A short while back, I wrote part one on the making of commercials here at KingsIsle which covers how we make our CGI spots. In part two, I will delve into our recent Wizard101 tournaments spot where for the first time in KingsIsle history we used live actors and a real set for a portion of the commercial.
The starting process for using live action in a commercial is almost identical to how we start a CGI commercial. We have to come up with the overall message of the spot, the storyboards and script. However, from there it gets more complicated as it is like producing two separate commercials (one CGI and one live action) that had to work together with a perfectly smooth transition.
We outlined the four Wizards we wanted to use on the “featured” team. Our goal was to use the Ice and Myth Wizards from our last CGI commercials plus two additional ones. In casting the actors it made for a fun duel process. We needed to find a male and female actor that embodied the Wizards from the previous CGI commercials. We then had to find two actors (one male and one female) that would be the foundation to model the two additional CGI Wizards, one Death and one Fire. It is a fascinating process looking at video castings of so many young actors and really trying to pick out just the right ones. I lost track of how many hours we spent looking for “perfect fits” to be the first ever live action Wizards 🙂
Getting the clothing right was another fun effort. I really wanted to make sure the actors were wearing cool clothes that you would see in the halls of any high school. However, they also had to have a close resemblance to the Wizard101 outfits that the CGI characters would wear in the arena. We knew the color combinations but it was really hard to know how it would work until the actor actually has the outfit on. The day before the commercial shoot we all got together and walked through all the details. This was also when we had each of the actors try on all of the various outfits to figure out exactly the right ones to wear.
Another thing we had to really focus on to get right was the actual location to shoot the commercial. I wanted a locker room feel but one that could just as easily be in our world or in the Spiral. This was a harder thing to find than you might think. We ended up shooting the commercial at a really cool stadium in the Dallas area that had great concrete floors and columns. We had the lockers custom built based on how we thought they might look in a real Wizard101 stadium. We also had the stone benches custom built (side note, they’re now a permanent addition to the KingsIsle offices). A lot of the employees wanted fun items in the commercial so I brought a box of items in to act as “props” on the shelves of the spot. I won’t list all of the items but some of them included Marleyben (the marketing team mascot), a bottle of Falmea hot sauce a fan had sent in, and my old school original clapping monkey from the 1950’s.
The day of the commercial shoot was a whirlwind. There was a huge crew there setting up lights and cameras, dressing the actors and getting their hair and make-up done and a whole flurry of other activity. Once everything was in place we started shooting footage. There was a cool “mist” machine that helped set the ambiance. An interesting aspect was how many shots we had to take to get the short footage actually used in the commercial. This is because there is no second chance to get another shot if we find in production we don’t have what we want. I’ll also call out at this point that I got to have my first appearance in a national commercial. Yep, I played one of the door guards for the Wizards entering the arena. I can hear what you are thinking – “Wow, that was one amazing piece of acting that you did…” 🙂
Once all the footage is captured there was still a huge amount of work to do. We had to take hours’ worth of shots and condense it down to the roughly 15 seconds you saw in the commercial. We had to make sure there was continuity to all the shots – if an actor’s hood was up in one cut, it was the same way in the next cut. Of course we also had to do all the sound effects and post production effects. Our internal KingsIsle sound team is amazing and they really did a great job with this commercial.
Truth be told, I was extremely nervous about using live actors and shooting lives scenes for a KingsIsle commercial. There were a lot of additional risks to adding live action for us. Would we pick the right actors? Would the set look appropriate and have a feel that crosses both our world as well as the world we’ve created in the spiral. Perhaps most importantly, would the live action come across with the believability we feel is so important? Overall I think we were able to navigate through all of these risks and create a commercial I was really proud of but I would love to hear your thoughts. Did you like the commercial? Should we consider using live action again in the future?
Fred Howard
Vice President of Marketing
With launching our second major game in October, it’s become a bit of a tradition here at KingsIsle to have a big Halloween party! Last year, we celebrated the launch of Pirate101 with a spook-tacular bash, and this year we decided another costume party was in order.
KingsIsle employees get very enthusiastic with costumes each year. There’s a Halloween costume contest that is always very competitive! Other highlights are a green-screen where friends can gather for photos and then pick fun backgrounds like a favorite choice, a Pirate101 tavern!
Of course no party is complete without food and music. We enjoyed a variety of music from several DJs while nibbling on pizza and sipping some Yum-n-ade!
The atmosphere was spooky scary with Halloween video clips projected onto the walls of our location. Guests who wanted to get a glimpse into their future could also visit the Tarot Card reader. Did she predict some cool new stuff in our future? Hmm… 🙂
We had a great time getting together to celebrate our favorite fall holiday as well as the Pirate101’s 1st Birthday! We hope all you Wizards and Pirates out there have a safe and enjoyable holiday. Happy Halloween from everyone at KingsIsle Entertainment!
