Resident Evil live-action cutscene production

The production of live-action cutscenes for Resident Evil took place in 1995.

Production history

The idea of commissioning film shorts for use in the game was that of game director Shinji Mikami, who wanted a more horror film approach to the game. Filming began sometime in 1995, with use of a studio for the indoor scenes and the bank of the Tama river for outdoor scenes. The location was picked for its cost-effectiveness, being near Tokyo.

Six Caucasian actors were hired for the shoot to play the parts of Chris; Jill; Barry; Rebecca; Albert and Joseph. While some were established voice actors and took part in the recording of their characters' dialogue, others merely happened to be in Japan at the time. Jill's actress, dubbed "Inezh" in the credits, was a high schooler with no experience in acting at all. According to an interview with Mikami in BIO HAZARD The True Story Behind BIO HAZARD, Inezh became agitated during the recording due to the number of mosquitoes flying around.

Overall the production resulted in seven distinct scenes being shot: the opening shot on the Tama, a character gallery, and six live-action sequences for the game's different endings, which were further altered in some cases to reflect 'good' and 'bad' outcomes in post-production.

Cast and crew

• Chris Redfield - Charlie Kraslavsky
• Jill Valentine - Inezh
• Barry Burton - Gregory Smith
• Rebecca Chambers - Linda
• Albert Wesker - Eric Pirius
• Joseph Frost - Jason
• Producer - Norihito Nishitani
• Production Manager - Masanari Takano
• Director - Matsuhisa Hosoki
• Cinematographer - Iwao Hara
• Lighting - Takahisa Aida
• Make-up - Shoko Kato
• Styling - Wakana Hara
• Casting - Toru Tateishi

Cuts

The live-action sequences were released in a number of versions, with different soundtracks used throughout. The opening varied heavily between releases of the game, with there being versions in colour and black and white, and some censored and uncensored.

Cutscene	Version	Colour	Censored	Music
Opening	Original	No	Yes
	Director's Cut	No	Yes
	Director's Cut DualShock	No	Yes	Misterioso
	Sega Saturn	No	No
	Deadly Silence	No	Yes
Character intro	Original	Yes		Terror (Darkness Lives)
	Director's Cut	Yes		Terror (Darkness Lives)
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes		Mosso
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No	Terror (Darkness Lives)
	Deadly Silence	Yes		Terror (Darkness Lives)
Chris best ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No	Gentile - grandioso
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
Chris and Rebecca ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No	Gentile - grandioso
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
	Deadly Silence	Yes	No
Chris and Jill good ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
	Deadly Silence	Yes	No
Chris and Jill bad ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No	Gentile
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
	Deadly Silence	Yes	No
Chris bad ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No	Gentile
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
	Deadly Silence	Yes	No
Jill best ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No	Gentile - grandioso
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
	Deadly Silence	Yes	No
Jill and Barry ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No	Gentile - grandioso
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
	Deadly Silence	Yes	No
Jill bad ending	Original	Yes	No
	Director's Cut	Yes	No
	Director's Cut DualShock	Yes	No	Gentile
	Sega Saturn	Yes	No
	Deadly Silence	Yes	No