●​ Intro: (introduce yourself, the name of your podcast, the film and source

material book you're discussing)

○​ Welcome back to Ben Jerry , and today we will talk about a famous
dystopian movie and book named Ready Player One directed by Steven
Spielberg and Ernest Cline who was also the author of the book.
○​ This is where fun facts about the film and book can come in.
●​ Synopsis: (provide a brief rundown of the plot of the film <and the author of
the book>, who stars in the film, who directed it, etc.) If you are doing
spoilers, this is the opportunity to give a spoiler alert.
○​ This section will have spoilers, so the film “Ready Player one” was
directed by Steven Spielberg while the author of the book is Ernest Cline
who was also a co-director with Steven for the film adaptation of the
book. Both the book and the movie set in a future world where virtual
reality games have become so popular that society, trading, economics
and even schooling occurs in the virtual reality world. The virtual reality
world, called OASIS, as a result became somewhat a new reality for
everyone. The book follows our protagonist Wade Watts in his journey to
find the Easter Egg that will allow him to inherit the game creator’s fortune
as well as the game itself. On his journey, Wade met Artemis, Aech,
Shoto, and Daito. Along with him is our antagonist, Sorrento, who owns a
company called IOI which is also looking for Easter Eggs. Both the movie
and the book switched between reality and the virtual reality world as
Wade and his friends fought against a huge corporation to achieve the
ultimate prize. Eventually, after many challenges and close calls, Wade
came out ahead and Sorento was arrested alongside his company.
●​ Include points of differentiation between the film and book.
○​ So what are the big differences between the movie and the book ? The
obvious one would be visual effects. The movie really takes advantage of
visual effects to extensively use CGI for most of the movie for a different
way of storytelling compared to the book which uses deep description of
video game knowledge to tell the story and the challenges throughout the
movie. First of all, the first and biggest difference between the 2 media is
in the challenge itself. The game developer, Halliday, who has an in-game
avatar of an old gothic wizard Anorak introduced a challenge to all players
in the OASIS about his challenges and that whoever completes it would
have his wealth and the game itself. The book only has a short
description of Halliday in game avatar while the movie really captures the
 power of Halliday, both in game and outside of the game. In many shots,
Halliday was seen to have power over anyone, even his co-founder of the
OASIS Ogden "Og" Morrow outside of the game. In the game, Halliday’s
avatar essentially represents god with clouds floating around him as he
spoke to the player below.
●​ Sources: (note any outside sources as you bring up info)
●​ Interesting/relevant facts about the film’s production, the book's writing or
author, the film itself or book itself and why they’re relevant: this should
come up organically in your podcast or it could have its own segment (up to
you!)
○​ The film, the book were both crammed in many many references of old
video games or media from the 1980s to early 2000s. In the book, these
references came up directly in the Halliday Challenge such as Pac Man. In
the movie, the reference comes up not only in the challenge, the dialogue
but also visually onscreen.
○​ In the film’s part where Wade and others was escaping the Shining maze,
the director felt special because that set is where he met Stanley Kubrick

