MOVIE INFLUENCES

I do this all the time, sometimes without even trying. I use movies to try to get into a certain mood for a project. When I'm working on my western, I watch a couple Clint Eastwood movies for ambiance, stuff like that.

My problem is that if I happen to watch something that doesn't tie in with anything I'm doing, it pretty much breaks my concentration for like a week or more at a time. An example, I was working on my western for weeks. I redesigned all the main characters, was knee deep in a new combat system. I was actually roaring to work on it every night when I got home from work. I saw that Pale Rider was going to be on that weekend, so I made a point of watching it because one, it is one of my favorite Eastwood films (maybe tied with High Plains Drifter), and two, because it always makes me gung-ho to work on something western themed.

Of course, when it was over I made the mistake of channel surfing. I lucked into Blade Runner and it totally wrecked my ability to think in the whole Spaghetti Western milieu. I actually haven't been able to get it back since, because my knee has been acting up so I've been spending more time than usual lounging in front of the tube. Near eidetic memory and severe attention deficit issues are not the best possible combination.

When I'm working on something, I usually have to make a definite effort to avoid contaminating my concentration with something completely outside of its scope, if that makes any sense.

In the past, I have found that I've subconsciously lifted elements from movies and books that I like. I remember thinking myself clever for using the phrase "a cannonade of cannon," right up until the next time I re-read Mark Frost's 'The List of Seven' and remembered where I'd gotten the line from.

I also do this with music, unfortunately. Discs with hidden tracks always used to screw me up. I'd put on a cd to go to bed to, and I guess I'd learn the band's style hypnoaedically. My conscious mind prevented me from writing songs that sounded like the ones I knew about, but those hidden tracks were apparently fair game. Now, any time I write a new song I have to make a point to check through my recent playlists to make sure I'm not ripping someone off, hidden or otherwise.

Yeah, my game is taken from every movie. It's like The Matrix, Conan The Barbarian, a bad movie called Dangerous Ground, a little bit of The Crow, a little bit of Star Wars, there's gonna be a Fight Club subplot, and it's gonna be directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Well actually it's directed by me, but I will try to max-out on the zany turns in the plot and scenery as though it were North By Northwest.

I believe I should get inspiration from movies more often.
I've always been a big fan of Luc Besson's movies, like The Professionnal and Taken, and martial arts movies. I just love it when every character is a badass or a psycho and kicks everyone's butt with style. Ninja Assassin and Tony Jaa's movies are great for that too. The Crow (the first movie only) is awesome too. I'd love to play games that feel like these movies.

Because of Alain Delon, all of my male characters are too cool to convey their emotions.

Not movies so much as TV shows. Quality TV, like the Sopranos, the Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, etc (naturally gangland politics come from stuff like this). What these shows do that movies don't is in the characters. Long term character development and interactions are really the key of good storytelling, imo, and it's that level of character focus that I try to carry over into any creative project of mine.

Anything I do is inspired, mixed and baked with special sauce. The inspiration comes from movies, wikipedia random entries I read from time to time, games I've played, some animations I liked (or some parts when I really hate them)... (japanese animation, french... whatever I can see).
Everything makes me think about something, and that something ends being a new idea or an influence, like "what if?".
But anyway, my personal touch "ruins" it that much that gets to a unrecognisable state (the special sauce).
(I love your avatar Fallen).

New ideas find me spontaneously. Sometimes I get some sort of vision, it can happen anytime and literally anywhere xD But it also helps when I listen to Soundtracks, other music or watching movies and so on (although I fear that I'll steal ideas from the stuff I'm watching - unconscious, somehow >_>)

What I take from my favourite movies is that the setting has to have a sense of unity. Once that is established you can find creative ways to bring it out.

Plus Ridley Scott films, Alien, Legend, Blade Runner, Kingdom of Heaven, etc. all have a quiet, underplayed aspect about them that reminds me of the simplicity of in-game text in retro games. Heroes are quiet. Plots are simple. They all sort of are "stuck" in their environments, like a player who is exploring an open world. Reminds me that upon the player should want to explore, want to understand the dynamics of this setting, and instead of giving them something with near-infinite detail (a-la Elder Scrolls) you give them a lush veneer borne of the game's inherent simplicities.

Pirates of Caribbean inspired me to make characters have more comical attitude.

Ghostbusters 2 was on TV last night and inspired me to make an eccentric character who hunts down paranormal entities with gizmos and artifacts that seem ridiculously unlikely to work, and generally don't.