The right direction

It's amazing how paying attention to the slightest details elevates the experience by more than just a notch.
A movie goer loves the element of surprise, even more so, if that is brought out by a detail so diminutive that he chose to turn a blind eye to it initially.
Take Shawshank Redemption, for instance, what a lovely movie that was, film connoisseurs shall forever be indebted to Stephen King for the amazing stories he writes.

The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining and Inception movie spoilers ahead.

A rock hammer, and a poster, was all he needed to get out of the prison. The rock hammer, that we thought he used only to chisel those chess pieces out, helped him out of the hell hole that Shawshank was. A little rock hammer, and the Rita Hayworth/Marilyn Monroe/Raquel Welch poster.

Speaking of great movies, and attention to detail, the one director that pops into your head is Christopher Nolan, ranging from his very first feature film, Following, his movies have dealt with topics so very complex, yet making sure that the little details, were still absolutely perfect. The protagonist in the movie Following (Watch it if you haven't already), is a writer, and in one of the first few scenes, we see him typing away on his typewriter, and the wall behind him adorns a poster of Jack Nicholson in the movie The Shining (Another brilliant movie, may I add), The Shining also is a story about a writer, who ends up losing his state of mind due the circumstances that ensue. Following, follows the journey of the writer who ends up losing his vision from what he set out to do, write that is, due to few other circumstances as well, though we may not exactly be able to draw parallels, between both these movie, that little poster, puts a few things into perspective.

That Monroe poster!

Let's take Nolan's fairly recent movie, Inception. Don't we all adore the movie to bits? Now, let's skip to the very last scene, where DiCaprio spins his totem to check if he is still dreaming, while we were all paying attention to the totem, very few of us looked at DiCaprio's hand which was devoid of the wedding ring, that the extremely beautiful Marion Cotillard gave him, while in his dreams, she lived on, hence, the wedding ring was on him, the reality, of course differed. The little detail here, was the wedding ring.

Notice that the ring on his hand is missing.

There are so many elements that go into making the movie right, ranging from a good script, a director with eye for detail, the  dialogue, cinematography, knowing which detail to focus on and which detail to blur, makes a vast difference. These are the things that make the movie goer differentiate between a good film and a brilliant one.

A few traits set apart a few amazing people 

from the rest in the film industry.

Daniel Day Lewis, for example, lives the character, quite literally, now it's hard to miss out on small details that build a character, if you talk,walk and basically, live like them, isn't it? Other brilliant actors like Adrien Brody, Heath Ledger embody their characters so well, they ensure to emboss  the smallest details of the character they are portraying.

Same goes with directors such as Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Kubrick, Hitchcock (All hail the God of suspense and thriller!), et al, they focus on the smallest intricacies and make the story their own. This makes us love them. This makes us love the movie.

Christopher Nolan

Martin Scorsese

Stanley Kubrick

A rock hammer, a poster, and a ring, small things, that made quite a big impact. 

Bro, do you even game?

Are you a gamer? No? It's alright. You can still follow the post without losing track of all the sanity in this world! But, if you are a gamer, you must be able to sense the difference between a good game and a bad game.

But where do you draw the line? There are hundreds of aspects to be judged, but in this post I'm going to talk about the one that is directly related to the topic of the blog.

Most game developers concentrate on the gameplay, storyline, graphics and audio, which are the ultimate significant goals of any developer. But, most of the notable professional game development companies look at an entirely different aspect as well - replay value.

This spoiler paragraph is purely for gamers. If you are not a gamer, you can skip the paragraph in the spoiler.

Have you played FarCry 3 twice? If so, have you noticed that Ubisoft kept dropping hints that Citra was Vaas' sister ever since you escaped from Vaas' cage?

Citra's poster in the camp where Vaas imprisons you the first time

No, they did not change the gameplay for the second playthrough.

Have you played any game from the Half-Life series? Did you notice G-man just walking past you while you were busy gunning the combine soldiers?

GMan keeping a track of your actions!

Have you played Portal? If you pay attention to everything GLaDOS tells you, you will realise that she's dropping hints that the universe and timeline of Portal is the same as that of Half-Life, where Black Mesa is Aperture Science's rival!

Portal : Still Alive (End credits song)

My guesses are that the Borealis (The ship that is spotted at the end of Half Life 2 : Episode 2) contains crucial Aperture Science technology and is being sought out by the resistance!

I would not be surprised if you didn't notice these things in your first playthrough. Even I didn't! But, the point they make here is to provide a new experience every time someone plays the same game all over again. It's all in the minute details.

When I spotted these pictures on the internet after I finished playing my games, I was mostly intrigued by the fact that these things just went unnoticed. I rushed to my computer to play these games again! I can tell you with certainty that this is what those game developers wanted.

As I mentioned earlier, most of the professional game development companies focus on improving the games' replay value. They employ easter eggs to catch the attention of the players who delve deeper into the game.

Alice in Wonderland references in Ubisoft games

With certain easter eggs/references, game developers often attract the attention of non-gamers as well. Believe it or not, although the publishers aim for a target audience, sometimes the audience expands just because of references that catches the eye of people who weren't interested in the game! Let me see how the non-gamer co-author of this blog isn't impressed by the Alice in Wonderland references in the above picture!

