Assignment 1: The Rough Cut Video

Greetings my army of loyal mutants and various other subjects of the... oh wait... wrong speech.... Ok. Joke's done: I finally managed to get the shots together, showing what I wanted for this particular project on the theme of power. What I can say is that it worked out fairly well... despite a laundry list of problems that need to be fixed for the final shooting of the video but more on that later. Right now: I present the rough cut of... I have no idea what I'm going to call this thing... anyways....here it is:

Now having seen the video in all its glory... the list of problems with this thing that I have at this moment I'll come back to in a moment. Because those who have been following the blog will have probably noticed that there were number of planned shots that did not materialize in the rough cut, and will also not appear in the final cut. The two shots in question:

The audio recording that explained the existence of the cache - this was dropped on account of it being completely irrelevant. It adds nothing to the plot and if anything confuses the heck out of things.
The bandaging of a wound - two reasons that this was dropped: The first was the cost factor: I don't have the money lying around. The second major reason was the venue I'm filming in has carpeted floor... so drips and drops would just get lost in the carpet, and then I would have to clean the carpet - complications compounded as I have NO idea what would get that stuff out - note to facility managers - Less carpet, easier for me to film and lower cleaning costs all round.

So looking at the laundry list of problems, well, most of them are related primarily to the audio and there are some camera angle and timing issues - based on the rough cut of course. So looking first at the audio:

1. Something is supposed to be banging on the door for a while, and the going away. thinking of making it growl as well, scratch and claw at the door.
2. The audio track in the background... not sure if there is going to be one because I think that might detract from the mood unless I can find something very suitable/appropriate for it. I'm not sure what to use but its probably going to be rock or metal.... maybe Drowning Pool, Trapt... maybe even Bon Jovi
3. Sound effects well given the ending I have in mind some serious gunfire needs to be found, as well as the voice screaming a challenge... I think I sound... kinda gay when you playback my voice... see if I can get Morgan Freeman or maybe Samual L. Jackson to scream out the line of dialogue I have in mind...

Now in terms of filming:

1. Camera angles need some work in this one to get things to flow smoother - especially the tracking shot across the table.
2. Shorter on the loading clip.
3. Shorter on the storing clip.
4. Shorter on the blaster assembly.

Having given this some serious thought, I'm thinking about revamping the script just to get a better scale of the scope and power of the weaponry involved... I know they are just Nerf blasters, but Nerf afficanados know that in terms of tacti-cool appearance it generally goes from the small or core blasters through the full blasters then the bigger blasters. So in terms of how things get picked up... I'm thinking of revamping the order, going from the reloading sequence to the blaster selection: from Core Recon with 6 dart mag, to Recon with Stock with 12 dart mag, then a Full Retaliator with a 12 dart, then adding the 18 dart mag and then adding the Laser sight, PPS, and assault grip, then the stampede, adding the assault bipod and laser sight with the 25 drum mag.

I figure this will give that escalation of POWER as the weapons get more and more impressive.

Now given that a fair number of people have seen the rough -- including a bunch of people I bullied/bribed/cajoled in to watching it, a strange question that came up: "WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE WE SEE THE CHARACTER?" Hmm... I'm not sure I actually want to answer that by adding filming or even if I want to answer that at all at this point. Whaddaya all think?

But for now... what I need to finalize are this laundry list of problems that need to be attended to, and also the revamped and final version of the script. There goes my weekend off...

Assignment 1: an update.

Well… moving right along. Having made a couple of simplistic movies and a couple of AMVs in my time using some very basic software, I figured that I should probably do a little background research in to film making and video editing before going any further. After all, I’m looking to get awesome grades for this project so I want to push the boundaries of what I can do. So research wise, I found myself going to all the dark corners of the internet, but it paid of quite handsomely as I found this  which is a pretty awesome place to go for beginners looking to make movies and film. The short version of all the advice, pointers and guidance looks like this:

Make sure you batteries are fully charged.

1. A large enough memory card with enough free space on it… you should be able to get away with a 4GB card, but I KNOW I’ve an 8GB floating around somewhere.
2. Make sure your lens is clean otherwise that’s going to ruin your shots.
3. A stable base also helps – a tripod is really useful here obviously, or if you can rest it on some flat surface at the right angle. On a side note: one thing I found was that a lot of the advice was that you don’t want to move the camera too much but get the subject(s) to move more.
4. Focus on the subject for at least five seconds.
5. Make sure you balance and compose the shots (composition, proportion and the rule of thirds… everyone who did games narrative or is doing games narrative will know what that means).
6. Lighting is a separate thing but in general: you don’t want lighting from BEHIND. This will cast A LOT of shadows on everything you do, which basically makes it really dark and gloomy… unless that’s the effect you’re trying to get.  Put lights in the front to properly illuminate and if necessary use a deflector (cardboard and aluminium foil, shiny side out for those who plan to DIY like this one here.

