Pre-Production Unit: Research - Easter Eggs

[Spoiler Warning for several films!]

This post explains what an Easter Egg is in media and contains examples. I write this post as I plan to hide many easter eggs in my Major Production film.

First: a definition. Easter eggs are defined on 'The Easter Egg Archive' as:

"In the context of software...an Easter Egg is a hidden feature or novelty that the programmers have put in their software. In general, it is any hidden, entertaining thing that a creator hides in their creation only for their own personal reasons. This can be anything from a hidden list of the developers, to hidden commands, to jokes, to funny animations."

So an Easter egg in media is a small secret that is hidden within the diegesis of the media for the audience to find, much like the idea of children hunting for Easter eggs in the season.

The Easter egg could be a throwback; a reference; an inside joke; pretty much anything. It can also relate to the film by foreshadowing or even in some media’s cases, giving away the ending in the first act.

It was through playing the game 'Halo 3' many years ago that I first found interest in Easter eggs. In the game, you can find many Easter Eggs that are all jokes put in by the developers:

A family of monkeys with the face of one of the game's developers.

Another developer in a more natural scenario.

Through reading more about them in other games, films, and shows I started to love them. I regard Easter eggs now as a part of my style: I like to put references, foreshadows, hints etc in all of my films with Grit being no exception. 

There’s just something about finding a little secret that the director, editor or SFX teams have put in that fascinates me. I think it’s partially how very clever and subtle they can be like Scorsese’s The Departed, which uses X’s to hint when a character is about to die.

The X appears several times throughout the Scorsese film.

Or in 'Cloverfield' hiding 3 stills from old monster movies in the film as well as a hidden message in the end credits that says “Help us” but when reversed says: “It’s still alive”.

It’s also how fun they are to find and that sense of reward when you do. It’s like a nice little joke or inside nod personally from the creators. I feel Easter eggs can also be used to add backstory to characters or reveal aspects about them that aren’t spoken of but can just add that little extra bit of character depth.

Here are a few more examples of Easter eggs across several different media:

In the Tarantino film ‘Reservoir Dogs’ the character, Mr Orange, turns out to be the rat in the group of diamond thieves. However this reveal is hinted several times in the film:

Mr. Orange rats out Mr. White for not tipping the waitress.

In David Fincher’s ‘Seven’ the character,  played by Gwyneth Paltrow, is murdered by Kevin Spacey’s killer and her severed head placed in a box. Fincher hints at this shock ending through the framing of Paltrow’s scenes.

This shot is known as ‘cutting off the head’: a direct reference to her fate in the film.

In the TV show Breaking Bad Season 2 ends with a plane crashing in Albuquerque. This is foreshadowed by taking the title of each episode that features a flash forward to a shot of a pink teddy bear, which is from the crashed plane:

These examples are just a very small few of the plethora of hidden secrets that can be found in media. Below is a link that lists 30 Easter Eggs in films and there will be a separate post titled 'Suggestions and Hints' that lists all of the easter eggs in Grit.

http://www.gamesradar.com/30-clever-movie-easter-eggs/

Having seen the many ways to conceal a secret, I intend to include easter eggs into Grit for two reasons:

1) It represents the reality seeping through into the false world. The guilty side trying to snap the delusional side out of it.
2) It encourages multiple viewings.
3) It allows extra information, such as backstory and character traits/developments, to be included without adding more dialogue or exposition. Thus keeping the script streamlined.

Bibliography:


Wolf, Annette & David. (2015) 'FAQ' In: eeggs.com [online] At: http://www.eeggs.com/faq.html (Accessed on 11.10.15)

Cloverfield. (2008) Directed by: Matt Reeves. [Film Still] USA: Bad Robot Productions.

Halo 3. (2007) Developed by: Bungie. [Game Still] USA: Microsoft Game Studios.

Reservoir Dogs. (1992) Directed by: Quentin Tarantino. [Film Still] USA: Live Entertainment. http://dailycontext.com/nota/10936/5-brilliant-clues-hidden-in-the-background-of-movies.html At: (Accessed on: 11.10.15)

Se7en. (1995) Directed by: David Fincher. [Film Still] USA: New Line Cinema.