So, in the future, if you somehow decide to develop a game, remember this blog and put this observation to practical use! All I'm saying is small details like these make a huge difference! What was that? The Macro in Micro.

Express it better!

Jeffrey wasn't a very bright kid when it came to solving daily life problems. He never imagined something big could happen in his life, as big as what I'm about to tell you. Let's just go back two days in time.

Jeffrey loathed his semester ending exams, wondering why he never studied throughout the semester.
"What? Prepping without me, eh? And you're my best friend. Cool." said Archie.
"Just trying to catch up, Arch", Jeffrey replied.
"Just go home, take a good nap and study with a peace of mind. You will make it."
"Did you finish your portions?" asked Jeffrey.
"Not yet" he replied. "You should calm down, Jeff. Go, give it a break."
"I just hope I'll pass, Arch."

Wasn't that paragraph way too bland? Of course that was the storyline! Then why does it seem so plain?
Let's try to add something more to it.

Bashing his head against the textbook, Jeffrey suffered the agony of the impeding disaster - his semester ending exams, wondering why he never even peeked at his textbook throughout the semester.
"What a rare sight to be seen!" exclaimed Archie, spotting Jeffrey from across the hall. "Prepping without me, eh? And you're my best friend. Cool."
"Just trying to catch up, Arch", Jeffrey sighed, with his head resting on the table.
"Don't wreck yourself, Jeff. Just go home, take a good nap and study with a peace of mind. You will make it."
"Did you finish your portions?" asked Jeffrey, while lifting his head just enough to see Arch in his periphery.
"Not yet" he replied. "You should calm down, Jeff. Go, give it a break."
"I just hope I'll pass, Arch. I just hope."

Didn't that make the paragraph much better? You could now picture the behavior of both characters. Jeffrey seemed to be slacking off under stress, and Archie appeared to be the confident guy who was optimistic about the future. Let's go ahead with the story now!

Seven days passed, the exams were over, the evaluation was due and sitting outside the dean's office were Jeffrey and Archie, unaware of why they were called.
"You two, come inside", the dean called.
They silently complied.
"I have received your test scores. Looks like both of you have aced the test. Perfect scores."
Jeffrey shifted eyes from the dean to Archie, looking in amazement.
"Are you confident that you two achieved these by putting your own efforts?"
Jeffrey's face drooped like a flower that was not watered for days.
"Yes, sir", Archie replied with a wave of confidence.
"I'm just curious. What were you boys doing in the college administrative block one day before the exam?"
Jeffrey lost his senses as he felt a heavy stone of accusation being thrown at him.
"We were just studying for the test, sir! In the library, sir!" Archie defended.
"I am not accusing you of anything, boys. It's just that the office lock was found tampered the next day. Sadly enough, the camera recording the view of the room with the question papers was dysfunctional. I hope the culprit surrenders before he/she is caught. You two may go now."

"Sir", they replied in unison.
Turning towards Jeffrey with eyes locked on him, Archie turned back to leave the room. Jeffrey followed him out, towards the canteen.

"I know that you stole the question paper! You were the one who needed it, weren't you?" accused Archie.
"I never said anything like that!", replied Jeffrey.
"You're lying", Archie screamed.
"I don't know what you're saying, Arch. I really don't."

Can you make a certain guess about who stole the paper?

Well, unless you're Sherlock, you most probably can't. Why?
Let me narrate the paragraph again, with a hint of detail this time.

"I know you stole the question paper! You were the one who needed it, weren't you?" accused Archie as he rammed Jeffrey back with his hands.
"I never said anything like that!" Jeffrey exclaimed with a tone of surprise.
"You're lying!", screamed Archie in his face.
A drop of sweat trickled down Jeffrey's brow, while he tried to not look into Archie's eyes. "I don't know what you are talking about, Arch. I really don't", he said, with a quivering voice.

Doesn't this change make Jeffrey look like the culprit? There were just small additions that did not alter the dialogues, but since they described the situation better, they completely enhanced your perception of what's going on. Beautiful, isn't it?

Needless to say, this idea can be extended to a complete story, where presenting simple and minor details might change the direction of the story majorly. Do you know what made the difference? The macro in micro.

Livin' large

The society has taught us to look at the big picture and contemplate the most apparently significant things in life. People, as a result idealize things that appear to make the biggest impact. Though we learn the right intentions, we do not necessary learn the meticulous approach.

"Think big" is not an uncommon phrase we hear these days. Developing a software? "Think big", they say. Designing a game? "Think big, silly." Directing a movie? "Think big", of course! I most certainly need to think big if I'm making a movie in order to not make a typical Bollywood movie. Take a minute to think why Christopher Nolan's movies are quite brilliant and capture the viewers' attention.

Do you read stories that  involve the element of mystery? Did you ever think how good authors build suspense? Well, in this blog, we are going to try and explain the general ideology for seemingly-professional creations, as perceived by us.

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Image credit : http://renonevada.deviantart.com/art/Buddy-Christ-21647379