Title: Insights

Director: Marin Barraud

Script: Marin Barraud

Length: 12 min

Shooting date: 22 - 25 June

I grew up like many of my generation with the growing influence of video games in our society. When I was younger, I used to watch the competitions as my father was watching rugby on the television. I had my favorite games, my favorite teams, my favorite players. From Counter Strike, where players are admired for their initiative, teamwork and unfailing reflexes like a 100-meters champion is for his endurance and power, to League of Legends, where tournaments look like a chess games in which each player controls a piece.

But very quickly I realized that this still very young world was already perverted by the same vices as its traditional cousins, between doping and match fixing. But, unlike world-renowned sports competitions such as the Tour de France, which have the means to provide effective screening devices (whether Lance Armstrong likes it or not), eSport cheats are rarely caught.

And it is this injustice that makes me decide to show that, having the opportunity to make a short film on the subject of my choice, even if I understand that the temptation is great for an athlete who is playing his career, people's passion for sport, from the most recognized to the most underground, on a stadium or a screen, deserves to be respected.

The story in a few words

Mael, a young professional video game player, plays the final stages of the world championships with his team. When they lose to doped opponents, they can no longer make mistakes and must win all their matches. Tension is rising between Mael and his teammates, who have all decided to dope themselves up.

Director's intention

I chose to talk about eSport because it is a subject that is close to my heart and speaks to me a lot. Since I discovered the Internet, I have been watching and looking for new video game competitions. I find the atmosphere interesting and particularly attractive. So it is this atmosphere in which I want to immerse the spectator. I want him to feel what I feel when I attend a competition. I chose to focus my story on a player because, for me, they experience many things that can influence their performance and state of mind.

My short film also talks about the self-confidence you can have when everything works for you and what you feel and suffer when you can no longer do what you used to do. How far are we willing to go to keep our lives "before"? In the video game world, people often act more out of interest than out of sympathy. Many structures and players are ready to do the unthinkable for money or glory.

I wanted to integrate the drug and doping component into it because, as in all sports, in eSport, it is possible to boost performance. Doping is probably the thing that brings together absolutely all sports. I want to show that in this environment, some people have the right to doping with substances and others do not. Americans all have prescriptions for Aderall, a psychostimulant that boosts brain capacity. Europeans, on the other hand, cannot obtain them so easily, which creates a segregation according to continents. So, the game is no longer fair.

The technical team

We are mainly students of the Eicar Film School and we are making this short film as part of our end-of-year second year project.

Director: Marin Barraud

Director of Photography: Orysia Murat

1st Assistant Director: Alexandre Cossin

Insights (Short Film)