A Moment With
Nicola and Anthony Caulfield discuss their new Playstation documentary
Nicola and Anthony Caulfield tell us about their new Playstation documentary
Originally announced on Kickstarter in 2016 with a planned 2017 release, From Bedrooms To Billions: The Playstation Revolution is finally with us and is a fitting tribute to Sony’s popular console brand.
Here, Nicola and Anthony Caulfield reveal how it all came together.
Why focus on Playstation?
Nicola Caulfield: In the early Nineties there seemed a growing dissatisfaction from some developers with the games industry, which at that time was becoming more and more cartridge-dominated, with some developers leaving the industry altogether due to the risk-averse nature that was creeping in because of the expensive cartridge-based business model. The Playstation seemed to change a lot of this attitude, but on many levels, not just one specific thing, so we felt a feature-length film would give us the space to explore this further.
What has it been like, tracking down Japanese developers compared to British ones? Anthony Caulfield: The process was definitely harder but more because we had to establish all-new contacts, which thankfully we were able to do, but it just took time as they then needed to understand and support what we were trying to do.
Will this take a similar approach to your previous documentaries?
NC: In terms of style, there are similarities with the previous films in the From Bedrooms To Billions series in that the interviewees guide the viewer through the story, rather than a voice-over, however virtually everything we did prior to these films had voice-overs so it has been a nice change, though it’s much harder to create [a documentary] with no VO!
How much support did you receive from Sony?
AC: Sony politely requested from the start that they wanted this to be an independent film. However that doesn’t mean they weren’t helpful. They allowed us to film at their offices on at least three occasions, which also included access to Playstation president Jim Ryan, but also opened up their visual archive to us for several days and even helped us copy hours and hours of archive footage, which proved very helpful.
What makes The Playstation Revolution stand out from similar documentaries?
NC: With this film we feel it’s nice to have the wonderful line-up we have with a great spread of interviews from across several countries. To edit this together and make it flow took a lot of time, but we kept chipping away until it flowed right and we hope that fans of the Playstation will constantly be surprised by game creators suddenly popping up.
You’ve made several retro documentaries now, what are the hardest hurdles to navigate?
AC: It’s always got to be getting access to the people you want so you can establish a great variety of interviewees. In addition, once you’re editing to get the balance right of what you include, one person’s vital fact can be another’s mere footnote. […] They also need to entertain and, where possible, be accessible to those new to the subject matter.
Any interesting anecdotes you can share?
AC: We were particularly proud to be able to get a small reunion of the original Resident Evil team together at Capcom, and while we were dressing the set, they kept coming to us with one legendary prop after another across many of the games, such as the save game typewriter and pistol from the very first game. […] Everyone was taking photos and smiling, so it was a very special moment for all of us!
Any future projects planned?
NC: We formally started working with Rebellion Studios early into the production of The Playstation Revolution. This relationship has now continued into the production of a long-form series that explores the evolution of videogame design since the Sixties to the present day. It’s called The Evolution Of Video Games and we have been editing away at it for some time now. It has a cast list from all over the world, so it should be something quite special.