Ad agency 72andSunny assembled quite the crew for its latest live-action trailer for an Activision video game—in this case Destiny, a new post-apocalyptic shooter game coming out Tuesday that's set 700 years in the future and features humans struggling to stay alive in a solar system they've colonized.
Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion and Tron:Legacy) directed it, with help from Oscar-winning DP Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi), Oscar-winning effects studio Digital Domain, Oscar-nominated effects studio Legacy Effects and Oscar-winning sound designer Per Hallberg (Skyfall, the Bourne movies).
The results are impressive. It has that now-familiar mix of epic visuals and sly comedy. But once again—as is true in so many cinematic video-game trailers—it's the music that really makes it. And you can't get a much more epic track than Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."
Kosinski, of course, knows this, having directed the famous "Mad World" spot for Gears of War way back when. Kosinski also likes to shoot as much as possible in camera—and did so here by traveling to remote locations in Mexico, Arizona and Utah to film the scenes on the moon, Venus and Mars.
Oh, and the levitating AI character of the Ghost is voiced by Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), who plays the same character in the game.
"The live-action trailer is the culmination of an ambitious marketing campaign befitting what we hope is our next blockbuster franchise," says Activision CMO Tim Ellis. "The campaign has included a previous live-action commercial by Jon Favreau, a Beta played by 4.6 million people, the first selfie sent into deep space, the first Newsweek special edition for a commercial product, gameplay trailers exploring Mars, Venus and the Moon, and Destiny Planet View, a chance to walk through these worlds using Google Street View—the first time a video game has been mapped using Google technologies."
Check out the Destiny Planet View site here, and the trailer for it below.
CREDITS
Client: Activision Publishing
Chief Executive Officer: Eric Hirshberg
Chief Marketing Officer: Tim Ellis
Senior Vice President, Consumer Marketing: Todd Harvey
Vice President, Consumer Marketing: Ryan Crosby
Senior Manager, Consumer Marketing: Alonso Velasco
Associate Manager, Consumer Marketing: Pam Caironi
Agency: 72andSunny
Chief Executive Officer: John Boiler
Chief Creative Officer: Glenn Cole
Chief Strategy Officer: Matt Jarvis
Chief Production Officer: Tom Dunlap
Head of Production: Sam Baerwald
Executive Creative Director: Frank Hahn
Creative Director, Writer: Tim Wolfe
Creative Director, Designer: Peter Vattanatham
Lead Designer: Garrett Jones
Copywriter: Ryan Iverson
Art Director: Vincent Barretto
Senior Producer: Eric Rasco
Production Coordinator: Michael Quinones
Group Brand Director: Mike Parseghian
Brand Director: Eli Hoy
Brand Manager: Morgan Murray
Brand Coordinator: Kirbee Fruehe
Business Affairs Director: Amy Jacobsen
Business Affairs Manager: Kelly Ventrelli
Business Affairs Coordinator: Amy Shah
Production Company: Reset Content
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Director of Photography: Claudio Miranda
Managing Director: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Producer: Julien Lemaitre
Costumes: Legacy Effects
Effects Supervisor: J. Alan Scott
Key Artists: Vance Hartwell, Anna O' Kane, Marilyn Chaney, Greg Smith, Won Song
Editing Company: Union Editorial/Circus
Editor: Jono Griffith
Assistant Editor: Jedidiah Stuber
Executive Producer, President: Michael Raimondi
Senior Producer: Joe Ross
Visual Effect: Digital Domain
Chief Creative Officer, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor: Eric Barba
Senior Producer: Carla Attanasio
Producer: Charles Bolwell
Senior Visual Effects Coordinator: Alex Michael
Computer Graphics Supervisor: Greg Teegarden
Compositing Supervisor: Dan Akers
Animation Director: Steve Preeg
Effects Lead: Eddie Smith
Computer Graphics Lead: Daisuke Nagae
On-Set, Data Integration: Viki Chan
Art Director/AFX: Cody Williams
President, Advertising and Games: Rich Flier
Executive Producer, Head of Production: Scott Gemmell
Sound Design: Formosa Group
Supervising Sound Editor: Per Hallberg
1st Assistant Sound Editor: Philip D. Morrill
Sound Designers: Ann Scibelli, Jon Title
Mix: Lime
Mixer: Rohan Young
Assistant: Jeff Malen