At this point, shout out and thanks to my lecturer – most of you know who he is – who gave me a well-deserved metaphorical slap to the back of the head a-la Gibbs from NCIS. I needed it because my problem has always been the same thing: Perfection… when I don’t have the budget, and I don’t have any experience going LOW BUDGET…. It’s probably why my modded NERF Blasters cost me a small fortune…

 Anyways.... I figured I’d do up a detailed – really detailed – outline of how the whole project is going to shape up before I start doing any rough filming… I managed to track down one decent enough camera that has an audio pick up, but I can always record the audio at a later time. Given the current plan, ain’t that much audio anyways so that works for me…. It will be a few lines of dialogue at the moment. The problem will be trying to find the right music for a soundtrack…. Not sure if I want to go moody creepy violin or just hard rock and metal…. But with over 60gbs of music I got to be able to find SOMETHING. More on that later… now to the whole plan thing: Looks like this:

Event	Camera angle	Sound effects.	Props/misc stuff
Running along a corridor. Fires two shots wild over his shoulder. Stumbles. Gets up. Keeps running	Fixed camera angle, tripod. Running up the corridor. Will run past the camera	Gunshots A growl from a monster
One person staggers in. Slams door.	Fixed camera angle, tripod, other side of the door.	Door slam sound effect
Close up face Sweat, blood Semi healed scratches on the face Looks down Checks his weapon. Out of ammo. “fuck.” Checks second: Out of ammo “Well… fuck… “	Close up on the face,     Zoom out/ cut away shot	Heavy breathing       dialogue	2 low grade nerf blasters: core recon CS-6 jolt pistol.
Door shakes and he jumps off it. Barricades up the door Silence. Whatever is out there goes away. Breathes a sigh of relief	Second fixed camera angle. To show the door, and the stuff used to barricade it.	Banging on the door	Junk to barricade the door with.
Turns around to face the room close up on face over the table camera angle eyes widen in surprise blink walk towards the table. …”interesting”	Close up on face Pan shot towards the table
Food, water, med kit Lots of guns, lots of ammo A tape recorder with a message taped to it “play me”	Pan shot over the table, stops on the tape recorder. Pressing play	Audio recording. “day 74…. Only three of us remain. Whoever finds this cache, I … we hope that… it helps… that you survive. For us, there is no more running. We draw the line here. We fight, and if we die…. We die in a pile of brass! Legion 31-10, signing off.”	Nerf Blasters: 2x stampedes 1x recon 1x retaliator 1x longshot – custom build 1x jolt pistol Multiple mags (6,12,18) Ammo bags x2-3 Scattered darts. Bottles of water Snacks A medkit prop
Close up on the face, idiot grin. Wipes away sweat. “Heh…Power up”	Close up on the face
Water Drinks, spills, soaks the shirt Rises out his hair	Mid range shot		Full water bottle
Patches up a couple of wounds, focus on face close up expression	Mid range shot		That medkit
Turns to the table. Starts loading magazines, Loads a few blasters Gun harness/rigs Camel back. Fill a backpack	Pan over the table Background sounds of weapons being loaded etc The stop on him still loading a clip Mid range, adjusting harnesses, slings etc. Donning the backpack		Table top with all the accessories.
Hip 2 Shoulders 2 SMG on a sling Main battle rifle in hand. Something smashes against the barricaded door Barricades begin to collapse the cocking/priming of weapons. Kicks open the door. Charges out, starts to fade. Fades to black, Moster/creature roar “come on you mindless mother fucker!” gun fire	Close up on adjusting armor etc… lord of the rings – aragon scene.   Second fixed camera angle,   Shoulder/over the shoulder camera/gun camera     See a pair of glowing eyes.	Whatever sound effects fit for such a scene       Crash sound     Weapon priming       Dialogue

VENUE: Need a corridor with a room at the end of it.  I know a corridor that fits.. that’s half the fight. The other half will be finding the right room: Decent sized, not too large, few windows, curtained/blinded. I want the half shadows sorta feel for this one.

