The history of the creation of cinematics "Enduring". Part two
Nicholas Day, Creative Director at Plarium (Western Markets) talked about creating sound for the trailer for the game “Sparta: A War of Empires” and collaboration with Jesper Kidd.
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About a year ago, Vyacheslav Lisovsky and several other people from our art department showed me their ideas. The material was so good that we gave the guys time, resources, and their first attempt at writing turned into our first trailer - “Victory is worthy of death” for the game “Rules of War”.
How to find Jesper Kidd
It all began with the fact that we wanted to add something special to the game “Conflict: Art of War” that would not fundamentally change all the mechanics and at the same time affect the perception of the game and create a kind of “wow effect”. And then one of the creative directors of Plarium suggested: "And let's find the super-cool composer." At first, this idea seemed hopeless to me, but we still began searching. It's fun, but, in fact, I found Jesper using LinkedIn. Not directly, of course, but during the search I talked a lot on this social network, contacted different companies, learned about their experience, and in the end it bore fruit.
First, I met Andrew Lackey, the head of Wabi Sabi Sound’s studio, who created the soundtrack for Dead Space 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2. He helped us find the right people and studio, and soon he started working on sound for our projects.
Secondly, in one of the conversations on LinkedIn, we started talking about how hard it is to find a good composer with whom it would be easy to work. One of my interlocutors said that he was fortunate enough to work with Jesper Kidd. I contacted Agent Jesper by mail and sent him the creative concept of “Conflict”. The composer liked the idea of a social game with a dark atmosphere and a plot tied to a corporate war. So we began to cooperate: first, Jesper wrote music for our games, and later began to create soundtracks for cinematics.
About sounds
In San Francisco there is a studio, which has its own hangar, filled with equipment, various objects and mechanisms. You can go there and say: "I need the sound of ... a tank that is fired from a crossbow." And there they will certainly find some old cistern and crossbow, they will place the microphones and shoot until they achieve the desired effect. In addition, there is a huge bank of recordings in the studio - it has been operating in the gaming industry for more than five years, so that you can really find anything there. Part of the mechanical effects for the trailer for the "Rules of War" we wrote down there.
But in “The Enduring” there is a completely different setting, and we decided to try to move the viewer to the epicenter of the battle. That is why it was important for us to create a sound that would set the dynamics and atmosphere. So, when he heard about Sparta, Andrew Lackey was very happy: “Oh! Sword Battle! I will have to hit different surfaces and write it down! ” Most of the sounds for the "Unbreakable" Andrew recorded in the courtyard of his house. When we started making the “Making of Sparta” video clip, we asked him to prepare material on sound creation, and he sent a lot of videos, which hit incredible objects in order to get the desired sound. Andrew is very fanatical about his work: he made the last changes already after the work on the video series was completed, because at this stage he understood the necessary depth of sound even better.
About voice
Having done the main part of the work, we suddenly realized that we also wanted to add voiceovers. All the voices for us were recorded by Audio Media Productions in New York. The multinationality of the “Big Apple” allows you to pick up actors of almost any type. If the studio receives an order, for example, a left-handed Englishman born in Morocco with a French accent, in 10 minutes he will send the contacts of just such a person. Initially, Audio Media Productions created all the cries and wheezes for our projects, and then helped to pick up the voice actor and record it.
About the work itself
Creating the movie “Victory is worthy of death”, we did not fully understand how to build a balance between music and sounds. Everything happened by trial and error, and then it seemed to us that the more, the better, but Jesper and Andrew, based on their extensive experience, suggested where to place the accents and how to correctly build balance and dynamics. In the process of working on the “Enduring”, we immediately determined which segment would be more saturated with sound, and which segment - with music.
Work on the voice acting began after the animatic was finally formed. We sent Andrew and Jesper a video file and created a table in which we described in detail the dynamics and all the sounds. By dividing these processes, we saved some time and could make edits almost on the go. For example, in the video there is a frame where the Spartan cuts the throat of the Persian, and he screams. Being well acquainted with the filmography of Stephen Seagal, we know that with a cut throat you will not be able to shout, so the cry was replaced with a rattle. There were difficulties with the soundtrack too. Initially, he poorly conveyed the Greek atmosphere. And then Jesper wrote to us: “I found a cool instrument, akin to a violin combined with an electric guitar!”. Then he invited musicians to the studio and recorded the part of this instrument live. The sound was perfect - it turned out a kind of mix of antiquity and modernity.
