Call of Duty: Ghosts - Devastation DLC Trailer

"Alright everyone, back to A"

We all get what this trailer is: more COD for us to throw our money at. New maps, guns, and the next chapter of its freshest (and arguably strongest) game mode grace the Devastation DLC Pack from the latest Infinity Ward giant. But while this may seem like a new coat of paint over an old clunker of a car, look deeper and you'll find one of the coolest jobs that I have ever come across.

I was lucky enough to work for the studio that created this trailer for a brief stint. At the time, we had a build for some Black Ops 2 DLC that was set to release around early July of last year. This meant that our gameplay capture artists had to learn the maps, find places to set up shots (with recommendations from the client), and execute them with the help of the assistants (my job) on the controllers.

The capture guys would then take the footage and fly around with a free-flowing camera to catch every possible angle of it. Throw in some slick editing, and viola! You have a non-stop trailer that throws as much action as possible at you, and hopefully convinces you to purchase the content.

That's right, every single shot you see in this trailer is carefully planned out, timed, and practiced until perfection. That includes all of the stuff with the Extinction mode, they most likely had a build that would allow them to control every aspect of the game. I can't imagine how many times they had to do that airstrike shot, I'm willing to wager it was a lot of times.

Of course, sometimes the direction was just to run around and kill everyone you saw, but they were artists: it was all part of their process. These guys played the games until their eyes bled, but damn did the trailers look good.

"Alright everyone, enable GOD mode. Time to shoot some zombies."

Best words I'd hear all day.

Call of Duty: Ghosts
PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, WiiU
Out Now
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward

Back to Black

I was thrust into the fire, and this is what I did

Deadpool - Launch Trailer

Hello again! After an extended hiatus, the Trailer Jockey is back and ready to get back on that horse of trailer reviews. I bet you were all wondering where I had gone for so long, so allow me to fill you in:

I had the honor to be taken on by the production team at a high level trailer house for video games (because the confidentiality is/was so elaborate, I'm going to err on the side of caution and not name anything or really go into a ton of detail) for their work on E3 2013. Long story short, I was assisting the producers that were making all of the trailers throughout this post, along with the trailers especially made for our client at E3, happen. 

Mad Max - E3 Reveal Trailer

I learned more about the video game industry in these last two months then I had in all of my experiences leading up to this one. Seeing games in development, PLAYING games in development, and observing how certain publishers operate all were openings into this world that I could not get enough of. Pile all that on top of being involved in the production of something that will represent an upcoming game to the consumer was one of the more fulfilling moments out of my time here on Earth.

Destiny - E3 Gameplay Trailer

But of course with the cool work came very long nights (that sometimes turned back into days) and a constant stream of nonstop deadlines and stress. And while I absolutely loved every second of it, I am happy to return to TTJ and really start looking at video game trailers with a refreshed look: a look that has seen a trailer being built from conception to release. So welcome back to the new world of the Trailer Jockey, glad to have you along for the ride.

Call of Duty: Ghosts- Reveal Trailer

Enjoy these trailers! They were a pleasure to work on and I feel like they all came out ridiculously well.  And the best part? Getting to be "in" a multiplayer trailer because they needed extra people for capture, like below:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Vengeance DLC "Replacers" Trailer