take a look at the bbc news Under the Matrix influence article look for the quote,
It is not just the influence the film has had on other films, however. The fluid design and 'bullet-time effect' (where bullets zip by in slow motion) has been used in computer games such as Max Payne.
i think they got it wrong acording to an interview in PC gamer with the the creators of Max Payne, they claim to have thaught up the idea of bullit time beffore the film had been made, the bbc realy should have read about the game a bit more before they accused it of plagorising the matrix just because it takes alot longer to make a game that looks as good as a film causing it to be released after the film.
Has this happened any other times?
Do you think the BBC should issue an appology?
i found the article in bbc new that you are refering to, having not seen the pc gamer article it is a bit hard to past comment.
However it is clear to me that which ever media outlet that has made the mistake needs to apoligise to the true creators of the effect.
i suspect that one or more parties has done limited research for thier article and only interviewed or found a very small amount of sources. Not exactly the best journalism i have seen.
-trekkie
Well, I read quite a few electronic entertainment magazines - (and I read that article on the bbc site too) and I have never read that the Max Payne developers invented that effect. It has been commented on, right from the games release, that it had Matrix inspired game play elements. It was in their own interest for the public to believe that too, as it helped sell the game!
I would be very interested in reading an article where the developers say anything else. The whole game plagiarises elements from film genres and comics anyway, ( the whole game is like one long John Woo action sequence, with a B movie plot) - so I think it is probably highly unlikely that they invented it. And tracking bullets, like the Max P. sniper rifle, has been done before long ago in movies such as 'Sniper'.
-Russ
I believe production of the matrix began in about 96/97 I have no idea whether max payne invented bullet time first or not, but, I think that somehow Max Payne can't have been in production from before the matrix.However, I do remember seeing a similar effect on a BBC nature program around the time of 97/98 which may take credit (I have no idea how long those things take to make). although, the effect they had was a still shot rather than the slow progression of time like in the matrix, they also didn't CG extra frames to extend the footage.
Having said that the effect in the game and the effect in The Matrix are logistically quite diferent anyway with one being about camera work, the film. The other being a good game effect.