TL;DR: Video game actors being told to mo-cap sex scenes without being told beforehand

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    A summary of the story, scene breakdown and scripts should be distributed to all cast members in advance.

    performers should be able to request a closed set where access is kept to a minimum.

    A competent intimacy coordinator should be engaged.

    These are not big asks.

    In one recording for a major game she first learned it was explicit only when she turned up for work.

    “This was actually a full-on sex scene,” she said.

    "I had to [vocally] match the scene and through the glass in the booth was the entire team, all male, watching me.

    “It was excruciating… at that stage I had been in the games industry a while, and I had never felt so shaken”.

    Not unreasonable to say that this situation should not be repeated.

    • micka190@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, what they’re asking for is pretty standard stuff in other media. A friend of mine is an actor who played a scene where he had to shoot a masturbation scene. He was alone in a room with like 3-4 people: sound guy, camera guy, director, and I think the intimacy coach was there too.

      Having a whole team watch you pretend to have sex is not okay, what the hell.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        Having a whole team watch you pretend to have sex is not okay, what the hell.

        the problem here is the consent and awareness, not the actual scene. It should be entirely illegal to approach production like this.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        I mean, most of the team should be watching because they’re trying to do their jobs, not because they’re ogling the actors. And this is even more removed from sex than movies’ simulated sex, because I assume they’re in full mocap suits and everything.

        Hell, you don’t even need both people doing motion at the same time, as long as you have the poses roughly correct. You can edit the motion curves to make the rhythm match.

    • Haru@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I don’t believe you’re wrong here in saying that. These don’t seem like unreasonable asks at all, and something I’d expect to be normal standards for the industry.

    • aksdb@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I wonder if that would be a genuine use case for “AI”. If the voice actor consents to have his voice represented in such a scene but doesn’t want to play it out in a studio, the computer model could take over that part.

    • d00ery@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yes, these precipts seem to be common in the TV industry

      Ms Jefferies stresses the guidelines are not trying to put boundaries on storytelling … She says - and “these guidelines are just to bring it even more in line with the best practices in the film and TV industry”.

      And I can’t think of news stories that show this is a problem in terms of leaking a story.

      So, why not have the same degree of safety and protocols in game development?

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      With THIS context added, yeah I see why people are mad. I thought this was the usual “Video games are too sexy!” nonsense we’ve had ever since we saw Princess Toadstool’s ankles for the first time back in 1964… But uhh, wow… This

      This is just outright fucked, I would even argue this could legally count as a form of sexual assault. IANAL though

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      ok so like, is video game acting like the worst field on earth, could you not just, refuse to do this? Seems like a fully reasonable thing to do to me.

    • fluxion@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      There’s a lot of straight up porn games out there so who knows what kind of shit these actors end up in when they show up for a generic “motion/voice capture for video game” gig.

  • jaaake@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Sex scenes are common in modern games - and are often made by filming human actors who are then digitised into game characters.

    Is “common” referring to cringey low budget Steam games? I don’t think I’ve seen any sort of on screen simulated sex in a game, ever. Granted I tend to only play well publicized indie games and larger releases. But how common is this? Am I out of the loop?

  • Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Sometimes I forget how unprofessional the game industry still is or how little respect people have for well being of others. I’d like to say I’m surprised but that would require having some expectations towards those companies.

    I hope more VAs speak up about stuff like this so we can have some real changes.

    • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I’d say that isn’t the game industry, but it’s basically every company and employer everywhere. Nobody matters. Nobody is important. We’re all expendable seems to be the world.

      • Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I focused on game companies since that’s what’s this article is about but yeah, that’s true.

  • schloppah@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Hot take but I wish sex scenes were just eliminated from games entirely. A nice fade to black is a million times better than awkwardly watching some 3D models gyrating along with weird exaggerated “this is what sex sounds like” acting.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    What video game sex scenes? Hell isn’t sexual content basically just not allowed in video games anymore because of the “Wider moral audience” that executives keep insisting exists but clearly doesn’t given how thirsty people get anytime a woman or man in a video game looks even remotely attractive?

    Edit: Misleading title, in actuality a video game actress did a sex scene without being told it was a sex scene then a bunch of male brodudes saw a digital recreation of her getting railed by a fictional character. Situation completely misread, when I saw the title I thought outraged soccer moms were complaining about seeing Chun Li’s legs again.

    I’m completely on the side of the actors, that straight up sounds like it could (and should) legally count as a form of sexual assault and the studio owes her both an apology and a heavy paycheck

    • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s not just a digital recreation, it can involve physical acting as well. This article quotes a motion-capture performer:

      Ms Jefferies told the BBC she was once asked to act out a scene with a male performer involving a sexual assault with no prior warning.