Today by blog reader request, we have a little bit more background on the villains of Wizard101! Alhazred and King Artorius, our Wizard101 writers, have shared some insight into the makings of Malistaire and Morganthe.
In the earliest story development of Wizard101, it was important that the villain be memorable. The name was easy: “malice” + “stare” = “evil eye.” If you notice, Malistaire’s robe is covered with evil eyes. Visually, he’s a dead-ringer for his brother Cyrus, emphasizing his evil-ness, but he also evokes classic villainy, with his dark robe, black eyes and fingernails, and sinister facial hair. His personality is similar to his brother’s, but even less friendly.
However, looks aren’t everything!
Making a memorable villain meant that Malistaire could not be completely unsympathetic or evil. He had to have a tragic aspect, and a motive that made sense. So Malistaire has tragedy to spare. He lost his wife Sylvia to a horrible disease. Their marriage was the combination of life and death, a perfect cycle, but with her gone, all he had was his sorrow, which drove him mad.
Unlike most stereotypical villains, Malistaire’s plan doesn’t involve getting revenge on those who did him wrong or causing mayhem to spread the pain around. Instead, he is single-handedly focused on recovering a magical book and awakening a power that will aid him in restoring his wife to the world of the living once more. The other professors at Ravenwood, Sherlock Bones, the Emperor of MooShu, and the player Wizard are all just obstacles to Malistaire’s end-goal. If he could get what he wants without dealing with any of them, he would.
Ultimately, if Malistaire could have anything in the Spiral, it would be to reunite with his wife again, as if nothing had happened.
That’s not such a terrible thing to ask for, is it?
If you agree, then we did our job right.
Morganthe, on the other hand, came from a desire to shake things up a bit. We wanted a new villain for our next big story arc. She had to be more ruthless, with a bigger goal in mind, but just as memorable as Malistaire. But since the stakes had to be higher than just incidentally risking destroying the Spiral to bring someone back from the dead, this time Morganthe’s threat had to be more deliberate.
However, she comes from a similar place as Malistaire, someone who has lost and feels wronged. Once she was a promising student of Merle Ambrose’s back in Avalon, and she followed Ambrose to be his first student in Ravenwood. However, she was never content to learn at the slow pace he dictated. She knew she was smart enough and clever enough to handle the most dangerous types of magic, despite Merle Ambrose’s warnings and restrictions. But she was wrong—she made a tragic mistake and nearly destroyed Wizard City, and thus Merle Ambrose and the other professors were forced to take away her magic and expel her from Ravenwood.
Like Faust, Morganthe sought knowledge that was denied to her, and went over the line when she was thwarted. From there, her ambitions have grown so vast she wishes to force the whole Spiral to bend to her whims, to prove that she was right all along.
Her name, Morganthe, comes from a few places. It has its roots in Welsh and Old English, evoking King Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. A “morganatic” marriage is a marriage of political convenience in which the child inherits nothing, which also seemed to make thematic sense, as Morganthe feels like she is denied her true heritage… that is deserved to her.
From the beginning, even before finalizing her name, we wanted her to be the queen of the Shadow Web, and with that, it only made sense to give her a shadow/spider theme. On a more real-world note, Morganthe is a dead-ringer for the actress who voices her, which always helps when writing dialogue.
So that’s a look behind the Wizard101 curtain.
Speaking of curtains, Morganthe’s storyline will sometime draw to a close and the Spiral will survive her diabolical plan (we hope!). After that, the player Wizard will encounter new worlds and even new realms of magic.
Somewhere, though… will be a villain.
Who will it be?
Alhazred and King Artorius
Wizard101 Creative Designers
KingsIsle recently went to Realmscon in beautiful Corpus Christi where con goers went to celebrate anime and gaming and to basically have fun with like-minded people–a great location coupled with great people and you’ve got the recipe for a great time!
If you’ve never been to a con, they are typically full of fans of different sci-fi, fantasy, and anime films, comics, and games, and about half of these fans don’t just show up in their street clothes! You’ll see colorful costumes and wacky fun all around you. Realmscon didn’t disappoint in this regard. There were plenty of people dressing for the occasion. In typical con fashion, we also found a lot of fan-made art, clothing, books, posters, and all kinds of fun stuff for sale. Vendors love cons! And last but definitely not least, every con has a packed schedule of events that con-goers can really get into. Members of KingsIsle participated in a handful of these panels.
One panel that KingsIsle hosted was about “How to get into the video game industry.” We all introduced ourselves, talked a small bit about our jobs, and then answered questions from the audience. It was great to see so many budding programmers, designers, and artists out in the audience. Jeff Toney hosted the discussion and fielded questions from the audience. The big takeaway piece of advice from us? Well, to generalize . . . keep practicing, read up, make a clean portfolio of your best (and finished) work, don’t give up, and move to a hub town where video game companies are plentiful!
