconds to spare, and with the reverb tail at the Eastwood Stage, the music ended exactly when time ran out. We were all in the room cheering on the orchestra like a horse race or something. It was insane!!! I’ve been referred to as “Mr. 1:20” a few times since that session.


Some people say that some video games music are more successful than their adaptation on cinema. What do you think about it? What’s your opinion on Alexander DESPLAT score for GOLDEN COMPASS?
I got to go to an advanced screen of the Golden Compass with a Q&A afterwards with Alexander Desplat. I think that his score fit the movie very well and gave a very nice European flare often not found in big blockbuster films of this type. I met him afterwards and chatted with him briefly about the different approaches that we took to each of our scores. I do think that if you swapped his score for the game and mine for the movie neither one would have fit appropriately. They are just completely different projects, with different demands.

Are you working on another project? If yes, may you tell me about it?
I’m working on a trilogy of films at the moment, which has been pretty intense. They are an action/adventure series of films called “Jack Hunter” that will probably air on cable television later in the year. Luckily the films all use the same sounds and thematic material, which has helped in the writing process.

For a new project, if you could choose you a genre, a kind of story and a filmmaker, gamemaker, what would they be?
I love working on projects that have a real passion behind them (i.e. not just money makers). Whether the film or game is a comedy, action, sci-fi or horror project doesn’t matter so much to me. What matters is that the project is done well. Art is art when done well, and I just want to be a part of projects that are artful in whatever form that is.


Do you have specific message to add for our readers?
Please visit www.jamiechristopherson.com for some musical examples of past projects I’ve worked on if you want to hear more!