Keith Arem spent more than a decade creating video games. Now he's turning to comics, movies and mobile content.
He has been creating and playing video games for the past 15 years. Although few hardcore gamers will know Keith Arem by name, many will be familiar with his work. It includes game titles like Call of Duty, and other series like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Spiderman X-Men series, Lord of the Rings, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Everquest, Prince of Persia and Rainbow Six, Iron Man and Ridge Racer, among several others. Arem is an an old hand in the video game industry.
During his maiden visit to India recently, Arem, who has also produced, directed and recorded over 500 commercial releases in film, music and the interactive industry, seemed keen to add a Bollywood chapter to his career. “Not only has Slumdog Millionaire put India’s entertainment industry on the international map, it has also opened doors for people like me. I’ve always wanted to work with Indian talent,” he says.
Don’t be fooled, he’s not just another Westerner wanting to cash in on Slumdog Millionaire’s accomplishments. Far from it. Arem understands music notes just as well as he knows how to create games. He studied in California for a bachelor’s degree in audio engineering with the single purpose of becoming a rock star. “I had even bagged a record deal when I was a freshman, but my parents wouldn’t let me drop out of college to take it,” he recalls.
When he did eventually begin touring, with a band called BioHazard, he also found himself hooked to video games. “We toured a lot and basically played games sitting at the back of the bus,” he laughs. And that’s how Arem’s career in the world of gaming began.
He didn’t confine himself, however: Arem worked as an audio composer and subsequently became the audio director for Virgin Interactive. “This eventually led to the birth of PCB Productions, which also pioneered voice-casting, recording and sound design, creating a new source of work for Hollywood’s pool of voice-over talent,” says Arem. Today, PCB Productions is a state-of-the-art digital audio recording facility for various interactive and other film, music, and television productions.
His quick visit to India is a part of his plan to bring his company’s creative expertise to its Indian counterparts. “I have come up with a blueprint of possibilities that can be worked out of India. The first on the list is a motion picture that I plan to — partly — produce and direct,” he lists. The film will be for an American audience, but will be set up and executed in India.
While he is not ready to reveal the name of the Indian director he is likely to work with in the near future, Arem does say that he was particularly impressed by director Anurag Kashyap’s latest films. But will he get a foreign production house to back his debut Bollywood project, planned for later this year? “Although I am looking at local production partners, talent and locations, it’s more likely to be backed by an international production house, especially as the film will be for a global audience.”
For Arem, the buck does not stop with films. He believes that most movies can be successfully turned into video games, comics and even mobile content. This is one reason why Arem met director Shekhar Kapur, who’s also one of the founders of Virgin Comics. “We both agreed that if we create a comic book, we will end up making movies and video games too. So, basically, we’ll work on three components: animation, Web and mobile.” If Arem manages to make successful movies in India, and follow them up with video games, he will be creating history in the industry. “We intend to do just that [create history, that is],” he says with a wink.
He’s been mulling over the possibility of setting up what he calls a “motion-capture studio in India to churn quality digital content out of India”. He elaborates on the technology: “[Motion capture] is used in the console game industry and every major video game player is using this new-age science to animate characters that you see on the screen while playing games.”
Obviously, Arem and his PCB Productions are gunning to make a mark across multiple facets of the digital content creation industry. Right now, it’s his graphic book Ascend which is claiming Arem’s attention. He intends to translate it into formats like — what else? — motion picture and video game. “Ascend,” he says, “is an enormous mythological world, a fantastic universe. That’s how I describe it.” While Ascend is his first graphic novel, he’s also developing an animated Web series as a sequel, called Ascend: Divination.
As our interview draws to an end Arem, in India with filmmaker Ben Rekhi, tells us that a visit to Dharamsala is also on his itinerary. “I have heard a lot about Indian culture and this place was suggested to me by my friends back home.”
He may not strum his guitar in the hill station, but who knows, maybe Dharamsala will be the inspiration for Arem’s next video game.