LIGHTING CONSIDERATIONS
Lighting will be relatively low, but fixed in the corridor
Room lighting will be brighter 2/3rds half shadows. Edge lighting primarily, some limited use of reflectors to get the light on the characters face as appropriate

SOUNDTRACK: Two possible three different songs cut together, fade in and fade out. I might dust off my outdated copy of virtual DJ and see if I can mix something up, otherwise I’ll just use basic cut, fades, intros and outros. Time is the critical consideration here.

 

Now to source the venue, and camera person

Assignment 2: The rough plan.

Winning... hmm... so having looked at winning in games. What I'm planning  is something a whole lot simpler. What I'm planning is essentially a first person POV of someone taking on an army of opponents and winning. This "hero" will of course have back up and teammates cowering in cover, who will join the charge for the win.  You could consider this a blend between the famous first person POV sequence from the movie Doom that will let me showcase a win - of a sort.

The problem is I don't have the same amount of time for this project, as I did the other project (Power) so with about two, maybe three weeks to get this one done, I'm looking at some SERIOUS time pressure - hence two posts on this project in one day - So I'm thinking of going seriously low tech to speed things up here.

At this point, I don't even have access to a proper video camera, so going "low tech" and quick-and-dirty: Cellphone footage is going to have to be about it for the filming part of things. So with such small cameras, I figure what I'm going to do is tape a cellphone or two to a couple of NERF blaster to capture the gun camera angle footage I want.

Now that I know what the camera angles are going to be, I need to figure out what exactly they will be filming, to get that victory element. Since its gun cameras, I figure the EASIEST  thing would be the slaughter of a horde of zombies  that stand between the survivors and escape/freedom.

Venue wise, I figure I'm going to need some place fairly narrow and confined - a corridor would be ideal or some kind of large room/open space.

literally, the plot doesn't get any simpler than this: the survivors stumble in to said room... yeah I'm thinking two or three survivors at this point. and then they jam the door shut, and then hear the growling/groan of a zombie... and have the classic oh shit moment: Blocked door at your back, horde of undead at your front. Survivors by your side.

The zombies charge as a horde, the survivors basically gun and run their way through the horde, maybe not all the survivors make it through the horde alive - depending on how many "survivors" initially, depends how many will survive. I am considering having different camera angles at the beginning and end just to capture the moment better. But to go in close on the gun cam, I'm thinking just one or two survivor gun cameras otherwise its going to get confusing. Full script to follow in a couple of hours probably....

Assignment 1.... Power, Games and Guns

Soooo.... after a spectacular crash and burn a few minutes ago. I've gotta come back to this with both guns blazing. To review what needs to be done:

1. must be something already done in game
2. completable within three weeks
3. viewable on this blog
4. follow the theme of POWER!

The interesting thing was that when I presented that I'd screwed the pooch... I managed to pick up a number of useful pointers. The key thing was to break down the media examples:

1. consider the individual elements:
2. sounds (ambiant, directly related)
3. variety is key for certain background elements (different voices cheering, different ways people clap, different gunshot sounds extra).

In essence, What I want to show is that scene or rather those moments the trashed good guys stagger in to cover, take a break, rest, regroup and then go back in tot he fight. Now if you are looking at where this is done in games:

 

1. Final Fantasy 8 has done this in a number of different ways... but it's not something that is actually showcased in any great detail. For example: Disc 1  just before "serious negotiations" with President Deling.  The screen cap shows the thoughts of Squall Leonhart, with "GF's equipped" highlighted in yellow. This is the moment that leads to the gearing up - the video linked above at 04:15 takes you to the equipment/inventory interface to setup your characters for battle.

 

2. Gears of War 3's opening cinematic has this, but very briefly in the last twenty or so seconds of the video. What comes before that is all a monologue/summary of events, but when she actually spraypaints on the emblem on to the side of her Lancer Assault Rifle. It's a sign of mental strength, not just the physical strength that is innate to her as a soldier.

3. The Left 4 Dead 2 opening cinematic is essentially a gear up, gear up, gear up some more opening cinematic. they start out with only melee weapons, find some firearms, then somebody gets a .50 Caliber machine gun, then a grenade launcher... Of course, this is over the progress of the game but I think you all get the idea.



