This week’s Loading Time video serves as a nice reminder of how disjointed the filming of a single, seemingly simple video can be. Originally beginning at Stark Manor (my nickname for the apartment Graham, Alex and I share), the shoot ended a week later halfway “up-Island” (the local term for heading north up Vancouver Island, as Victoria is located on the very bottom tip) at local ski resort, Mount Washington.
Graham’s inspiration for the video came from of his curiosity about why Ubisoft chose to make the main character of Assassin’s Creed 3 half British and half Native — after all, it is awfully specific. He ran other options through his mind, trying to imagine the issues Ubisoft’s marketing team might have brought up if the character was either all Native, all British or all American Badass. LoadingReadyRun has done its fair share of videos about marketers in a boardroom, so Graham decided to shift the setting to two roommates discussing the trailer. Not only did this make the video more visually appealing, it also allowed him to incorporate some delightful side jokes like the National Treasure tangent.
Fun facts about this video
? Although we were up in Mount Washington ostensibly to ski, nobody working on the shots we did at Mount Washington did any downhill skiing. I did go cross country skiing, which is just like skiing except harder and less exciting. This is actually the reason I like the sport.
? Mount Washington is a scenic 245 kilometers (152 miles) from Victoria.
? In case it’s unclear, Cam is half caucasian and half Cree. While not an exact match for Conner (the main character in the new Assassin’s Creed game, who is half English and half Mohawk) it’s still nice to see more First Nations people in video games (other than Prey).
? Do you want your own Assassin’s Creed hood like the one in the video? Tally has posted a tutorial on her blog!
? All of the behind the scenes footage at Stark Manor was all filmed on my iPhone 4S. I believe the final footage submitted to Ray before editing was 70 percent videos of my cats.
? I’ve had a terrible time trying to get the name “Stark Manor” to stick.