Working in a team that is really passionate about their work is a pleasure. In this case, even talking on Skype at three in the morning and listening to five different versions of the same soundtrack does not seem burdensome, and the result pleases not only the eyes, but also the ears.
')
About a year ago, Vyacheslav Lisovsky and several other people from our art department showed me their ideas. The material was so good that we gave the guys time, resources, and their first attempt at writing turned into our first trailer - “Victory is worthy of death” for the game “Rules of War”.
How to find Jesper Kidd
It all began with the fact that we wanted to add something special to the game “Conflict: Art of War” that would not fundamentally change all the mechanics and at the same time affect the perception of the game and create a kind of “wow effect”. And then one of the creative directors of Plarium suggested: "And let's find the super-cool composer." At first, this idea seemed hopeless to me, but we still began searching. It's fun, but, in fact, I found Jesper using LinkedIn. Not directly, of course, but during the search I talked a lot on this social network, contacted different companies, learned about their experience, and in the end it bore fruit.
First, I met Andrew Lackey, the head of Wabi Sabi Sound’s studio, who created the soundtrack for Dead Space 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2. He helped us find the right people and studio, and soon he started working on sound for our projects.
Secondly, in one of the conversations on LinkedIn, we started talking about how hard it is to find a good composer with whom it would be easy to work. One of my interlocutors said that he was fortunate enough to work with Jesper Kidd. I contacted Agent Jesper by mail and sent him the creative concept of “Conflict”. The composer liked the idea of a social game with a dark atmosphere and a plot tied to a corporate war. So we began to cooperate: first, Jesper wrote music for our games, and later began to create soundtracks for cinematics.
About sounds
In San Francisco there is a studio, which has its own hangar, filled with equipment, various objects and mechanisms. You can go there and say: "I need the sound of ... a tank that is fired from a crossbow." And there they will certainly find some old cistern and crossbow, they will place the microphones and shoot until they achieve the desired effect. In addition, there is a huge bank of recordings in the studio - it has been operating in the gaming industry for more than five years, so that you can really find anything there. Part of the mechanical effects for the trailer for the "Rules of War" we wrote down there.
But in “The Enduring” there is a completely different setting, and we decided to try to move the viewer to the epicenter of the battle. That is why it was important for us to create a sound that would set the dynamics and atmosphere. So, when he heard about Sparta, Andrew Lackey was very happy: “Oh! Sword Battle! I will have to hit different surfaces and write it down! ” Most of the sounds for the "Unbreakable" Andrew recorded in the courtyard of his house. When we started making the “Making of Sparta” video clip, we asked him to prepare material on sound creation, and he sent a lot of videos, which hit incredible objects in order to get the desired sound. Andrew is very fanatical about his work: he made the last changes already after the work on the video series was completed, because at this stage he understood the necessary depth of sound even better.
About voice
Having done the main part of the work, we suddenly realized that we also wanted to add voiceovers. All the voices for us were recorded by Audio Media Productions in New York. The multinationality of the “Big Apple” allows you to pick up actors of almost any type. If the studio receives an order, for example, a left-handed Englishman born in Morocco with a French accent, in 10 minutes he will send the contacts of just such a person. Initially, Audio Media Productions created all the cries and wheezes for our projects, and then helped to pick up the voice actor and record it.
About the work itself
Creating the movie “Victory is worthy of death”, we did not fully understand how to build a balance between music and sounds. Everything happened by trial and error, and then it seemed to us that the more, the better, but Jesper and Andrew, based on their extensive experience, suggested where to place the accents and how to correctly build balance and dynamics. In the process of working on the “Enduring”, we immediately determined which segment would be more saturated with sound, and which segment - with music.
Work on the voice acting began after the animatic was finally formed. We sent Andrew and Jesper a video file and created a table in which we described in detail the dynamics and all the sounds. By dividing these processes, we saved some time and could make edits almost on the go. For example, in the video there is a frame where the Spartan cuts the throat of the Persian, and he screams. Being well acquainted with the filmography of Stephen Seagal, we know that with a cut throat you will not be able to shout, so the cry was replaced with a rattle. There were difficulties with the soundtrack too. Initially, he poorly conveyed the Greek atmosphere. And then Jesper wrote to us: “I found a cool instrument, akin to a violin combined with an electric guitar!”. Then he invited musicians to the studio and recorded the part of this instrument live. The sound was perfect - it turned out a kind of mix of antiquity and modernity.
Working in a team that is really passionate about their work is a pleasure. In this case, even talking on Skype at three in the morning and listening to five different versions of the same soundtrack does not seem burdensome, and the result pleases not only the eyes, but also the ears.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/226991/
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