During the NLGD festival of Games, together with Noorderslag Seminar and  het Nederlands Film Festival, we have organized two cross-over workshops. 

Bridging the Gap between Cultures:
Pop@Games & Film@Games

One of the alleys of the NLGD Game Conference was the Pop@ en Film@ workshop in association with Noorderslag Seminar and the Dutch FilmFestival. This cross-over will be a returning event at the NLGD Festival of Games, and make an appearance at the Noorderslag Seminar each January and the Dutch Film Festival each September/October. The aim was to build a bridge between different media-cultures in order to create synergy.

Pop@Games (in the ‘Refter’)
The main theme of this workshop were game-scores, specifically the impact of using off-the-shelve music versus custom-made-music for game development. In this context Lucas van Slegtenhorst (publisher Chrysalis), Bart Roijmans (Sound Engineer at Engine software), Tjeerd Bomhof (Voicst) and Tuur Hendrickx and Yorick Goldewijk (SonicPicnic) have shared their experiences. During a discussion/round table conversation special attention was given to Rights and Marketing; concerning purchasing deals and copyright, the differences hereof between the two cultures, as well as the marketing of game-scores. Antal de Waij (BUMA Cultuur) introduced us into this field of expertise. The round-table conversation was presided by Britt Stubbe, journalist for De Pers, Rails, Nieuwe Revu, Wah Wah and Opzij.

Film@Games (in the ‘Chapel’)
The gap between gameculture and the culture of cinema does not as much exist in the media itself; they are far more alike as one might think. Techniques that were unique to games due to its freedom of expression and its interactivity are more and more found in cinema of nowadays - given the title ‘interactive cinema’-, whereas the laws of cinema can strengthen game development – e.g. rules of lightning, camera, and narration. In the workshop an overview of this mutual struggle of choosing freedom and/or following laws, will be given, richly illustrated by a viewing of several (cut-)scenes. The gap, however, exists between the worlds in which these media manifest. Except for researchers, there is a surprisingly small overlap between each industry‘s network; not many in the field of production seem to hold contact. The aim of this workshop therefore is primarily to introduce both cultures to each other. In this context Jan-Bart van Beek spoke about his work as a game director at Guerilla Games, followed by Jan Simons, who gave a presentation about Lars von Trier’s Game Cinema.
This introduction was followed by a discussion/round table conversation as to how both worlds could benefit from each other on a technical level. Being one of the few who knows both cultures, Joost Raessens presided this round-table conversation. Raessens is Associate Professor in New Media Studies as well as director of the New Media and Digital Culture program, both at Utrecht University. He obtained his doctorate in Film Studies and Philosophy.