Digging the trench: On The Other Side

Hey folks,

Through this post, i’ll describe you one of my greatest experience: producing a movie. Um… A short movie. Well, we all need to start somewhere at some point.

This story started in a plane. I was on my way to Tokyo, right after shipping Far Cry 2. A co-worker who became a great friend of mine gave me a first draft of a script he was working on.

It was about a canadian soldier during WWI.

He told me: “i’d like to direct that, you should help me!” A simple ”OK” brought me in the most complicated project i’ve ever worked on.

2 years. Since i said “OK”, it took us 2 years to end this project.

Back to Montreal, i started my work on Splinter Cell Conviction but i knew that i needed something else to keep my mind busy. I always wanted to work on a movie. It was a childhood dream that i had, i think, the first time i saw E.T.

So we started working on this project. 2 persons. We ended at 35.

First the scope. One of the first decision we made, was to decide to do something special. Tons of hand-made short movies look… hand-made and we didn’t want that. Working at Ubisoft would allow us to earn money we could invest in the film. So we’ve decided to hire people from the movie industry. I spent days and night doing phone calls, meeting to be sure we had the right team.

It was pretty hard at that time as i had no idea of what i was supposed to do and say. I remember looking into some dictionnary to find the title that would define what i was doing… and that was it, i suddenly became a producer. Youhou!

Once we locked the script (more or less…), we started gathering the team… Actors, DOP, AD, SFX, etc… Months after months we met all these people and got them in the WW1 mood. We did some research, went to museums, etc… to build the most respectfull and impactfull movie we could make.

Funny thing when we think about this movie is that there were millions of reasons that the movie would collapse.

First, we decided to shoot it outside…Day + Night. Taking into account the weather conditions it was a crazy choice. The 3rd day of the shoot, our trench got flooded. We had to stop the shoot, re-work te script overnight and did additionnal take in a studio a couple of months later.

Then, we had to hire extra hands to build the massive trench. It was a 20m-long trench, a trench that cost us more then expected.

Also, shooting outside, especially during winter with the cold and the mudd, is hard condition for the crew and we had too many scenes to shoot in 3 days and 1 night.

The location was far from the city so any unexpected extra needs for material made us lost hours of shooting.

Finally, working on a AAA video game + handeling a shooting like that is a killer. I remember working at the office then heading to the shooting location, spending the night handling the shoot, then heading back home at 7am, showering and heading back to work without sleeping, then finishing my day at the office, heading back to the set location, cleaning and wrapping everything and come back home really late, taking a couple of hours of sleep and head back to the office. Um. You gotta love coffee!

But in the end… i can tell this is my best experience so far. The first day i discover the final set was like being 8 again and going to Disneyland. Everything you’ve wroked on and dreamt of for the last 10 months suddenly became alive. It was a crazy feelling.

We wanted to release the movie in Black and White but when we took a first look at the rush during the first day of shooting, we decided to keep the colors – even if the post-production would cost us more money: you’ve got to work for something anyway

Once we had the rushes in hand, we took some time off, heading back to Japan and i can tell you, there is no better feeling then going on holidays with this felling of having somehing cool in hands.

Post-production was an easy process comparing to the shooting. Friend of mine brillantly handled the foley + dubbing, we had the sound mixed for free by our friends at Wave Generation. Seppuku Paradigm wrote a kick ass score for the movie… It was such exciting times! As we did everything else ourselves, it took us 6 extra months to finilaze the movie. After that, it was all about sending it to some film festivals and wait for some rewards

What an experience! I learn so much about managing talent, challenging creative people and making fast decisions and things happen.

I hope in the end you’ll get the chance to see our work (see links below) but mostly, if you’ve got the opportunity, to take part in a similar adventure. Be sure i’ll share the next one in 2012

Dimitri.

The movie can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/19093886

Making of: http://vimeo.com/19904244

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/16380746

Let’s save the world with Sam Fisher: Splinter Cell Conviction

Funny things working at Ubisoft Montreal is you can switch from one universe to another from floor to floor. After the wilderness of Africa and a first experience in First Person Shooter games, i made it to the US and to the Third Person Shooter. What a promotion

A Hero. Yes! From a marketing perspective, the challenge was so exciting: working on a well established brand with a strong face and icon.

Gameplay-wise, the dev team made a tremendous effort reinventing Stealth in video game. Half of the job was done. The other half was in the communication strategy: delivering the new promise to the consumer and the fans.

