A Case Study for Razer's newest gaming mousepad, the Goliathus Chroma RGB
The Mission
In the stone age, long before CXE had been formalized, a note-worthy producer at Razer (industry-leader in gaming lifestyle + computer peripherals) reached out to our very own Roy Arwas for some insight.
Hoping to launch their newest digital advertising campaign about the newest RGB Chroma mouse mat dubbed the “Razer Goliathus Chroma,” Razer's team was in search of a creative collaborator to execute their vision.
The torch was passed, and Roy was tasked with the opportunity to direct, edit and instill post-production visuals for the Razer team, a company he had long been a fan of.
This is where the fun began!
The Approach
The inspiration behind the approach was none other than an old stock video layered up in the air. The hero shots for the mouse mat would be executed mid-motion in a composite so that emphasis would be on the gaming action possibilities!
This at first seemed doable, and most importantly emphasized the Golaithus key features, but also proved to be visually challenging in execution.
The challenge upfront was the limited timetable. Only ONE day, a lot of colorful powder, and a HUGE cleanup responsibility! The question was…could the team create this video with the given time and constraints, or would it become a huge mess?
The dream team for the shoot included some of our favorites, a Director of Photography (Justin Jones), a Key Grip (Chris Barkman), our magician Focus Puller, an Assistant Cameraman (Anthony Suy), the Producer (Guy Iorio), and a Director/Editor/VFX artist (our very own Roy Arwas).
To give this project life, the team also needed a lot of colorful powder, RGB colorful, and we mean TONS! (pounds realistically). The crew had to figure the best approach and angles for the hero composite of the Goliathus flying in the air with powder effect.
Roy and the film crew gathered that the best way to manage the mat twist with powder explosions mid-shot would be to use fishing wires attached to c-stands (lighting stands) using off-hand command to rotate and control the product within the frame.
The crew chose to film in slow motion so they could speed ramp the footage in post-production as fit or necessary for audio. In other words, they used camera settings to film in an FPS (frame-per-second) functionality that allows the editor in post-production to pull back, or speed up the footage, depending on timeline needs.
Finally, to make sure no time was wasted, The team had to hand-pick their song (audio rights and all) and create a pre-visual animatic video so as to score the video correctly. This then helped the final product delivery so as to capture the exact shots they needed with engaging audio.
The Outcome
The multi-stage production was a success, the end product was a unique digital ad to Razer. The Goliathus Chroma, although only added to one of Razer’s many existing RGB Chroma mice/peripheral product lines, has succeeded in its market launch and garnered over 250k views on its product video since going LIVE!