Our second panel was simply about our games “Wizard101 and Pirate101.” We all again introduced ourselves and began talking about our games. It was nice to see some really dedicated fans out in the audience who had questions about everything from “How did the death school get destroyed in Ravenwood?” to questions about the levels of the Dev’s characters in the games. As a fun surprise, right in the middle of our presentation a giant conga line snaked through the auditorium and ended up on stage with us—that’s a crazy con moment for you! After answering all the questions we could, our hour of presentation time was up, and we invited everyone in the audience on stage to give them a free epic bundle AND an exclusive Pirate101 treasure map.
If you live in the Texas area and enjoy going to the local gaming conventions, be on the lookout for KingsIsle employees! To be sure, we love our fans.
Hello fellow wizards and pirates, my name is Kelsey Fireheart and I run Stars of the Spiral, an official fansite for both Pirate101 and Wizard101! I was asked to write a short article on how it’s like being a deaf player playing KingsIsle games. I was quite honored by their kind request. So first, here’s some background about me. I was born deaf into a hearing family because my mother had german measles while pregnant with me. It destroyed the hair in my cochlea in my ear which prevented me from hearing. But I was always told that I was like everyone else and was treated just the same. My uncle would place my hand on his guitar and he would play. Even though I couldn’t hear, I was encouraged to love music. I can read lips and speak when I have to, but I mostly use American Sign Language to communicate with other people.
I was born in a generation that had no computers, modems or any internet connection. I grew up riding on my bicycle, spending a lot of time outdoors and chasing my brother when we needed the exercise. But when we received our very first Nintendo game console and playing Super Mario Bros with my brother. That was the start of gaming for me. Many years later, I saw Wizard101 in an ad online and I decided, why not? I loved the idea of a continuing game. One that will keep me on my toes with new content. So I created my very first wizard, Kelsey Fireheart. She is a proud redheaded Pyromancer who was ready to go on a grand adventure! Once I completed Triton Avenue, I was confronted by a choice. Buy more crowns, buy a membership or quit. I decided to get a membership to see how I did within a month. It only cost me ten bucks for 1 month? Sure! I remember questing in the Pyramid of the Sun of Krokotopia and I bumped into a fellow wizard named Diana Wildheart. We chatted as we helped each other through the battles. She mentioned that she was deaf and I gasped in astonishment. I replied, I am deaf too! That’s when I realized that I could meet fellow deaf gamers through games like Wizard101. She was my first ever in-game friend that I still keep in touch with. We even created our accounts in the same year and month with only a few days apart. That made me decide to continue my subscription to Wizard101. I loved the idea of being able to be able to meet new friends in-game that you could connect with.
That experience also made me want to show others what deafness means. I also wanted to disprove some ideas and thoughts on what deaf people can do as well as can’t do. I knew that this game is full of people who do not understand what “deaf” or “deafness” means. This game is an wonderful educational tool that I can use to teach countless others and it gave me a way of communicating with no barriers. In fact, it gave me a greater purpose within the game!
For example, some people think we can’t hear anything. That’s not true. We can hear things to a degree. For myself, I can hear motorcycles, airplanes and large dog barking. I can hear music if it’s loud enough. But the thing we love the most is the vibrations. Also I try to advise people not to apologize to deaf people that they cannot hear. There’s no need to apologize to a deaf person as we are very proud of who we are! Like I wouldn’t apologize that you can’t speak klingon. We are used to being deaf and we can’t miss what we don’t know.
Since I can’t hear, the visual aspect is really important to me. I love KI’s use of colors and textures that create the beautiful worlds that we know and love like Zafaria in Wizard101 and Mooshu in Pirate101. Even the Pirate101’s stormgates is amazing. I may not be able to hear the amazing music or the character’s goofy voice overs, but I am still part of the quest because of the captions! But what I love the most is the way they managed to make the worlds’ look evoke emotions either good or bad. For instance, before we finish the very last dungeon in Azteca, the world looked beautiful like the paradise it should be. But once we finished the dungeon, the way the entire world’s look changed really made it hit home. It became grey and overcast with characters gaping at the darkening sky above. Yes, Azteca is really being bombarded by meteors and you can see the effect in the entire place. It made me feel sad for the characters in that world. I didn’t need the music to feel that, that was enough for me.
Even though I know it’s practically impossible, but I would love to see sign language being used in-game. After all, some sign language is universal like the “I Love You” sign which should be spread to every corner of the world. But I can keep dreaming.
If you ever wanted to know how to spell Wizard101 or Pirate101, here’s a guide.
Wizard101
Pirate101
If you seek adventure, all you need is a wand or a ship.
-Kelsey Fireheart
StarsoftheSpiral.com
KingsIsle Blog 