Matrix 4/UE5 demo - The Storytelling Techniques The Artists Used to Suspend Our Disbelief
Image from Matrix 4/Unreal Engine 5 Trailer
5 short days ago, a the Game Awards 2021, Unreal Engine unleashed their trailer for the in-game experience of the Matrix 4 and a demonstration of the mind-boggling power of Unreal Engine 5.
Watching the trailer, which featured Keanu and Carrie (along with a stock Meta-Human...) I was awestruck by the visual experience. BUT, I also had moments of flipping back and forth between being convinced by the visual, and the inevitable uncanny valley that creeps in, especially in high-realism productions (remember Tom Hanks likeness in The Polar Express?)
As a storyteller/game designer, I spend a great deal of time thinking about something called "suspension of disbelief." This is an unspoken contract between the artist and the audience that sets up the premise that we both agree that what we are seeing isn't reality, but we agree to join the artist on the performance journey as if it were real. The artist does everything they can to be as believable in the context of the environment, and the audience agrees to suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy the artist's work.
What then, of the uncanny valley, where we are presented with objects that appear to be human but something just doesn't look/feel/behave right? Why do we have an easier time accepting the emotional life of a character like WALL-E (no one can deny the humanity in that little robot despite looking nothing like a human) and we reject the emotional life of incredibly life-like characters?(for me, Tom Hanks Conductor was creepy, and I like Tom Hanks!) The uncanny valley is something that game designers must deal with and find ways to entice their audience to suspend their disbelief.
Image of Keanu Reeves from Matrix 4/Unreal Engine 5 Trailer
The Keanu avatar. When studied closely it has subtle differences from the filmed Keanu in the previous image.
What I appreciated in the Matrix/UE5 trailer was the recognition of this uncanny valley by the Matrix artists. Subtle moments like Keanu/Thomas saying, "for instance, I am not even sure why I am here..." is a moment where the artist tells the audience that they know what is being asked of them and invites them to play along. It is a bit of something called "breaking the fourth wall" where the actor/character steps in and out of their role in order to help transition into a fantasy and illusion that everyone accepts. It subtly asks the audience to stop trying to figure out what is real and what isn't and enjoy the ride.
There is a moment where Keanu switches from a video/film version to a 3D model moment when he says, "how do we know what is real?" that, again, reinforces the blending of realities that is being presented. The artists then flip back and forth between "real" Keanu (one in a looking glass, hint hint) and a "virtual" Keanu dressed the same and continuing the previous thought.
Next we see Carrie, and then multiple Carrie’s, then other characters moving exactly like Carrie. As we continue to watch, Keanu and Carrie ask us to imagine what is possible.
And just like the moment of being plugged into the Matrix, we are in, “whoa, what just happened?” Our hosts help us transition to the action-packed world the Matrix because “they were fine with your theoretical mumbo-jumbo, but they wanted some sexy action.”
“Marketing? I thought we were supposed to have TOTAL creative control.”
“Welcome to the Matrix…”
Just to be clear, this is a Trinity avatar being “worn” by Carrie-Ann Moss
This banter is reminding us that, like costumes, these are avatars and it is still Carrie and Keanu. They, like other players in a game, are just playing the roles of Neo and Trinity.
“I sometimes miss this version of us.”
“Me too.”
The artists understand us. They understand that what we are seeing is REALLY CLOSE to being believable, but there is just a little bit of trust needed to accept the cognitive dissonance that we sense. More importantly, the thing you can trust is that REAL PEOPLE are inside these convincing avatars. Oh yeah, you remember that this is all happening inside a game?
From the backseat, a new character breaks up the reverie. “I was told this was a sim preparing me to fight the system?” This is now a full-on MetaHuman, (voiced by an actor I would like to identify, but there are no credits that I could find…) The MetaHuman is a new technology released by Unreal that seeks to model and animate highly believable people.
Neo sees that as his cue to exit, and he flies off.
With this expository transition, we get to see some gameplay, followed by a demonstration of all the groundbreaking technologies being released as part of the Unreal Engine 5 system.
What a ride! By integrating the awareness of the cognitive shift with this highly realistic but not quite bridging the uncanny valley aesthetic and player/gamer ethos, the artists behind making this trailer brought a high-level of skill for helping their audience suspend their disbelief. Rather than expecting us to just step into their world, they acknowledge our perspective and invite us in. By being enticed to invest our time and belief in the world being created (which is unlike anything we seen in a game), we trust that our time and attention will be worth it. And boy was it ever.
The Matrix 4/UE5 trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0gvPcc3jQ
Great review and commentary of the demo from a graphics slant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gry36cT3TdI&t=96s