Sandbox

ESSAY: DON’T CALL IT FOUND FOOTAGE: SANDBOX AS JEU VIDEO VÉRITÉ

Charlotte Clerici, Lucas Azemar, Sandbox (Bac à sable), 2023

One of the most captivating yet overlooked facets of Sandbox, an ethnographic and impressionistic study by Lucas Azémar and Charlotte Cherici of a French Grand Theft Auto V roleplay server, is the filmmakers’ innovative and meticulous process. To fully appreciate the originality of their documentation, it is essential to understand the context in which it was created.

As previously mentioned, Azémar and Cherici encountered the French GTA V roleplay community on Twitch, Amazon’s gaming streaming platform. Roleplay refers to a community of players who assume the identities and behaviors of specific characters, interacting with others in a manner driven by narrative or real-life simulation, diverging from the predefined storyline set by Rockstar Games. This vibrant subculture within the broader GTA V user community is often enhanced through modifications (mods) that enable more detailed interactions, exemplified by well-known platforms such as FiveM and GTA Network. These players choose Twitch as their preferred broadcasting platform, streaming gaming sessions live to an audience that includes both roleplayers and non-roleplayers. Both filmmakers are well-versed in gaming culture. Azémar, in particular, delved into gaming themes in his first film, Life on Earth, which was his graduation project at the prestigious school HEAD (acronym of Haute École d’Art et de Design) in Geneva, Switzerland. Similarly, Cherici has explored the concept of roleplay, though her focus has extended beyond digital environments.

Their first joint endeavor, Sandbox, captures the dynamics of a French roleplaying community in an exploratory and experimental, rather than didactic, style. Azémar and Cherici adopt an ethnographic approach, positioning themselves as both observers and engaged participants. Mirroring the style of Knit’s Island, the documentary eschews traditional talking heads and omniscient narration. Instead, it unfolds through a series of vignettes where players fully embody their chosen identities throughout their interactions. Exceptions occur with the occasional trolls or uninformed users, who are either expelled or gently asked to leave the server, informally “the island”, by the all-seeing referees. To preserve the authenticity essential to this unique form of play, Azémar and Cherici opted to forgo the traditional method of editing found footage collected from Twitch. Instead, they fully immersed themselves in the game’s environment to pursue what we can call a specific kind of jeu video vérité (truthful gaming), the game video essay equivalent of cinema vérité, a documentary filmmaking that combines naturalistic techniques with observational cinema, emphasizing a candid approach to its subjects. 

Jeu vidéo vérité embodies a particular style of game video essay that aims to capture and present video game experiences in a truthful, impressionistic, and immersive manner. This method proves effective and viable, emphasizing the authenticity of virtual experiences through spontaneous and unscripted interactions within digital gaming environments. 

Among the features of jeu vidéo vérité we can identify direct engagement…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Sandbox (Bac à sable)

Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azemar

documentary, 58’, 2023, France

Production: Jérôme Blesson

Screenplay: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Filming: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Editing: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar, Mila Olivier

Music: Simon Averous

Sound: Pierre Oberkampf

Life on Earth

Lucas Azemar

short, 35’, 2019, Switzerland/France 

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VIDEO ESSAY: BAC À SABLE AS GTA V ETHNOGRAPHY

Selected for Cinéma du Réel in 2023, Sandbox (Bac à sable) is the directorial debut of Lucas Azémar and Charlotte Cherici. Entirely shot entirely within a Grand Theft Auto 5roleplay server, this documentary offers a deep dive into a French gamer community that transcends the conventional or “expected” gameplay. 

In gaming jargon, the term sandbox refers to a style of gameplay where players can explore and interact with a world with minimal limitations on their actions. Sandbox games typically offer a high degree of freedom, allowing players to create, modify, or destroy their environment and influence the simulated reality in both minor and significant ways. This can range from constructing buildings to altering the landscape, to creating intricate narratives or scenarios. Given this definition, sandbox as a title for a documentary about roleplay within a game like Grand Theft Auto V is quite apt. In fact, GTA V’s roleplay servers function as a sandbox environment in the truest sense: they provide a framework within which players can live out complex, interwoven lives as characters of their own creation, with the game world serving as an open canvas for their narratives. These servers expand the conventional boundaries of the game, moving beyond its original missions and storylines to embrace a form of play that is driven entirely by player choice and creativity. Players on these servers adopt nuanced character identities and engage in narrative-driven activities, effectively sidelining the original storyline crafted by Rockstar Games. Such depth in interaction is facilitated by mods like FiveM or GTA Network, which make the roleplay experience possible.

Sandbox allows viewers to explore the lives of various characters – doctors, police officers, store owners and workers – each portrayed with unique backgrounds and ambitions. The documentary highlights the importance of server administrators who enforce rules to maintain realism and order, drawing parallels with super partes entities. These administrators are crucial in ensuring adherence to the roleplay’s shared norms and reprimanding those who deviate. Staying in character and respecting the assigned role is non-negotiable. 

Through its ethnographic lens, reminiscent of the approach seen in Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’s Knit’s Island, Sandbox is composed of self-contained vignettes that focus more on standalone, self enclosed narratives rather than recurring characters, with the notable exception of Astrio, the vigilant moderator depicted as a guardian of gameplay integrity, a Watchmen character donning a white suit and a hat, his face covered by a mask.

The film begins intriguingly with a “machinima within a machinima” – a meta-narrative technique where a shootout scene between thugs and special ops officers, viewed by avatars in a Los Santos movie theater, sets the stage. This is followed by a sequence featuring a job interview for a Weazel News cameraperson, possibly an alter ego of the director(s), intended for “research purposes”, illustrating the “free” nature of roleplay environments where participants shape their experiences within the confines of the world they inhabit.

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Sandbox (Bac a sable)

Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

documentary, 58’, 2023, France

Production: Jérôme Blesson, La belle affaire productions

Screenplay: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Filming: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Editing: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar, Mila Olivier

Music: Simon Averous

Sound: Pierre Oberkampf

Mixing: Frédéric Belle

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.