Admittedly, we didn’t have the faintest idea who Jeff Imada was when he was wheeled out as the guest star at a recent press event for The Bourne Conspiracy game. But following some hasty internet research it became apparent that while his name isn’t that well known he’s worked as a fight co-ordinator and stunt director on some of the biggest films of the last 30 years.

Try this little list for starters: Fight Club, Planet Terror, 8 Mile, LA Confidential, Heat, Falling Down, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Lethal Weapon, Rambo and Bladerunner. Getting him to work on the fight sequences in The Bourne Conspiracy was a pretty sharp move.

And while we could have spent many hours talking about his time working with best mate John Carpenter and the late Brandon Lee, we felt obliged to allocate 85% of the time to discuss Bourne. Which is fine – the fight sequences are undoubtedly one of the highpoints of the game and films.

Above: That’s Jeff. You don’t want to f*** with him. He’s got moves.

GamesRadar: Is Bourne the first videogame you have worked on?

Jeff Imada: No, another game I was heavily involved with was GoldenEye, but Bourne is the first one I really came in on the conceptual meetings. It’s been a really great experience.

GR: How did you find the transition from films to videogames?

JI: There’s a lot of overlap. I’d done some motion-capture before and videogame stuff when they wanted to incorporate it into films. The main differences are that in film you shoot everything and what you see is what you get and things are shot in one long sequence.

In videogames you’re shooting small vignettes of movements and combinations of movements. Then it’s incorporated and built upon. It’s more intensive than a film – in a movie when you see 20 moves we’ve only filmed 20 moves, in a game the player may only use 20 moves in a sequence but we’ve had to capture 100 to give the player the impression of variety.

Also when you’re working on a set, you film and then you stop to tweak a light or move a camera to a different angle so the actors get a chance to take a break. But when you do mocap, you’re on your feet 8-10 hours a day.

GR: There’s obviously more of a delay in seeing what your sequences look like after mocap, compared to a film where you can watch playback almost instantly – does this cause you any problems when choreographing a fight?

JI: There’s good and bad sides to it I think. As much input as I have, it’s the player that dictates the combination of the moves, so you’re not always sure how they’re going to turn out. So we have to be very careful during mocap to make sure that when moves are combined by the player they look good and there’s a smooth transition from single moves to a combination of moves

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GR: Did working with the Bourne game give you a freedom to implement things you couldn’t do in the films?

JI: Yes – with regards to the shooting, you’re basically creating the reality of your world so you can change the environment and backgrounds after you’ve done your mocap.

Also, when you see a game character get his head slammed into a table or into a wall we can capture that by slamming his head into a foam block rather than into a real table. So it’s easier safety wise and things don’t have to be built in such a precise way to be seen on screen.

In a videogame you might play the game two or three times and the fights will turn out differently. When you can move the camera around cinematically, you get a different perspective of the action that maybe wouldn’t be possible in film.

GR: In the Bourne films you use three objects as weapons – the pen, the book and the magazine. When you were thinking about new objects for the game how did you come up with new ideas for makeshift weaponry?

JI: I got feedback on where the fights would be taking place – inside, outside, in an office – having that knowledge influences me on what everyday items we can use as a weapon. So if I’m walking around in here [gestures to interview room] I’d be thinking I can use a bottle, a fire extinguisher, a chair, a microwave.

When it comes to picking things up it’s pretty endless in a game environment – I can use a bottle for example and we don’t have to use 10 or 20 Breakaway bottles at $100 a pop. We just capture the motion and insert the bottle in later. It gives me a lot more flexibility as I can chose anything and the programmers can make it work.

GR: Up until recently the ‘videogame version’ was always the poor cousin of a film license. Do you think better graphics and people like yourself working on games will change this?

JI: I think the technology’s there and I think Hollywood should realise there’s an audience that wants to leave the movie theatre and then continue the journey of a character in a different story or theme and appreciate another avenue of their character. Technology is definitely a lot further along than before and opening a lot of doors and I think Hollywood’s going to further embrace game technology like mocap, which you’ve seen in movies like Beowulf.

GR: Do you think other stunt guys like yourself from movie backgrounds will move into games, because of what the better technology and graphics allow you to do?

JI: Yeah I think so, because a lot of the guy’s backgrounds could help enhance and bring game development to another level especially with their knowledge of fight mechanics and movement. Obviously videogames are all about movement and these guys could make them look as realistic as possible.

GR: Is there anyone you’ve worked with in the industry who you know would like to get involved in games? Like John Carpenter?

JI: Yeah, in fact I know John has been approached a few times and I’m going to talk to him about it even more. I know he’s a huge videogame fan when he’s not watching basketball. He’s got loads of games. I think John’s definitely going to be involved in some videogames.

GR: You’ve worked with a lot martial artists - in your view who is the most talented?

JI: I think probably Steven Seagal. He’s a very genuine martial artist and an accomplished aikido instructor [7th Dan to be precise].

Then there’s Brandon Lee who I worked with from childhood and in Rapid Fire and The Crow and played alongside him in Showdown in Little Tokyo. As much as his first love was acting he was very athletic, opposed to his dad who loved the martial arts first and the acting second.

He could give any of the stunt guys a run for their money. A lot of people said he’d of made a great stunt guy, because he loved doing it all – even high falls. But Brandon was a very technically accomplished martial artist – you could see a lot of his father in the way he moved.

Then there’s Jet Li, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan: all those guys are really accomplished and good at what they do.

GR: After your experience on Bourne would you like to work on more games?

JI: As long as it’s done with quality and keeps within the bible of the character – if it’s low quality though, I’m not going to get involved.