Workshop: Filming the Game/Playing the Film

VII MAGIS, International Film Studies Spring School Cinema and Contemporary Visual Arts/4, Gorizia, 27.03-02.04.09 Workshop: "Filming the Game/Playing the Film"1 AprilCoordinated by Patrick Coppock (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)--Stefano Baschiera (University College Cork)Videoplayers and Tv Series: a Case of Hyperidentities In the past decade, the process of digitalisation of images, brought different media closer to each other as never before, both in terms of production and consumption; films, Tv products, music and videogames, in their distribution share the same digital support (dvd, cd) and often are played through the same devices (computers, game consoles, ipods). My presentation aims to investigate the relationship between the most recent Tv series and videogames in terms of narrative, aesthetic and form of consumption.I argue, in fact, that the tv series are the product closer to videogames in terms of length of entertainment (the demanding of time in front of the screen) and character persistence through time and seriality.--Dario Compagno (Università di Siena)Representing and Playing Fate: Steps towards a Rhetoric of InteractionRecent developments in game studies ask for describing the different ways in which interactive strategies are implemented in computer games. The active role that the spectator has in understanding audiovisual texts changes when he or she has to perform effective actions. This does not mean that there is no continuity between movies and games (or other forms of interactive cinema): we will focus on how the rhetorical figure of representing fate in movies is linked with (and contributes to the creation of) a corresponding figure of interaction.The notions of necessity and contingency – fate and freedom – are fundamental categories for the understanding of fiction. Watching a movie, we want to know how characters manage to shape their destiny, or are overcome by it. There is an instance in texts (that of the author) that is in charge of everything that happens in the story. In open stories, this principle is weaker, and the spectator himself is asked for proposing alternative interpretations; he or she has to imagine how the fictional future will come to an end.Interactivity develops further this dialectic of closedness and openness, giving the power to the player to effectively determine some game variables, and so attributing to him or her the responsibility for these decisions.--Andrea Dresseno (Cineteca del Comune di Bologna)Cineteca di Bologna’s Videogame Archive: Preserving and Disseminating Videogame HeritageMore than 30-year history, a stimulating, visionary, rich and ever evolving field of study and research: time has come to preserve the videogame heritage now with an urgency that most of archives share. The archive is conceived a means to preserve and start carefully investigating the relationship and many-fold connections between videogames and the other Arts, disciplines and fields of research as well as a place to promote the use of videogames and where private and public institutions can meet.