●​ Discussion of symbolism, mise en scene, and framing/shots/angles as they

relate and compare with the source material of the novels the films are
inspired by.
○​ Symbolism:
■​ Symbolism is found all over the movie and in reference to the
book. In the movie, when a player dies in the game, their body is
magically turned to coins that can be collected by other players to
buy different items to gain advantage in certain games. In the
book, the coins are called credit but they serve the same purpose
and they could also be used to buy real life items similar to how we
order products online nowadays. The symbolism of coins in both
the movie and the book illustrate the economic side of OASIS and
how similar it is to the real world. Because people turned to coin or
credit, people started to get greedy over killing other players to
gain an advantage in the Halliday challenge. As a result, the
coins/credit referenced each other and symbolized human greed to
win and stay on top.
■​ The whole OASIS itself is a symbol of a corrupted paradise. Both
the book and the movie describe the OASIS as a popular virtual
world people escape their realities into. In other words, it is a
symbol of heaven or a paradise for most people at first where
people can enjoy their “second” chance. However, at the same
time, the OASIS is also people’s second prison, not being able to
get out and again trapped by cycles of greed the OASIS’s
economy system created. At the end of the movie, Wade, after
winning the egg and OASIS, decided to shut down OASIS during
Tuesday and Thursday so people can enjoy the real world. He said
to Artemis that he never once really thought he wanted to go back
to the OASIS. The ending of the movie shows a straight forward
message that the OASIS is a jail for people and it need to be shut
down so that people can enjoy the real world. In the book, Wade
said the exact same words to Artemis, again showing how
everything OASIS offered isn’t real and people don’t need OASIS
to feel alive.
■​ Despite the similarities in the connection above, there is a slight
difference in how the movie and the book perceive love. In the
movie for the second challenge, the clue was relating to Halliday’s
love life and how he missed a chance to kiss the girl he loved. The
moment which that happens is while Halliday went on a date
watching the movie The Shining. The Shining is famous for its
themes of isolation and madness. This is one way the film director
says about love in Ready for Player One, using the Shining as one
of the challenges. Personally, the film director is showing how
Halliday’s love is ironically happening during the Shining where
there is a theme of isolation, not love. Through this, the film
director could also imply how love isn’t all rainbow and sunshine
but also horror and includes moments of madness and isolation.
Compared to the movie, the book took on a nerdier side by
overwhelming love with video games and using Wade’s unrequited
love to motivate him to continue the challenge. When Wade tried to
confess to Artemis, she said to him that their love was a mistake
and ghost him. After the incident, Wade focuses on completing the
challenges which led him to the eventual victory over IOI. As a
result, love, despite not being symbolized by any specific object, is
 undermined by the authors. In a way, love is symbolized by failures
as when Wade was in love, he failed to complete the challenge for
multiple months. This put a new perspective on love in the book.
Furthermore, the book doesn’t have a lot of themes about
cooperation. The book highlights themes of individualism as Wade
and his friend all single-handedly figure out the clue and complete
the challenge by themselves.
■​ Mise en Scene
●​ The stage arrangement of the movie was perfect in
representing the atmosphere of the movie and in references
in the book. In the first challenge in the movie, the race
through downtown Manhattan was completed with tens of
references ranging from King Kong to T-Rex. This is in
reference to the dense details about video games in the
book.
●​ Halliday has a collection of his diary that the player looks
into to look for clues for the challenges. In the book,
Halliday’s diary collection was represented as Wade's
personal book/diary while in the movie, the memory of
Halliday was stored in a huge virtual library with a repetition
shot of moving square frame of Halliday memory. These CGI
shots emphasize the reality of Wade’s world where
everything is stored online and also reflect on our current
world where notebooks are becoming obsolete. In the book,
which focuses on more traditional video games and
somewhat praises the old age, have Wade write everything
he knows down in a notebook.
●​
○​ Framing
■​ The framing in the movie was extensively used to show power level
between characters. When Wade completed the first challenge,
Halliday is seen as above him, having more of the shot/frame
showing how Halliday is more powerful than Wade.
■​ In the final fight of the movie, when Corenzo pulled out his
MechaGodzilla suit, most of the frame was him to show his great
power against other players. This is in reference to the same thing
that happened in the book. In the book, Corenzo was against
 multiple Mecha suits from other avatars including Wade, showing
how powerful he is. However, in the movie, Corenzo was only
against Aech The Giant Mech and therefore the framing was used
to illustrate the same power Corenzo had in the book.
●​ Ultimately, make a statement as to how well or not well the film compliments
or interprets the source material book and whether it stands alone as its own
piece of art or falls short (or surpasses) the quality of the book.
○​ Ready Player One is almost a stand alone film because of how different it
is from the book. The films feature a much more visually creative and
cooperative environment for the viewer with a lot of CGI shots and
character designs like with Artemis or Parzival while toning down a lot of
the details of the movie. For example, in the first challenge where the
book and the movie took 2 completely different routes. The movie utilizes
CGi to fascinate viewers with action packs challenge while the book went
deeper into the nerdy 1980s game Jouste. So it will be safe to say the
movie works as a stand alone piece of art that doesn’t depend on the
book for an extra easter egg or explanation. On the other hand, the book
definitely still came out on top with its detailed explanation and deeper
dives into video games culture.
●​ Closing - have fun with it!
○​ The ending of the movie was great. It fulfilled its purpose, it stood alone
and it has a satisfying ending with Wade winning and Corenzo getting
arrested. It also demonstrates an important message for the viewer to
stay out of the virtual world. The ending of the book is more about
Wade’s reunion with Artemis or Samantha in the real world to make up for
his unrequited love earlier. Both media have great endings, focusing on
different themes and therefore this is why the 2 media could be a stand
alone piece of entertainment.