Now the main inspiration for what I want to do is actually easiest explained in the ending moments of the Left 4 Dead introduction video and the first moments of gameplay from the No Mercy campaign: The Apartments. To sum it up: After having fought through a horde of infected, and killing a Tank with an apartment building's fire escape balconies and stairs, the four survivors are essentially armed with nothing but their 9mm pistols. A pile of ammo, med packs, pump action shotguns and Uzi submachine guns are on a table near by.  So what's the first that happens? Everyone grabs something. In many ways, this is the epitome of what I will be trying to do with my little video project. Indeed, this "power up" moment is possible at the outset of any map in any campaign of both Left4Dead and Left4Dead 2.

Given that this is a game, there are similiar power up points scattered all over the different maps. Sometimes its just an ammo pile to restock, sometimes there's a better weapon or weapons - better not necessarily more effective/efficient/useful weapon in a given situation. Others include pipe bombs and molotov cocktails scattered about in random corners. I think the pictures  describe what I mean:

Now for a shamless self plug/promotion: My fanfiction based on the No Mercy Campaign of Left4Dead can be found here.

In fact, such "weapon uprgrades" and ammo scavenging is prevalent on most First Person Games from Modern Warfare 1,2,3 through to the Left4Dead franchise, the Mass Effect franchise. In games where the enemy are human or humanoid alien, they tend to drop their weapons so you can pick them up when you get close enough and let's face it: If you're killing the bad guys or the other team, you are going to have to scavenge weapons at some point because you just run out of ammo. I'm still trying to find pictures to show this - video just doesn't cut it here... maybe I'll go and replay the gmae to get the shots I want... sigh... there goes my bandwidth for a week...

So in the Left4Dead universe at least - if not in the "world" of most FPS games - there seems to be no real logical reason as to where you can find such caches of weapons, explosives and firearms which fits in quite well with what I'm planning on filming.

 

In other media such as movies, this is easiest seen in war movies and those of the action adventure variety:

1. Battle Los Angeles (from 02:36) and again in Black Hawk Down an example of physical war fighting knowledge and skill and power. Of course, the Battle LA scene is at the end of the movie but it shows the power and skill of these soldiers who have gone through hell, "had breakfast" and go back in to battle. Black Hawk Down shows the Delta and Rangers gearing up before heading to war.  
2. Doom does this very indirectly as shown in this short video clip with a single line of dialogue - I can't find a video of the scene - "Quaratine Cordon is Breached! Situation is no longer containment! Grab all the weapons and ammo you can carry. We, are going through!" That one line makes clear what they are going to do: Gear up and really start hunting whatever creature/mutant/demon/monster thing that has escaped back to Earth.
3. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, specifically Aragon preparing for war at the siege of Helm's Deep, showcases his physical prowess as a soldier, the power of having friends and allies who will fight alongside him. The particular video sequence - which I can't find on YouTube is exactly the display of power, and also prowess that I hope to emulate.

 Now the obvious question is how this is used in games? Well... honestly speaking its not done much in the actual games themselves... this is something that is often left for the players to decide or resolve, as a break in the plot.

 

The Final Fantasy series does this constantly, allowing players to adjust weapons, tweak settings, powers ups, magic, costumes etc at almost any given time in the game, and in some cases will actually make sure players can do tweak and make adjustments before major boss battles or key events/moments pivotal to plot exposition - as long as it's not a cut scene.

 

Some games, however do give you a few moments to setup your equipment and weaponryas you like. one example of this is the various different "training missions" found in a variety of FPS games. Sniper: Ghost Warrior does it, Modern Warfare 2 does it, the entire set of tutorials and "boot camp" from Medal of Honor, Pacific Assault does it as well. Modern Warfare 2 had the best video so I went with that (found here), and a few pictures as well.

 

So... how the "plot" shapes up:

• A group staggering in to cover/shelter/stronghold of somekind, with a few "low level" weapons.

• Rest, recover somewhat
• Upgrade the weapons,
• Heal injuries.
• Relaod magazines
• the kick open the door and go back in to battle.
• Media element:
• The problem with videos and filmiing is that the audience is somewhat limited in what they can experience. They can see, emote and emphatise. They cannot actually feel, touch or taste anything that happens on screen.  So it comes down to the visuals and sound.

What I want to emphasize is the sounds:

• Battle in the background, softer, but eventually getting louder as the fight they ran from comes closer.
• some wounds being bandaged up, grimances, facial expressions
• the sound of magazines being loaded, grenades being slung and so forth.
• knuckle cracking, the cocking/priming of weapons.
• the sound of the door slamming open

Camera angles and lighting and dialogue and audio I've not given too much thought to but I"m keeping it fairly simple for now:

• maybe limited variation in camera angles to get in for close ups.
• dialogue will be limited.
• considering making the room shake (I'll shake a camera)

I see the whole video being about two to three minutes in length. I don't think it gets any simpler or more effective than this.

