For the announcement of CONTROL Resonant at The Game Awards, the TGA organisers and Remedy went above and beyond, creating a dramatic and attention-grabbing performance both on and off screen. The epic reveal trailer was paired with an onstage performance, connecting the end of CONTROL to the events of its sequel. In the centre was Dylan, whose story tied the two pieces together.
Following the reveal, several people involved in the stage performance pulled back the curtain on their hopes, plans, and last-minute worries ahead of The Game Awards.
The Performance.
Following an introduction by Geoff Keighley, the scene begins with an actor suspended in darkness, minimally lit from below. Around them, the redacted pages from the FBC archives rain from the ceiling. As they float down, some pages appeared to feature a black and white photograph of Slide Projector, an important Object of Power from Dylan's childhood. The actor then moves to a horizontal position with sharp twitching movements, as the three large screens behind come to life, flashing the hypnotic red Hiss pulse screen. Seconds later, the screen transforms, showing the final cinematic from CONTROL; Jesse using her powers to purge The Hiss from her brother's mind, the actor onstage mimicking Dylan's pose. Shots of Polaris' fractural image are superimposed, the image getting more prominent, until the screen eventually goes black.
The sound of a chorus erupts as the scene resets. Green lights capture the smoke lying low on the ground. On stage is a clear box with thick, strong sides, a replica of Dylan's containment cell. Dull blue lights inside it highlight the claustrophobic nature of it. The actor descends on wires into the centre of the box and takes a seated position, his back to the audience. A close-up shows that he is wearing Dylan's grey outfit, with the name P6 in black on his back. "Do you feel it? Something's coming" is heard over the speakers, voiced by Resonant's lead, Sean Durrie. With the stage actor in silhouette centrestage, tesselating patterns in gold, green, blue and purple appear on the screen. A cacophony of sound, culminating in the fragile shaking of a rocking coffee cup. The performance seamlessly blends into the trailer.
It's an impressive sequence and one that perfectly captures Dylan's journey from the end of CONTROL and puts him front and centre for the sequel. In a series of social media posts following the presentation, developers at Remedy have revealed a little about how the stage performance came to be.
The Planning Stage.
Writing on Twitter, Remedy's Communication Director, Thomas Puha, wrote about his initial viewing of the box that would take centre stage. "Wasn’t even sure I’d make it to TGAs but I did. Seeing our glass box segment rehearsals a few days prior was awesome and again showed just how many incredible people work on The Game Awards. It really takes a village. My main concern was that the glass box was not gonna be a Spinal Tap Stonehenge situation." In the post, he references an iconic scene from the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap. In the scene, the band commissions a Stonehenge set for their stage performance, but incorrectly ends up with one measuring 18 inches rather than 18 feet. Given that the actor would need to fall gradually into the box, measurements were key.
Ensuring that things worked smoothly, discussions for the reveal were conducted far in advance. On his own profile, The Game Awards founder, Geoff Keighley revealed the timeline for such a project, posting "Our team had a lot of fun working with Remedy to create a very theatrical lead in to the CONTROL Resonant reveal at TGA. Many of these moments take months and months of work - we had our first meeting about this one in March."
Some of that work was touched on in CONTROL Resonant's Creative Director's post, which included a diagram from the planning stage. Mikael Kasurinen writes, "Behold. My nuanced yet expressive first sketch of the CONTROL Resonant TGA stage show - thank you awesome @geoffkeighley, @AnssiMaatta [Live-Action & Cinematics Director on CONTROL and Alan Wake 2], Kimmie Kim [Producer on The Game Awards] & whole @thegameaward crew for rolling with it and putting together such a magical show! @ControlRemedy."
Image Source: Mikael Kasurinen, Twitter.
