OVERLAP HALLOWEEN HANGOUT * Whiteboard with notes on.

* Bring whiteboard, PS2, SH2 guide, games, Laptop x 2 * Print out boards with pics on? Can we show URLs or images?
Chris Pruett from Chriss Survival Horror Quest mentions four traditional themes of Japanese Horror Games.

Onnen (): The idea that powerful emotion can affect the physical realm, even after death. Pitiful Antagonist: Japanese horror stories are often sad rather than exciting. Ghosts: Appear to oat above the oor with arms outstretched and no visible feet. Co-Existence: Spirt realm is part of the regular world, or close by Also - Yamaokas horror progression sequence for Silent Hill: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Uneasiness due to lack of information or illogical explanation Logical reconstruction via perception Stacking up fragmented info / creating space for imagination Providing general picture (apparent resolution) True horror revealed

Pruett points out the parallels of this to culture shock but I think it also reads as a reaction to the likes of natural horrors such as the recent Tohoku Earthquake and Tsumani. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T %C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami SILENT HILL 2 Silent Hill. A smart, magnificent and terrifying creature that looks like us [Cue Jamess cinematic in front of a mirror]. James Sutherland is an interesting character for many reasons. Hes weak, unfit out of shape. Start to imagine creaking swings. Elongated corridors longer than physically possible. Heres some concept art from Silent Hill I & II CGI character designer and artist Takayoshi Sato - http://satoworks.com/AnotherArtpage.html . Sato-san worked with Tale of Tales on Fatale. Heres an interview - http://tale-oftales.com/blog/interviews/interview-with-takayoshi-sato/

Producer Akihiro Imamura Masahiro Tsuboyama, the art director for Silent Hill 2, best explained the main goal behind the game, "...to create a world that would really disturb the game players whilst attracting them...something with an aura of mystery." http://www.igotaletter.com/gameinfo/development/ Lying figure based on friend who came into office with hands in pocket of jacket. Influenced by Francis Bacon. Akihiro Imamura, producer of Silent Hill 2, describes the fear invoked by the game as one of paranoia, "what you don't see makes you feel afraid..." The creative minds behind the game hoped tobetter understand this fear by brainstorming about what's behind the human mind and heart. http://www.igotaletter.com/gameinfo/development/ Its a game that anticipates the atrocities of Abu Graib. A water board of a game that realises that anticipation of horror is worse than horror itself. Something the likes of Dead Space fails to understand. But its also in the rusted metal, and the shortfall between bright surface sheen of US Foreign Policy and the blood-stained horror of the netherworld underneath. The US govt hung Japanese soldiers for waterboarding POWs in WW2. http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m42126&hd=&size=1&l=e These allusions would go on to become on the nose neon signs in the Western Developed Silent Hill Homecoming. Part of the interest of SH lies in the fact its a view of America from half way round the world. Silent Hill is a US town but the game designers were only able to visit America once or twice to take the San Bruno California photos that would form the template for the city. More? Okay. Marias outfit is based on Christina Aguilleras for 1999 Teen Choice Awards http://images.wikia.com/silent/images/5/5e/ChristinaMaria.PNG The town as benevolent guiding force. A really great piece on Pyramid Head - http://www.igotaletter.com/insight/ph-andmaria-james-mind-at-war-with-itself/ The games uses repetition and artificial elongation ref the walk down the valley or under the Silent Hill Historical Society.
Akira Yamaoka Got Bored One Day -When Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka was at Konami, he actually wrote up and submitted a pitch document for an outside-thebox game where players would watch and interact with real people on a mountain. Following the first three initial games by Team Silent, the Silent Hill franchise was passed to US dev houses and this has seen different themes come out of the work. Theyre much more Lynchian pieces of work focussing on small town weirdness and archetypes logmillers etc. Lynch is huge in Japan.

From the Book of Lost Memories Those who hold darkness in their hearts are called to gather [in the town] and each of their unconscious minds is manifested. Deep holes appear to those who hold darkness in their hearts Complete the game and the opening movie gets dialogue. Silent Hills kaiju (or strange beasts) are all representations of the lead characters psyche. Film influence in the German Expressionist tilt angles.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/52765/silent-hill-5-interview-jasons "I watched a lot of David Lynch films," he says. "It wasn't necessarily just one or two particular movies, but rather his work and presentation overall - his style. I borrowed a little taste of his style for Silent Hill 2." Akihiro Imamura http://www.igotaletter.com/media/articles/?page=Return_to_Silent_Hill Silent Hill is reminiscent of The Last Picture Shows final, ghosttown pan of a barely there city. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__T3WJVmBY8 Tayayoshi Sato - "Last time, we concentrated on the atmosphere and the feeling that the town has. This time, we concentrated on not only atmosphere but also human emotions, which allows us to express a deep, profound story." http://www.igotaletter.com/media/articles/?page=Return_to_Silent_Hill We looked at movies like Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder, and movies from David Lynch. Of course, Hitchcock, David Fincher, and David Cronenberg, too. Painters like Francis Bacon, Andrew Wyeth, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/arts/design/18wyet.html (features Otherworld) and Rembrandt were very influential, too. Comic http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_l58tbfsyIT1qai3cfo1_1280.jpg? AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1320101627&Signature=t 8okR0KVLHW248fflrW54wzHF8A%3D I am aiming to create fear which gets deep into human instinct. Not making the fear by surprise, but by creating a feeling of anxiety, I would like to surge the fear little by little in the player. Ahikiro Imamura Bacon influence - http://www.igotaletter.com/images/rarities/influences/bacon_01.jpg