Assignment 1... SCREWED!

So yeah... having spent the weekend playing around with Adobe After Effects, photoshop, moviemaker is that what I am actually trying to do is not just beyond my ability... but so far beyond my ability at the moment I should be looking in NARNIA for the right skills to do this.

I guess its a good learning experience if nothing else because I've figured out what my limits are at the present time in terms of being able to use video editing software and technology... something for me to work on in the future.

The fact is: I grew up with some epic games, moview and media in general that I CANNOT do yet... so crash and burn on the current plan... I'm gonna need to come up with something new and damned fast...

My landing at this point is going to be remarkably similiar to hers.

Winning and Victory in media these days...

Welll.... here's the thing in almost every sorta book, movie, story, game you play, you play for one reason only: TO WIN! It does not matter if your opponent is a dumb-as-a-rock-AI, or eight-nine-ten-year-olds. It doesn't matter if you have a team of as dumb-as-rock-AI, or eight-nine-ten-year-olds... in 99% of the situations you find yourself playing a game, you are playing to win:


 Nerf Damansara Game in SS2 a few weeks ago. Don't recall if I was at the backof my "army" screaming "CHARGE! TAKE NO PRISONERS!" or cowering and thinking , "Let them all get shot first!"

Getting back to the assignment at hand: Winning, Victory, Games, Movies, Books, etc....
A wise lecturer - said during a Fundementals of Game Development Class last semester that:

"A Game is a play situation with rules

the rules create goals and obstacles

the means of overcoming the obstacles have to be interesting

Interesting means giving players choices"

So in games when you go for the win, how do you do it? The honest answer is that it depends on not just the genre of the game, but on the Game itself. An easy example is to compare Mass Effect 3 possible endings with those of say Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, and Modern Warfare 3: Where Mass Effect gives you the ultimate pseudo choice of how to end things, Modern Warfare does not. but this does not make the victory any less sweet when you achieve it.

RTS games such as command and conquer tend to have awesome cut scenes and cinema/movie quality movies at the beginning and end (when you win) of the games. The same can also be said of various RPG games such as Dragon Age (DAI and DAII), and the very old Dungeon Siege franchise. In essence the ending cinematics are what making fighting/slaughtering your way through HOURS worthwhile. so if they get this part wrong - as they did with the original ending to Mass Effect 3... well let's just say things get ugly FAST.

In contrast, the entire Warhammer 40,000 franchise featuring the Blood Ravens (that's Dawn of War, Dawn of War II and Retribution) has had some awesome cinematics as linked. Even the expansion packs had some fairly awesome cinematics. I particularly enjoyed the Imperial Guard ending from Winter Assault, and there are just too many victory scenematics in Dark Crusade and Soul Storm to choose from. One Thing I would like to point out was that while Dawn of War II's Chaos Rising expansion pack had a solid enough ending to it, it hinted at Darker things to come which were delivered in the Retribution expansion pack.

One of the most cinematic style movie endings I have seen and still remember fondly is the ending cinematics from the Final Fantasy Series: Final Fantasy 8, X, amd X-2, which is also done in Deus Ex Human Revolution. This is a game where the ending was truly the player's choice as to what kind of victory they wanted to win: there are four main choices... but there were sub choices (alledgedly) creating a total of 12 different endings (Jensen's monologue varies).

Other games that give you the happy ending include Starcraft (I'm talking the Protoss Campaign in Starcraft, NOT BROODWARS). Of course, on a rare occassion, the "bad guys" do win - mostly because the player is the bad guy: Starcraft Broodwars Zerg campaign comes to mind, as does Dungeon Keeper 1 and Dungeon Keeper 2, and more recently Dungeons.


In many movies the good guys tend to win - good guys being a relative term because there are such thing's as Anti-Heroes, and the so-called Dark Hero. more on that in a bit. The good guys winning you see in just about every humans versus aliens war movie - most recent would be Battle Los Angeles and others include the likes of Independence Day. Needless to say two recent movies where the good guys basically steamroll the hell out of the opposition would be The Expendables and EX2. Now looking at the anti-hero or dark hero the immediate few that pop in to my mind are: Jack Reacher, Pitch Black, and Chronicles of Riddick and Blade and Blade 2 Bloodhunt.