At this point, you’ll know that your character will drive everything. His backstory, his quest, his shape, etc… will bring this message up: I’m the new verison of the product you liked! You’ll love me!

As markets evolve, we need to produce changes. You, me, as a consumer, need change. It’s for the best. But if it’s done the wrong way, everything can fall appart. This might explain why we had to delay several times the launch of the game.

Believe me, it was not an easy ride. But in the end, i’m so happy with this experience. I’ve worked with such a talented team. They deliver a great game – reviews tell that, not only me

What was important for us is to deliver the new and updated gameplay. Working on the demo we unveiled at E3 was the first step. Instead of pushing too hard on trailers, we decided to unveil the game by itself. And it worked. Sometimes it feels that, as a marketing manager, we don’t do much. We just put the game out and it works! Well, more or less But we managed to work hand to hand with the dev team and released a great piece of gameplay.

After that, it was hard to push the game experience further. I always had the feeling that this demo convinced people. I’m still using it as a great benchmark for a demo, along with Bioshock Infinite and Modern Warfare of course.

In this condition, for me, it was all about the story. Another strengh of this game. A new direction in the franchise. Our hero would save the world but there was more at stake. A personal quest. It might sound cheesy, but in the end, this is what drives us all.

And to have somebody buy your game, you need to drive him. Think of any perfum commercial, the success of the TV show Mad Men or even a commercial for beer. If you find yourself or the who you’d like to be in a product, you’ll buy it.

And that’s what we try to do. If we can tell you a story that matters, in which you’re involved, that’s a win-win. I’ll entertain you and you’ll get something for your investment.

This vision pushed me to a new challenge: create assets that will tell a story, but you’ll not necessarily have in the game. In a video game, you usually follow one point of view. It’s sometimes hard to have data to put the emphasis on secondary characters or the bad guy of the game.

At that time, i was – and i’m still – impressed by the Dark Knight and what Nolan achieved with his Joker. And i remember the very first teaser for District 9 featuring an interview with an alien that was not part of the movie.

Interesting.

So we’ve decided to create trailers featuring secondary characters and the bad guy. It’s sound not that impressive, but back in time, it was something that was not that common in video games communication assets.

And that was it. Working on the script with our talented scriptwriter, create new levels, doing some art direction, handling the voice recording, pacing, finding the right music… All new skills acquired that allowed us to create nice videos. I’ve worked on other videos that we didn’t got the chance to produce due to a lack of time… but the experience was great.

Oh! I could have told you about writing the script, shooting and editing the Conviction’s making of during nights and week ends, the nice voice recording  session with Michael Ironside – i found myself with him handling some lighting while his was recording some lines for the game… screaming like a bad-ass angry daddy, i thought he would eat me alive! Or how the MoCap actor who’s a real Krav Maga Trainer kicked my balls trying to teach me a Krav Maga lesson… That’s part of the job too

A couple of videos from this game :

Tom Reed Trailer

Victor Coste Trailer

E3 Demo Walkthrough

Welcome to Africa: Far Cry 2

Hey,

Ubisoft Office, day 1.

2 days after landing in Montreal.

Action!

I’ve been brought to my office nearby the producer of Far Cry 2, in the middle of… 200 devs. Wow. I’ve never been in such places before. I’ve seen them in Dev Diaries, TV reports… but never for real. As long as i can remember, in my previous jobs at Warner Music or MicroApplication i was only sharing an open space with like…3 to 5 people… I guess i needed to learn how to deal with bigger productions.

So here they are… the faces that i’ll see every single day and maybe nights for the next coming months.

But this wasn’t the most surprising thing i’ve discovered that day. No.

Marketing always meant the 3P, defining a product DNA, working on powerpoint, answering emails, phones, coordinating process, defining a launch strategy…

Of course i’ve been asked all this but that first week I realized 2 things:

- Working as an International Product Manager also meant being creative, create assets from scratch

- It was up to me to decide how i would define my work

Yes. At that time, I could stick to write briefs, powerpoint presentations, excel sheets… Pitching artists with all the info of my game, waiting for feedbacks, etc…

People i know do that and they’re really good at it. But come on, i’m a geek in one of the biggest video game studio in the world!! Surrounded by artists, dev of all kind… Why can’t i go see them, sit at their desk, learn about their job, sharing ideas about the game, creating stuff, sharing ideas, etc…

Yep, i should do that.

