Behind the Scenes: Call of Duty Finest Hour (109) (Patreon)

Hello and welcome to the BTS for the first review of 2019 and the first episode of Season 5! It's going to be a pretty whopper season (if I can ever get a grip on everything in the works) so I really wanted to make sure, to start it off with a top episode.

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How did this episode come to be?
Even since before the Christmas Episode for 2018, I honestly had no ideas on what to start the new year with. We spent a lot of time in Season 4 on a bunch of different systems, including a lot of "newer" ones, like the Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4. So I knew I wanted to get back to the earlier PlayStation days, as that's sort of my safe zone. Some of the other ideas I toyed with was doing a 3-part retrospective on some 2.5D games the system is known for, but some of the games I wanted to do I either didn't own, or have actually tried to review previously and haven't had much luck with them. My next best idea was just forgetting the whole PlayStation thing and doing the first Mega Man on NES. It's something I just felt like playing when I started working on the video, but I was worried it might be too different to my normal stuff, there isn't a whole lot to really say on that game AND... it could lead into a much larger commitment covering the following sequels. Something I just don't have the time for right now.

Luckily, I also just randomly felt like playing Call of Duty: Finest Hour as I haven't touched it in a few years. So I thought fuck it, let's hit the start of this massive series for now. Being able to play something I feel like playing and make a video out of it, always lends itself to a much more natural creative process VS. the typical planning something, because of X, Y and Z. And I think that really shows in the final product!

Ideas and Pre-production:
The first thing I did was make the logo. Luckily, Call of Duty logos are generally fairly simple and use the generic Impact font. So it was really just a matter of getting the size and colors right. For the more simple logos, I always try to add some element of animation or transition just to give them a little more flair.

Initially, this was supposed to be a quick, easy to make episode... ahaha yeah ok, that never happens! I ended up having a bit to say about the game, but the live action skits take up just as much video time. To get inspired, I binged watched World War II in Color on Netflix during the writing process. Great doco series, really recommend it. I liked the idea of Square Eyed Jak hiding away in a bunker like a coward, which is where the shelf spot come from.

In movies, characters will always push wardrobes and bookshelves in front of doors to blockade enemy soldiers or zombies or whatever, so I thought it'd be a fun spot. Plus, it gives the entire episode a visual change that no other episode has had yet, which I'm always looking to do. Even though it's a minor detail, I like it. The other big inside part of the video is when "the bunker is breached" and a hole is blown in the wall.

This is one thing I love to do, having the video game directly impact the real world. SO in this instance, I'm talking about the game not keeping you informed to important events, right as this giant hole gets blown in the wall and I don't even realize. Also leads into more fighting later on. The whole idea of the Nazis in this episode being portrayed by the Teletubbies is such a random addition, I don't even know where it came from. I was spit balling ideas for things Jak is scared of out of the battlefield such as heavily armored turret nests and just randomly remember the Teletubbies underground lair. I just thought fuck man, that's such an absurd contrast to the dark, gritty themes of World War 2. But it made for some great lines I think "They love causing so much torment and for what, mere territorial gains that won't even win them the war?" It's so dumb but still educational, I love it! Also the idea that the Teletubbies have death camps etc. just cracks me up.

Shoot day!
Surprisingly, this is one of the more intensive video shoots I've done. For one, it was a long day that started late which is fun. It was super hot, not only the hottest day of that week but the helmet I was wearing just amplified the heat. It's gross but let me say, I took it off like an hour in and... there was sweat POOLING in the helmet, I actually had to wash it and keep it clean through the video. It was fucked. On top of that, while not overly heavy, holding and swinging that gun around all day and lying on the floor in awkward positions took a serious toll on my body. I was sore for like 3 days after, in places I didn't even know a person could get sore.

After all this, I still had to go and film out in the field... the BATTLEFIELD if you prefer! I was so tired and aching trying to do this but I think it made for a hot start to the video, with plenty of references! It's weird, I noticed I have a heap of these crappy Air force Simulator type games so again, going back to that idea that the games effect on the real world. Thought it'd be fun to yell them all out as my supposed back up. But for the people who saw me, lying there... with a gun. I honestly don't know how they felt about the whole thing!

Post Production: A time consuming edit!
One of the reasons this video took a bit longer to get done was mostly due to all of the visual effects. With the war scenes outdoors, walls exploding indoors, superimposing that GBA screen onto the actual Game Boy. There was quite a bit of that here.

This shows the process for compiling all of the different layers that make up the shot. Not as complicated as Sly's binocucom, but still about an hour at least went into every single one of these.

I went all the way with taking out most of the color and bumping up the contrast to match the dull, dark graphics in the game as well. Makes everything look old and gritty I think. But on top of all the visual effects, they each needed sound effects as well which is some tedious shit I'm not used to doing. I've had more challenging edits in the past, but this was just a slog at certain points having to stop and lose all my momentum, just to make a background layer or tweak the chroma key on the green screen juuuust right.

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That's a WRAP!
I've gotta say, I'm really happy with the final product. It ended up about 6-7 minutes longer than I would have liked but it doesn't feel that much longer watching it. I think the live action segments work well and the pace of the video is actually quite quick. Call of Duty isn't exactly a series of games with a whole lot to say, so it means we just need to cover the basics. The one joke I'm not totally stoked with was the "Ammo clip" bit where I'm on green screen, looking for a gun. I think the joke is definitely there but I just don't think I pulled it off so great in practice. I did want to be holding some bullets but I was NOT paying FUCKING $15 for a plastic ammo belt, NO WAY. I also wasn't keen on using real bullets just cause, that seems a little extreme for what I'm doing. So I had to combine in the gameplay to help patch up the messy end result as best I could.

The background for this shot was actually from my short 3D graphics film from my College days I reference right after, which was the first project I made with all these same explosion, gun shots, blood and fire effects and sound effects, that were featured in this episode (and many others). So on that point, I'll leave you with a couple of screenshots of that project. Not planning to release the full thing, at this stage anyway, but I still hope you enjoy seeing some Square Eyed Jak projects PRIOR to game reviews! And until next time, thanks for reading and I hope you have a great fucking day. Cheers guys, be sure to let me know what you thought of the episode! :)

The soldiers were a downloaded asset but I had to re-texture them to look like Nazis, everything else was made by yours truly. Got whopper marks for this project!