Fiction Novels are very, very guilty of this of the good guys either the happy ending or (when there's a sequal) hope that they CAN win: Almost any mainstream author and title you mention will have the good guys winning, and saving the day. A few that I can think off right off the top of my head:
Tom Clancy - Patriot Games, Rainbow Six (YES THE BOOK CAME BEFORE THE GAME!), The Sum of all Fears, Executive Decision, The Hunt for Red October, the entire NETForce series.
Dan Brown - Digital Fortress, Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code.
Clive Custler - Pacific Vortex!, Atlantis Found, Inca Gold, Raise the Titanic
Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood
Dan Abnett - Gaunt's Ghosts Series, Eisenhorn and Ravenor collection.
Stephanie Meyer - Twilight Series, and of course her other stand alone novel, "Host".

The one thing that has always kinda irked me with a lot of these writers is that they seem to minimize the injury that their principal characters sustain, be it physical, emotional or psychological. It is understandable as killing the central character kills the story - unless you 're writing a tragedy or something to that effect - ending a series/franchise is a common cause of this. Suffice to say that my fanfiction work has gone against the grain here - I kill a lot of characters important to Harry, break up the "Golden Trio," and go so far as to throw in a LOT of heart break and guilt. Link to parts 1 and 2 of this orgy of destruction are here and here respectively. Admitedly, children's writers are even more guilty of this:
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter franchise either has a happy ending for every book (1-3 and 7) or one that ends on an upbeat/positive note despite the gathering storm (4-6)
Christopher Paolini: Eragon, Elder, Eldest
CS Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia
Enid Blyton - Famous Five and Secret Seven series
Franklin W. Dixon - The Hardy Boys series

I could go forever here.... but I think the point has been made on books that you almost always get a happy ending or at least a satisfactory ending. If the ending is neither of those, it's a pretty safe bet that  there's a sequal lurking around somewhere in the author's head. That said, a happy ending does not prevent an author from bringing a character back and tormeting them a whole lot more - Dan Brown puts Robert Langdon through a lot.

Books and movies tend to flow in to one another as books get made in to movies and vice versa the fact that they are different mediums telling the same story does not detract from the genre fact that the good guys or the anti-hero (and on occassion the bad guy) wins.

But like all games there has to be a plot and that plot will involve obstacles and rules that have to be followed so that the player can win.Trainers, hacks and cheats can break the rules of the game... but where' the fun in that? You win without having to work for it which can make even the best game soooo utterly pointless to play.

 So if that is winning and victory in games... just what the hell am I going to do for the assignment? Ideas and comments will be welcome! I am admitedly thinking something NERF Related, but a whole lot simpler than my nutty force powers idea....


assignment 2: winning

Winning. I win! He wins! They win! WIN! WIN! WIN!



The second assignment follows the theme of victory now. What I would really like to do is something related to my other rather bizzare hobby: Nerf. Again because I'm looking to develop my video editing skills, it's going to be a video of some kind. But before getting in to the nuts and bolts of how that assignment's gonna look like/turn out/ feel. I figure I should take a BIG step back and just make sure I understand the concept of winning. So I guess... start with the basics:

So winning as a concept.... myself.. I think winning is a bit vague, especially when you look at it in a multimedia context. Personally, I think this has got a whole lot more to do with victory/being victorious, which would be easier to showcase than just winning.

I say this because winning is a fairly generic state. Victory implies a context/setting and scenario which lets you tell a story, series of events or just focus in on what leads up to a victory or perhaps the victory.

So given that winning and victory pretty much go hand in hand with one another - in that winning is what happens when you achieve victory. Now to figure out how they do that in media and games...This is actually not that hard to do as in most games, this is why we play: We play to win!
It could be to win by defeating the bid bad/bad guy  leader (Modern warfare 3)
It could be that winning lets you make a choice that has devastating impact upon humanity/your species/your race. (they did a shit job of it, but the original Mass Effect 3 ending comes to mind. Deus Ex Human revolution did it a whole lot better)
Sometimes, you're fighting for survival (Left4Dead and of course Left4Dead 2 - I'm gonna skip the DLC packs) or just the possibility of staying alive to fight to survive the next day (The Walking Dead)

so if that is how you win in games... I'm not going to show those final moments. I mean, that would defeat the point of actually PLAYING the game right? So I'm thinking showcasing game play elements, showcasing the mini-wins, achievement unlocks and so forth... now how I'm going to do that... well... I have no idea....