RAID: SHADOW LEGENDS
THE MISSION
Create an action-packed commercial ad for RAID: SHADOW LEGENDS, starring wrestling legend RONDA ROUSEY.
In the spot, a disgruntled Ronda makes her way to the RAID headquarters offices to confront the lead game designer, demanding that she be put IN the game. Seeking to avoid bodily repercussions, he reluctantly leads her to Raid’s underground laboratory where Ronda dons weapons and leaps into a portal, charging into the game and becoming a playable character.
THE PROBLEM
The commercial takes place in four very different locations: INSIDE Ronda’s living room, OUTSIDE the RAID offices in San Francisco, INSIDE the boss’s penthouse office and INSIDE a fictional underground laboratory full of exotic in-game weapons, armor and other RAID paraphernalia.
On top of all that, Ronda was only available for 10 hours.
OPTION ONE
ON-LOCATION
A company move from a house, to an office building, and then to a stage where a fictional laboratory set would be built.
NOT GONNA WORK!
Half the day would go to travel and setting up. On top of that, the budget could not support all of the lighting and set builds.
OPTION TWO
SOUNDSTAGE
Build all of the sets on a single soundstage.
WRONG AGAIN!
This would be massively out of the scope of the budget,
requiring at least 3x to 4x the funds available to create the spot.
NONE OF THESE WERE GOING TO WORK!
ENTER
Virtual Production allowed us to stay in ONE physical location, inside of a 55’ cylindrical LED Volume. Using Unreal Engine, we built all FOUR of the virtual locations for the commercial to play on the volume stage.
With a little help from our practical art department, we were able to add just the right amount of set dressing and props into the shots to help sell the real world illusion to the audience (just look at the on-set monitor! All the very definition of in-camera vfx!).
Because we were in one location all day and each virtual location move only took a few minutes to change over, we shot 36 setups in one day, staying on schedule and on budget.
JOB DONE
The Raid: Shadow Legends commercial shoot was a perfect example of how virtual production can create more budget-friendly and efficient productions… all the while solving complex logistical filmmaking challenges.