I had the opportunity to interview one of the guys behind the Making of Silent Hill 2 and 3 Documentary, Nicolas Beuglet, who served as the Director and Journalist behind the project.

Silent Haven: Can you give an introduction of yourself and what you do?

Nicolas Beuglet: My name is Nicolas Beuglet, 38 years old.  I am editor in chief for a french TV named M6. I am also author of a novel published last year « Le Premier Crâne », I have written and directed a short movie, and sold a TV animated serie that I created. I love video games and I used to present a video game show « Fun Player » some years ago.

Silent Haven: Could you tell us how the production of this documentary came about, how you got involved and maybe your specific work on it?

Nicolas Beuglet: I was in Los Angeles for E3 event making some reports for my show. I had the chance to make an interview of the Silent Hill 2 team. At a moment I asked them what was their secret to create such a disturbing fear in their game. The answer they gave me was the detonator of everything. They told me : Eros and Thanatos. I asked them to develop the idea : if you really want to scare somebody and make him unconfortable you have to play on two opposite feelings : desire and repulsion at the same time, in Silent Hill we use sex and death, eros and Thanatos. The best illustration of this are the nurses : sexy and disgusting at the same time. Maria is also like that : she is the eros and Thanatos at the same time. When I finished the interview I was so excited. I said to Stephanie Hattenberger (French PR at this time) : we have to make a documentary on these guys, it would be the first making of for a video game and you will include it in the game. It is time to explain to everybody that the video game is an art ! A few months after I was in Japan and I will never say enough thank you to Konami!  

Silent Haven: Have you done any other work within the Silent Hill franchise before or after this documentary?

Nicolas Beuglet: Yes. I made a making of for Silent Hill 3 and the making of Metal Gear Solid 2 with Kojima and his team. I also made an interview of Christophe Gans about Silent Hill 2 before he made the movie. Actually it is thanks to this interview that he was chosen by Konami to make the movie.

Silent Haven: Did you follow the franchise pretty extensively when this documentary was in production or was it more just a job? Are you a fan of the series (Movies, videogames, comics) today?

Nicolas Beuglet:I love Silent Hill 2. I like silent Hill 3,  and I was interested by Silent Hill 1. Regarding the movie, I was suprised they succeeded to make a good movie. But I really thibk like Sato told me during the making of that silent Hill 2 has the best story ever told in a video game and the best story ever. Moreover, everything is perfect and has a meaning in this game. It is so well written. As we say in the documentary, this game is like and psychanalysis. You go deeper and deeper inside your mind and your memories. You have killed your wife because you could not accept to see her suffering and dying…and you have forgotten this because it was so horrible. Silent Hill is here to force you to see the truth and all the characters you cross on your journey are a part of your subcounscious. Maria is Marie as you would like her to be : alive and sexy. Eddie is the criminal part fo yours which disgusts you (Eddie is pucking after having killed someone). Laura is the good part in you. The light which tries to free you by forcing you to find the truth.

Silent Haven: Recently the Silent Hill 2 and 3  voice actors have been vocal with the community that surrounds the franchise and a few of them had some discrepancies with this documentary and it raised many questions from the fans. Voice actor Guy Cihi’s face was the only actor whose face was blurred. Can you tell us why this was?

Nicolas Beuglet: I really do not remember all this. Really it was not my job at this time. Konami managed this stuff trying to give me interesting materials without making trouble with the actors…

Silent Haven: Also none of the actors such as Monica Taylor Horgan or Heather Morris were aware of this documentary even being made. Some of them felt like at least permission should have been asked because they weren’t even aware or given some sort of residuals for the use. Was there a reason these actors werent told about the project or their appearances in it?

Nicolas Beuglet: Really sorry for that. Ask Konami for more details…

Silent Haven: It seems as though this project heavily involved Team Silent or KCET but Jeremy Blaustein, who was the ADR Director and translator for the series who worked with Team Silent was cut out and not even interviewed in the documentary. You see him one short bit working with Heather Morris. Why was this?

Nicolas Beuglet: I never ask to make an interview with this man. I am sure he made a great work but I was not aware of his work.

I would just like to thank Nicolas for his time! I very much enjoyed the documentary and his work. We dont see much of that in this franchise and it is very nice to have. You can check out Nicolas’ second book here.

Here are the Documentaries Directed by Nicolas if you havent seen them:

Making of Silent Hill 2:

Making of Silent Hill 3: