Area5 TV Video Game Documentary

Introduction

Video games have received a fair amount of criticism from popular media over the years, especially when it comes to violence and nudity.  Those on the outside looking in only see what they presume to be nerds and geeks wasting away quality time.  However, for those with even a simple grasp of the industry, this is not the reality at all.  On the surface, video games are an entertainment media to the average person, but once you spend the time educating yourself on what lies below, you see not only entertainment, but also art.

Indie game development has really pushed this idea of video games as art.  Unfortunately, many gamers miss out on these smaller titles, spending their time with the latest in AAA releases.  One group has, and continues to, strive for a better understanding of art within games.  That group is Area5.

Area5

Area5, a video production company, just recently passed their five year anniversary as a company.  Current employees include Matt Chandronait, Ryan O’Donnell, Jason Bertrand, Cesar Quintero, and Rick Curnutte.  For those who have actively listened to podcast and video game news outlets, many of these names will be familiar.  I personally first listened to this group when they were over at 1UP, and followed them after leaving the company.

 Since the days of The 1UP Show, these hard working guys have developed a number of shows.  After starting Area5, the group began Co-op, a video podcast which partnered with the Revision 3 network, as well as other smaller video projects.Lately, Area5 has been doing video work for prominent gaming franchises.  Their resume includes a making of documentary for Naughty Dog’s latest hit, The Last of Us, as well as a documentary for Street Fighter.

 Area5 has also had a partnership with Activision and the Call of Duty Franchise since 2010.Area5’s latest project is a documentary titled Outerlands about the community surrounding the art and culture of video games.  Their goal is to raise 210,000 to finance a six part documentary.

I reached out to Matt Chandronait for a twitter length quote that would sum up the idea of the project.  Matt tweeted, “Video games are art.  Art is culture.  In any culture are limitless, incredible, stories to be told.  Outerlands aims to tell them.”This is a documentary that the video gaming community needs to have, and you can partner with them through their Kickstarter campaign page at bit.ly/outerlands.  If you have not heard of these five gentlemen, or the work they have previously done, this perhaps seems like another pipe dream.

However, the team has assembled some of video games and musics finest, including David Hellman (artist for Braid), Cory Schmitz (design/illustration for Last of Us, branding for Playstation), Jake Kaufman (Music for Ducktales Remastered), and Disasterpeace (music for Fez, tracks in Bomberman and Bit.Trip series).  For myself, it is awesome to see two fellow Canadians also working on this project, including Juno winner (yes, in Canada the Juno music awards are real, and are a big deal) Jim Guthrie and indie developer Phil Fish.Area5 has the talent within their own company and the talent of those around them to pull of a truly amazing and inspiring documentary, and you need to consider being involved.

Visit their Kickstarter page to contribute to a very worthy project and to find more details.  They just recently uploaded a 7 minute tease of what the documentary would be like, and it is excellent!Look forward to more updates on how Area5 is doing with their kickstarter campaigns.  When possible, I will attempt to reach out to Area5 again for more comments.

Below is a short Q&A I was able to get with Area5’s own Matt Chandronait.

Conversation with Area5’s Matt Chandronait

Adam Roffel: What is Outerlands?

Matt Chandronait: It’s a six-part documentary “TV” series on the people and culture of videogames. Each episode will be an hour long–which, in TV terms, means 42-60 minutes.

A: What makes your documentary different from books/articles on the subject of video games?

MC: These aren’t stories about the games themselves, but rather the people who’s lives have been affected by video games in powerful, wonderful, or tragic ways. We’re not ashamed to say that we wear our inspiration on our sleeves and our goal is nothing less than to be a kind of “This American Life” for video games. We want to tell big stories, small stories, and bring our passion for the art form to as many people as possible by showing them that video games aren’t just a hobby or a past-time for people who have refused to grow up, but they are a cultural force all their own.

A: Who (if you can say) will make an appearance in Outerlands? Any top developers/insiders etc?

MC: If you’ve seen our Kickstarter video, you’ve seen some of them already! Meg and Shawn Livernoche are owners of the High Scores Arcade Interactive Museum in Alameda, California, and Mike Mika and Frank Cifaldi are game developers at Other Ocean. Their stories are just a part of the episode that we’ll be doing on videogame preservation. We’re already in talks with the Smithsonian, Stanford University, and the National Museum of Play on this subject as well, but our hope is to get funded well enough to travel around the world and go to places the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines in Saint Petersburg. And all of that is just for one episode.

A: Is the July 2015 date real? Will it take a year and a half?

MC: Yup. We’ve become quite good over these last five years at knowing just how long it will take to do something right, and to make this series at the quality that the subject matter deserves is going to take a gargantuan effort. That’s why we went with Kickstarter and its all-or-nothing funding approach. For us, there are no half measures here. It’s either going to be done right or not done at all. 

A: In a tight economy, why should the readers part with money that could be used for other things?

MC: I’m not going to say they should instead of, say, giving money to a charity that provides  video games to terminally ill children (another subject we’ll be exploring–see what I did there?), but our belief and our hope is that there’s enough people out there that want to see the art form and the people involved with it on every level treated with the respect and seriousness they deserve that they’ll find a few extra bones to throw our way. It’s high time video games were lifted out of the cultural sidelines and placed alongside films, television, and books as being intrinsically valuable to every level of society.

A: I noticed your campaign says “Outerlands: Season One.” Will we see more of this if things are successful?

MC: Glad you caught that! The naming is very deliberate. We’re stating an intent by calling it “Season One” and if we can find enough people out there that believe in the project and believe in us then, yes, we will make it happen. In our fever dreams we see boxed sets that include many seasons of Outerlands yet to come. 

A: When completed, where will I be able to find Outerlands (for those that do not back)?

MC: We are, of course, hoping it can go far and wide. We’d love to sell it online, put it up on services like Netflix and Hulu as well as PSN and Xbox Live, but our ONLY goal right now is to provide the best show we can for our Kickstarter backers. All the rest of that stuff can come later, and if it doesn’t come at all, at least we’ll be able to deliver to the backers something that we hope they’ll treasure for years to come.

For full details please visit bit.ly/outerlands or follow them on twitter @OuterlandsDoc and @AREA5.