Following the success of Prototype 1, our goal was to expand appeal; to make the world feel the love that our rabid cult following felt. We had to get the guys who didn't pour a ton of time into games excited. We’re talking the one-blockbuster-game-a-year casual gamers, the ones paying more attention to the next big movie than the next big game. So, we took a page from the entertainment world and used the emotional back-story of the new protagonist, James Heller, to draw them in. We created a cinematic live-action film with a narrative driven by the power and cultural impact of Johnny’s Cash’s “Hurt.” A single film was created to run online as a 90-second commercial, with cut downs created to run on TV, pre-rolls and homepage takeovers.

On paper, this spot had clear potential to be one of the most stunning, compelling and emotional spots of the year. But with a mere $750K production budget and huge CG requirements, there was no shortage of challenges. We shot as much of the spot in-camera as possible, on three 16-hour days in Johannesburg, South Africa. We spent nights brainstorming resourceful ways to create the incredible filmic impact we needed without over-spending. Our lead actor did most of his own stunts, leaping from the edge of an abandoned high-rise building in downtown Johannesburg, and hanging for hours from rigging set up over a green screen to simulate his plummet to the ground. That green screen was laid on the ground in a grassy field adjacent to one location (rather than rent a stage.) We built makeshift cranes to dangle our camera over the edge of a skyscraper to create a stomach-churning vertigo feeling. We shot in the famous Soweto neighborhood, creating underground explosions to simulate an Iraq battle scene. When night fell on our last shoot day, and our spot wasn’t finished – we lit our final scene with headlights from four crewmembers’ cars. On that last night, our director called ‘ACTION!’ even as the sky erupted with explosive summer thunderstorms and rain fell. In addition, the post-production team pulled 7 consecutive all-nighters to make sure our falling scenes felt real enough to make viewers feel the drop. Nailing the moment our hero hits the ground took our post team numerous revisions and re-renders to perfect the shock wave, dust cloud, crackling of concrete and smoke of the impact. Post teams worked down to the minute we shipped the spot making the destroyed city, the fall and the impact feel hyper-real. This project was a true example of the power of collaboration between agency, client, production company and post team.