I think this whole discussion is played on details, damn important details at that. When kubrics 'eyes wide shut' was released i went and watched it before i read anything about the film. Naturally, i always have an eye for tags and pieces in movies, so i noticed a tag somewhere in what is suposed to be NYC in the film. By the end of the film i noticed the same tag in several spots within the 'city' only to find out that it was the exact same tag, in the same angle, same color, same mistakes everywhere.
When i read that the film wasnt shot in the city but a studio it all made sense to me. The art director or whoever takes care of that shit had a tag photographed and applied in several locations within the 'city' so it would look bombed...thats the second i really lost some respect towards the man who's detailing in films is fuckin legendary.
Same happened with that key3 tag in 'sugar' (remember the thread?) Some jackass photographed his tag and had some non writer reproduce it REALLY badly..the result? jessica alba's ass never danced infront of our dear friends tag (such a shame) and its obvious to a writer that the film was shot in canada instead of NYC again.
Thats 2 bad cases, on the bright side i loved the raven throwies IN MIAMI while playing driver and i loved the dope handstyles in that nelly furtado video.
Up until now i just talked about things that are meant to touch a very wide audience so the authenticity of graffiti that appears in there is just either something that pisses off a writer or gives a dope 'inside joke' feeling.
When it comes to a graffiti video game though, things change...noone involved in that culture is going to take things so lighthearted and it aint gonna gain respect if its lame. Infact, if it aint done properly its gonna get unconciously sabotaged and thrown out at once...kinda like fubu, haha. I'm not gonna get into the ethics of writers milking out graffiti for money but i'll just stay to this, you have to have respect in order to lose it. I can tolerate a graffiti legend making money out of stuff but to me its unacceptable for someone that has been always sidebusting a culture to go and make money out of it...infact, i have faith that he wouldnt even succeed at that seeing how nomatter the promotion once the people that would actually make it cool stepaside its all 14 year olds with a tedency to follow anti-trends...We'd all have some reservations towards a videogame presented by some bigshot writer but mark ecko's signature doesnt say much to even get you seriously curious
<currently downloading a torrent of the 4 part bbc docu pubes mantioned. Looks super interesting. http://www.mininova.org/get/226062 ^in case anyone else is interested