Hans Bellmers literal deconstruction of sexuality - http://www.sauerthompson.com/junkforcode/archives/001154.html his dolls were directed specifically at the cult of the perfect body then prominent in Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Bellmer Also used in Ghost in the Shell 2 a Japanese anime film that asks questions of

James then finds Angela on a burning staircase, and she asks him to return her knife so that she can commit suicide. James declines. As Angela retreats up the burning staircase, James states that the room is hot as hell, to which she replies that it is always like this for her Suggests everyone experiences Silent Hill differently. Silent Hill does not have a canonised ending. Very Lynch. Possibility of Marys corpse being in back of the car. http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091001214938/silent/images/4/42/Silent_Hill _2_Poster.jpg http://www.igotaletter.com/ The camera angles are exquisite. And used by the filmmaker. You meet a woman in a graveyard. Alyssa The flames are always there. Nurses are sexy.

The control scheme. Types of horror and shocks. Eastern v western horror. Fan Movie No Escape. Fan Edit Restless Dreams. SIREN 2 Or, What Silent Hill Did Next. Director of the original Silent Hill Keiichiro Toyama. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/i_siren2_ps2 Siren 2 was the follow up to the original Siren and unlike the original this sequel never made it to the US. Japan and Europe only. He describes Siren New Translation thus Suppose the events of the original SIREN
were real, in that case Siren Blood Curse would be like a movie based on a true story, adapting and dramatizing the original. While some of the key events bear resemblance to those in the first SIREN, the characters and the background are completely different http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/06/13/developer-qa-siren-

blood-curse/ Also There are a lot of horror movie moments that have influenced me, but two
scenes that come to mind are when the main characters world comes apart in the original The Wicker Man, and when the killers come together as a normal family in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The interest in things coming together and apart

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/06/13/developer-qa-siren-blood-curse/ Sight jacking into the past.

Keiichiro Toyama The method of using myths and folklore as allegories for the modern world is influenced heavily by Japanese horror comics - comics like those of Daijirou Moroboshi and Ryouko Yamagishi. The idea of a remote Japanese village ruled over by a strange religion was strongly influenced by Daijirou Moroboshi's "Seimei no ki" ("The Tree of Life"). "Seimei no ki" was also made into a movie last year, with the title "Kidan". Having time jump back and forth and blend together was a technique influenced by the movie "Ju-On", which was remade in Hollywood as "The Grudge".
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/i_siren2_ps2

Original lost points in Edge for voice acting. Bad guys remind me of Butoh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh Interesting reaction to US focus on post WW2 dance and the games were playing are similarly influenced by Japanese folklore. Watch this from Ohno Sensei- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUjhQLB0hXY
Alongside Siren 1s enemies the shibito theres now a bad guy with an adversion to light the Yamibito. The two will fight to the death if brought together, in a neatly Half-Life turn of events. Kunitoris Tetris-like minigame. Always wonder at the Pavlovian nature of stuff like this. http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/siren/siren2.htm

Transmedia - http://www.shu-mikami.com/e/index.html, http://www.yumemisalon.com/e/index.html Good video - http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2011/04/01/spotlight-on-majortakeaki-misawa-from-siren-2.htm A film tied into the second game - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494815/, http://www.veoh.com/adultwarning/watch/v472363xtRnZStw?confirmed=1 Huge playthrough - http://lparchive.org/Siren-2/ and on the strange script in the game http://lparchive.org/Siren-2/Update%2055/ FATAL FRAME 2 The underlying concept behind Japanese yuurei is onnen (), the idea that some emotions are so strong that their power can extend from beyond the grave. Almost all classic and contemporary ghost stories from Japan operate on onnen: in addition to the obvious case of Okiku, witness Sadako's character in The Ring, the antagonist in Juon, or even the explanations given for Hanako's origin in the Hanako-in-the-Toilet story. Onnen is the central concept behind yuurei, and as we will see, it differentiates Japanese horror from works in the West pretty dramatically http://www.dreamdawn.com/sh/features/japanese_horror.php