Welcome back to the latest entry in our ‘What I Do’ series, where we examine in detail just what it is, exactly, that individual workers do for a living in the video game industry.
Having recently spoken with a UX researcher, age ratings guy and narrative designer, today we’re interviewing Jason White, a Game Capture Director, which is a job that involves…well, I’ll let Jason explain.
Luke Plunkett: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Jason! What, exactly, do you do for a living in the video game industry?
Jason White: So I am a Game Capture Director, which encompasses a lot of things, but in short: I capture and direct in-engine gameplay for video game trailers, which can either be straight gameplay or cinematic “freecam” angles of gameplay action.
LP: OK, so how does that actually work? What does an average project look like?
JW: At the very start of a project, we will usually be sent a WIP build of the game so I can play through it as much as I can. Throughout this process, I’m taking notes of what’s genuinely fun, what areas look good, what combos or abilities or gameplay mechanics are fun and visually interesting, etc. We get some of this information in a marketing brief, but it’s usually pretty bare bones for our purposes (“3 new biomes!” and the like). So in addition to my own notes, and if this is a new game or new version of a game, I’ll also create a “What Does It Feel Like to Play” document. This document is shared with everyone else on our team (producers, writers, editor) who will not have the time to play through a game but still need to understand it from a player’s perspective.
Based off that, and what the client wants (usually the publisher, sometimes combo of publisher and developer), the writers will create a few different scripts and I’ll make adjustments for gameplay accuracy, what’s possible to capture within the build limitations, anything else relevant.
After the client selects the script, I’ll make a shot list of what we’re going to capture to tell the story of the script. We will also have an internal kick-off meeting for everyone on the project to throw out ideas to further refine the storytelling beats, any visual motifs we want to try, possible jokes (if the game/trailer is supposed to be funny), etc.
Somewhere in this build exploration, I will also find and test the different debug tools available to us. These can be as simple as the base debug camera (I use “freecam” and “debug camera” interchangeably) built into Unreal and whatever debug commands we can find ourselves, or as expansive as an entirely custom Imgui built by the devs that allow us to control camera functions, enable/adjust depth of field, spawn characters, change lighting, etc. Every game is different and figuring out what is possible within those parameters takes up a lot of time and problem solving in order to bend the game for consistent, effective, and beautiful virtual cinematography.
After all that prep, I finally start capturing. Depending on the game, this can either be a solo experience, or it can involve a second person occasionally playing the character while I control the cinematic camera, or it can involve multiple capture techs playing characters in “scenes.”
Once I’m done capturing for the day, or whenever I need to deliver footage to the editor, I hand that footage off to our Games Coordinator to ingest into our editorial pipeline. I’ll work with the editor throughout the entire process, giving notes and figuring out what other coverage is needed.
At Buddha Jones, we like to make the V1 our ideal version, which usually takes some stronger creative swings than the client ultimately wants, and then we find a happy medium that we can all live with. Between the V1 and getting picture lock, I’ll go back to the game and either capture new stuff to address notes or recapture existing footage due to build changes/updates.
There are other aspects of my job, like smoothing out adjustments to our capture pipeline or training Capture Techs and supervising Capture Artists, that fall more into the management side of my job, but the above are my primary responsibilities when it comes to capturing for a video game trailer. I’ve also presented how our process is ideally supposed to go, there are plenty of instances in which schedules are truncated or changes are made mid stream and that presents its own challenges.
LP: Given most people out there won’t know most of that, what do you think might be some of the bigger misconceptions among the public about your field?
JW: I think the biggest misconception the general public has about my job is that there are more trailers made from vertical slices of video games than most people think. To clarify, a vertical slice is a representative demo of what the game will be. Or at least, what the developers are working toward at that point in their production schedule. Sure, certain things may be scripted that will eventually be dynamic, and there are more constraints than the final product will have, but a vertical slice is not a lie, nor would I ever consider a trailer made from one “fake.” They are a fairly common part of lengthy development cycles, especially ones with a lot of money behind them.
The best example of this was last year’s trailer for Perfect Dark that I captured. I don’t think I need to recount the entire drama around that, but the level designer clarified that situation pretty well. As the person who captured that game from the vertical slice, I agree with everything he said. And on a personal level, it broke my heart to see Perfect Dark get cancelled. I was a massive fan of Rare’s original game. Such a fan in fact that I asked a developer I knew at The Initiative to put a tiny slice of cheese in the demo for me to capture. I genuinely don’t know if anyone ever noticed, but it made me smile whenever I had to capture that playthrough for the umpteenth time.
LP: Given you’re so directly responsible for stuff that millions of people will see in a trailer, what are the coolest jobs you’ve ever got the chance to work on?
JW: The coolest thing I’ve ever done is probably put references to both Jaws and Pac-Man in a single Grounded trailer. But the thing I’m most proud of is actually the work I did on three Babylon’s Fall trailers (TGA, Combat 101, and launch). It may not have been the next NieR, to put it lightly, but Square Enix was so happy with our work on that campaign that we then got to make trailers for both Final Fantasy XVI (Revenge and Ascension) and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, both of which are career highlights for me.
LP: Before we wrap up, in an ideal world, what aspects of the job would you like to see improved? What would make your job easier?
JW: I would love longer schedules to make a trailer and specifically more time with the build before we start capturing. The truncating of schedules, and especially the delay in providing builds to capture teams, is what really sets us back and makes the job harder. When we have less time to explore, be creative, and actually capture, we could end up with footage and trailers that are more generic and less compelling. No one wants that. Future clients: please give us your build as early as possible and let us cook. I promise, your game will thank us!
LP: Thanks Jason!
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