And that’s how i’ve decided to drop the phone, to go and see the artists (after all, an open space is meant for that, right?), learn from them… learn about their jobs, ideas, constraints, etc…

So i agree: days at work looked more like weeks, spending most of the nights at the office… But how can you expect to create a trailer, capturing footage without knowing the key locations, where you can use your camera to get the best point of view to deliver the action? How can you talk to an actor who’s recording a script for the voice over of your video if you have no idea on how he’s supposed to act? How can you give your team solid feedbacks on how the asset would be better if you can’t put words on your feelings? How can you create or help developing a concept for a trailer if you have any idea on how to do it?

So that’s the way i deal my first project at Ubisoft, Far Cry 2, producing key assets for our communication and more important, having fun telling our fans how cool the game is! I’ve met tons of people that year and developing a strong taste in producing assets. An experience that definitely changed my working knowledge.

Here are a couple of videos for Far Cry 2 i’ve worked on…

FAR CRY 2 THE JACKAL TRAILER – I haven’t do that much on this one i must say but i’ll always remember when my boss came with the song, when our director showed us the footage…Inspiring time!

FAR CRY 2 DECEIVING YOUR ENEMIES – This trailer is very particular to me.. It was really fun and in the end it’s a great video but getting it on the internet was far from being a sure thing… It was the fist time I handled a voice recording, interesting comments during that session (“could you be like…more vicious”, “humm… you don’t sound like you’re enjoying it enough” )

FAR CRY 2 CRAZY MAP EDITOR – We have so much fun editing this one… We produced tutorial videos for the Map Editor and this time, we asked the dev team to create the craziest maps they could imagine – The Eiffel Tower was just a start… And here’s the result. We had such positive reactions at that time with this tool.

FAR CRY 2 LAUNCH TRAILER – The best way to end a projet

Introduction: the first step

Hey there,

First steps are never easy but they are necessary to move on. You know that of course but that’s what i kept repeating to myself the day i was at the Ubisoft office doing an interview… You can’t imagine how nervous I was… And I still don’t know how i managed to hide that, but i did.

I always thought i was meant to play videogames. Not to work in the video game industry.

I spent a big part of my childhood playing. Oh, dear Atari 520STE, NES, SNES, GameGear… We’ve spent so many hours, days and nights together… I’m sure you and I have shared the same heroes, the very same stories: how many times have i saved Princess Zelda? I’ve put Browser in the flames hundreds of times (hey hey^^) and i’ve digitally swallowed more mushrooms than i will ever eat thanks to a plumber… I also remember my parents getting worried as i was always sitting in front of this TV with a controller in hands…. Let me guess… You had the same parents at home??

All this lead me to the Ubisoft headquaters a couple of years ago… The story went pretty well in the end as i got the job!

I was in the game. Literally.  i’ll always remember the first time i came to the Ubisoft studio. I was shaky. Impressed. Excited. I was about to achieve something one my childhood dream : working in a huge and respected videogame studio.

I’ve joined Ubisoft in 2008 to work on Far Cry 2 as an International Product Manager; what a title! Sounds good but what does it mean? Well, basically, i’m asked to sit with a dev team during a game’s production process and give marketing inputs and building its promotion.

Since then, i got the chance to work on several AAA titles like Splinter Cell Conviction, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, Splinter Cell 3D, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 and I’m currently working on the recently announced next Assassin’s Creed game. Don’t get me wrong, i won’t tell you yet about this game. Yup, that sucks. But hey! My job is all about working on anouncement campaigns and you’d really expect me to unveil secrets/news through a personnal blog??!

I’ve learnt a lot in 3 years, working on stuff i would have never imagined. Besides my work at Ubisoft, i’ve started a company, REZ, as a producer. And it all started here, in the beautiful Montreal. You’ll see how and why in a couple of posts.

Now I guess you’ll get it: through this blog i won’t give you any exclusive news or marketing lessons but i’ll try to do what i love to do in my job(s): telling stories. Cause that’s all it has always been about and that will always matter.

+++

dim

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Hello world!

Hey,

Thanks for stopping by, you’re alright!

I’m a Senior international product manager at Ubisoft Montreal and a Producer at Rez. People ask me about my experience so i’ve decided to write this down. Through this blog, you’ll be able to read about my professional experiences. Views expressed are my own. I hope this will give you the will to send your CV to Ubisoft

You can follow me on Twitter: @Chairdim or check my linkedIn profile.