Naughty Dog Talks Acting

Among my favorite parts of the Uncharted series are the banter and interaction among the characters. Instead of being stiff, wooden stereotypes who seem always pulled by data-strings to advance the plot, Drake, Elena, Chloe, and crew often come across as believable humans.

Michael Abbott, aka The Brainy Gamer, recently wrote up the Naughty Dog panel he attended at GDC titled "Behind the Scenes: Uncharted 2's Unique Cinematic Production Process." As a theater professor, his interest was piqued with certain of Amy Hennig and Josh Scherr's points:

"Acting is reacting," observed Hennig, so isolating actors from each other is a bad idea. Naughty Dog employs an experienced stage director to work creatively with the actors. Rehearsals always happen the day before recording. Table readings result in rewrites, blocking and rehearsal provoke more rewrites, and on-camera improv can produce unscripted moments like the "I'm last year's model" scene between Chloe, Elena, and Nate, which Hennig describes as "largely created by the actors."

A portion of my degree is in theater (caveat and full disclaimer, Abbott was a professor of mine), so when I read basics such as this, it brings into perspective how the scene must look to people who do not have much experience either behind the stage or camera. One can easily read horror stories of showing up to the studio, being given a script, and being told go.

What is of particular note is how the Naughty Dog duo further explained their motion capturing techniques, and how they incorporated such with the voice acting in the sequel, something missing from the first game. An avenue still not ventured into by either game is motion captures of facial expressions, however. They were not pleased with the results and opted instead for keyframing.

Video games are a collaborative project among designers, directors, programmers, et cetera. We may want to see what actors can bring to the table as well, instead of just what we can get out of them. At least, if the dedication to utilize them as well as Naughty Dog has is present.

The Naughty Dog panel made sure to emphasize that this was not an approach everyone could take, however. This worked for their particular games because of how they were structured, and how the story played out to the audience. Different factors such as having a less linear game, character customization, et cetera could quickly change many of these formulae.

With more and more benchmarks being set by people who seem to understand and respect the acting process (not only Naughty Dog, but I've been impressed in the past by Ken Levine's--of Bioshock and Irrational Games fame--attention to such details), one can only hope that this is something that is set to eventually change in the industry.