      “I turned up and was told what I would be filming would be a graphic rape scene,” she said.

      "This act could be watched for as long or as little time as the player wanted through a window, and then a player would be able to shoot this character in the head.

      “It was just purely gratuitous in my opinion.”

      She refused to act out the “disgusting” scene - which was made worse as she was the only female on set.

      “There’s no nudity involved, but its still an act and there’s an intimacy in that act and also a violence in this situation,” she said.

      “So yes there may be a layer of Lycra between us, but you are still there and still having to truly immerse yourself in this scene.”

      In the end her concerns were listened to and the scene was not recorded.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Jesus fucking Christ, glad the scene was cut. I’m definitely in the “Modern Games are too tame, stop cutting shit out of re-releases and remasters” crowd, but… Fuck, the scene itself sounds just as tasteless as trying to force it on this poor woman.

    • Redfugee@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      She didn’t actually do the scene.

      “I turned up and was told what I would be filming would be a graphic rape scene,” she said. "This act could be watched for as long or as little time as the player wanted through a window, and then a player would be able to shoot this character in the head. “It was just purely gratuitous in my opinion.” She refused to act out the “disgusting” scene - which was made worse as she was the only female on set.

  • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I am an adult. Im not prudish. I watch porn. And whenever I see a sex scene in movies/tv shows/games I cringe.

    They are usually most unnecessary to the story, and IMO a good movie makes you know it happened without showing it happening (without at least wiping the cock afterwards of course).

    This made me hate Game of Thrones for example. I simply referred to it as midget porn. I even hated on it in front of my friends, they put it on to prove me wrong and lo and behold a midget is fucking a whore on screen.

    Yeah, I know where to find porn and they even show genitalia there, thank you very much.

    • Spaceinv8er@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      I agree. I typically skip sex scenes in movies. Those scenes very seldom add anything to the story imo.

      Unless it makes sense. In “What Women Want” with Mel Gibson, I believe that is a great example of a sex scene adding to the movie. The whole premise is him reading women’s minds, so him having sex with Marisa Tomei and hearing their thoughts while in the act added to the premise.

      So when I see a movie that is just like “hey these people are hot and we should film them go at it” is just boring imo.

    • 31337@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Meh, some of my favorite shows and movies have a lot sex scenes. Sometimes, they just add realism or contribute to aesthetics. Other times they show personality, relationship dynamics, are symbolic of other things, or are important to the plot.

      I don’t see sex scenes as any different than other potentially “unnecessary” scenes, like a long shot of a dripping faucet, for instance.

      But, yeah, most sex scenes in games make me cringe.

    • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      You sound prudish. Some story tellers prefer to show not tell. That’s why they aren’t writing books ya dimwit.

      Edit: /S. I was just making a joke cause GoT is based on books lmao

      • wunami@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        What do you think these movies or shows are doing when they let people know without showing the sex scene? You think the narrator is just saying “then they had sex” and describing the sex while the screen is blacked out?

  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    i was confused for a minute, as to why actors for video games cared, considering like, it’s a video game. Thinking it was voice acting or something.

    It wasn’t.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I have no idea what game has a realistic rape scene in it. All I could find for her credits in video games was this:

    – Unknown9: Awakening (Video Game)/ Casting Director – full performance capture cast & all additional voices./ Dir. Damien Goodwin.
    – Peaky Blinders (VR video game)/ Casting Director – full performance capture cast. / Dir. Kate Saxon.
    – Warhammer 40K: Battlesisters (VR video game) / Casting Director – full performance capture cast. /Dir. James Horn.
    – The Witcher Series 2 (TV) / Casting Associate for VFX & SFX with Sophie Holland Casting.
    – Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (video game) / Casting Director – motion capture cast. /Rocksteady Games.
    – Little Hope (video game) / Casting Director – motion capture cast. / Dir. Nick Bowen.

    • Bunnylux@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Did you read the article? She stood up for herself and it wasn’t filmed

      • MolochAlter@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The fact that the scene wasn’t mocapped doesn’t mean it wasn’t in the game at all, or that they didn’t get someone else to mocap it instead.

          • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Her credits are not where a game she wasn’t in would be listed, smartass. That’s just the list I was able to find of her work. People like you are so eager to prove everyone wrong on the Internet that you can’t use your brain.

            What game has a mocap rape scene in it?

    • MolochAlter@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If i had to guess it would be Little Hope. It is a horror interactive movie and the games by that team tend to be pretty edgy for a modern dev.